Tiffany Attwood
Episode 55

Narrator: Welcome, friends, to another episode of The Story & Experience Podcast. Join your host, Japhet De Oliveira, with his guest today and discover the moments that shape us, our families and communities.

Japhet De Oliveira: Welcome, friends, to another episode of The Story & Experience Podcast. My guest right now is literally sitting across the table from me. We are here at Adventist Health Castle here in Hawaii. It's very exciting. You will hear sounds maybe of sirens and ambulances arriving or people working outside. It's a really exciting location.

She is refraining from laughing too much, but she is finding that it's hard. So this is how it works. We have 100 questions. The first 10 I ask, and then after that our guest gets to choose between numbers 11 and 100. 100 becomes the more complex and more open about stories and experiences. So we're going to drive straight in. I have a few questions to begin with, and the very first one is could you share your name, and does anybody ever kind of mess it up, or do they get it straightaway? Yeah.

Tiffany Attwood: My name is Tiffany Attwood, two Ts. They tend to leave the second T out of Attwood. I kind of go by Tiff. But, yeah, Tiff Attwood.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's good. That's great. We will call you Tiff then. Tiff, what do you do for work?

Tiffany Attwood: I'm the director for Castle Health Group, also known as Managed Care. It's our physician organization here. We have about 60 primary care physicians and about 85 specialists in the group.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's fantastic. And you help to manage all of them?

Tiffany Attwood: Yeah. We have a really strong care coordinator team, so I work with the care coordinators and the physicians in the community.

Japhet De Oliveira: So who's your favorite? Are you allowed to say?

Tiffany Attwood: Oh, gosh. No, just in case they're listening. I love them all.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right. How long have you been in this kind of role?

Tiffany Attwood: I've actually been in this role specifically since January of this year.

Japhet De Oliveira: January of 2022?

Tiffany Attwood: Yes.

Japhet De Oliveira: Brilliant.

Tiffany Attwood: But I've been with Castle for eight years.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, OK.

Tiffany Attwood: So I've kind of been here for a bit, kind of I think grew up here.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's lovely. That is lovely, so for eight years. What makes Castle special for you?

Tiffany Attwood: I feel like I knew you were going to ask this question-

Japhet De Oliveira: Did you really?

Tiffany Attwood: ... so I thought about it. Honestly, it's a really easy answer for me. It's the community that I grew up in. I was born and raised here. I was actually born at Castle, so it really is a special place. But it's the culture at Castle that's really special to be a part of. Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: I was walking through the wards last night very late and meeting a lot of the staff, and they absolutely say the same thing like you did. Yeah. Absolutely true.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right. So let's go back to the questions here and not go off script too much here. What's your morning drink of choice? Like in the morning do you have coffee, tea? Do you have one of those liquid green smoothies? Poi?

Tiffany Attwood: Oh, gosh, no. Too heavy for morning time for me. It's definitely coffee, a little bit of sugar, no creamer or milk added. It's a little too heavy in the morning for me, so yeah, definitely coffee.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right. That's good. I was going to ask you where you were born, but we've already established that. As a child growing up here, what did you imagine you were going to be when you grew up?

Tiffany Attwood: I had no idea. I had somewhat of an idea. I wanted to be a nurse until I kind of reached my sophomore year in college and I found out about healthcare admin. I had no idea that it even existed as a major.

But I really enjoyed it, and I was already working at Castle going to school, so I kind of switched it up there. But from when I was younger I wanted to either be a nurse or a teacher. My mom's a teacher, so naturally I kind of wanted to do what she did. I think I even wanted to do... I used to practice in this corner of being a news anchor. That didn't work out.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, it didn't work out?

Tiffany Attwood: No.

Japhet De Oliveira: You're doing a great job right now.

Tiffany Attwood: That was definitely closer to the bottom of the list, but yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: OK. If people were to describe your personality, would they say you are an introvert or an extrovert, and would you agree?

Tiffany Attwood: I would say it depends who you are asking.

Japhet De Oliveira: I like that.

Tiffany Attwood: Those closest to me are like, "She's an extrovert for sure." But I also can be very introverted I guess initially, and then when I get comfortable it's totally like you can't make me be quiet kind of thing. So I heard there's a new term, like ambivert, so I might be maybe in the middle of that.

