In the dynamic and often challenging world of community health care, the strength of a team’s culture and its well-being are paramount. At TrueCare, we understand that a supportive and inclusive environment is far more than a simple benefit. These two elements serve as the very foundation of exceptional patient care. Leading this vital charge is Marie Mateo, Director of Wellness and Belonging, affectionately known as “Mimi” around the halls of our health centers. With an infectious passion for fostering positive work environments and an appreciation for those who paved the road for her, Mimi stands on the shoulders of giants. She is a giant in her own right in the health care space, having meticulously carved out an innovative path that has cultivated an unrivaled company culture. Her dedication has elevated TrueCare’s workplace to new heights, creating a sense of belonging that resonates throughout our organization, from providers to patients. 

As the “glue” that holds our culture together, there’s no one better to learn about its inner workings from. Join us as we explore Mimi’s inspiring journey and the transformative initiatives that make TrueCare a truly unique and fulfilling place to build a career.

Marie “Mimi” Mateo, CNM, MSN, CDE: The Director of Wellness and Belonging at TrueCare & the Heart of Our Culture

Marie “Mimi” Mateo, the Director of Wellness and Belonging at TrueCare, was featured on the Honoree List of 2023 HR & Diversity Professionals of the Year. This commitment to excellence, inclusion, and belonging, ultimately, has defined her tenure at TrueCare. 

To learn about what makes TrueCare such a special place to work, read an inspiring conversation with the person who dedicates every day to making it so special. 

Related Article: San Diego Business Journal – Mimi Mateo Joins Honoree List of 2023 HR & Diversity Professionals of the Year

How Did You Become the Director of Wellness and Belonging at TrueCare?

Mimi has been with TrueCare for 26 years. She began her career as a Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM) before transitioning into being the Director of Wellness and Belonging at TrueCare, saying it illustrates the opportunity for growth and development in the organization.

“I’ve been a midwife for 35 years,” said Mimi, “and 26 of those years have been at TrueCare. I was a clinical leader and ran the program for a long time. When TrueCare decided to formally launch Employee Wellness and Belonging, they tapped me, partly because of my 26-year history and the depth and breadth of the relationships I had, but also because I had brought relationship-centered communication to the organization as a tool for wellness and decreasing burnout on the health care team. In a way, I went from showing up as an attendant in labor to midwifing the organization, and I couldn’t be more proud.”

In this role, Mimi has solidified herself as an integral team member and the heart of the culture at TrueCare that drives our mission.

“I am faculty with the Academy of Communication in Health Care,” said Mimi, “and I’m basically using evidence-based skills that really promote empathetic, efficient communication. This type of communication better serves relationships. Certainly, we have better clinical outcomes because of it, but it’s really about promoting wellness for folks on the team by creating connections in a chaotic and, sometimes, stressful environment.” 

Mimi said her journey since 2017 has defined how she sees her role, citing external influences as key to how she perceives her function within the organization. 

“I started the work in 2017 or 2018,” explained Mimi, “and I brought it to TrueCare in 2019. Then the pandemic hit, so we had a brief pause, but it’s worth noting that even before the pandemic, the organization was very focused on wellness. Also, because of my role in midwifery, which really focuses on trust and belief in the individual and their ability to be well if they are respected and held in a safe space, this was on my radar. So, all of these pieces of who I was, my training, and the work I had done at TrueCare came together over that period, prepared me for this. Truthfully, creating this position was a big ask from the chiefs, and I think it shows a lot of foresight because I was coming to a point where 30 years of being on call for 24 hours at a time was taking its toll. I was ready for a shift in my role, and this was a rapidly growing organizational need.”

She said that her transition also underscores how TrueCare works with its team to ensure they are professionally and personally fulfilled as personal situations change. More importantly, she said it demonstrates how TrueCare embraces new ideas.  

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What Do You Do as Director of Wellness and Belonging at TrueCare?

