Summary Of Who Brought Bernadine Healy Down

“Who Brought Bernadine Healy Down” is a tragic story about the rise and fall of Dr. Bernadine Healy as President of the Red Cross. Healy was a head strong, no nonsense type of person who wanted tasks to be accomplished logically and timely. Her actions, while necessary, were observed as “off-putting” by critics; usually the Red Cross board of executives (Stillman, 2010, p. 336). Towards the end of her reign and soon after, it became apparent that her course of action correct, but the manner in which she conducted herself and the progression of the organization was not. Dr. Healy was brought out of her position by the vote of executives, but these executives came to this decision because of how Healy acted. She slowly brought herself out of power.
Healy’s actions that shook the Red Cross were: the firing of two women who were leading the September 11th Disaster Operations Center, addressing the violations found by the F.D.A., the creation of the Liberty Fund, and trying to have the Geneva Convention recognize the Red Shield of David as an equal disaster relief organization. Healy conducted these actions with opposition from the board of executives. Healy valued immediate actions and not try to appeal to her staff. What she was doing was disrupting the inside culture of the organization. Internal cultures represent the values, beliefs, assumptions, and perceptions of an organization (Shafritz, Russell, & Borick2012, p. 63). One of these beliefs was the organizations stance on what was considered critical or dangerous regarding blood testing, which lead to several violations with the F.D.A. (Stillman, 2010, p 335). Healy spearheaded these issues with disregard of the inner workings of the organization while bringing in outside participation from auditors and “non