🔒Jacob A. Hunter

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Age: 36

Company: Gaylord Specialty Healthcare

Title: Manager of Orthopedics and Sports Medicine

Town where I live: Wallingford

Town where I work: North Haven

College: University of Hartford and Southern Connecticut State University

Fun Fact

I've been married seven years, I have five children ages 6 years and younger, and I love my family life.

Q&A:

What do you do in your current job? As manager of Gaylord Physical Therapy Orthopedics and Sports Medicine I oversee the daily operations of two outpatient clinic sites, one in North Haven and the other in Cheshire. I am in charge of employee acquisition, staff development, marketing initiatives, programmatic growth and process improvement.

What are your goals in your current job? My goal as a manager is to maximize the patient experience by ensuring my staff provides high quality, personalized and compassionate care. I strive to hire employees who like working in a team atmosphere as a collaborative group of experts, while contributing to the great reputation of Gaylord.

What's your biggest passion? My biggest passion is helping people understand that they are better than they have given themselves credit for. During my years as a treating physical therapist, I've encountered many people who are in pain, depressed, or highly stressed due to unfortunate tragedy. The most rewarding part of my job is providing some glimmer of hope, joy, or increased self-worth to someone in need.

What are your future professional aspirations? My future aspiration is to continue to develop as a leader in the healthcare profession in order to contribute to the constructive solutions of cost reduction while also being a patient advocate to ensure high-quality care is available to those in need. I would also like to help develop the physical therapy profession to improve the ease of access for patients to receive care through more direct access initiatives.

How are you involved in the community? My team of physical therapists and I provide free stretching to runners at local charity races to serve and encourage those who are trying to live healthy lifestyles. I am also an active contributor to St. Mary's Church in New Haven and the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist in Meriden.

If you had one wish to brighten Greater Hartford's economic future what would it be, and why? If I had one wish for the Greater Hartford area, it would be that Connecticut has a governor who gets exceptionally creative on ways to encourage businesses to stay in Connecticut to help sustain our economic health. I can appreciate the many complexities of balancing a state budget with the many demands statewide, but keeping jobs in Connecticut must be a priority to give our communities a fighting chance. Imposing more taxes on our citizens and attempting to force towns to tax nonprofit hospitals is not a sustainable plan for long-term prosperity.

List four reasons why you deserve to be a 40 Under Forty: In the past 1.5 years, I was promoted from staff physical therapist to site supervisor of our North Haven outpatient clinic. Shortly after, I was given the opportunity to design and start a second outpatient site that has been an absolute success for the first year. During the design and build-out process, I received the Joseph A. Lindenmayer Employee of the Year Award for Gaylord Specialty Healthcare. Due to the success and growth of the therapy clinics, I was promoted to manager of Orthopedics and Sports Medicine.

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