Inspiring Women with Laurie McGraw

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Carla Smith, a health sector strategist and Founder of Carla Smith Health. Over Carla’s storied career working with countless organizations, health systems, providers, payers, technology companies, and non-profits, she has seen enormous change and opportunity that has come with the adoption of technology in healthcare. For Carla, healthcare matters. Profound change has come now that the majority of the workforce are digital natives. Yet enormous waste and cost are found in the gaps, whether that is the lack of affordable broadband or the concerning brain drain from the exodus of burnt out clinicians and CEOs. She is excited about the potential with AI (it’s real and it’s here) but she wants to see more focus on implicit bias and attention to the diversity of the learning data sets. As it relates to women in healthcare tech, through her own lived experience of many years and countless meetings being “the only” woman in the room, she has relied on her NEVER and ALWAYS principles. She NEVER considered herself anything other than equal and she was ALWAYS prepared. But as it relates to the state of play for women in healthcare, Carla is dismayed. Women are not making the progress that Carla expected (and championed) and in fact, she supplies evidence showing we are in fact going backwards. Carla has hope and important advice for women. She outlines a clear plan for networking. Consciously seek out professional organizations and get involved, volunteer! As you gain experience, be more strategic in choosing where you volunteer and apply your energy but stay active. And then, seek champions. Beyond mentors, those people who can unlock key opportunities and make important connections for you. Carla closes by advising women to never give up, always keep trying. Because it matters. Healthcare matters. Carla Smith is a health sector strategic growth consultant, serving her clients as a thought leader and truth teller. With exceptional knowledge, industry contacts, & passion, Carla Smith Health creates meaningful change in the health sector. The firm’s engagements with C-level executives, boards, and policymakers equip leaders to positively transform the health ecosystem: • Strategic planning and market positioning; • Corporate governance assessment and evolution; • Due diligence on potential acquisitions and market expansion; • Practical & usable analysis of stability, opportunities, risks and vulnerabilities in the face of change; and, • Strategic collaborations and alliances between health organizations that drive mission and business success. Carla Smith is a health sector strategic growth consultant, serving her clients as a thought leader and truth teller. With exceptional knowledge, industry contacts, & passion, Carla Smith Health creates meaningful change in the health sector. The firm’s engagements with C-level executives, boards, and policymakers equip leaders to positively transform the health ecosystem: • Strategic planning and market positioning; • Corporate governance assessment and evolution; • Due diligence on potential acquisitions and market expansion; • Practical & usable analysis of stability, opportunities, risks and vulnerabilities in the face of change; and, • Strategic collaborations and alliances between health organizations that drive mission and business success. You can follow Carla on LinkedIn.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Wylecia Wiggs Harris, PhD, the CEO of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). Dr. Harris describes her journey to leadership as one that started with simply saying “yes” to many extra assignments. She learned in time that she did want to be at the top of an organization, and she began to strategize on how to achieve that. This path included taking many lateral moves to develop her skills and her confidence. After time and opportunity, she found that she was a unique person at the table, uniquely different by ethnicity, gender and even age. And at some point, she recognized that she was good enough – that she always had the competence, it was the confidence needed to make the leap. Leadership skills development for Wylecia came through training but she was equally thoughtful about what she wanted to avoid. She appreciates that she has opportunities that were never available to the giants who came before her. However, if we were to go back 20 or 30 years, she expected we would be further along in terms of equity and opportunity for all. And while Wylecia does not have the answers, she is committed to sustained focus, measuring progress, and building sustainable solutions – which means DEI objectives need to be more than a side project assigned to a few people but rather a strategic focus of the full weight of an organization. As she thinks about her CEO peers, she sees a continuum in terms of focus, measurements, and sustainability. Her leadership journey continues today. Wylecia is focused on supporting the next generation of leaders, so that similar success doesn’t need to take as long. She advises – if someone has been helpful to you, say thank you. And if you have had some success, reach back, and allow others to stand on your shoulders. The time is now to pull forward the next generation of leaders! Wylecia Wiggs Harris, PhD, CAE AHIMA CEO Hailed as an innovative leader with a vision for transformative growth, Wylecia Wiggs Harris is the Chief Executive Officer for the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), the leading voice for health information management. Harris joined AHIMA as CEO in February 2018, developing the organization’s strategic plan and advancing its mission and vision, nationally and internationally, to position AHIMA as a global leader. Prior to AHIMA, Harris was CEO at the League of Women Voters of the United States and the League of Women Voters Education Fund. She also served as Chief Operating Officer of the American Nurses