Celebrating HCA Healthcare Military Spouses: Kimberly Johnson Profile

As HCA Healthcare celebrates military veterans this week, we also want to recognize our military spouses. In 2015, HCA Healthcare has hired over 1,160 military spouses and was recently recognized as a Military Friendly Spouse Employer® for the third year in a row.

Our relationship with the Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP), part of the Department of Defense Spouse Education and Career Opportunities program, helps in our recruitment efforts.  The goal of the MSEP is to connect military spouses with organizations like ours who pledge to recruit, hire, promote and retain military spouses.

Kimberly Johnson, director of marketing and public relations for HCA Healthcare’s TriStar Health Division, is a military spouse and supporter of MSEP and HCA Healthcare efforts to connect veterans and military spouses to rewarding careers. She is an U.S. Army spouse whose husband retired out of the Greater Nashville area.

Take a peek into Kimberly’s career with HCA Healthcare and check out her advice to other military spouses.

(on her experience as a military spouse)

“Being a military spouse and working with service members, families and spouses have shaped the person I have become. Even in ‘retirement,’ there is still a great deal I can do to support service members and their families in our community.

In my current professional role, I champion efforts to recognize our veterans and military family members throughout the HCA Healthcare TriStar Division year-round. I once represented our organization in a Veterans Partnership group and Warrior Workforce Initiative spearheaded by the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce, where we raised awareness to help connect veterans to community resources and educated employers on the valuable skills veterans and military spouses bring to local workforce needs. My husband and I also joined the local chapter of the Military Officers Association of America to stay connected to issues that impact current, retired and future service members and families in our community.”

(on the joys of her career)

“My favorite part of being a public relations and marketing professional is having the opportunity to champion our company’s mission and share the amazing stories of people I work with. I’ve worked in public relations for about 14 years, including 10 with the U.S. Army in a civil service position as a public affairs specialist. When my husband and I decided it was time for him to retire, it meant we would both transition from our Department of Defense careers at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. So, I made the transition to [the] private sector a year before my husband retired.

We decided to make Middle Tennessee our new home, which led me to a public relations manager opportunity with HCA Healthcare-affiliated TriStar Centennial in Nashville (Kimberly also served as director of marketing and public relations at TriStar StoneCrest Medical Center, prior to her current role). I quickly discovered my experience working in the DoD translated well to the healthcare industry. While working for the Army, I helped share the stories of service members, their families, civil servants and community partners that I had the honor of working with. Now with HCA Healthcare, I help communicate the stories of physicians, nurses, support staff, leadership and volunteers who are providing patient care and caring for our community on a daily basis. I was also fortunate to have discovered HCA Healthcare because our leadership and my colleagues appreciated my unique role as a military spouse and understood the additional responsibilities and stresses in my life during deployments.

Now, I am a proponent for celebrating veterans and family members on our staff throughout the year. I support the American Corporate Partners (ACP) Veterans Mentorship program as an opportunity to mentor a service member transitioning from service. Supporting the ACP allows me the opportunity to mentor an individual at Fort Campbell who is looking to start college, attend the fire academy and build a business.

I am proud to grow with a company like HCA Healthcare that believes in and values me as a team member, as much as I believe in and support their mission.”

(on advice to other military spouses)

“If you are a military spouse working to establish a career path, I recommend researching both the company and the position.  Learn more about the company culture, transfer opportunities to other locations, military spouse recruiting and retention programs, military service member recruiting/mentoring programs and even community partnerships. I have found great satisfaction in working for HCA Healthcare’s TriStar Division because their values and work ethos are similar to those I experienced with the military.”

For more information on career opportunities with HCA Healthcare, visit CareersAtHCA Healthcare.com