Meet Dr. Aaron Johnson | DEI & Health Equity Consultant

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dr. Aaron Johnson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dr. Johnson, what do you attribute your success to?
The most important factor behind my success with my Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Health Equity Advisory Service is attributed to my ability to make and maintain relationships. This doesn’t strictly apply to professional relationships, maintaining positive relationships within my family and inner circle as well as making connections outside of the workplace can also turn into professional relationships. My work in the Health Equity and DEI space is all about people, so even when I am not working I am always aware of the impact of connecting with people. Networking is everything, people always ask “when and how do you network?”. The time to network is always. Having productive conversations with key stakeholders as well as having positive conversations with a local from your community are of equal importance. You never know who knows who so that is why I really believe that there is not a specific setting that networking should occur. Within one of the organizations I am affiliated with we stress the importance and benefits of non-traditional collaborations; I go out of my way to create relationships in unique fields of practice. Some of my clients have come from relationships that I have made with people outside of a traditional “work setting”.

Everyone has credentials and a robust resume, what sets people apart is how easy you are to work with, how reliable you are, and ultimately how good of a person you are. People join businesses and organizations because of reputation and credentials, but they stay because of the way they are treated by others. I feel like that has been a major key to my advisory services’ success thus far, building those genuine and mutually beneficial relationships. We have all heard the saying “It’s not about what you know, it’s who you know”. I like to take that a step further and say it’s about who knows you. Once people know you, they are more prone to believe in the work you do. In my case I have been blessed to build great relationships with my past clients and since they enjoyed working with me, as well as seeing the tangible results that I have produced, they have referred me to other clients. That would not have happened if I did not build a good relationship, it doesn’t cost anything to be nice.

What should our readers know about your business?
I have an amazing career that I am extremely proud of. I am a pharmacist by trade but my work mainly centers around Health Equity and DEI strategy consulting. Health equity is the ability of everyone to reach their optimal health status, diversity, equity, and inclusion are pillars most organizations try to incorporate throughout their company to build a sustainable and positive culture. What I do is help corporations, universities, and non-profits create their strategy that will lead to the results they are looking for when it comes to things such as health equity initiatives, leadership team DEI and Health Equity Education, Senior Executive Consultations, and Culture Advancement Evaluations, based upon my experience and industry best practices. I also am asked to deliver keynote speeches with different organizations and businesses on topics in the DEI, Health Equity, leadership, and healthcare realm.

I love my work because it is both altruistic in nature but also a strategic business imperative that has fiscal benefits for every party involved. My proudest professional achievement has been the creation of my 5-Point Framework that has been implemented within different universities and corporations nationally and internationally. I established the 5-Point DEI/Health Equity Framework to address the myriad of DEI and health equity challenges throughout the country. The framework works in a stepwise fashion; it’s a type of algorithm that has specific strategy depending on the makeup of your organization and what interventions have previously been implemented, as well as other factors. It took me a while to develop this but many of my clients have said it has completely changed the way they operate now and it has had positive tangible changes within their companies as well as with key stakeholders. Organizations that were rolling out health equity programs have been able to scale their programs using my 5-Point Framework. Universities that have used my framework have been better equipped to offer education and training to faculty and students in the DEI realm with positive results.

It was not easy to get to where I am today, I had many moments where I questioned my ability and what I was doing and I faced those same reservations from others. It’s important to go into a field that you believe in the work that you are doing because you will push through those tough moments if you love the work. I think building good habits and being consistent with building those habits are major pieces of advice I would give to others. Everyone will receive a different number of opportunities in life, that’s just the reality; but building good habits and consistently working on your craft will inevitably lead you to where you belong in your professional journey. Aaron Johnson Advisory Services is predicated on these ideals and shows throughout the work that I conduct.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
This is a great question; I think my answer may be a bit odd considering I tend to stay to myself. I love working out so I would show them around the best gyms in the area, I would take them to a different gym on each day of the week. LA Fitness on Monday, Equinox on Tuesday, Redcon1 Gym on Wednesday, Powerhouse Gym on Thursday, UFC Fit on Friday, Lifetime on Saturday, and 24 Hour Fitness on Sunday.

I also love to eat so I would recommend some hidden gems such as La Cubana Mexicana for some amazing tacos, Moxies, and more known restaurants like the Cheesecake Factory. Everything else I would leave to my friends to explore on their own, there is so much to do for everyone regardless of your interests; I feel that is the appeal of south Florida.

If my friends have children and they are in town for the summer I would recommend them to put their children in the Jr. Heat Camp for basketball as well as the Jr. Heat Dancers Camp. These are definitely the two best youth camps in the nation for prospective basketball players and dancers and I would highly recommend vacationers as well as the local community sign up their children to be apart of it.  Special shoutout to Julian, Santi, and Tony who do an amazing job running the Heat camp year after year. Another option If you really want to work on your basketball skills I would highly recommend Synergy Basketball Academy.  Under Mike Chalas’s leadership players learn the intricacies of the game while also learning the value of teamwork, collaboration, and synergy.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are so many people to recognize because I am not where I am today with my DEI and Health Equity advisory service without assistance across the board. First and foremost, I want to recognize my parents. Without their guidance and support throughout the course of my life nothing I have done up to this point would be possible, I am truly thankful for them. I have 3 main mentors/sponsors, they know who they are, in different professional sectors. All of them have helped me grow exponentially on a personal and professional level, given me insight on best practices moving forward, and have been a major part of my continued success; thank you to them. My affiliations with national and international professional organizations have given me the opportunity to put my work into practice across various sectors and has also allowed me to lead other professionals to reach their specific goals; I want to thank those organizations for the opportunity to learn and grow (Florida Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Global Alliance for Medical Education, Aaron Johnson Scholarship, and many more). Thank you to many of my former professors and educational institutions that built the educational foundation that I use to this day, thank you to NSU College of Pharmacy, NSU University School, and the University of Central Florida. Lastly, I want to thank everyone I have met throughout this process that may have only been a one-time meeting. Some of those short interactions with complete strangers are more valuable than you can ever imagine and I just want to take a moment to thank them for being a part of this process on my path to success.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everyonelovesaaron/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-johnson-pharmd-59329b193/

Other: Email: jaaron2866@gmail.com