(Seguin) — A local woman’s efforts and impact on the Seguin and Guadalupe County area are not going unnoticed. In fact, her influence as a leader in the community has named her the first ever Guadalupe County Women of Influence Awardee. Deana Henk was recently chosen and awarded by a committee of business leaders from outside of Guadalupe County to receive the inaugural award given by the Seguin Area Chamber of Commerce. The award was presented as part of the chamber’s Texas Women of Influence Conference held last week at the Seguin Coliseum.
Henk, who serves as the CEO of the Guadalupe Healthcare Network says she is honored and humbled for the recognition.
“I was totally shocked when Chester (Jenke, chamber president) notified me that I won so I was really excited. And very grateful because I know there’s a lot of people in town who deserve that award so I guess I’m just lucky to have someone who would actually take the time to think of me and write things down and go through the whole process of nominating so I’m just very really appreciative in the fact that I have people in my life who are like that,” said Henk.
Chamber officials says the local nominee list was a long list of local influential women leaders from the Guadalupe County area. Some of the comments from selection committee members state – “they are all very worthy of the award,” and “this has to be one of the most outstanding list of nominees that I have ever had the honor to read through.”.
Henk says while there were other very deserving women, she believes much of her selection was prompted by her role during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When COVID hit Seguin, a lot of the physicians did not have the personal protection equipment so PPE and I just knew that if I didn’t help my physicians than many of them probably would have to close their doors and couldn’t care for the patient and so that was very concerning to me, to us and so, when the physicians couldn’t get that PPE equipment, I went out to the businesses in town and Seguin is such a great community that they absolutely stepped up and they helped and so a lot of different businesses, the school districts etc. helped and gave us the PPE that they had and we would piecemeal together and put that back into the physicians’ practices so they could care for patients and until the supply chain caught up and then after the supply chain caught up, there’s what is called STRAC (Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council) and they have a warehouse in San Antonio. They were willing to give us supplies for the physician practices and I would go up there quite often – at first there were a couple of boxes and then later on, there were pallets and then later on, there were trailers full of PPE so I’ve been giving them PPE — Actually, we are still giving it out today because other physicians still need that supply so I think that kind of took notice for people. I didn’t have to do that but I just felt it was so important so physicians could take care of people,” said Henk.
Henk’s nomination accomplishments also included her dedication to other organizations in Guadalupe County such as the Navarro Youth Sports Organization, the Seguin ISD Learning Center and the Seguin Area Chamber of Commerce where she served as the chair of the board.
Henk was also recognized for successfully building the Guadalupe Healthcare Network – a network which has grown from 27 providers to more than 200 providers in Guadalupe and surrounding counties.
This year’s Texas Women of Influence Conference was aimed at showcasing local leaders while also inspiring and empowering women from all over.