Association, executive director of the Center for American Nurses, and executive director of the Maryland-based Sister to Sister Foundation. Harris also has served as senior vice president and executive director at the American Heart Association. Harris holds a PhD in organizational development from Capella University in Minneapolis, MN; a master of management degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL; and both a bachelor and honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Wittenberg University in Springfield, OH. She is an ASAE-certified association executive. Harris was nominated for the Most Powerful Women in Healthcare IT by Health Data Management in 2018 and 2019. She was named one of 2021’s Top Diversity Leaders by Modern Healthcare, as well as one of the publication’s 10 Diversity Leaders to Watch. In 2022, Modern Healthcare recognized her on its Top Women Leaders list.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Smriti Kirubanandan, a Senior Healthcare Consultant at Tata Consultancy Services where she focuses on strategic planning. Smriti has many passions which for her is a perfect venn diagram that includes technology, healthcare and food equity. The area of food equity is receiving new attention with the Biden administration holding its first nutrition and food insecurity conference. Smriti also segments food insecurity, impacting ~40M Americans, from nutrition insecurity, which impacts greater numbers who can not access nutritious food within a certain budget. Tech such as AI with vertical farms, as well as her work with the World Food Bank shows promise. Scalable solutions start with educating farmers and encouraging service within their own communities. Smriti’s career path has not been a straight line at this juncture but she is pleased to have pursued such a variety of interests, such as being a raw vegan chef; developing a food product line; teaching cooking and nutrition classes; corporate pursuits advising clients in the payer and provider space. She also gets a lot of satisfaction from her volunteering efforts. Did I mention the long distance running and her new podcast HLTH Forward? Her advice for other women is to learn the skill of negotiation early as you will need it!!! She also is convinced that you need to follow your calling and believe in yourself. Driven by Passion. Focused on Impact. Smriti is an experienced healthcare strategist, business development, sales, and marketing executive with 12 years of experience at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and innovation. Expertise in building new businesses and revenue streams focused on market research, analysis, and evaluation of growth strategies. Adept at strategic thinking, networking, sourcing and structuring fruitful partnerships, building and managing cross-functional teams, and delivering top-line growth. Expertise: Business development, strategy development + strategic partnerships, client relationship management, market research and analysis, project management, public health, building community health programs, healthcare thought leadership You can follow Smriti on LinkedIn.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Shafia Monroe, a champion of change who has spent her entire professional life focused on creating awareness of the disparities with maternal and infant mortality and creating solutions to solve for them. While she is known today as the queen mother of doulas and midwives, her beginning came from a family of doers. For example, her father created the first community garden back in the ‘60’s. She was raised being taught that if you see a problem, act. This has been her approach ever since seeing the racial disparities of black women and babies dying in the ‘70s. She became enthralled with being a midwife and hasn’t looked back since. At age 24, she started her first non-profit to train more black midwives. And why does it matter? Because trust, understanding, sharing a common history, and listening to black women are key to health. When you can create spaces that are safe and allow women to be themselves, this leads to better outcomes. Today, Shafia is extremely well recognized for her contributions to improving outcomes for black women, children and families based on her work delivering babies and training of thousands of midwives and doulas over decades. Over the years she has worked on policy change and other mainstream approaches (Shafia’s definition of “mainstream” is codename “white”). However she finds it far more effective to educate the black community. She states her work is more than just maternal mortality, it is about empowering the black community to embrace black culture, empower, and help others see their greatness. E.g. What are your rights? Here are the statistics – present them to your physician and ask them how they will ensure you do not become one of them…. Shafia is proud of building the next generation of leaders. As she reflects on the work that she has loved over the decades, she knows the beginning was lonely. Shafia advises other women to look into their hearts, if you love what you do, to claim their power with gratitude, grab the support of others along the way, go the extra mile, and indeed remarkable things can happen. Shafia Monroe Background Shafia M. Monroe is a renowned midwife, doula trainer, motivational speaker, and cultural competency trainer. Shafia has been “Birthing CHANGE” all her life. In 2016, Madame Noir named Monroe “Queen Mother of a Midwife Movement” for her pioneer midwifery work in Boston, Massachusetts, her hometown. It was there she co-founded the Traditional Childbearing Group (TCBG), a non-profit organization, whose mission was to reduce infant mortality through homebirth services, training community midwives, and providing prenatal education. Monroe served as Boston’s primary African American homebirth midwife from 1978-1991. In 1991, seven months pregnant with her sixth child, Monroe drove from Boston with her family to