CAVHCS Director Receives 2021 Senior Careerist Award

Farooqi, a Houston, Texas, native, knew that health care was what he wanted to do early in life. 

“I was really interested in health care from a very early age. I never knew what I wanted to do in health care, and I went through different phases of choosing to become a doctor or medical technologist. It wasn’t really, until I found health care administration that I found what I’d been looking for. I didn’t even know such a thing existed and I wish I’d known earlier,” Farooqi said. 

Farooqi decided working in health care administration would allow him to improve health at a population and systemic level. 

“So, what are we doing to improve our processes? What are we doing to improve our systems? And because of that, therefore improving health. I very much appreciate our clinicians and all those who worked so closely with patients, ensuring one-on-one that they are improving their health, which I find important and valuable,” Farooqi said. 

Farooqi began his career at the G. V. Sonny Montgomery VA Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi, as a Graduate Healthcare Administrative Training Program (GHATP) participant. This is a 12-month training program that allows you to learn from and interact with health care administrators and support professionals. He became executive assistant to the chief nurse executive, followed by the executive assistant to the chief of staff. 

“From there, I went on to work in various areas of VA, working in VA central office in Washington, DC across from the White House. After a few years, I really missed being in the hospitals. I missed health care on the ground, so I wanted to get closer to that. While I enjoyed that national level of view and I appreciated getting a further understanding of that, to me, it was really important to be where health care was to see how the health care is being delivered. For me, it was personally valuable, “Farooqi said. 

After gaining experience at the National level, Farooqi would return to the hospitals ready to make changes to benefit Veterans. He worked several positions at a Veterans Integrated Services Network (VISN 7), which resulted in him detailing and becoming the associate director at the Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center. 

Farooqi was involved in ACHE chapters in Texas, Mississippi, Washington DC and Alabama. ACHE is the preeminent professional society for health care executives dedicated to improving health and consists of a network of more than 48,000 health care leaders from various settings who face similar challenges. He expounds on the different roles he played while working in Alabama. 

“I’ve had the chance to get involved with ACHE of Alabama. I enjoyed my involvement with them, starting as a member and becoming a board member. I’m currently the vice president and president-elect for the chapter,” Farooqi said. “It's a great opportunity to learn from other leaders to learn from not just what we know within VA, not just what we know within government health care.”

CAVHCS sent eight leaders to a virtual ACHE course and those leaders returned with a wealth of knowledge, which was shared with other VA employees in a leadership training session. 

“We can all grow together so we can all learn together,” Farooqi said. 

 “I thank ACHE for giving me this honor. It is something I greatly appreciate. I've been involved with ACHE since I was in graduate school as a student member so quite a long time. But it's an important organization and it’s important to me because this is my chosen profession,” said Farooqi.