Dave Cheney, CEO Of Northern Arizona Healthcare.
Dave Cheney, CEO Of Northern Arizona Healthcare
After college, Phoenix native Dave Cheney went to paramedic school. He initially planned on working as a paramedic for a few years and then moving on with his career. “I fell in love with being a paramedic. It never occurred to me, quite frankly, of how much joy I would get out of helping people on a day-to-day basis and making a difference in their lives on a day-to-day basis. I became addicted to health care. I think that’s where my heart is,” he says. After 13 years as a paramedic, he went into strategic planning and then worked on a cardiovascular service line. Next, he became an associate administrator and then a senior administrator at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix. He served as the CEO at Banner Boswell in Sun City for about a decade. Next, he was the CEO of Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento. In this role, he eventually oversaw 24 hospitals. He returned to his home state in 2023 to serve as the CEO of Northern Arizona Healthcare (NAH).
“The more I learned about NAH, the more I fell in love with mostly the people. The people are just unbelievable. They give it their all. They’re compassionate. They’re caring. And honestly, I walk away every time just talking to them, just feeling inspired about what they do and how I can help them be the very best caregivers that they can be,” he says. As CEO, he reports to the board of directors. “My job is to make sure that I’m listening to the board and that I understand the vision of the board. And so that’s one piece, but the biggest piece, quite frankly, is removing barriers that our 3,500 employees have to do their jobs,” he says. “No matter what department you go, and whether it’s nursing, our physicians, our dietary people, they need someone that will help them solve problems and remove barriers so that they can be the very best when they deliver care. “And in my world, there’s really two categories of healthcare professionals. Either you deliver care directly, or you support somebody who delivers direct care, and they’re both so intertwined. The direct caregivers can’t do what they do without the people that provide the support and vice versa.” In his two years on the job, he told us he feels that some of his accomplishments are retaining current employees and changing the recruitment team in an effort to hire more providers. Another big effort is ensuring that providers aren’t getting burned out and feel inspired to make a difference. The second part of that is also ensuring that providers feel positive about their work environment. Having worked at other hospital systems in different parts of the country, we had to know what’s special about Northern Arizona.
“The biggest one is the challenge of our just immense geography. It’s gosh, 50,000 square miles, I believe, and there’s about 700,000 people in our service area and just getting access to health care to all the people that live literally hundreds of miles from providers to me,” he says. “We truly have something unique here. This service area up here is incredibly broad, and there’s a big need for health care, especially in our tribal areas, and we need to do a better job of making sure that everybody in Northern Arizona has the best access to care.” Dave told us he doesn’t like to talk about himself and prefers to focus on other people, but he did share that he currently resides on a farm just north of Flagstaff. He owns a couple of horses and miniature cows. When he’s not working, he spends his time there with his wife, children and grandchildren. By moving to Flagstaff, Dave has returned to his roots. He grew up on a ranch in the East Valley of Phoenix. Since the beginning of his career, he’s always found great joy in helping others. “Whether I was working the front lines, or whether, at this level, I find that if I can help the providers make a difference in someone’s life, then I walk away every day feeling this was a really good day. We actually did something that positively affected a patient, a family member, the community in general. It’s a calling,” he says. “That’s what motivates me to come to work every single day, to help the people that are actually working with patients and families in the community be their very best.”
Elizabeth Silkes, CEO Of The Grand Canyon Conservancy. Photo by GCC L/Cisneros.
Elizabeth Silkes, CEO Of The Grand Canyon Conservancy
Elizabeth Silkes has always loved the great outdoors. As a child growing up in Alabama, many of her family’s vacations revolved around heading to the beach and camping at state parks. As an adult, she visited Sedona annually to hike. The main focus of her professional life has been storytelling. Her two passions came in handy when she took over as the chief executive officer of the Grand Canyon Conservancy in early 2025. The Conservancy is the official nonprofit partner of Grand Canyon National Park. This nonprofit provides financial support to the park and strives to create new opportunities to engage a new generation of park champions. The nonprofit’s goal is to “ensure the conservation, the protection of the park, but also to ensure that our 11 Indigenous partners are able to tell their stories and really allow the history of Grand Canyon to be told in fresh and new ways and to just recognize the importance of having the Grand Canyon and other public spaces as spaces for recreation and restoration. It’s that combination of being able to get outdoors and connect with nature, and perhaps connect with ourselves and one another in new ways by spending time in these places.”