Portland, Oregon. When she arrived, she was unable to find an African American midwife for her homebirth. Experiencing the lack of midwives of color in the region, she responded by forming the non-profit organization International Center for Traditional Childbearing (ICTC), to increase the number of midwives and doulas of color to empower families, reduce infant and maternal mortality, and bring Black midwives together. Monroe positioned ICTC as an advocate for disseminating culturally competent midwifery education, achieving recognition for Certified Professional Midwives (CPM’s), and directing funds to improve maternal health and newborn care. Under her leadership, ICTC spread across the nation, increasing the number of midwives of color, giving midwives of color a seat at the decision-making table, promoting the profession, as well as researching and teaching the contributions of African descent midwives in world history. In 2002, Monroe organized the first US-based International Black Midwives and Healers Conference (IBMHC). The conference brought midwives together from around the world for improving maternity care, continuing education, and camaraderie. In 2010, Erykah Badu, a four-time GRAMMY Award winner, singer/songwriter, and holistic healer, was the keynote speaker for the conference. In 2011, Ms. Badu accepted Monroe’s invitation to be the ICTC National Spokesperson. In 2002, Monroe created the ICTC Full Circle Doula Training program to teach the legacy of the 20th century African American midwife, who exemplified compassionate care through traditional birth and postpartum rituals. The training program focused on improving perinatal care, increasing doulas of color, and developing entrepreneurship in doula work. From 2002 to 2016, Monroe trained nearly 2,000 people as ICTC Full Circle Doulas. In 2017, one year after Monroe’s retirement as CEO of ICTC, the ICTC board asked her to acquire the ICTC doula training. Monroe accepted and rebranded the ICTC Full Circle Doula Training to SMC Full Circle Doula Birth Companion Training and maintained the original curriculum. This groundbre

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford. Speaking with Dr. Stanford is a lesson in humility. If you don’t have nine degrees to your name, do ~150 lectures per year, actively mentor >50 students, conduct research in both a genetic and epigenetic fashion while simultaneously caring for patients ages 2 – 90 years old in a field you actually helped to create, obesity medicine…. When asked about her drive, Dr. Stanford laughs it off a bit and talks about being driven since she was in a spelling bee at 4 years of age, that’s right, four years old. Some combination of faith, family and fitness (kick boxing is her jam) are her go to’s for inspiration, focus, impact and the strength reserves required to serve her purpose. This includes health equity and ensuring that weight bias and stigma, or just being black are not in fact obstacles to health or access or humanity. Dr. Stanford is less optimistic that change will just come. She appreciates the efforts of education and new *Chief title* everything equity post the murder of George Floyd. She believes requirements versus energy is needed for sustained change so that black women in particular do not need to shoulder the majority of the burden of DEI efforts without the requisite resources and commitment from others who can “turn it off” while she and others cannot. Closing advice for younger women. Listen to yourself. Understand what is unique about you and use that to forge your path. ********* Dr. Stanford is an obesity medicine physician scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/ Harvard Medical School (HMS). Dr. Stanford received her BS and MPH from Emory University as a MLK Scholar, her MD from the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine as a Stoney Scholar, and her MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government as a Zuckerman Fellow in the Harvard Center for Public Leadership. She completed her Obesity Medicine & Nutrition Fellowship at MGH/HMS after completing her internal medicine and pediatrics residency at the University of South Carolina. She has served as a health communications fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and as a behavioral sciences intern at the American Cancer Society. Upon completion of her MPH, she received the Gold Congressional Award, the highest honor that Congress bestows upon America’s youth. Dr. Stanford has completed a medicine and media internship at the Discovery Channel. An American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation Leadership Award recipient in 2005, an AMA Paul Ambrose Award for national leadership among resident physicians in 2009, she was selected for the AMA Inspirational Physician Award in 2015. The American College of Physicians (ACP) selected her as the 2013 recipient of the Joseph E. Johnson Leadership Award and the Massachusetts ACP selected her for the Young Leadership Award in 2015. She is the 2017 recipient of the Harvard Medical School Amos Diversity Award and Massachusetts Medical Society Award for Women’s Health.