Mary Decker Staples is an Executive Director in Clinical Affairs at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston. Mary earned a BA at the University of Michigan in 1972 and received her MBA from Eastern Michigan University in 1976.

Prior to coming to UTMB, Mary worked for the Sisters of Mercy in Detroit at 2 of the Sisters' hospitals. After 10 years with the Sisters of Mercy, she went to the University of Michigan Hospitals as Associate Hospital Administrator, where she worked for 8 years.

In 1992 and 1993 she was a finalist for the USAToday/RIT Quality Cup for an improvement team, which she led, and for a team she participated in. She participated in the National Demonstration Project for the Application of Total Quality to Health Care from 1986-1988, leading the first quality improvement team at the University of Michigan Hospitals.

Mary lives in Galveston, Texas. Her daughter, Kati, is in her first semester at St. Mary's University in San Antonio. Mary is a member of a gourmet group on the island, and enjoys cooking and is an avid reader of murder mysteries.

Ever since Bill asked me to write "something" for his web page, I have been paying more attention to my ruminations about work, management philosophy, people, family, my personal history and my beliefs, not that I ruminate all that much. It seems my life is so busy being lived on fast forward, I don't have much time to just think. Is it a matter of priorities, or is it something else? Something more related to the contemporary American lifestyle?

As I have noted my reflections in the times of quiet and inactivity I do have, I have been pondering the difficult decisions we have had to make at my place of employment. In January we notified 361 people they would be laid off.

This is not the first time I have been in an executive role where layoffs were "required." In fact, in my previous position we had layoffs every year for the 8 years I was there. So this is not new to me. My reaction is new.

As I listen to the stories, the personal histories, of some of the people we are laying off, I