Japhet De Oliveira: Depending on the circumstances?

Tiffany Attwood: Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right. That is great. So now habits. Are you an early riser or a late night owl?

Tiffany Attwood: Definitely an early riser. I wouldn't exaggerate that. I wouldn't get up earlier than 5:30, so that's as early as it gets. I love my sleep, so I usually don't go to sleep past maybe 12:00. I get up a few times in the night. I have little ones, but yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: How many little ones do you have?

Tiffany Attwood: I have twins, so they're fun.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, you're brave. That's great. That's fantastic. All right. What's the first thing that you thought of this morning as you woke up?

Tiffany Attwood: I should probably get up and exercise. I think I'm really grateful for the chance to exercise, but with a busy schedule, with my twins, I think the early mornings when they're still sleeping is the only time I get to, so I feel I should probably get up and exercise, and I'm grateful for being able to exercise, as cliché as that sounds.

Japhet De Oliveira: No. No. It's valuable. It's very valuable. People who are parents will understand that so well. That's good. Here's a leadership question for you, and it's the last one before I hand off to you to choose the numbers. Are you a backseat driver?

Tiffany Attwood: I think it's something that I'm trying not to be in the best way. I think I'm trying more to kind of set the guidelines of what we expect and then let people figure it out for themselves, but I will put my two cents in, but I'm working on it.

Japhet De Oliveira: OK. All right. Hey, that's great. Well, Tiff, now the floor is yours to choose between 11 and 100. Where would you like to go?

Tiffany Attwood: 89.

Japhet De Oliveira: 89? All right. That's great. I'm not scared myself right at this point. No, I'm kidding. I'm totally kidding. I'm totally kidding. All right. What is the most impactful no you said recently?

Tiffany Attwood: Oh, gosh. In this new role I've noticed there's been a huge increase of meetings and tasks. I see it as an opportunity. I get to be involved in a lot more things. But with that I've had to say no to some things that are at the same time as other things.

So meetings and task groups, I kind of have to choose which one I feel I guess my presence would be more useful at, and with that I'm having to delegate certain things. So I have had to say no to a few committees that I've been on for a really long time. Part of my upbringing here, it has been hard, but I have had to say no to a few of those, and I think it's really hard for me because it kind of has become a part of me, being included in processes and kind of forming things, and saying no to that is hard for me.

Japhet De Oliveira: I respect that.

Tiffany Attwood: That's kind of my most recent no. I'm sure no will come up more often.

Japhet De Oliveira: Hey, that's fair enough. All right, where would you like to go, up or down with 89?

Tiffany Attwood: 22.

Japhet De Oliveira: 22? All right. Here we go. If you could be anywhere right now, where would it be?

Tiffany Attwood: I'm going to say this because it's the first thing that came to my mind. I'm going to go with Europe, but I want to say without the pandemic.

Japhet De Oliveira: Europe has been rather empty at points so it's quite nice.

Tiffany Attwood: True, but I think I was really... My husband and I went to Europe and we did this like amazing honeymoon for like three weeks in Europe, and I think I was just kind of reminiscing last night actually about some honeymoon pictures and I was like, "We should go back." I think specifically it would be London and Greece.

Japhet De Oliveira: Brilliant. I concur. Greece is a little bit dusty, but I concur. All right. Where would you go next? Which number, up or down?

Tiffany Attwood: 62.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right. Let's go with 62. What is a sense of community mean to you?

Tiffany Attwood: The sense of community? I would say the feeling of home. I think I already shared that I was born in this community. My family is scattered pretty much the entire community, but as I've kind of come into this role the sense of community has expanded.

It's kind of whoever... For me, community is whoever you surround yourself around and whoever you can kind of help, which for me... Hawaii is so small, you're kind of like everyone feels like your community, especially as you go to the mainland. You're like oh, your community is home. So for me community has kind of just become the feeling of home and those you surround yourself with. Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: I like how you qualify that. You said not only do you surround yourself, but those that you can help. That's good. I like that. That's beautiful. All right. Where next?

Tiffany Attwood: 64.

Japhet De Oliveira: 64? OK. When you look back through your life, tell us about a what was I thinking moment.