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Sonya Sloan, an orthopedic surgeon, supermom, a woman of faith, an athlete, health equity disruptor, author, educator. Her life’s work has been centered on paying it forward. Incredible conversation and you will be inspired hearing about Dr. Sloan’s journey, passions, and pursuit of impact. Can women have it all? Dr. Sloan says Yes! Journey notes from this episode include: From athlete to medicine: a sports injury might have ended her athletic career but it began her interest in medicine. She noticed then that there were no black clinicians anywhere. A physician suggested to her to pursue medicine as she knew so much already about her own injury and treatment, also noting that diversity was needed in the field. This was also the first time Dr. Sloan had heard about diversity. Entrepreneurship: at 23, wait-listed for medical school, she borrowed $50,000 and opened a coffee shop. She learned here that she loved, just loved, being an entrepreneur. Orthopedic surgeon: Being watched, monitored and criticized was a constant as one of the 1.5% of African American orthopedic surgeons. This required great fortitude and she learned how to be a team player, how to stand up for herself, and believes this has made her a better surgeon. Discussing burnout and the increased stresses on physicians which now includes violence, Dr. Sloan remains hopeful for medicine and for the next generation of physicians Health Equity Disruptor: medicine is her here and now and this is “my watch”. As the VP of the Black Women Orthopedic Surgeon’s organization, Dr. Sloan describes working on the response letters to 45’s Executive Order reversing DEI efforts in government facilities which was eventually reversed with the new administration. Mission in life is grounded around the pillars of medicine, spiritual and education. Intent to increase the number of minority students in STEM. Why? Because this will correlate with generational financial sustainability for African American kids. She also is focused on helping other women achieve their entrepreneurial dreams. Living by her Rule 34 which is Pay It Forward has remained a constant in her life. Closing advice for women: Be unapologetic! ABOUT DR.SLOAN Sonya M. Sloan, M.D., aka #OrthoDoc, has established herself as a force to be reckoned with in the male-dominated field of Orthopedic Surgery. Licensed to practice medicine in several states, she travels the country to extend the impact of her unique approach to patient care. With a B.S. in Chemistry from Texas Tech University and an M.D. from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Dr. Sloan completed her residency at Baylor College of Medicine where she made history as both the first African-American female Intern in General Surgery and the first African-American female Orthopedic Surgery resident. She has authored and published research projects in Orthopedic Surgery and a joint venture with NASA, Johnson Space Center.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Women Alex MacLeod and Jennifer Catella of Intersystems. Intersystems is a global tech company focused on healthcare, data and analytics. After an engaging company leadership training, they along with another female leader colleague, began meeting regularly and thought about how they could engage with other female leaders or up and comers in the workplace. These informal meetings led to larger group discussions and the forming of the Intersystems’ Women’s Network. Alex, Jennifer and their colleague Yoonji Choe began hosting events with speakers on professional development, set up mentoring pairs, created opportunities for focused topic sessions like managing a new family while pursuing career advancement. Employee response was simply fantastic – they had tapped into something much larger. Since then, the company had asked for volunteers wot work on DE&I efforts and quickly saw they had significant engagement – over 200 volunteers in a ~1700 person company. In this episode Alex and Jennifer discuss: How and why they started the Intersystems’ Women’s Network How they gained support from company senior management (it was easy!) Plans for how to expand the network for team members globally How the network connects with the company’s DE&I initiative Their best advice for starting an effort like this at your own company – just get going! Alex MacLeod Director, Healthcare Commercial Initiatives. LinkedIn Jennifer Catella Manager, Quality Development. LinkedIn

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Amanda Gorman, Founder of the Nest Collaborative, an organization that provides telehealth lactation consultation services. As a pediatric nurse practitioner Amanda found new mothers were often asking “can you help me?” when it came to breast feeding. The need for lactation consultants far outstrips the demand according to recommendations from the Surgeon General. This led to Amanda forming the Nest Collaborative to provide these services in a scalable and accessible way via telehealth. When Amanda started, turned to Google for her business training. Her original goals were small but as she developed this solution for families, the demand simply grew. Amanda notes that upwards of 70% of mothers can struggle with breastfeeding and might benefit from Nest services. This led to crowdfunding, learning how to speak with conviction and then taking advantage of women founder incubators like Springboard Enterprises. This proved invaluable and allowed Amanda to make key decisions such as bringing on a CEO to bring order (and spreadsheets!) to provide balance and accelerate Amanda’s vision for Nest which means helping more families and improving outcomes. Amanda Gorman Founder, Nest Collaborative Pediatric Nurse Practitioner and Founder of Nest Collaborative, improving maternal child health outcomes with the first preventive lactation telehealth program that is directly payer-reimbursed. We assist employers and health providers in enhancing lactation benefits for women by increasing access to breastfeeding support that impacts maternal-child health outcomes and decreases healthcare costs across the industry. You can follow Amanda on LinkedIn.