 Alva Wheatley retired from Kaiser Permanente in 1995 after 31 years of distinguished management and executive service. Alva held numerous management positions in her more than three decades tenure with Kaiser Permanente, starting with assistant reception supervisor and ascending to the regional, then national, vice president roles. Alva's ascension through the management ranks is even more remarkable considering her relatively modest beginnings and the scarcity of women role models in senior or executive healthcare management and even fewer people of color, men or women. Born in Houston, Texas, Alva was the fifth of nine children born to Arthur and Ruby Olivier. At six months of age, her family moved to Slote, California because Arthur and Ruby did not want to raise their children in the civil rights environment that characterized Texas and the South in 1940. Ruby worked as a mother and a housewife and Arthur worked in the sawmill. The values of hard work and family were embedded in the children's psyche early on by their parents and extended family, particularly their aunt, Zena, who migrated to California first and opened a bed in breakfast. The rest of the family soon followed. The family was very insular, Slote was a small town and consequently there were few influences outside of the family. As a result, the siblings were very close and enjoyed each other's company, a characteristic that persists to this day as evidenced by the 200 family members present in the audience. After a few years in Slote, the family would move again in search of a better life for the children, this time in 1945 to the projects in Richmond, California. Both Arthur and Ruby worked as welders in the Richmond shipyards. That's right, Alba's mother was a Rosie the Riveter. Naturally, their health insurance was through Kaiser Permanente. Little did they know at the time that some 40 years later their little girl would be responsible for building hospitals for the very company from which they were receiving health care. In fact, five hospitals and 10 medical offices during her tenure, a groundbreaking development in the health care industry at the time. Despite a devout Catholic, Alba attended Catholic schools throughout her elementary and high school education. It was an elementary school that her leadership skills began to emerge as she was asked by the nuns to serve as vice president of the student council, a role she relished. The nuns were also a major influence in her life, stressing discipline, hard work and the necessity as one of two black children in the entire school to do better than others in class. It was here that she was first introduced to differences based on race. One nun in particular, Sister Josepha, would continue to guide and encourage Alba throughout her high school years, urging her to run for school office and reminding her of the need to excel. Upon graduation from high school in three years and leader of the student council, Alba would attend Lone Mountain and City College, but would have to leave after a year because her family could not afford the financial expense of college education. Fortuitous perhaps because it precipitated her entry into Kaiser Permanente. Alba followed in the footsteps of one of her sisters, Carrie, in joining Kaiser Permanente. In fact, all of the Olivier sisters would work at Kaiser Permanente at some point in their careers for a combined service total of 111 years. Their efforts in the mid-80s to change the name of the organization to the Olivier Health Plan Inc. failed. In 1962, Alba married Paul Wheatley, the love of her life since high school and her staunchest supporter and business partner, helping her to strategically chart her career path in Kaiser Permanente. In the interim, they also raised a family consisting of two daughters, Athena and Amara, and now five grandchildren. Alba forged a number of firsts in her rise through the management ranks. She was the first woman assistant hospital administrator, the first woman of color hospital administrator, the first woman vice president for facilities construction not only in Kaiser Permanente but in the industry, the first executive of color on the Northern California regional leadership team, and the first woman and person of color national vice president. She also led the ever important program wide transition and early work of diversity as a business strategy, laying the foundation for the diversity effort we know today. She is also co-founder of the Kaiser African American Professionals Association. During the course of her remarkable career, many of the early values learned in the family were applied in the workplace. Alba is credited with mentoring more than 500 employees during the course of her career, many of whom came back to say thanks at the time of her retirement. You might know some of those she mentored, Ellen Chan Rosenberg, the first Asian American medical group administrator, Katie Rickcliffe, medical group administrator, Michael Bush, now CEO of the Matt Marr Group, Kip Edwards, former vice president of purchasing, Deborah Gould, assistant physician in chief, and Bernard Tyson, executive vice president of health plan and hospital operations. In semi-retirement, Alba relaxes and serves as chairman and CEO of ECLAT construction. Alba has written the chapter in the Kaiser Permanente story in dramatic fashion and the organization is the better for her leadership.