As for her role, Mimi sees the work she does as Director of Wellness and Belonging at TrueCare as an extension of her midwifery work, which has proven to be key to nurturing an inclusive, welcoming, and positive company culture and work environment.

“When I think about my work as a midwife, it’s all about creating safe space for people to do hard work, often work they don’t believe they can do, and come out on the other side feeling and being in touch with new parts of themselves,” elaborated Mimi, “which often means finding new strengths and skills so they can show up in a different way or in a new role. Admittedly, it’s a mouthful, but it’s very translatable, though I’d be lying if I didn’t admit it was a big shift to go from a full-time clinical position to working in this capacity.”

The results of Mimi’s work are undeniable. She said that since she took on this role, she has made great strides in improving support to team members, saying her long tenure at the company prepared her because she was able to learn from those who came before her.

“It’s so amazing because when I first stepped in and took those courses, they said, ‘You prepare for three years until you see measurable outcomes,’” added Mimi, “so late last year, we actually started to have objective measures and movement. It’s thrilling and very satisfying to see everything start paying off. It really motivates me to keep pressing forward. When I became a clinical leader, we had two chief medical officers who did great things in the organization, but they did not speak to me in terms of their leadership style. Michelle Gonzalez was in business development, and any time I heard or saw her, I was like, ‘That’s the kind of leader I want to be,’ so I reached out to her and asked her to be my mentor. She’s the one who wrote the original white paper for Building Great Relationships (BGR), so when I went off to the academy and came back all fired up about relationship-centered communication, she pushed it even though she wasn’t a chief at that point.”

Standing on the shoulders of giants, Mimi would go on to add to and innovate on Gonzalez’s work, furthering her vision. Within a few months of her role being created, Mimi reflected on presenting BGR 2.0 to the approximately 150 leaders across the organization.

“BGR 2.0 is basically about cultivating belonging by building great relationships,” said Mimi, “and I just kind of built it out that way. We are well-positioned because, from the time I’ve been in my role, we’ve talked about belonging. That aspect isn’t new to us – it’s incredibly familiar to anyone who has worked here. It just wasn’t so much about DEI, and we’ve renamed it, but I feel very honest and consistent with what we have been doing.” 

Mimi currently handles all initiatives as the Director of Wellness and Belonging, getting support from the TrueCare team as needed. 

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How Does TrueCare Support Employees During Career Transitions?

Ultimately, Mimi said her experience transitioning from a full-time midwife to the Director of Wellness and Belonging exemplifies the support TrueCare is dedicated to providing to ensure a seamless transition. 

“I’m an overachiever, and I definitely had some anxiety during this change,” remembered Mimi, “so I did an Employee Wellness course through Stanford. I also did a Leading Organizational Change in DEI course at Northwestern, too. I completed those in 2020. The organization was unbelievably supportive throughout that entire process. It helped me feel like I had more credibility and gained some confidence. In 2019, as psychological safety was just getting some traction, I brought that to the chiefs. It’s commonplace now, but it wasn’t then, and they embraced it. One special thing about working here is you actually have a voice, and leadership listens to your ideas. Not every workplace is like that.”

Mimi said that from the beginning of her time as Director of Wellness and Belonging, she has focused on creating an inclusive, safe work environment. Her efforts, she said, have been successful because she starts at the top, as she recognizes that leadership sets the tone.

“From the moment I stepped into this role, I said, ‘If you feel like you belong at work, you will be well at work,’” added Mimi, “and really focusing not just on individual opportunities but recognizing that, especially in the world of community health centers, there are so many layers of leadership and leaders hold the wellness of their direct reports in their hands has been key. It’s about holding us accountable to our team for the work environment we create. So, again, teaching relationship-centered tools for communication, for team building, for engaging in conflict, in addition to the wellness platforms and awareness campaigns, has been invaluable, but so has working one-on-one in workshop settings with leaders because, at the end of the day, that’s who makes the difference for each employee.”

She said TrueCare isn’t an organization where the focus is solely on employees; members of leadership are constantly pushed to improve, too. 

