{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Love of Here | Life and Work in Northwest Georgia","title":"Connecting Dots with Heart: A Conversation with Allyson Coker","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2046,"description":"Have you ever met someone who doesn't just love a place, but sees its people, its potential, and its story all at once? That's exactly who we're sitting down with today.\n\nLauren and Erika welcome Allyson Coker — former Executive Director of Believe Greater Dalton and current Executive Director of the Whitfield Health Care Foundation — for a conversation about roots, reinvention, and what it really takes to build a community. Allyson shares her family's deep ties to Dalton (including her dad's tenure as mayor), her winding career path from Washington D.C. politics to Fiji Water's early days, and how she found her way back home to raise her kids. She opens up about being a \"professional dot connector\" behind projects like Walton Fields housing development, and gets personal about her own breast cancer diagnosis and how it's shaping her current work launching a mobile mammography unit through the Peeples Cancer Institute. It's a warm, honest conversation about faith, family, philanthropy, and why Dalton keeps pulling people back home.\n\nHIGHLIGHTS\n\nAllyson's family roots in Dalton, including her father's 12 years as mayor\nHer unconventional career path: D.C. politics, the Michigan governor's office, and joining Fiji Water as employee number five\nHow she landed the role that became Believe Greater Dalton, and the \"dot connector\" philosophy that guided her work\nThe story behind Walton Fields, a housing development inspired by a trip to Gainesville\nComing back to Dalton in 2002 to raise her kids close to family\nHer new role at the Whitfield Health Care Foundation and the stories she's uncovering there\nHer personal stage-zero breast cancer diagnosis and how early detection saved her\nDetails on the new mobile mammography unit launching through the Peeples Cancer Institute, including a $1 million matching gift campaign\nHamilton Medical Center's recognition as Georgia's top heart hospital\nBalancing a blended family of five kids with a demanding career in community work\n...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/32Msm-9Gwlojlmwh9dOdnofsbjwMDCFdOa9IIi5kxJw/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8zOTc4/NWIzOWNkMjJjYThh/OGMxYTkzMTY3OWJk/OTg4ZC5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}