Tiffany Attwood: Like doing this? No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm enjoying myself. I mentioned I have twins. They were born at 29 weeks premature. They were born in October of 2018. In 2019 Castle brought La Sierra, the MBA program, here in January of 2019.

So I decided it was an opportunity I didn't want to pass up, so I had two brand new babies and started the MBA program. I swear, I was just telling somebody this and I said, "I don't know how I got through," but I did, and I think bringing it back to the community it... Castle has a great community.

A lot of people got me through that program. A lot of family, friends, classmates, and overall Castle. They were just... You know, offered me amazing opportunities, and clearly the opportunity I couldn't pass up, being a brand new, first time mom of twins. So that was definitely a what was I thinking moment, but it was great.

Japhet De Oliveira: It'll be a great story that you'll tell your twins when they're older. Hey, that's inspirational. Well done, and congratulations.

Tiffany Attwood: Thank you.

Japhet De Oliveira: So up or down?

Tiffany Attwood: Let's go with 18.

Japhet De Oliveira: 18? All right. 18. If you just had to eat one meal for a month what would you choose?

Tiffany Attwood: I love Japanese food, and I know that's super general-

Japhet De Oliveira: Uh-huh (affirmative), it is.

Tiffany Attwood: ... but I love... Well, I'm half Japanese, so I love pretty much all Japanese food, but I love tempura, super fried and super not healthy, any type of noodles, soba, any type of ramen pretty much. Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's good.

Tiffany Attwood: Just Japanese food. I can't choose one.

Japhet De Oliveira: You can't choose one?

Tiffany Attwood: No.

Japhet De Oliveira: That kind of defeats the question. No, no, no, I'm kidding. That's great. All right. Up or down?

Tiffany Attwood: 91.

Japhet De Oliveira: 91? All right. Brilliant. Let's go to 91. Here we are. Describe a time in your life when you learned about forgiveness.

Tiffany Attwood: Oh, gosh. That's a deep one.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany Attwood: OK. So I think I've had to... Not to make it about myself, but I think I've had to forgive myself for falling short of the high expectations I set myself. I always seem to just... It seems like nothing is ever good enough, so I always... I think honestly it's a gift too, is I don't really ever settle unless I'm super happy about it.

But I don't offer myself any forgiveness or grace if I fall short, so I'm super tough on myself. But I think having kids has taught me our expectations are definitely different from reality, and setting those clear expectations for yourself is just as important of whether or not you reach them.

So kind of being able to forgive myself even for making the wrong decision, and I think being new in this leader role I've had to come to terms with I make mistakes and I have to learn from them, so definitely having to learn to forgive myself for falling short of my own expectations I guess.

Japhet De Oliveira: That is actually a very... I mean it's a difficult question, right? And I appreciate where you've gone with that as well, because I think for people like yourself, who set your own goals and standards and you want that to be always excellent, allowing yourself some flexibility when things are out of your control is really good. It's really good. Yeah.

Tiffany Attwood: Working of flexibility.

Japhet De Oliveira: Flexibility? OK.

Tiffany Attwood: Yeah. Working on that.

Japhet De Oliveira: I think that's good. That's good. I appreciate that, Tiff. All right. So that was 91.

Tiffany Attwood: OK. 23.

Japhet De Oliveira: 23? Yeah. Tell us about the most outdated piece of technology that you still have that you use on a regular basis.

Tiffany Attwood: Outdated?

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Outdated would be the key factor.

Tiffany Attwood: What is considered outdated, because I don't want to offend anybody. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

Japhet De Oliveira: It's only one month old. It's outdated.

Tiffany Attwood: Outdated? I know a lot of people kind of like to do things all on laptops and all of that, but... OK, this sounds awful, but my iPad is an older version. I don't really have any outdated technology. I don't have a house phone. I don't have a... I don't want to say a pager is outdated.

Japhet De Oliveira: Do you have a pager?

Tiffany Attwood: No. So I don't even... I've never had a pager either, so-

Japhet De Oliveira: Do you have a fax machine?

Tiffany Attwood: No. But I do know how to use one though.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's good. That's good. People still send faxes.

Tiffany Attwood: They do.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. All right. Well, we'll move on from there. Where next?

