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ments, which included pilot training at the elite Test Pilot School in Maryland, USA, serving on the Admiral’s staff on the Aircraft Carrier USS Independence based out of Yokosuka, Japan, and working as the Navy Liaison Officer in Mexico City, Mexico.
Obviously, because of his mother, Taylor is fluent in Spanish, which came in handy as he attended and graduated from The American School Foundation, a U.S-accredited high school in Mexico City. during his father’s assignment there. “About 70% of my peers were from Mexico, but about 30% were like me, ex-pats, from all over the world. The environment was both culturally rich and academically rigorous.”
After high school, Taylor served for two years as a Christian missionary in Argentina, after which he and his father operated a construction company for a time. Taylor earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from the Marriott School of Management (BYU) in Provo, Utah. He had already met and married his wife, Heidi, a schoolteacher, when the decision was made to enter the healthcare field. Taylor enrolled at the University of Minnesota where he earned a Master’s Degree in Healthcare Administration. “Minnesota has a top-level program in healthcare,” Taylor said. By the time the Taylors’ first child was born, he had started his new career.
How did he go from being a missionary and starting a construction company to eventually becoming a hospital CEO? Taylor can trace his passion for healthcare to his mother’s childhood experience in Nicaragua.
Egda was one of 19 children in a politically unstable country where medical care was scarce or nonexistence. Out of necessity, she became the de-facto mother for her younger siblings, including a brother struggling with rheumatic fever. At the time he passed away, she was 14 and he was 12, and the last words the brother spoke to his sister would one day profoundly impact Taylor.
“My mother speaks of how she was preparing for school one day and her younger brother (who was gravely ill and bedridden) loved to have his hair combed. As she was combing his hair, these were his last words to his sister: ‘Hermana (sister), I love you. Thank you for all you have done for me. I am going to pass away today, and I will see you in Heaven.’ “ There was nothing more Taylor’s mother could do. She had done her best, but in an area without adequate healthcare, the odds were against her and her brother. “She had no ability to help him. Even though this was a disease that was treatable and curable, the family did not have access to excellent healthcare,” Taylor said.
“A major catalyst of why I am here is to do all I can in our community for people to have access to excellent healthcare,” Taylor said of his decision to devote his career to helping others through the healthcare field.
Taylor’s personal and professional mission is: “Invest in People to Lift our Human Family for Good.” This can be further defined by Taylor’s leadership model, which includes the Five P’s: purpose, people, process, property, and performance.
He explained, “What we do in leadership ultimately comes down to being coaches. We are coaching our teams to perform at a high level, and that begins with purpose and people. From there, we focus on process and property.” He emphasized that meaningful progress starts with a deep understanding of purpose and a strong connection with the people doing the work. “When we have passion for our purpose, we can drive excellence and thrive in the long term. That’s the first item on the agenda for my team, and it is very intentional.”
He continued, “Those P’s drive the overall performance of the team. That is the leadership model I have developed for myself and how I approach what I do as a leader.” Taylor believes strongly in leading by example and setting clear goals that define success, allowing an organization to become its best self.
Achieving high performance is the goal. “We want to perform at such a high level that when people choose to come to us for their healthcare, they receive excellent care. It does not matter that we are in a rural location,” he said. He noted that Meadows is already exceeding expectations. “It is incredible for a community of this size to have its own cancer center and a fantastic heart center.”
For the short-term Taylor said his objective is to respectfully listen to his team and the community to assess the current state of the regional medical facility. The next objective after assessment is to begin to focus on further development of healthcare delivery in Vidalia and the area it serves. His philosophy for approaching this task it to “be very simple and straight forward so that we are all successful.”
Taylor has already begun his first objective by attending government and organization meetings and acquainting himself with community stakeholders. While settling into a new job and acclimating to a new state and new community, he has already spoken to the Vidalia Rotary Club, met with school superintendents, and attended a Lyons City Council session. “I want to make sure they know I am a resource for them,” he said. Taylor’s wife Heidi and four children — Abigail, 15, Austin, 13, Brandon, 11, Jonathan, 5 — recently moved to Toombs County from Utah. While it has not yet been determined where the children will enroll in school, Jonathan and Brandon just started a local soccer academy.
Taylor pointed out that he came from a small community in Vernal, Utah, to another small town in Vidalia, Georgia — and he sees that as a perfect fit. “It goes back to purpose, to help everyone I can to extend and improve people’s lives, and in a rural area to ensure people have access to excellent healthcare. It really comes down to the people. I looked for a place where I could align with the people.”
WORKING WITH LOCAL PROFESSIONALS – New Memorial Health Meadows Hospital CEO Wesley Taylor (right) is committed to working with other professionals in the area, such as Toombs-Montgomery EMS Director Drew James (left).