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What Activities, Events, and Workshops Do You Implement to Promote Belonging and Inclusivity?

Mimi said she holds and offers several activities, events, and workshops for both team members and leadership to cultivate this sense of belonging. These initiatives encompass and span locations, departments, and hierarchy, bringing everyone closer together. 

“We have workshops with leaders that are very interactive because they’re doing role playing and learning tools to better respond to situations, hold folks accountable, and engage in conflict,” explained Mimi, “and it really is just about reframing all of these as opportunities to deepen relationships. Feedback is an investment in a relationship, right? That’s how we see it. We also have two workplace committees where we have folks from all different sites of all different roles, one focused on wellness and one focused on belonging, and that’s where we brainstorm ideas for month-to-month areas of focus. We do the typical things and try as much as we can to have things cross-fertilize.”

Mimi gave the example of July’s focus to emphasize the importance of these workshops, citing an organizational favorite that has come to define our culture: the belonging tree.

“July is nationally recognized as Disability Pride Month,” said Mimi, “so approximately 18 months ago, we introduced by invitation the idea of visible allyship, offering employees buttons they can put on their lanyard. In a way, these buttons are invitations in and of themselves. We do a campaign around what that means, what visible allyship is, how it can promote safety and belonging, not just for the patients, but for the other members on the team. One of the first things out of the gate that the committee came up with is our belonging trees.”

Mimi also said they have a Building Belonging Challenge that’s basically a prompt and form on the company’s SharePoint page. When team members fill it out, they are entered in a raffle for a $25 gift card. The idea is to generate conversations with co-workers.

“That’s our B-Squared Challenge: Building Belonging. We are not doing implicit bias testing; we are doing it in real-time,” Mimi said proudly.

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What is the Significance of the Belonging Trees?

Belonging trees have become a staple of our culture, and it is amazing to hear from one of the visionary women who was behind their creation. 

“Those exist in each department and leadership huddle,” explained Mimi, “and I kick it off with a TrueConnection, which is a prompt that’s more than an icebreaker. I’ve realized I had to formalize the process and create a toolkit because there is a method to these true connections that is so subtle that sometimes it’s not realized. It’s really critical that they are identity-affirming. Sometimes, the most benign icebreaker that is meant to pull people together is actually othering. We want to avoid that. For example, I was just in a meeting and someone asked, ‘What was your first job?’ This was supposed to be a fun icebreaker that encourages people to get to know each other, and there were some people whose first job was when they finished medical school, but there were other people who were selling candies on the streets of TJ when they were 10. This is not identity-affirming because, all of a sudden, I’m sitting in a meeting and afraid to tell my truth.”

Mimi went on to explain the role she serves, and the function of these activities is to encourage people to tell their truth, whatever it may be. 

“I’ve done a depth and breadth of work that I’m trying gradually to help people understand,” said Mimi, “so when it comes to TrueConnections, the idea is that we model them in the leadership huddle, and leaders are then using those in their departmental meetings. The end goal is for the whole organization to be working in the same conversations, speaking the same language. We have initiatives in July, for example, like we had a Lunch and Learn with a local community partner. We had 59 employees join, and I was really pleased because they were using their time during their lunch hour. That’s 7 or 8 percent of the workforce. We also participate in sponsored events, like runs and walks.” 

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What is the TrueBelonging Cookbook?

The dream of everything she does in her role is, ultimately, for every team member to be unafraid to bring their authentic selves to work, which is the recipe for a positive culture. On that note, she’s also especially proud of the TrueBelonging Cookbook.

“We have a TrueBelonging Cookbook that’s really beautiful,” smiled Mimi, “and it’s even available digitally. We got 23 recipes in the first pass, and we created physical copies of the cookbook. The idea was that we want every employee to get one and go, ‘Holy cow! I want to be part of that.’ We invited people to submit photos of whoever they wanted to. The pictures should be of those with whom they share that food. It really represents the unique tapestry of identities that comes together at TrueCare. One of our acupuncturists is actually from Italy originally. Her father was Roman, her mother was Tuscan, and she grew up with this culinary battle of which chicken cacciatore is better, the Roman or the Tuscan, and there’s a beautiful photo of her with extended family under a tree in Italy. We have Indian recipes, Mexican recipes, and even somebody making lemon bars with their toddler. Food and family and these kinds of things create strong bonds and connections. We’ll be doing a second volume this fall that I’m incredibly excited about.”