Prior to this role, Elizabeth worked in the nonprofit sector for over 30 years. Her career started at the Cross Valley YMCA in the Catskills area of New York. She served as the director of development. From there, she ran the major gifts program at Amnesty International USA. After five years at Amnesty International, she worked as the executive director at FilmAid. FilmAid is a group that produces and screens films in refugee camps, mostly in East Africa. “That was the beginning of a professional focus, for me, on the importance of storytelling, and storytelling in a way that allows us to see different experiences and also identify connections and experiences that we might otherwise have thought were so completely different,” she says. Next, she worked at Cinereach, a film production company, before becoming executive director of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience. What ties all the positions together? Storytelling. “That theme of storytelling as a connector that leads to social change, that really for me is what binds all of my positions together, and what ultimately also is what I’m so excited about to be in this new role at Grand Canyon,” she says. “This is a moment where all of us are thinking anew about how important public lands are to us and really thinking about how time spent in nature is healing. It can lower our stress. It can improve our mood. I think at Grand Canyon, especially, that sense of awe when you approach the rim or you begin to descend into the canyon, looking all around you. For me, my first feeling was awe at what I’m seeing, and the second is recognizing the fragility of this space and knowing how important it is for us to protect it so future generations can also enjoy it.”
“That feeling of wanting to protect the space automatically connects us to others who are coming with a shared love of the canyon and also thinking about it’s not just our experience, but we want others to be able to enjoy it as well. I think it’s such a rare opportunity to be able to spend your time in connection with others, in connection with the environment and really being able to spend time contemplating what is moving and important in life. I can’t imagine a more exciting role to be in to both protect that and create opportunities for others to experience it as well,” she says. Like many who spend time in the great outdoors, Elizabeth finds nature to be a deeply healing force. “We find ourselves at a moment of pretty deep divides across this country, and I can’t imagine a more healing space than the Grand Canyon,” she says. “When I was thinking about the opportunity to come to Grand Canyon in this particular position, I just think it’s a remarkable moment to be thinking about how few spaces there are where people from different backgrounds, different perspectives can come together and actually start from a shared love and appreciation of a particular place that’s remarkable, and that’s what we have in Grand Canyon.” The Conservancy has launched a fund to help restore the North Rim from the Dragon Bravo wildfire. Visit grandcanyon.org for more information.
Scott Jablow, Mayor Of Sedona. Photo by Danielle Holman Photography.
Scott Jablow, Mayor Of Sedona
Sedona Mayor Scott Jablow has dedicated himself to serving his community. He worked in law enforcement at John K. Kennedy International Airport in New York City for 31 years. His time at the airport informs how he sees the world. “It helped me really appreciate people from all walks of life and how to listen and how to work with different people of different nationalities and different beliefs,” he says. Scott and his wife vacationed in Red Rock Country many times before retiring here. His wife moved out here in 2006. He followed her a few years later. At first, he was going to live a retired person’s life and rest. But those plans changed. “Back when I was a cop, I was also the community leader for my neighborhood,” he says. “I believe you can complain all you want, but you’re not getting anything accomplished unless you actually try to do something positive.” Before being elected mayor, he first served on the board of the Sedona Fire District. He then joined the Sedona City Council, and he was a councilman for a total of eight years. During his sixth year, the council voted him vice mayor. He actually never aspired to be mayor.
“I think that my way of handling things is unique. You know, as a cop, you don’t give up. You don’t stop, and as long as it’s for the right reasons, for the good of the community. I think the way I do things works,” he says. He was first elected in 2022 and was reelected in 2024. “That was a good feeling because people saw what I could give,” he says of his reelection. “They like a little bit of a New York tenacity. It goes a long way to do my job the best I can. I just won’t roll over for anybody.” During an average week, he spends his Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays at City Hall. In the mornings, he’s typically in meetings, often with the city manager and the vice mayor. He encourages members of the community to visit with him. “I’m very engaged in the community. I need to hear what people think,” he says. “To be very honest, I’m not creative, but I know how to take an idea and try to make it happen.” One example of this? He was in New York City during 9/11, and he brought a 3,000 pound steel girder from the World Trade Center to Sedona. The girder serves as a memorial to the terrorist attacks and sits in front of Sedona’s Fire Station Six. “I’m trying to think outside the box. We need employee housing, and some of the community fights it because they just want it somewhere else,” he says. “We need it, and we’re moving forward with projects now.” One housing location recently broke ground. Two others are in the works.
