» MEMBER PROFILE
Fellowship IDs AHIMA Super Members
Carolyn Valo,
MS, RHIT, FAHIMA
AHIMA Fellows are the super members of the association. Their
vast HIM experience, high education,
and lifelong commitment to the HIM
industry and AHIMA has earned these
members the acknowledgment of being
the best of the best. Those five letters—
FAHIMA—show that an HIM professional
is a lifer, unflinchingly devoted to the
cause of quality healthcare through
quality information.
Carolyn Valo, MS, RHIT, FAHIMA, will
help decide who can join that exclusive
AHIMA club when she becomes chair
of the AHIMA Fellowship Committee in
2012. Valo, who achieved Fellow status
in 2007, takes the responsibility of vetting Fellow candidates seriously. The
right mix of experience, background, and
involvement is necessary for someone to
be considered a Fellow. Out of the association’s 63,000 members, only just over 100
members have been named Fellows.
For Valo, earning the designation was a
validation of her years of hard work and a
proud moment in a long HIM career that
began just before she joined AHIMA in
1975. Applying for Fellowship is like auditing your life and career—going through
all of the experiences, volunteering, and
career choices to see if they add up to meet
the strict Fellow criteria.
“Fellowship was a good way for me to look
back and see, ‘Did I really commit myself
to giving back to this organization that
has become the basis for my chosen career
and profession?” Valo said. “Did I meet
those markers? Did I really support my
organization? Did I give back in a diverse
enough way?”
Becoming a Fellow
Valo is currently the senior proposal special-
ist for Siemens Medical Solutions, but she
has worked in every facet of the HIM indus-
try—public health, hospitals, home health,
consulting, education, and for vendors.
Through it all she stayed active in AHIMA
and the industry.
Committee Currently
Seeking Fellows
The AHIMA Fellowship Committee is a
group of fellows responsible for reviewing
candidate applications and appointing
qualified members Fellowship status. A
strict set of criteria is used to evaluate a
candidates’ application and essays using
a point system, looking at categories like
years of AHIMA membership, education,
credentials and certifications, awards,
professional title, and professional
participation—such as one’s frequency of
volunteering in the industry. Points are
assigned for the various categories, with
a minimum number of points required
to become a Fellow. If a candidate is
not named a Fellow, the committee can
appoint a mentor to help the candidate fill
out the missing elements of their resumes.
For example, if a candidate is lacking in
the participation area, a mentoring Fellow
could help the mentee identify volunteer
opportunities for the next year that round
out their application.
HIM Passion Needed
AHIMA Fellows are expected to be the
leaders of the association; active, engaged
and devoted to the HIM profession and
its association, Valo said. Fellows provide
guidance, support, and encouragement to
fellow HIM professionals and volunteer
their time to grow both the association and
the HIM industry.
All Fellows share a passion for the HIM
industry. For Valo, HIM has held her
interest all these years because it keeps
changing and offers a wide variety of
diverse areas. Over the years Valo has
appreciated that she didn’t have to stick
to one area of expertise, but could move
around HIM learning new areas.
Part of being a Fellow is having diverse experiences and expertise. As an AHIMA Fellow
and incoming chair of the Fellowship Committee, Valo encourages others to sample the
different areas of HIM and dive into those
that pique their interest. “From standards to
regulatory to coding to quality management
to whatever the case may be, there are just a
lot of component pieces that make up HIM,”
she said. “What it does for me is it keeps me
fresh, it allows me to grow.” v
