In 2024, Wheeler launched its first Employee Resource Group for young professionals, open to all staff. This group helps employees grow by offering mentorship, networking, and career development opportunities. Its mission and values focus on self-improvement, inclusion, teamwork, integrity, and compassion.
Living our values
At Wheeler, Diversity and Inclusion are intricate to the work we do every day. We look to our employees to share their ideas and be engaged in advancing current initiatives while creating pathways for new ones. Through this process, we can best serve our employees by making it a place where they belong. In addition, it helps us provide quality care to the 70,000 people we serve annually and to connect with our communities across the state. It also allows us to stay grounded and steadfast in knowing that the work for justice is ongoing; however, as a team, we are committed to seeing it through!
Monique Daley, EdD, CDP, Diversity Officer
January 28, 2025
We serve, in every program and service, an amazing diverse population who needs us, and we serve them with an amazing diverse staff. I use the word ‘diverse’ here to mean largely but not only race and ethnicity, and also backgrounds, views, experiences, identities, hopes, fears, and loves. Recent policy, in the spirit it's intended and in its literal words, goes right to the heart for many of our patients, staff, and community.
We cannot change the reality of the work we do, nor remove my personal commitment to our values. This means that I walk in every day to guide an organization that provides compassionate, diverse and inclusive, welcoming, and responsive care for every patient, student, or client we serve. We do our work with integrity and with teamwork. We will continue to do this with every ability to do so, and as we find challenges, we find ways to adjust to them with those values as a North Star.
This was true last week, it is true today, and it will be true tomorrow.
Sabrina Trocchi, PhD, MPA
President and Chief Executive Officer
At Wheeler, Diversity and Inclusion are intricate to the work we do every day. We look to our employees to share their ideas and be engaged in advancing current initiatives while creating pathways for new ones. Through this process, we can best serve our employees by making it a place where they belong. In addition, it helps us provide quality care to the 70,000 people we serve annually and to connect with our communities across the state. It also allows us to stay grounded and steadfast in knowing that the work for justice is ongoing; however, as a team, we are committed to seeing it through!
Monique Daley, EdD, CDP, Diversity Officer
January 28, 2025
We serve, in every program and service, an amazing diverse population who needs us, and we serve them with an amazing diverse staff. I use the word ‘diverse’ here to mean largely but not only race and ethnicity, and also backgrounds, views, experiences, identities, hopes, fears, and loves. Recent policy, in the spirit it's intended and in its literal words, goes right to the heart for many of our patients, staff, and community.
We cannot change the reality of the work we do, nor remove my personal commitment to our values. This means that I walk in every day to guide an organization that provides compassionate, diverse and inclusive, welcoming, and responsive care for every patient, student, or client we serve. We do our work with integrity and with teamwork. We will continue to do this with every ability to do so, and as we find challenges, we find ways to adjust to them with those values as a North Star.
This was true last week, it is true today, and it will be true tomorrow.
Sabrina Trocchi, PhD, MPA
President and Chief Executive Officer
Our values in action
Pride 2025
Wheeler's Family Health & Wellness Centers honored Pride throughout June.
Latinas and Power
We were thrilled to attend the annual Latinas and Power Symposium in Hartford recently, which has a mission to inspire, motivate, encourage, and enable Latinas to succeed and become leaders.
Partnering with the West Indian Social Club
Wheeler staff and trustees honoring the work with the West Indian Social Club.
Healthcare Heroes
Wheeler's Healthcare Heroes were honored at a Quinnipiac University Men's Hockey Game.
Discussing suicide prevention on CT Live, Telemundo
Daniel Melchor, LCSW, integrated care supervisor at Wheeler's Family Health & Wellness Center in Waterbury, recently talked with NBC Connecticut and Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra about suicide prevention.
Pieces of Me: Mental Health Music and Arts
We helped to support Derrick M. Roberts II: "Pieces of Me: A Mental Health Music & Arts Showcase" in Hartford. In addition to his incredible artistry and musical talent, Derrick is also part of the Wheeler family, as an intern at Northwest Village School!
Improving access to care and expanding equity
We are focused on providing the most responsive care every day, living our values.
We are focused on providing the most responsive care every day, living our values.
In each of the communities we serve, we are engaged partners in the work of countless local groups that serve underrepresented populations, providing a seamless connection to care and access, and addressing health disparities. Some examples across our state, from our Community Mental Health Center grants to partner with community providers to provide training for behavioral health staff on topics, including cultural and linguistic strategies to engage and retain diverse populations and to address mental health needs:
- Agape House (Bristol)
- West Indian Social Club (Harford)
- African Caribbean American Parents of Children with Disabilities (Hartford)
- Hartford Communities that Care (Hartford)
- Southington PRIDE (Plainville)
- Madre Latina (Waterbury)
- And many more!
Keeping Communities Healthier
Every week, we provide farm-fresh produce in each of our Family Health & Wellness Centers, a welcome service for populations of our patients who may be struggling with food insecurity or who may not have access to fresh produce in their community.
