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Jim DeVita, National Director of Quality Assurance
and Patient Safety at CVS
and Patient Safety at CVS
©2010, RiverWays Enterprises
All rights reserve
Pharmacists,
on the whole, are naturally introverted—they've got a little bit
of the science geek in them. So says Jim DeVita, whose tendency to remain
reserved kept him stalled in the same position—as a pharmacy supervisor
for CVS—for 11 years.
"I had been promoted to supervisor in 1989, after filling prescriptions for many years, and in 2000, I was still there," Jim recalls. "I was in my thirties and I was starting to think about my career in the long-term. I didn't want to be in that role forever."
With that goal in mind, in 2003 Jim decided to attend Carla's comprehensive course, Speaking with Confidence for Results. Within the next year or so, everything changed.
"In retrospect, you can identify key moments in your career, and Carla's course was one of them," Jim says. "She gave me a fresh new perspective on being a professional and where a career path could go."
Today Jim has advanced two levels in management and is CVS's national Director of Quality Assurance and Patient Safety, a role that requires him to report directly to the president of the corporation four times each year. He has also been a member of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy since Governor Cellucci appointed him in 2001, and has three times been elected president by his fellow board members. Plus he's currently running for office with the National Board of Pharmacy.
Speaking with Confidence for Results (which Carla now offers in a 12-week format) did more for Jim than an MBA would have, he says. "What attracted me to the course was that it was spread out over an extended period of time, versus an afternoon or a one-day training," he says. "It was a relaxed approach. Carla took the time to really understand each of us and enhance the natural skills we each had. She didn't steer everyone to fit into the same-size box."
This self-described introvert now gives presentations for colleagues around the country and speaks at public meetings in front of news cameras and government officials. He rarely uses notes, instead relying on his confidence in his own knowledge and his ability to communicate it clearly and powerfully. Where in his early presentations he read directly from a paper, barely looking at his audience, nowadays he's comfortable not only in front of large crowds but also moving through the room with a lapel mic and answering questions on the fly.
His most important touchstones are the tools Carla gave him for staying grounded and in the moment, able to respond to the particular audience he's addressing—whether it's composed of lawmakers, pharmacists, or the general public—in a natural, spontaneous way that allows him to engage them and impart information effectively.
"I'm not afraid to stand up in front of a group or at the head of a conference table and speak my views," Jim says. "The skills I gained in Carla's course opened new doors and propelled me to try new things. In the past, I was hardworking and had advanced to a degree, but this is a different world for me. Carla unlocked all this in me."
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We are centrally located in the Upper Valley region of Vermont and New Hampshire close to the intersection of Interstates 89 and 91. As such we are in in the heart of New England and close to Boston and all of Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, New York and Maine.
Travel time from:
Albany, NY — 2.75 hours
Boston, MA — 2.25 hours
Brattleboro, VT— 1.25 hours
Burlington, VT — 1.5 hours
Concord, NH — 1 hour
Hartford, CT — 2.5 hours
Portland, ME — 3 hours
Portsmouth, NH — 2 hours
