How did you become an executive in the health care industry?
Twenty years ago, I joined the commercial health care industry in response to the last global pandemic—HIV/AIDS—our generation faced. My training and background in global public health, health systems and economics, and stakeholder engagement were key competencies needed by the industry at the time. Initially, I worked on Abbott’s global response to HIV/AIDS, from nonprofit and government partnerships, to eventually creating and leading their corporate citizenship area. I learned so much and realized that meaningful change happens across sectors. Once I transitioned into the commercial side of healthcare, I couldn’t get enough!

Did you always have an interest in health care?
I did! When I started college, I thought I would be a physician, but after a summer in Calcutta with Mother Teresa’s organization (Missionaries of Charity), I quickly learned I could have a deeper impact on people in need of healthcare through a public health lens. I had built personal relationship with orphans and social workers and learned that when you listen to them and connect the dots to what can make life better for them, things change not only for those individuals, but also for people in their broader communities. That led me to combine my interests in economics and health systems with deeper work in population economics and microeconomics. I’ve always been intrigued by how people prioritize resources to make the healthiest decisions for their livelihood and wellbeing.

You have dedicated much of your career to the advancement of philanthropy and non-profit work within healthcare. How has COVID-19 affected these spaces, and what is the biggest challenge you predict them facing long-term as a result of the pandemic?
We all are searching for that magic crystal ball! Several things we will face center on the economic crisis and health worker shortages, but I prefer to look at them through an opportunity lens.

• We need to listen: The voice of those affected by this pandemic need to drive our solutions – from communities, people directly infected and affected by COVID-19, and health workers delivering care. Their voices should shape future needs and decisions. We learned a lot in the HIV and women’s health response that we can bring forward here.
• We need to streamline care: Telehealth presents a great opportunity to provide certain levels of care; we will also see mental health challenges, and multiple, chronic morbidities that will require a new mindset for streamlining healthcare. 
• We need to look for potential, not just gaps: If we view joblessness, gender, and disparity driven by health and economic conditions alongside health worker safety and health worker shortages, we can create solutions for each involving future work opportunities. People representative of communities could be offered opportunities to thrive in a healthcare career.
• We need to democratize where and how healthcare is delivered: The community is where trust resides, and problems are solved. The concurrent issues of racial injustices and COVID-19 responses have lifted up the critical importance of informal providers of health promotion, care, and referral. Connecting community organizations – ​​​​led by community members – into the health system and reimbursed or contracted will be crucial.

One of the Medtronic Foundation’s many goals is to support community engagement and volunteerism among Medtronic employees.  How has this focus on giving back influenced Medtronic’s company culture?
Our focus on giving is more from a giving forward view – and that’s part of our Mission and culture. Today we know that greater understanding of our world, and our community, requires that we get involved in meaningful, proactive ways. We empower Medtronic employees to positively impact local communities by leveraging their skills, time, and resources. We help connect them with the causes and issues they are most passionate about to create positive change in communities around the world. Our culture has always prioritized making the world a better place. Now, it’s evolving to mean doing what you can in whatever way works for you—but get involved. The global change we seek can only happen with this local action. And our aim to be more equitable and inclusive requires we show our empathy through our involvement. When we do, we are at our best in the community and on our teams at work.

What recent Medtronic Foundation project, program, or partnership have you found particularly impactful?
This is always a tough one to answer – it’s like picking your favorite family member! I am very proud of our response to COVID-19 and to racial injustices. Our team truly worked hard to engage employees, listen first, and work very closely with communities around the world to lift up what would be meaningful and impactful. 

The partnerships I’ve found most inspiring are the ones where we go into something together with others – other companies working together with local, national, global stakeholders to achieve a specific goal. In one recent example, we worked together with the GE Foundation and Bristol Myers Squib (BMS) along with our disaster relief nonprofits to get PPE to locations that needed it around the world. The Medtronic Foundation’s partnership on the Reimagining Community Health Systems Challenge is another recent example that brought employee volunteers from Medtronic, BD (Becton, Dickenson & Company), SAP, and Celanese together to develop recommendations for enabling broader telehealth access for the thirty million Americans who utilize Community Health Centers as their primary source of healthcare. Learning across other like-minded groups has been the best way for us to grow and expand our mission.

You sit on the board of Global Health Council (GHC), and recently on CaringBridge. In what ways has your board service complemented your career?
Board service has allowed me to stretch into new areas of leadership. I was Treasurer of GHC’s board of directors at a time when we were strengthening our financial position. I learned how to leverage a balance sheet quickly and consider contingency reserves for nonprofits. 

In my experience as Chair at another nonprofit board, I had to steward executive transition and navigate a great deal of donor, staff, and board change. I’m now finally able to focus on my full experience at home as a caregiver, combined with my training and experience in healthcare, to contribute and learn from my colleagues on the CaringBridge Board. Leapfrogging and using disruption and innovation to shape virtual spaces to deliver compassion and also make life easier for the “working daughter” (like me) has been a real passion and pursuit!

Personally or professionally, what might the WBL network be surprised to know about you? 
There are a lot of surprises I imagine as I get to know the WBL community better!  I’d hate to spoil the fun by telling you all of them, but here are a few:

• I’m a proud daughter of South Asian immigrant parents and an only child.
• I am the first Asian and the first woman of color to lead the Medtronic Foundation.
• My interests are to transform venture capital approaches to deliver performance into the philanthropic sector to rapidly accelerate the opportunity for women of color to lead.
• The talent pipeline for women often centers on their life cycle around motherhood and children. Very few organizations look at the total life cycle and realize that there is a leadership “leak” later in one’s career when parental caregiving begins. I’d like to see us stop this leak. It takes a lot for a woman – especially a woman of color – to finally get to those levels of leadership. I’d love to see leadership development and benefit offerings innovate to meet the needs of this life cycle stage, too.