Another potential project that is in the developmental stage is an assisted living facility. He also helped bring the Forest Road extension to life. He’s supporting the Sedona in Motion project, which aims to help streamline the roads and remove pinch points to alleviate traffic. Fire evacuation is another major concern. One of his biggest concerns is short term rentals. He emphasized that existing short term rentals will remain, but changes are needed. “I am not going to stop doing what I do until we have a change at the state capitol on short term rentals,” he says. When asked what he wanted people to know about him, here’s what he said: “I’m very transparent, sometimes overly transparent. Because that’s the best way to be. I represent the people, and I’m very vocal. If you ever follow social media, I’m out there, on Facebook, Nextdoor, defending the city’s actions, but I try to be as polite as possible,” he says. “People have their opinions, and usually, it’s those opinions that are very self-serving for what they want. It’s not for the best of the community, and we have to look at the best things for the community as a whole.” His favorite part about being mayor? “Engaging with people. I just love it. I really do love it,” he says. “I engage people all the time, no matter where I am.” In his free time, Scott heads out on Sedona’s many hiking trails. Specifically, he loves the Little Horse Trail and enjoys spending time with his wife and their two dogs.
Jen Keenan, Co-Owner Of Queen B Vinyl Café. Photo by Carter Howard.
Jen Keenan, Co-Owner Of Queen B Vinyl Café
Jen Keenan is the co-owner and manager of one of Cottonwood’s most exciting restaurants, Queen B Vinyl Café. The multi-faceted business is a vinyl shop where musicians can perform live, a print/design shop, a café and coffee roaster, a wine bar and a barbershop. Her professional path is as diverse as the shop she now runs. She’s worked as a dog washer, a key cutter and in administrative roles. When she was only 12, she would help run her mother’s Mary Kay makeup business. Jen also serves as Merkin Vineyards’ lab analyst. In this role, she analyzes the grapes, looking at sugar levels, acidity, and during the fermentation process, pH and sulfur dioxide. Her diverse work history has come in handy when she helped start Puscifer’s web-to-retail shop. The online store gradually evolved into Queen B, which opened in the fall of 2024. “My favorite responsibilities are finding fun items to carry and designing branded merchandise for the shop, curating the record selection (with help from fellow co-worker/music lovers), exploring bands/performers to book for events here and thinking up fun activities to keep the space fun and inclusive to all,” she says. “I also have regular duties like writing the schedule, sales reports, managing inventory and marketing.” The most rewarding parts of her job are watching her employees flourish and developing relationships with the store customers.
“When my employees love their job, and I can see it’s a starting point for them to go further in this industry, and when young people see our shop as a third place besides home and work, that’s a safe and fun place for them to spend time. The café has a neighborhood vibe, and we attract locals and tourists alike,” says Jen. “I also enjoy it when a customer comes in and says, ‘No way. You have this album!’ or when we get into some great discussions about music.” Queen B is special for many reasons, but chief among them is that it sells vinyl records – a rarity today. Jen is so devoted to vinyl that she’s affiliated with a nonprofit dedicated to this art form. “I’m on the executive board of Women in Vinyl, a nonprofit working to empower women, female-identifying, non-binary, LGBTQ+, BIPOC and otherwise marginalized humans working in the industry to create, preserve and improve the art of music on vinyl. My role is the director of partnerships. We are also the only local indie record store in the Verde Valley that participates in Record Store Day, which is every year in April. It’s a day to come together and celebrate the unique culture of a record store and the special role they play in their communities,” she says. Outside of work, she loves being a mom and wife and has some unique hobbies. “I also race crap cars in the 24 Hours of Lemons rally every year. I am a falconer, too. So, don’t look for me in the fall, because most likely I’m in a field with my hawk,” she says.
Her goal with Queen B is to be way more than just a store. She loves interacting with customers and strives to make visiting Queen B a truly memorable experience. “During my earlier jobs of serving, bartending, I realized I like to hear people’s stories. Now, having people travel here just to visit our shop is very special. So, I aim to make it a full experience, not just another retail store. I want them to come here and have a memorable conversation, coffee, food or haircut. Yeah, it’s great when they buy a souvenir, but that memory is what makes it for me,” she says. “I hope that people will feel a part of the community when they visit Queen B Vinyl Café, not just the locals, but travelers as well. We put a lot of intention and detail into every facet here.”
