NSME Luncheon - May 2024

“Leadership in Difficult Times ~ Celebrating Your Sherpa Spirit” by Mike Gallina, Vice President of Organizational Development and Community Engagement for the AultCare Health Plans

Being charismatic, assertive, or high-ranking actually has little to do with leadership.  At its core, leadership is influence.  Are we able to energize the hearts and spirits of those around us?  When business and life become difficult, colleagues and teammates look to us for hope and meaning while the winds of difficult times blow against us.  We will energize your Sherpa spirit while we frame the qualities necessary to anchor and then lean into those same challenges.

• The audience should benefit from the following concepts:
  • The difference between being a successful leader and a significant leader.
  • The difference between being a team member and a teammate.
  • The Sherpa qualities that each individual possesses.
  • Being interested in others rather than trying to be interesting to those we lead.
  • Framing each participant’s relationship qualities rather than their leadership titles.

Michael Gallina is currently the Vice President of Organizational Development and Community Engagement for the AultCare Health Plans.  Prior to joining AultCare, Mr. Gallina’s career spanned thirty (30) years in the field of education.  Twenty-four (24) of those years were spent as a school administrator, with the final nineteen (19) years in the role of superintendent in the Minerva Local and North Canton City Schools, respectively.

Mike is a 1978 graduate of Minerva High School, where he excelled in the classroom and in athletics.  He was the Valedictorian of his senior class and was the captain of the football, basketball, and baseball teams during his senior year.  Mike was an all-league selection in football and baseball.

Mr. Gallina then attended the University of Mount Union, majoring in Elementary Education, with a concentration in Learning Disabilities.  Mike was a four-year baseball letter-winner at Mount Union and was a tri-captain of the team during his senior year.  He was also named the Outstanding Senior in Elementary Education in 1982.

In 2009, Mr. Gallina was chosen by the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation as Ohio’s Superintendent of the Year.

Additionally, he has been elected into both academic and athletic halls of fame at Minerva High School and into the North Canton Hoover High School Hall of Distinction.  At the University of Mount Union, he was honored by the M-Club Athletic Hall of Fame with their Award of Excellence. And, he has been inducted into both the Stark County and Tuscarawas County Amateur Baseball Halls of Fame.

Mr. Gallina is a motivational and keynote speaker, having provided talks, presentations, and retreats all across Ohio and several other states. Mike serves on numerous boards and civic organizations in and around northeast Ohio, with the Canton and North Canton areas as his primary service area.  He and his wife, Lynnette, continue to reside in North Canton.