Her name is LTanya R. Garrison but everyone calls her "Toni." And though she works for a major hospital chain, her job is to keep people healthy before they get sick and end up on a hospital's patient list. Since January 2000, Garrison has served as network vice president for SSM Health & Wellness. From 1995-99 she was director of operations and community health for SSM, the second largest health care company in the region. Prior to that she served as vice president of ambulatory Services for St. Mary's Health Center from 1993-95 and before that was vice president of operations at St. Mary's from 1988-93. She began at the hospital in 1984 as an administrative resident, then was a planning assistant and in 1987 was an assistant executive director for product line management. Before her SSM days she was a certified respiratory therapist and therapy supervisor at St. Louis Children's Hospital, from 1977-84. She holds a masters degree in health administration from Washington University (1984), a bachelors degree in health facilities management from Maryville University (1982) and an associates degree from Maryville University in cardiopulmonary technology in 1978. From her office in St. Francis Hall at St. Mary's Health Center, in Clayton, Garrison supervises a staff of about 70 professionals at six locations and a budget of about $2 million a year. With a focus on wellness and disease prevention, Garrison works to coordinate community groups and the resources of the 10,000 - employee SSM system in a way that better informs the community about improving health by healthy living. One of her major projects, which she calls her "second job" is her after-hours work with the Eastern Alliance of the Minority Health Advisory Committee, which she chairs. She feels that her work with "the docs" in the Alliance helped get her the Salute honor. "I am very honored to receive the award," Garrison said. "There are a lot of people who made the Minority Alliance happen. And they want to do more." And there is a great need in the African-American community, where people reportedly "die eight years younger than whites," she said, using one physician's oft-quoted statistics. "The needs in our community are so great it will max out the resources of any one entity, individual or organization," Garrison said. "We can't be competitors. We have to be collaborators." --By I. Lateef Ahmad