Dallice Joyner, the fourth of six children, grew up poor but happy in the tiny rural town of Garland, North Carolina. From nothing, the McKoy family made something, and they did it together. By the age of six, Dallice was helping out in the tobacco fields, and ever after contributed to the family’s finances as much as possible. At 17, the schedule she kept would’ve overwhelmed most adults; waking up at 5:30 AM to drive a morning bus route, attending school, then driving the afternoon route with only twenty minutes to spare before her 4:30 shift at the local shirt factory. After the shift ended at 9:30 PM, she still found time to do homework and participate in sports.
Dallice and her five siblings were all expected to help provide for the family. Her three sisters worked in the shirt factory as well, but only Dallice went to such extremes as working the bus route on top of everything else. “I never felt any resentment,” she recalls, thinking back on her hectic high school schedule. “It was my idea. I don’t know how I did all that, but those were some amazing years. The experience showed me what I was capable of, and I couldn’t make a whole lot of excuses.” All of Dallice’s earnings were shared equally with her family, but she was happy to help as much as possible, and out of that attitude of hard work and selflessness, she has built a career climbing the ladder while helping others climb right along with her.
Today, Dallice is the Executive Director of the Northern Virginia Area Heath Education Center (NVAHEC), an organization dedicated to supporting local health care providers by helping to offer services to vulnerable populations. AHEC centers exist across the country, with seven in Virginia alone, but their mission and activities vary from place to place based on community need. NVAHEC, for instance, focuses specifically on enabling communication between non-English speakers and healthcare providers by training high-quality interpreters and promoting access to their services. “Everybody takes that role just a little bit for granted,” Dallice points out. “But we always say that, during a healthcare encounter, interpreters are the most important people in the room. They understand both languages and both cultures when nobody else does.”
Founded in 1995, Dallice took over as the Executive Director in 2005, conscious that her role was not to sustain the organization, but to grow it. She brought in business consultants to build a practical strategy to move forward, and in her tenure there, has transitioned the group from 47 percent fee-for-service to 95 percent fee-for-service. Today they have a budget of almost $2 million, with only one small federal grant of about $100,000. Just as importantly, the group has never been better regarded in the healthcare community. “We know hands down from clients that we are the best language access organization in the state, and that we come highly recommended,” she explains. “We do a certificate program for interpreters, filling a gap where otherwise, there would be none. Today, our certifications are recognized across the state.” Indeed, at any given time, NVAHEC employs between 100 and 150 contract interpreters. The group also works closely with health care organizations, setting up capacity to institutionalize language access.
Dallice’s success at NVAHEC is only the latest chapter in her astonishing rise out of poverty, and she attributes her success in no small part to her mother’s unwavering strength. Married at 14 and with only an eighth grade education, she worked at the shirt factory and was a living example of tenacity and independence. “She always said to us, ‘Be able to take care of yourself. Don’t depend on other people to do things for you.’” Dallice recalls. “And we took that and have used it in our lives. I’ve always had a sense that, if I want to do something, no one is going to do it for me.”
Along with working in tobacco fields from age six, she and her three older sisters worked in the blueberry fields every summer from early morning until evening. Her mother’s attitude of “do what you’ve got to do” rubbed off on all of her children, and Dallice remembers the long days in the blueberry fields as happy ones. Although the family was close, her father, a butcher at the local grocery store, suffered from alcoholism throughout her childhood, finally getting sober twenty years ago—and for those years, Dallice is profoundly grateful.
In tiny Garland, only 28 students graduated in Dallice’s high school class, and 16 of them black. Of the eight young black men, none attended college. Of the seven women, Dallice was one of a few who went on to college, and one of the only young black women in her class to initially earn her Bachelor’s degree. She still fondly recalls the three high school teachers who were particularly instrumental in encouraging her talents, Mr. Norris, Ms. Boney, and Ms. Thompson. The latter two, as black women, served as aspirational role models. “If I stepped out of line, they would either call my mom or show up at my house!” she laughs today. “There was constant communication between all of them, and they were genuinely interested in me and my future.” After graduation, Dallice went on to pursue her B.S. in Health Education, and then reluctantly returned to Garland to look for work.