Tiffany Attwood: 13.

Japhet De Oliveira: 13? All right. Walk us through the kind of ideal end of your day.

Tiffany Attwood: Ideal?

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah, the ideal way you would end a day.

Tiffany Attwood: Probably picking up the kids... They go to preschool now, and probably doing something outdoors. I like the beach. The beach has always been kind of my free therapy, not that I need therapy.

Japhet De Oliveira: We all do. Let's be honest.

Tiffany Attwood: Yeah. It's really peaceful, so probably a walk on the beach or pretty much anything outdoors. Even if it's at the park, anywhere where I can just get that sunshine kind of coming in or hitting my skin and stuff. Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's good. That's good. Sounds good. Great. All right. Where next? Up or down?

Tiffany Attwood: Let's see. I already did 64.

Japhet De Oliveira: I love to help you think of these numbers.

Tiffany Attwood: I have set numbers that I picked beforehand.

Japhet De Oliveira: I can tell. I can tell.

Tiffany Attwood: Is 10 already in like the subset?

Japhet De Oliveira: It's in the subset. Yeah. I did cover that.

Tiffany Attwood: OK. Let's go with... Did I do 82?

Japhet De Oliveira: No.

Tiffany Attwood: OK. Let's do 82.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right. All right. 82 it is. If you could only keep three possessions, what would they be and why?

Tiffany Attwood: Three possessions?

Japhet De Oliveira: Possessions. Uh-huh (affirmative).

Tiffany Attwood: This is going to sound very young of me, but I would say my phone. Pretty much all of my pictures are on there, and videos, and a lot of my memories.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. I like it.

Tiffany Attwood: I think that's a tough one for me because I think I always think about people, and I'm like people aren't possessions.

Japhet De Oliveira: Thankfully. Thankfully. I'm glad you've affirmed that. That's good. Well, listen, you're not a possession. That's great.

Tiffany Attwood: I mean I think right now my focus isn't as much on possessions.

Japhet De Oliveira: Interesting, isn't it?

Tiffany Attwood: Yeah. We have a house. I mean we would keep that.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's good. Useful. Yeah.

Tiffany Attwood: It's pretty much the place where we have all of our family, so I'm kind of like OK.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's practical thinking.

Tiffany Attwood: I don't know honestly a third one.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's OK.

Tiffany Attwood: But, yeah, I think my life is centered around the people in my life, so it's not so much the possessions at this point. Maybe I'll think of something right after I leave here.

If I had to choose, I would say my AirPods. I listen to a lot of podcasts and music, so... A lot of sermons and stuff, so that kind of allows me to kind of disconnect.

Japhet De Oliveira: And process.

Tiffany Attwood: Yes.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's pretty good. I like it. All right. Where next?

Tiffany Attwood: Let's see. 94.

Japhet De Oliveira: 94? All right. Here we go. If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be? Hum.

Tiffany Attwood: Hum is right. There are a lot of things I think.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yes.

Tiffany Attwood: But one thing, and I don't mean to sound like just to have a politically correct answer, but I'm really struggling between access to healthcare and food insecurity. I've learned a lot with my kids of how fortunate and blessed we are that we're able to... Like we had access to the NICU.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yes. It's absolutely beautiful. I saw it last night. Yeah.

Tiffany Attwood: We had access to healthcare. We have access to whatever healthcare we need, and I kind of really... Not kind of, I truly feel that everyone should have that type of access.

Then the food insecurity, again I learned a lot when I had my kids. It was how fortunate are we that we don't have to worry about our next meal. How we go about changing that I'm not sure, but it would have to be between those two things. I think it was just my appreciation of having those things that I really got to see the world is not at the same, you know-

Japhet De Oliveira: Tiff, I have to ask you this, the 94 question. This is 94A.

Tiffany Attwood: OK.

Japhet De Oliveira: Were you always this way? Did you always think this way, or did something happen in your life that you felt this is actually what I think we should change, this is what I worry about. this is what I think about?

Tiffany Attwood: Yes. I think it was going a little deep. The reason why my twins were born so early was because I had preeclampsia, a really nasty kind of case of preeclampsia. I think I needed 10 days before they had to schedule me for a C-section.