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Eileen Maus, CEO of Renovia, a digital therapeutic and diagnostic company focused on women’s health and specifically, women’s pelvic floor health. As CEO, Eileen spends a good portion of her time on fundraising and reimbursement now that innovations at Renovia have a published clinical trial to their name. Some of her drive and commitment comes from an encounter with an investor who noted that exits in women’s health are not as exciting as other digital health companies which Eileen found quite frustrating. The importance of women’s health issues for Eileen began early as she was a pharma rep working with OBGYN physicians. She found these doctors to be real partners when adopting new technologies. The issues of weakened pelvic floor can be uncomfortable to talk about, and Eileen will ask people to think through the important issues of dignity for people with these conditions. She also describes herself addicted to start ups! Building the right team, allowing people to shine, coupled with energy and leadership as service approach – all of these items are the ingredients of a fulfilling career. Eileen Maus Chief Executive Officer, Renovia Eileen Maus brings 20 years as a healthcare industry sales and marketing executive with strategic planning experience to her role as Chief Executive Officer with Renovia. Ms. Maus entered the women’s healthcare space during her 12 years with CYTYC Corporation, where she was a key contributor to Cytyc’s growth from $8 million to over $700 million, holding leadership roles from sales management to Vice President, Commercial Operations of the Surgical Division. Specifically, Ms. Maus built and managed sales forces for five new product launches, including the ThinPrep® Pap Test, ThinPrep® Imaging System, FirstCyte Breast Test, NovaSure Endometrial Ablation and Mammosite Targeted Radiation Treatment. In addition, Ms. Maus spearheaded the integration and commercialization of Cytyc’s surgical division. Prior to Renovia, Ms. Maus served as Chief Commercial Officer of Constitutional Medical Investors, a portfolio company of Warburg Pincus. In addition to participating in the diligence of diagnostic companies for potential acquisition, she developed the commercial plan for a disruptive technology in the hematology space that was acquired by Roche Diagnostic. Ms. Maus previously served as Chief Commercial Officer for Keystone Dental, where she created their marketing strategy to align with market needs, rebuilt their sales force and orchestrated the purchase of innovative products in a commoditized industry. Ms. Maus is a graduate of LaSalle University, with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and Communications. You can follow Eileen on LinkedIn.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Yael Katz, CEO of BrainCheck which is focused on democratizing cognitive health. Yael began her career in academia as a neuroscientist. After the work of grants and publications, she determined that she wanted her output to be more tangible. A detour to management consulting taught her a lot, including that she had no appetite for management consulting! Her attention went to finding a problem worth solving and BrainCheck was born. For Yael, the guts to go after something has never been an issue, but when it comes to narrowing decisions, she finds that hard. As a scientist, you want to look at the world of possibilities, as a CEO you want to be decisive and focused. As this young company evolves, innovation has come with the technology and the product, but an equal amount of innovation working on the business model. Yael has seen that diversity at the top has become more important to some funders yet she notes that her experience with raising $20M, gender never seemed to be a factor. These days Yael is being asked more and more for advice. Thinking about her own experience with mentors has been helpful. Real talk with the balance of not squelching enthusiasm, something she looks to emulate as she speaks to other entrepreneurs. Yael Katz, PhD CEO, BrainCheck Founder, CountVision Neuroscientist, authoring over 20 articles with more than 1600 citations Entrepreneur, raising $20M in venture capital from top firms Business leader, overseeing the development and commercialization of BrainCheck’s cognitive assessment and care platform, cultivating a top-notch team with offices in Houston and Austin Passionate about technology, biotechnology, and building businesses

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Alice Benjamin, aka Nurse Alice. She may have wanted to be an accountant but when her father said she would become a great nurse, she changed course. Her father, a veteran, lost the battle to heart disease and as Alice was helping navigate his care, translating for her mother, she saw first-hand the impact of implicit bias. She set her sights on being the best cardiac nurse in the world and focused on prevention. That led to educating the public. She found she had a knack for this, perhaps because she understood the importance of cultural competence and meeting people where they are. Health equity awareness also became a passion and putting a spotlight on not only the inequities within health care but how they came about. Alice appreciates that there is more attention on the issues of systemic racism and that people are listening now – however, she points out the need to understand the many people left behind along the way and equity requires us to bring everyone to an equal starting point. Alice also provides a message of encouragement for women – even with the issue of our reproductive rights on the line – that women continue to be resilient and hopeful. Alice Benjamin Clinical Nurse Specialist and Medical Correspondent Alice Benjamin is a board-certified Clinical Nurse Specialist and Family Nurse Practitioner with over 23 years nursing experience specializing in cardiovascular and critical care. She has served as an expert clinical practitioner responsible for providing direct patient care, leadership, consultation, education and patient care management expertise for complex cardiac patients including myocardial infarction, interventional cardiac catheterization, advanced congestive heart failure, CVICU patients, ICD/pacemakers, and post heart transplants at places like Cedars Sinai Medical Center and Sharp Memorial Hospital. She also has extensive experience in burn, trauma, and emergency medicine having worked at Level 1 Trauma Centers including Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego and UC San Diego Regional Burn Center. Nurse Alice graduated with honors from San Diego State University with a dual major in Nursing and Psychology. She later obtained a Master’s Degree in Nursing Education/Clinical Nurse Specialist and Post-Masters as a Family Nurse Practitioner. You can follow her at asknursealice.com, on Twitter and Facebook at @AskNurseAlice, and on Instagram at @asknursealice.