HONORING Desha Dickson!

from 2023 Take the Lead Program - Berks County

by Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania

Closing Song Lyrics

Desha Dickson Vice President, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Community Wellness, Tower Health

Desha Dickson serves as a leader in the development, implementation, and integration of best practices and resources to increase diversity, equity, inclusion, and cultural proﬁciency throughout Tower Health. She also develops and implements initiatives with partner organizations to improve the health of communities served by Tower Health through health education and community engagement.

Thank you, Desha, for all you do to truly make our community a healthier place to live, work, and play.

Desha exempliﬁes the true spirit of the Girl Scouts Take the Lead honorees as a strong leader, a mentor, and, perhaps most important, an advocate for our patients and the communities we serve.

Desha Dickson

Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Community Wellness

Tower Health

Desha Dickson joined Reading Hospital in 2011 and currently serves as the Vice President for DEI and Community Wellness at Tower Health. She oversees development, implementation and management of community benefit and health improvement programs. Desha has created programs that provide local students with educational opportunities in healthcare. She developed an internship program at Reading Hospital that enables local high school students to gain work experience in a variety of departments within the healthcare setting, while advancing their professional skills through monthly seminars covering topics such as interview skills and financial planning.

She is responsible for leading the Community Health Needs Assessment for the hospitals within the Tower Health system. She aligns internal and external stakeholders to address pressing community health needs. She has led the Hospital in adding innovative programming to address the social needs of patients, such as the Medical Legal Partnership program, Community Connection Program and Street Medicine.

Desha serves as the organizational leader within the system to drive the development, implementation, and integration of best practices and resources to increase DEI and cultural proficiency within Tower Health. She co-chairs both the Reading and Tower Health DEI councils.

She has twenty years of combined experience working with healthcare and community based nonprofit organizations. Desha believes strongly in the value of strategic, community-centered partnerships to address population and community health. She holds a Master's degree in Organizational Management from Eastern University.