Still, Mimi said there are initiatives all year round to promote belonging. 

“We generate playlists, sometimes in honor of the month,” said Mimi, “like one  June, which is recognized as the History of Black Music Month, so we created a TrueBelonging Playlist with favorite African American Artists. We did a lot of teaching around the history of music in the U.S. and how it is informed and impacted. It really took off, so we’re doing a second round this month for Disability Month. We also have a game of bingo that takes about five to 10 minutes out of a department meeting, and we use a templated bingo card with ideas, people, and things that our team can learn. It’s just a more interesting way to learn. We did one about community health centers and public heroes in March, most of whom were women for Women’s History Month.”

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How Much Creative Freedom Do You Have in Your Role?

Mimi said she has a pretty broad authority to be creative and think about how these initiatives and programs work for people. She says it’s not about just putting out a message occasionally; it’s about integrating these messages into connections and communications.

“I’m very proud of the wellness team,” said Mimi, “because the health insurance plans actually have all kinds of incentive platforms for wellness. The Wellness Committee very early on was like, ‘Yeah, we need our own platform,’ so we launched the TrueCare Wellness Within platform, and what people love about it is that there are opportunities for physical wellness but it goes way beyond that. Sure, you can track your exercise, your diet, and your hydration. Those kinds of things.”

However, Mimi said that this program transcends conventional wellness plans.

“We’ve really tried to use a more global perspective,” elaborated Mimi, “so social wellness is embedded in there. If you volunteer and have lunch with someone from a different department or join one of these walks or runs, you get points. If you bring your own coffee mug or do beach cleanup and promote environmental wellness, you get points. If you do three-minute meditations at your desk, stretches, or puzzles for mental wellness, you earn points. If you earn 250 points in a month, you enter a raffle for a $100 gift card.”

Ultimately, Mimi revealed that this creative and unique approach has created employee engagement that is almost 10 times the industry standard.

“Industry average of employee engagement with these employer-based platforms is about 7 to 10%, and we are sitting at 73%,” beamed Mimi.

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How Do These Initiatives Influence Company Culture?

Mimi said the impact these initiatives have had on the company culture has been immeasurable, which benefits prospective applicants like you.

“We give little quarterly incentives, too, for people who hit a thousand points,” said Mimi, “but people clearly aren’t doing it for the SWAG. The SWAG makes it more visible and definitely makes people want to participate on some level, but it’s pretty special because people are doing this stuff because they’ve bought into what we’re promoting.”

Mimi said that one of the more recent initiatives that she’s proud of is the TrueEncouragement Line, which is a unique blend of our dedication to a thriving internal culture and our mission-oriented and mission-focused approach to wellness.

“That’s the most recent thing we launched,” Mimi explained, “and we actually just launched it last week. The Wellness Committee came up with it. Basically, the idea is that so many of our employees share the same social determinants of health as our patients, and they live in neighborhoods where ICE is on the prowl. The TrueEncouragement Line uses Ring Central, our internal phone line, and there’s an extension. Every couple of days, there’s a new affirmation or encouragement recorded by an employee. There’s a preamble that’s like, ‘This is a recorded message. If you want to talk to somebody or feel like you need more support, here’s our employee assistance. Meanwhile, keep listening for this encouragement from your coworker.’ Then a message comes on, and we incentivize it if people are on the platform and listen to the message. If someone comes back and says they heard you and it helped them, you get 25 points. So, again, it’s kind of creating a buzz. It’s just a good idea, and TrueCare embraces good ideas. It’s what I love about working here. Sometimes, all you need when you’re having a hard day is to hear from somebody who knows what it’s really like to work here.”