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Cassie Smith, Chief of Staff for Wellvana Health. When Cassie moved to Nashville, she wanted to work at HCA and she did. When she received a call to be employee #3 at a small primary care start up, she surprised even herself when she said YES. Start ups may seem glamorous but as Cassie well knows they are filled with many ups and downs. There have been stressful times with entire leadership changes where she has never worked harder. When she has doubts, she calls that same trusted friend her brought her to Wellvana in the first place. When new leaders, all men, joined the company, she found she needed to cement her place at the leadership table, and she is quite happy that she did. She has high hopes for the company despite all the hard work and fast pace and she wouldn’t trade this experience for the world. Cassie Smith Chief of Staff, Wellvana Health Cassie Smith joined Wellvana in September of 2020 and now serves as the Company’s Chief of Staff, where she oversees strategic business initiatives, drives alignment across executives and their teams, and optimizes efficiency and productivity across the Company. Prior to joining Wellvana, Mrs. Smith was with HCA Healthcare, the largest for-profit healthcare system in the world, where she worked on several teams, including Strategy and Innovation, where she supported both corporate and hospital-level strategic initiatives. Prior to HCA, Mrs. Smith was with Ascension Care Management and Boston Healthcare Associates. Cassie Smith brings to Wellvana an impressive background in healthcare, with extensive knowledge in strategic consulting, health policy and value based care. Mrs. Smith holds a degree in economics from Connecticut College and a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from Vanderbilt University. She currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee with her husband and mini Aussiedoodle. You can follow Cassie on LinkedIn.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Susan Bailey, practicing allergist/immunologist and lifelong advocate for patients through her work in advocacy. As the 175th President of the American Medical Association, Dr. Bailey is completing forty years of leadership service in organized medicine. She claims “I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up” when asked what is next and spent some time reflecting on her years of service during this episode of Inspiring Women. Dr. Bailey has always been a joiner, loving clubs and leadership, and as an extrovert, getting energy from being around other people. She views advocacy as a professional obligation and privilege. When she started in medicine, she had a successful practice, participated in organized medicine while raising two boys as a single mom. How did she make it work? It took a village but having flexibility with her schedule and the financial considerations of her practice were key. She believes working parents have to have a Plan A…B…C…. AND D to make it work, certainly then, and also today. When discussing the evolution of women in medicine, Dr. Bailey reflected on her experience. She did not have many female mentors as there were many fewer women in medicine back then. And while she did break various gender barriers, she always thought things would just work out for women in medicine. But not anymore. She points out the disparities – today, over a third of physicians are women which doesn’t correlate to medical school deans where only 12% are women. And the lack of gender pay parity is just wrong. Dr. Bailey suggests that women be intentional and be outspoken. Consensus building is wonderful, but that should not mean NOT negotiating for what is fair. Dr. Bailey asks women to reach their hand out to help other women by being a mentor. She also strongly supports being involved in organized medicine as it is gratifying to feel that sense of achievement with other like-minded colleagues. Thank you for your service and leadership Dr. Bailey!! ********************************************* Susan R. Bailey, MD, an allergist/immunologist from Fort Worth, Texas, was the 175th president of the American Medical Association. Previously, she served as president-elect of the AMA for one year, speaker of the AMA House of Delegates for four years and as vice speaker for four years. Dr. Bailey, who has been active in the AMA since medical school when she served as chair of the AMA Medical Student Section, has held numerous leadership positions with the AMA. These include serving as chair of both the Advisory Panel on Women in Medicine and the AMA Council on Medical Education, as well as representing the AMA on the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, the American Board of Medical Specialties, and COLA. Her long history of service in helping guide organized medicine extends to the local and state levels as well. She has served as board chair and president of the Tarrant County Medical Society, and as vice speaker, speaker and president of the Texas Medical Association. Dr. Bailey is an allergist in private practice and has been with Fort Worth Allergy and Asthma Associates for over 30 years. She completed her residency in general pediatrics and a fellowship in allergy/immunology at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in Rochester, Minn., and is board certified in allergy and immunology, and pediatrics and has been awarded the title of Distinguished Fellow of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology. In addition to receiving her medical degree with honors from the Texas A&M University College of Medicine as a member of its charter class, Dr. Bailey was later appointed to the Texas A&M System Board of Regents by then Gov. George W. Bush, and has been named a Distinguished Alumnus of Texas A&M University and of Texas A&M University College of Medicine. Dr. Bailey is married to W. Douglas Bailey, has two sons and one grandson, and is an elder and longtime choir member of her church.