How did you begin your career in health care? Have you always been interested in the industry? 

I had a very non-traditional path to health care. I actually started my career in the finance industry working in retail banking for companies like Citibank and M&T Bank. It wasn’t until I pursued my MBA at the Goizueta Business School (Emory University) that I transitioned to a corporate healthcare career. I remember the inflection point when I knew that healthcare was where I wanted to make my deepest impact. About 11 years ago, I was visiting my mother who was dealing with a chronic illness (Type II diabetes) and she asked me to go to the pharmacy and pick up her medication. I remember walking up to the cashier and receiving her bill for insulin. The cost of her insulin for the month was $600. At the time my mother was living with my grandmother on a very limited income and that $600 represented her rent for the month. I said to myself, “My mother has to make a decision between paying her rent or getting necessary medication so that she can survive. How do people make these types of choices each day?”

It was at that point that I believed I could make an impact in healthcare from a business perspective. I wanted to help patients like my mother get the best access to cost-effective healthcare. During my time at Emory, I transitioned into a management consulting career with Deloitte Consulting, joining their healthcare practice and started providing business planning and strategy support for Military Health. Since that career transition, I have been passionate about working with C-suite leaders to improve access to healthcare and to reduce the cost of care for patients in our most vulnerable communities.

What’s one piece of advice do you have for executives going through a merger or other big structural change in their organization?

The biggest piece of advice that I can give is to not underestimate the importance of focusing on culture integration and your people. Too often during transformations, we focus on the tactical aspects of the change and not the emotional aspect – the toll it will take on the people tasked with implementing the change. Your people are your most treasured asset and investing and connecting directly with your people on an emotional level is required to help shepherd people through change.

I recently participated in a Strategy@Work transformation webinar hosted by the Brightline Organization, and the presenter talked about the concept of situational humility. I think that hits the nail on the head. Three skills that were highlighted on the webinar included showcasing humility over showcasing power, making failure safe over directing others, and showing vulnerability and asking the right questions. I think that the principle of situational humility is essential for any executive to embody that will help you manage through large scale transformations.

You recently wrote an article featured in Forbes declaring your intent to sponsor 100 women of color in health care over the next decade. How has sponsorship played a role in your career advancement? What drove you to become a sponsor yourself?

Sponsorship has played a key role in my advancement as an executive in healthcare. I recall the first time I truly felt that I had a sponsor in my career, and I even wrote about this experience in the Forbes article which catalyzed my commitment to sponsor 100 women of color in the next decade. It was a situation where a senior leader saw my potential and advocated for me with the CEO of the organization to participate in a national executive development program. That program transformed me and helped develop my leadership style. I want more women, and particularly women of color, to have those same opportunities and the same access to sponsors.

What drove me to become a sponsor myself was seeing how little progress has been made to elevate women of color to the senior-most levels of health systems and hospitals across the country. I think there is tremendous ability to move the needle if we focus on sponsorship more so than mentorship. I believe that women of color are over mentored and under sponsored. I think that it is really important to put a premium on sponsorship because I believe having an advocate can truly amplify your career. My goal with making this commitment public was for my peers to hold me accountable to always lean in and sponsor others. I also wanted to inspire other executives regardless of your background or ethnicity to join me and make this pledge. No act is too big or too small. I hypothesize that increasing diversity in the c-suite is not a pipeline issue. It is a sponsorship issue.

How can women executives effectively leverage networks like WBL to become (or find) sponsors?

Women executives can effectively leverage networks like WBL by becoming super-connectors. Each member is looking to expand her network and meet other like-minded women who are interested in amplifying their careers. WBL can be a catalyst for sponsorship – members can make warm connections to other women who are looking to serve as a sponsor or be sponsored themselves. Sponsorship relationships are not transactional and require significant investment to cultivate those relationships over time. What WBL does well is creating that platform for members that are open to deepening their connections and to serving as a resource for women that are exploring different sectors of healthcare. I feel that WBL is a prime example of sponsorship in action.

How are you leading your team through the current COVID-19 health crisis?

I am a big proponent of bringing greater energy and focus to wellness (physical, mental, spiritual) in the workplace, and executives must lead with wellness in our current health crisis. The anxieties around COVID-19 that your teammates hold, both publicly and privately, can impact their ability to focus on operations and showing up to work as their best selves. I have been working from home for the past few weeks as a result of a statewide directive to stay at home to prevent the spread of the virus. My team has embraced virtual connectivity, and we continue to chat via text or video to talk about how they are feeling emotionally and how the pandemic is impacting their mental wellness and their lives.

As leaders, we have to create the space to prioritize mental wellness and ensure that the teams we lead can vocalize their concerns. I encourage my teams to take time out of their day and away from their desk get an hour of sunshine and fresh air to decompress. Several of my teammates have started to exercise during their lunch hour or use the Calm app for ten minutes of uninterrupted meditation to escape the seemingly endless information about coronavirus. Additionally, I am not a fan of the term social distancing. I think we should continue to make connections socially, in a safe, virtual environment. Recently, I employed “media distancing” for my wellness by taking three days off from social media as my form of decompression from all of the information that is flooding the media right now around coronavirus and the number of cases/deaths. This was very intentional and purposeful for me to maintain a positive spirit with my team but also provide some comfort and calm to myself and my family. To be an effective leader in our current environment, you must focus on positive energy and helping those around you to find love and light.

Personally or professionally, what might the WBL network be surprised to know about you?

I am an Air Force brat and spent several years in my youth living in Aviano, Italy. My heart is absolutely with Italy and how the country is dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak. Being an Air Force brat inspired my love for travel – to meet people from different cultures and to expand my horizons globally. I am also a huge fan of horror films, so if you ever need a partner in crime to go see the next Halloween or zombie film, I will gladly join you at the movies with a big bag of popcorn.