Her first job out of school was with the Health Department of her home county, providing blood pressure checks and health education for rural communities. Despite long hours, the position was a rewarding one. “Going into the community really reinforced my love for people, and for being able to make things happen,” she says, remembering her experiences as a health educator. She recalls the creativity necessary for running programs with few or no resources; in one community, she was sent to help raise awareness in women of high blood pressure and the importance of exercise, but a suitable place for aerobic activity was difficult to come by. Adept by now at making something out of nothing, however, she asked the local men to give up half of their basketball court for the purpose, and twice a week, she would drive 50 miles each way with a boombox and cassette tape to teach.
Two years later, as she was preparing to leave for a new job, the town decided to organize a walk-a-thon for the American Heart Association. It had been Dallice’s enthusiasm and passion that had gotten the people genuinely interested in their health, and she was able to move on in her career with a profound sense of accomplishment. Taking care of people—and helping people take care of themselves—has thus been the focus of her life ever since. “One of the things I concluded in my early adult years about my passion is that, of course, things are important,” she admits. “Houses are important and money is important. But people are our greatest commodity, and in my mind, that’s where our investment should be.”
After three years living back in Garland, Dallice knew it was time for a change. Most people there stayed put, and even her mother was shocked when Dallice accepted a job offer from the Health Department in Winston-Salem. But Dallice had a plan: she would go to graduate school and further advance herself.
The Health Department in Winston-Salem was a vastly different environment from the one she’d left behind, but she had to learn how to apply the skills she’d acquired in Garland to a much more resource-rich community, and to adapt to an urban health department. “That transition taught me a whole lot,” she details. “It taught me how to be much more versatile, whatever environment I was in.” Her boss also proved to be a great inspiration, especially when at the end of her first year, she was given a “fair” on her employee evaluation. Livid, she demanded to know why. Her boss replied that, while her work was good, she never took any risks, and that push was all Dallice needed to begin fully embracing her potential. “It made a world of difference, because she saw things in me that I didn’t see,” Dallice affirms. “That was the potential she was trying to pull out in me.” The next year, she received an “excellent” on her evaluation.
Before she left Winston-Salem, she had obtained a Master’s in Education, with a concentration in Community Health, and become the Health Education Director. She had twelve people working under her, and she was building the leadership skills she would need to successfully run NVAHEC. Her next position was as a consultant for the state government, and here too she found a mentor in an effective boss, yet another influence who helped shape her leadership skills. Dallice watched her boss carefully over three years. “Not a month goes by that I don’t use something she taught me,” she says. From that consulting position, she then moved on to run NVAHEC.
As a leader, Dallice thinks of herself as hands-off in general but intolerant of poor quality of work. “I’m relatively laid back as a leader, especially if I’ve got the right staff in place,” she explains. “To me, it’s important to have a staff that I trust and respect, that I believe in, who can get things done. I like to be able to delegate a responsibility and not dictate how it happens. I consider micromanaging to be babysitting adults, and I’m not good at it!” Fortunately, after eight years of running NVAHEC, she feels she has in place a dependable staff that trusts her vision and operates effectively.
Her personal life, as well, is a tremendous source of happiness for Dallice. Married for 24 years, her husband, 21-year-old daughter, and 17-year-old son are her greatest priorities. “They are my main motivation,” she avows. “At the end of the day, as long as my husband, my children, and my dog think I’m the neatest person in the world, I know I’ve done the right thing.”
Her husband’s support has been a major positive force as she’s fought to build her career. “He’s one of my biggest cheerleaders,” she smiles. “One of the things I appreciate so much about him is that he’s never tried to hold me back professionally. Instead, he celebrates every move I make.” For someone dedicated to investing in people, it’s hardly surprising that family is so important to Dallice—she also maintains constant contact with her mother and siblings, all of whom remain in North Carolina.
As someone whose legacy revolves around the vital contributions she’s made to her family and to society, Dallice believes young adults are a particularly important group to be investing in. “Guidance and assistance at this crucial time in a person’s life can turn into a lifetime of success,” she points out. That’s why, when advising young people entering the working world today, Dallice advocates for the importance of education while also reminding us that education isn’t everything.
“I tell people all the time that my mom is the smartest person I know, and she has an eighth grade education level,” Dallice points out. “Keeping that perspective, I think, is very important. Education is certainly vital, but it’s not going to get you through everything in life.” Indeed, more important than any degree is hard work, a strong will, and an empathetic heart; three things Dallice Joyner, like her mother before her, have used to make something out of nothing and to really make something of themselves.
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