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Afsaneh Naimollah, Managing Partner of XEN Partners and Silicon Valley-based healthcare technology executive who has advised over 1000 companies in her thirty years in healthtech. Afsaneh continues to be energized about healthcare stating it is a bottomless pit of learning. Having done over 150 M&A transactions, she has sage advice for entrepreneurs which includes being focused; having technical people on the team and raise just enough money to execute to the next stage but do not overshoot. She has also thought a lot about how women can advance in the space of leadership and underscores the importance of the two P’s – Performance and Persistence. At the same time – if you are a woman who has made it, it is imperative that you make the time and help other women. At the end of the day, success comes from who you are and for women in particular – keeping that sense of self with a capital S! Afsaneh Naimollah Managing Partner, XEN Partners Executive in Residence, Plug and Play Tech Center Silicon Valley-based global technology and healthcare tech executive with over 30 years of corporate finance, strategic advisory and investment banking experience. Public company board experience with a successful exit (company sold to Google). Board member and Chair of Audit Committee of publicly-listed CA Healthcare Acquisition Corp., a SPAC formed to acquire healthcare companies. First transaction was the merger with LumiraDx, the world’s largest PoC testing company valued at $3B in December 2021. Subject matter expert in next gen healthcare technologies including the migration of old technologies to new digitally-enabled business models, AI, automation, payer/provider software, data analytics, virtual care, remote patient monitoring, wellness and precision medicine. Publisher of HIT Greatest Hits, a widely read monthly newsletter on healthcare. I have worked collaboratively with many CEOs and board of directors of mid size to large companies on growth and exit strategies. I have executed over 150 M&A transactions in 20 countries and have raised upwards of $12B of capital via IPOs, private placements and bank debt. I am also an angel investor and advisor to a number of healthcare companies which has given me the rare opportunity to participate in building businesses from the ground up. It is a rewarding and fulfilling experience to help CEOs navigate this exciting and dynamic industry. You can follow Afsaneh on LinkedIn.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Sanjida Chowdhury, Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer of Fresenius. Sanjida prides herself as an executive on not just towing the company line but partnering with her business leader counterparts to achieve greater company objectives. Empathy is core to her leadership approach. Working harder to ensure that she can achieve the fully available opportunity ahead stems from childhood experience where she would achieve 90+% grades. 95%+ scores in school were never enough for her demanding father who was always asking about that extra 2%. Sanjida defines her career pursuits as always finding that 2%! Sanjida F. Chowdhury Vice President, Government Pricing & Compliance and Chief Compliance Officer, Region North America Past includes 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry with demonstrated success in a consulting and industry career that includes client management, proposal development, business development, project management, compliance program development, training program design and implementation, business analysis, and data analytics spanning various aspects of regulatory and compliance issues that affect pharmaceutical, medical device, and healthcare organizations. Significant experience leading and coordinating Pharmaceutical engagements in regulatory compliance with a focus on Government Pricing and Sales and Marketing issues with responsibility for planning, budgeting, execution, and delivery. Considered a subject matter expert providing guidance pertaining to the areas of Medicaid Drug Rebate Program, Aggregate Spend and State Reporting, Sarbanes-Oxley reviews, Contract Operations, risk mitigation, and strategy/process improvement. Specialties: Medicaid, Medicare, government pricing/reporting, statutory pricing, class of trade, 340B membership, documentation development, contract compliance, SOX(404), litigation services, managed care organizations, aggregate spending, state disclosure “sunshine” laws You can follow Sanjida on LinkedIn.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Amy Abernethy. As a leader, physician, researcher, author, public servant, speaker, advocate, and more, Dr. Abernethy’s storied career centers on her WHY. As an oncologist at Duke, Dr. Abernethy’s patients were relatively young adults. These patients more often than not would pass away within a few short years after their diagnosis and would face very tough choices. Her clinic was between research facilities doing groundbreaking work in the area of melanoma, yet, those new therapies or clinical trials would not be available in time to help her patients when they needed it. Speeding up the process of bringing therapies to the patients who needed them to change their outcomes became her driving focus. It was an unexpected leap to move into healthtech when she joined Flatiron Health, however, exploring the problem from a different angle was very instructional. Her move to public service and the FDA meant tackling the regulatory angle. Focus on patient centricity and evidence generation required modernizing the agency’s technology capabilities and demystifying how