Rochelle McLaurin is a perfect example of a Heluna Health employee who has been promoted over the years to positions of increasing responsibility, because of her knowledge, integrity, hard work, eagerness to help others, and belief in the organization’s mission. She joined Heluna Health’s Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program in 2004, working at the front desk in the Pomona office and directing families to the staff members who could best help them. After less than a year there, a recruiter in Heluna Health’s Office of Human Resources reviewed her resume and suggested she apply for the job of grant program manager at Heluna Health’s headquarters, working directly with then President and CEO Gerald Solomon. She applied and interviewed with Solomon, and while driving home from the interview, she received a call from him, offering her the job. At the same time, she was considering going to graduate school, and a year later, she enrolled in the MBA program at the University of Redlands, while continuing to work at Heluna Health.

In the years since she joined Heluna Health, Rochelle has worked for the Contracts and Grants Management (CGM) team, initially building relationships with client programs in areas such as maternal care, homeless services, and disease prevention, and then getting more involved in contracts, grants, and compliance, before being named Director of CGM in 2021. Rochelle refers to herself as the “backup singer” to the CGM team, guiding the contracts and grant managers and others in the department, assisting on client interfacing and compliance, and taking part in new business development. For her many contributions to Heluna Health, in August 2023, Rochelle received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Board of Directors.

Rochelle says that she is most proud of her work in helping programs grow. “So many people from so many programs come to us with something they are passionate about, but not knowing how to increase their impact,” she says. “For me to be a part of the team that is able to help them,” whether it’s through compliance, reporting, expanding facilities, hiring staff, or other aspects, “that is one of my achievements.”

As someone who first hoped to use her MBA to work in the corporate world, Rochelle says she is pleased to be at Heluna Health, because “there are processes, procedures, accounting, human resources, and other components to our organization that give me the satisfaction of things I like from a business side.”  What inspires her is how Heluna Health is truly a resource to help drive progress in various communities. “Our partners, who have the passion to help others, can do it without having to worry about HR or accounting needs,” because Heluna Health takes care of those and other business and back office functions for them. “Heluna Health has a lot of great staff that are committed to increasing their knowledge base in their field to help our partners and clients be a change agent in the vast and ever-changing world of population health, and to me, Contracts and Grants Management is the coolest thing about it all.”