Mimi said this influence on culture, ultimately, creates a welcoming work environment,  and she said she loves seeing people blown away when they join the team.

“One of the most exciting things for me to see is when someone joins TrueCare and is so awed by the authentic warmth and welcome support,” beamed Mimi, “because even as a team member, as a clinician, it’s a good reminder that this isn’t the way the rest of the world works. People notice it right away. We also have a pretty high boomerang rate. People leave for a variety of reasons, and they come back pretty quickly. That’s a really great testament to the culture we have created here.” 

On top of the boomerang rate, Mimi mentioned that the retention rate is nothing to sneeze at, reinforcing the idea of a strong company culture at TrueCare. 

“I think people are kind of surprised because it seems too good to be true,” said Mimi, “but if you look at our retention rate, there’s a reason people stick around. Everyone who works here is really mission-driven and believes in what we’re doing. That’s really important to having a successful and fulfilling career here.”

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Looking Ahead, What Is Your Vision or Hope for These Initiatives?

While it takes a measure of idealism to do the work she does, in a more personal sense, she’s a realist. She said she knows she’s approaching retirement, and her focus now, looking forward, is to provide guidance and ensure these initiatives continue. 

“I think it’s really important that a clinician is driving this work,” mused Mimi, “because we’re a health care organization, and it’s important for someone to understand what it’s like to do the work. The goal is to ensure that these programs and initiatives don’t just maintain momentum but continue building it.” 

Still, Mimi is a person who is constantly striving to learn and improve, and even though she is looking toward retirement, she is still as excited as ever to grow professionally.

“One thing I just got a grant for and had a very satisfying pilot for is mindfulness and compassion as a leadership tool,” said Mimi, “this kind of work has been an increasingly popular focus. It’s all about being supportive in the health care space. I have a couple of new heroes who have done a lot of work in the belonging and mindfulness space, and it really resonates as truth for me. A lot of what’s being recognized is that until we can really embrace all parts of ourselves, including the parts we most want to oppress, the inner critic, the things we don’t like about ourselves, until there’s room for all parts of me to belong, we don’t have true inclusion and belonging and cannot extend it to others.”

Mimi cited Breaking Bias by Anu Gupta as an incredible book that has developed a different curriculum, having been featured in the Harvard Business Review. As always, Mimi has been committed to teaching what she’s learned. 

“We got a stipend from Health Quality Partners of Southern California,” explained Mimi, “and our very supportive chiefs endorsed a pilot course called Wellness Foundations based in mindfulness. The dream is for it to be a year-long course. Fifty leaders went through it. It’s based on understanding that personal wellness, especially when in a leadership role, has a huge impact on your team and the mutuality of that. If, as a leader, you are not well, your team will be impacted, and if your team is not well, how is that going to impact you? There are some basic principles around how mindfulness can help us, from a neuroscientific perspective, break bias, create wellness, and make belonging possible. So, again, offering leaders tools to use and then holding them accountable for team well-being.

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Are You Inspired by the Words of Marie “Mimi” Mateo’s Words and Journey? Join a Thriving, Inclusive Culture Today! 

Marie “Mimi” Mateo’s quarter-century journey at TrueCare, culminating in her pioneering role as Director of Wellness and Belonging, is a testament to what an organization truly committed to its people can achieve. Her innovative vision, rooted in deep clinical experience and a passion for human connection, has not only transformed TrueCare’s culture but also set a new standard for what a health care workplace can be. Through initiatives like the Belonging Trees, the TrueBelonging Cookbook, and the groundbreaking TrueEncouragement Line, Mimi has cultivated an environment where authenticity, support, and professional fulfillment aren’t just buzzwords; they’re everyday realities.

As Mimi looks to the future, her legacy is clear: a thriving culture where employees don’t just work, but truly belong. If you’re seeking a career home where your well-being is prioritized, your voice is heard, and you’re empowered to bring your whole, authentic self to work, explore career opportunities at TrueCare today!