The Delicate Work of Hospital Community Relations: A Q&A with Tifini Ray, Nationwide Children’s New Community Relations Director

As Community Relations Director, Tifini is focused on strengthening the hospital’s connection with neighborhoods, schools and community organizations in Columbus and across the state.

Tifini is dedicated to building trust and fostering collaboration between community partners and Nationwide Children’s, leading to better health outcomes for all children across Ohio.

Learn more about Tifini in her own words.

The Collaboratory: What is Nationwide Children’s responsibility to communities?

Tifini Ray: Our mission is to ensure children have the absolute best health outcomes. That doesn't just mean kids who come to us for their health care needs. It also means preventing children from ever having to see us, through preventive health care. There is so much more to a child's health than seeing a health care provider. It's their upbringing, it's the neighborhoods they live in, it's the schools that they attend – it’s everything that impacts a child's life. As a health care institution and as an anchor in the city of Columbus, it's our responsibility to care for all children throughout the community, even before they ever need to set foot in our doors.

We don't know all of our community’s ins and outs, nor do we pretend to know. We just want to be a good neighbor by providing support, listening and understanding, learning from our community and stepping up to take responsibility for all children's health outcomes.

The Collaboratory: Community relations have not always been easy at Nationwide Children’s. Why not?

Tifini Ray: It's not easy because the physical footprint of Nationwide Children's has grown. It impedes upon the community. Growing as an organization that can provide the best quality of care for kids looks different to those folks who have grown up right here in the community.

They grew up on Livingston Avenue or Anne Street, and their community looks different today. Now they see large buildings where beautiful, wonderful work is happening, but there can be a different perception from those living in the community.

Everyone in the community wants Nationwide Children’s to succeed. However, the community wants to partner in everything happening in their community. As a large organization, that can be challenging because we're ready to hit the ground running. Sometimes we can run a little faster than we bring the community in and involve them. Relationships in general are hard.

Everyone has different perspectives, agendas and expectations. We have the opportunity to speak a little slower, explain what we have planned and give space for the community to provide feedback. We love not only working in the community, but with the community.

The Collaboratory: What has your experience in school-based health taught you about building trust?

Tifini Ray: It's taught me so much. I was able to be part of the growth of a smaller, newer program service line within Nationwide Children's. It was also new for the community. Going into schools with primary care services sounds wonderful, and it is a great service, but it presented us with a lot of challenges that are similar to those in the broader community. We had to navigate what the schools need.

What I learned in school health is that true partnership and collaboration are doable. Yes, we've got different angles and agendas, but there is that common denominator that we all want the best for kids and their families. I learned how to be a true partner, hear from schools, and bring that back to Nationwide Children's. Then, figuring out where we can meet in the middle, or fold, or where we cannot bend at all, and communicate that to the school. I learned how to build trust by taking this larger organization and making it more bite-sized for the schools. I'll be able to apply those lessons in this broader role.

The Collaboratory: What does trust between Nationwide Children’s and communities look like?

Tifini Ray: The first word that comes to my mind is transparency. As Nationwide Children's, it can be daunting to go into the community and be ready for any feedback. The community will always be transparent. But when Nationwide Children’s can be truly transparent with the community, the responses start to look different.

In my first month as Community Relations Director, I hosted a Community Update Meeting with South Side community stakeholders. We gave an overview of our programs in the community, a construction update and what we're doing in the housing space, and the community partners gave an update as well. I felt this spirit of excitement in the room.

I credit that to my predecessor, Carla Fountaine. She was amazing. She and Angela Mingo, now the vice president of Corporate Affairs, created that foundation by walking through some challenging conversations. It presents the opportunity for me to walk into these meetings as a partner with the community.

The Collaboratory: What are your biggest challenges?

Tifini Ray: Most people say that my biggest challenge is that I've got big shoes to fill. My response to that is, Carla does not have shoes that can be filled. What she has done is monumental. Great things happened for Nationwide Children’s, and a lot of that was due to her ability to build trust in the community. If I try to fill her shoes, we will all be disappointed because it's truly an impossible task.

One of my biggest challenges will be continuing to learn how Nationwide Children’s can best partner with the community. We don’t have all the answers. I want to challenge us internally to be the absolute best that we can be for our community partnerships.

The other big challenge will be creating a true community engagement strategy for our entire organization. We're huge, we’re all over the state of Ohio. We not only need a strategic plan for how we provide care for the kids in our communities, but also how we engage our local communities. That’s a huge challenge because we have to figure out how all the pieces fit.

Every community is different. How do we go into rural Ohio? How do we still stay here in urban Columbus? How do we ensure a cohesive mission in every space? It's not going to be easy, but I see that as our role.

The Collaboratory: What is your hope for the coming years?

Tifini Ray: I hope we see changes in outcomes for kids by doing this right and partnering with our community. As an institution, we have the skill and the knowledge, but we can only create the strategy for how to best care for kids in our communities by learning from our community. That's going to be reflected not only in our kids' health outcomes, but their overall well-being.

That's the whole purpose of our Pediatric Vital Signs initiative. When we start to see positive outcomes for all kids, we start to see the disparity gaps close, we see more kids graduate from high school, we see infant and child mortality rates decrease, and we see unplanned pregnancy rates drop. That is my big hope.

The Collaboratory: What else should people know about you?

Tifini Ray: I love this work. I love hearing the stories from residents who have been living in Linden or the South Side for generations.

I grew up in Evansville, Indiana. I'm a grandchild of a phenomenal Black woman who was in public service her entire life. She became the first Black woman elected official in 1976 and served in various roles for as long as I can remember. Public service is in my blood. Wherever I'm at, I'm going to serve my community. I want to be engaged and involved. The fact that I get to do that as my profession is a blessing. I won't ever take it for granted.

Published June 2025