But those questions that they ask you before you go into the OR, it's the basic ones, right? Like do you want us to do everything we can? Can we cut this way? Can we cut that way? But I genuinely had to have this heart-to-heart moment with my husband. It was me taking off my wedding ring, because in case, just in case.

I think that whole experience... I mean we're all fine. The twins are fine. We're fine. I'm healthy. But it kind of... I think becoming a mom changed a lot, and everyone tells you it will.

Japhet De Oliveira: They do, don't they?

Tiffany Attwood: And you don't know it or experience it until you're going through it.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's the truth.

Tiffany Attwood: So I think raising the kids and coming out of that really kind of put a lot of things into perspective. My son actually had to come home on a feeding tube because he didn't learn to eat... He's fine now, no feeding tube necessary, but there were a few complications with them being preemies. They had to do a few surgeries and all of that, but I just couldn't imagine not having access to all of that.

Japhet De Oliveira: It's incredible, isn't it?

Tiffany Attwood: And it could have been life or death, right?

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah.

Tiffany Attwood: And even just in my case when they were figuring out when to do the C-section, like they were doing labs all the time, and that's a lot of resources. It's a simple thing, but it's a lot of resources, and I think it really kind of dawned on me that that kind of access is not available to everybody in a lot of places, and I think that whole experience kind of changed my view on the world.

Because before it was kind of like my little circle, and this is my world, and... But that kind of really shook things up for me.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's good. You will continue to probably be a strong advocate for that, so well done. Well done. Thank you for sharing.

Tiffany Attwood: Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right. We have time for two more numbers. Where would you like to go for your last two numbers? You can tell me them now, or you could tell one at a time.

Tiffany Attwood: 15.

Japhet De Oliveira: 15? All right. Let's go to 15. Here's 15. What is the one thing that you always misplace?

Tiffany Attwood: OK, this is going to sound kind of contradicting since I said I would keep it as a possession, but I lose my phone. I think it's because it's always in my hand, and I put it down and it... Yeah, I pretty much misplace my phone at least once a day. Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: So 15A, where would be the furthest place that you've left your phone behind?

Tiffany Attwood: I think the other day it was way under the couch buried in like kids' toys.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I get it.

Tiffany Attwood: Yeah. I had no idea where it was. Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: You need an Apple watch to call it.

Tiffany Attwood: Yeah. Exactly.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right. Last number then. Where would you like to land?

Tiffany Attwood: Did I already do 74?

Japhet De Oliveira: No. No, you did not. Let's go to 74 then. Oh, what a brilliant question.

Tiffany Attwood: Oh, gosh.

Japhet De Oliveira: No, no. This is epic. All right. Tiff, what gives you hope?

Tiffany Attwood: Super cliché again.

Japhet De Oliveira: No. Come on.

Tiffany Attwood: Children. There's this certain innocence about them, that they bring me hope. They bring me hope that they're going to make a difference. They're not going to make the same mistakes that we do. I mean if they do we forgive them.

But there's just a certain innocence to children, I mean not even just my kids, but the way... Maybe it's the young age. They're only three, but they make friends so easily and they forgive so easily, and so non-judgmental.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's great.

Tiffany Attwood: Yeah. And they're so helpful and just full of just pure love, which is I think what we all need right now, is just pure, unconditional love.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah.

Tiffany Attwood: So, yeah, they definitely give me hope.

Japhet De Oliveira: That is a great end to the podcast today. Tiff, thank you so much for sharing all of your stories and experiences randomly at these questions, but I appreciate them, because I'm with you as well. I agree. I think we can look at children and we can think if we all had a heart like them the world would be a much better place. It would be a lot stronger, so thank you for that.

I want to encourage everybody who is listening to do the same thing, just like Tiff and I are doing right now across this table. Sit down, share your stories, listen to the stories as well, because you get transformed by them. Again, thank you, Tiff, for all your time. God bless everybody.

Tiffany Attwood: Thank you.

Japhet De Oliveira: It's been fantastic. Excellent today.

Narrator: Thank you for joining us for The Story & Experience Podcast. We invite you to read, watch and submit your story and experience at AdventistHealth.org/Story. The Story & Experience Podcast was brought to you by Adventist Health.