Celebrating and supporting our diverse workforce
Recognition for leadership
Award-winning inclusive workplace culture
We were honored as a 2024 Top Workplace locally and nationally, showing Wheeler is a great place to work. We also received additional recognition from staff feedback for being inclusive, being led by a successful and visionary female leader, and helping employees grow. These awards highlight Wheeler’s welcoming, supportive, and career-focused culture.
Supporting growth and connection
Young Professionals Employee Resource Group
Focusing on improving community health
Awareness events for staff
Wheeler hosts events that help staff understand and address health issues that affect all the communities we serve. Talks and sessions focus on topics like health care trends, well-being, mental health, and issues and leadership for the diverse populations who depend on us for care. These efforts aim to reduce barriers, improve care, and support resilience in all communities.
Examples in 2025 include:
- "Supporting Diverse Families When Their Child Comes Out" with Robin McHaelen
- "Feelings Are A Part of You:" A Workshop on Mental Health Considerations for Men and Boys with Lebert Lester III
- "The Joy Imperative: Reclaiming Celebration in Justice Narratives" with K. Kayon Morgan, Ph.D.
- "Latina Cancer Survivorship and the Family" with Amanda M. Marín-Chollom, PhD
- "Minority Health and The Impact of Crisis Intervention Services" with Tiffany Hubrins, Senior Director - Congregate Care, Crisis, Early Childhood & EDT Services, and Emily Kahnke, Associate Director II, Mobile Crisis Intervention Services
- "Minority Health Month: Fewer Barriers, Better Outcomes: The Proven Role of CHWS in Minority Healthcare Equity" with Keturah Kinch, MPA, Senior Director of Health Center Patient Outcomes & Community Engagement
- "Increasing Colorectal Cancer Screening for Black and Hispanic/Latino Wheeler Patients" with Mariana Paxton, Senior Director of Quality Operations, Privacy Officer and Heidi Warseck, Senior Records Manager
- Black History Month with The Honorable Nuchette Black-Burke, Mayor of the Town of Windsor, CT
- Your Labor is Not in Vain: Celebrating Resilience and Championing Advancement in Leadership by Dr. Sarah Renee Langley
Founder & CEO of LeadHER Internationa - Finding Calm During Stressful Times: Mindfulness Session
- Fostering Psychological Safety in Professional Spaces: Mindfulness Session
- Strategies for Coping with Change: Mindfulness Session
Recognition for leadership
Award-winning inclusive workplace culture
We were honored as a 2024 Top Workplace locally and nationally, showing Wheeler is a great place to work. We also received additional recognition from staff feedback for being inclusive, being led by a successful and visionary female leader, and helping employees grow. These awards highlight Wheeler’s welcoming, supportive, and career-focused culture.
Supporting growth and connection
Young Professionals Employee Resource Group
In 2024, Wheeler launched its first Employee Resource Group for young professionals, open to all staff. This group helps employees grow by offering mentorship, networking, and career development opportunities. Its mission and values focus on self-improvement, inclusion, teamwork, integrity, and compassion.
Focusing on improving community health
Awareness events for staff
Wheeler hosts events that help staff understand and address health issues that affect all the communities we serve. Talks and sessions focus on topics like health care trends, well-being, mental health, and issues and leadership for the diverse populations who depend on us for care. These efforts aim to reduce barriers, improve care, and support resilience in all communities.
Examples in 2025 include:
- "Supporting Diverse Families When Their Child Comes Out" with Robin McHaelen
- "Feelings Are A Part of You:" A Workshop on Mental Health Considerations for Men and Boys with Lebert Lester III
- "The Joy Imperative: Reclaiming Celebration in Justice Narratives" with K. Kayon Morgan, Ph.D.
- "Latina Cancer Survivorship and the Family" with Amanda M. Marín-Chollom, PhD
- "Minority Health and The Impact of Crisis Intervention Services" with Tiffany Hubrins, Senior Director - Congregate Care, Crisis, Early Childhood & EDT Services, and Emily Kahnke, Associate Director II, Mobile Crisis Intervention Services
- "Minority Health Month: Fewer Barriers, Better Outcomes: The Proven Role of CHWS in Minority Healthcare Equity" with Keturah Kinch, MPA, Senior Director of Health Center Patient Outcomes & Community Engagement
- "Increasing Colorectal Cancer Screening for Black and Hispanic/Latino Wheeler Patients" with Mariana Paxton, Senior Director of Quality Operations, Privacy Officer and Heidi Warseck, Senior Records Manager
- Black History Month with The Honorable Nuchette Black-Burke, Mayor of the Town of Windsor, CT
- Your Labor is Not in Vain: Celebrating Resilience and Championing Advancement in Leadership by Dr. Sarah Renee Langley
Founder & CEO of LeadHER Internationa - Finding Calm During Stressful Times: Mindfulness Session
- Fostering Psychological Safety in Professional Spaces: Mindfulness Session
- Strategies for Coping with Change: Mindfulness Session