to work with the FDA. Amy describes public service as both important and awe inspiring and highly recommended. Today at Verily, this is the next chapter of tackling the same issue, now with big tech and big data at her disposal. To unlock this potential, she suggests this requires bringing all professional disciplines to the table with equal voices and respect. Amy’s professional WHY is centered on those early patients. She aims to significantly speed up the process of bringing lifesaving therapies to market, advance the state of medical care, and to change outcomes. In solving those large problems and pursuing her WHY, Amy was also strategic about her professional development, this included implementing a strategic mentor plan. Early on, she conducted a self-assessment SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats). From that, she identified six people she felt could help her advance professionally or develop key skills. She also wanted help advancing as a female leader without being characterized in unflattering ways (the “B” word). Valuing people’s time, Amy was thoughtful about what she could bring to these relationships. Over the years, Amy has changed who is part of her strategic mentor plan and credits those key relationships with having great impact on her professional development and pursuits. Dr. Amy Abernethy President, Clinical Research Platforms at Verily Amy Abernethy is the President of Verily’s Clinical Studies Platforms, where she oversees the company’s clinical evidence generation platform product vision and related clinical research portfolio. Dr. Abernethy was most recently Principal Deputy Commissioner of Food and Drugs of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the agency’s acting Chief Information Officer. Prior to her role at the FDA, Dr. Abernethy was Chief Medical Officer, Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of Oncology of Flatiron Health. Before joining Flatiron, Dr. Abernethy was Professor of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine and directed the Center for Learning Health Care in the Duke Clinical Research Institute and Duke Cancer Care Research Program in the Duke Cancer Institute. Dr. Abernethy is a hematologist/oncologist and palliative medicine physician who has authored more than 500 publications. She holds a BA in Biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania, an MD from Duke University School of Medicine, and a PhD in Evidence Based Medicine and Informatics from Flinders University in Australia. You can follow Dr. Abernethy on LinkedIn.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Erica Jain, CEO and CoFounder of Healthie. Erica created Healthie back when she was in business school. She is someone who cares about leaving the world a better place. When she saw her own parents struggle with weight loss, and then to see the devastating impact that comes with mental health issues, and then through her own experience in the healthcare system as a pregnant woman and new mom – she felt there was a lot of opportunity to make a difference. Today at Healthie, she works with many great founders and leaders. What is Erica’s secret power as a leader? She does NOT give up. For Erica, work life balance does not exist, it’s all life. She credits becoming a new mom with reinvigorating her “hustle”. There are more women CEOs and Founders out there but again, Erica believes leadership and company success still comes down to the team. She urges all women out there to not hold back, making the world a better place takes tremendous energy and as leaders, today’s new leaders, it requires empathy, kindness and resilience. Erica Jain CEO and CoFounder, Healthie Healthie serves as the underlying infrastructure for digital health startups, grocery stores, health clinics, Universities, and other innovative health programs that seek to deliver long-term, preventative care to clients. We have a HIPAA and SOC 2 Compliant platform and API that saves organizations time, and allows them to launch and scale services faster. You can follow Erica on LinkedIn.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Women NING MOSBERGER-TANG and CHIU-KI CHAN in this Mentoring Series episode. Ning and Chiu-Ki have a number of things in common. Both began their careers as developers at Google, in fact, Ning was the first female developer there. Both relocated from the west coast to Boulder, CO. Both self describe as introverts and have passion, interest and feel obligation that they should be making the world better. This means addressing climate change, saving democracy….the major issues of our time. As Chiu-Ki took action to learn how to get involved – she connected with the local political party office. What she learned didn’t make sense to her where politicians need to spend so much of their energy working on being re-elected v putting energy towards solving these major issues. Ning had started a movement – the Blue Wave Postcard Movement specifically. An all women organizations focused on community and taking action in ways that DOES have impact, DOES achieve results. Chiu-Ki joined not because it was all women, but found that certainly helped. She appreciates the respectful environment and not having to interrupt to be heard, a practice that was important to learn in Silicon Valley as a woman developer, but never felt good or right to Chiu-Ki. Ning asks ALL people to consider getting involved, just start doing something, and to literally start today. Ning Mosberger-Tang Activist/Philanthropist First female developer at Google now aiming to change the world through activism and social justice Ning has a background in computer science and has worked for a number of years in the tech industry, including a few years as a technical lead in Google during its early years. Since 2006, she has focused on conservation and environmental education, climate change mitigation, community organizing, and policy advocacy. She does her work through a private foundation, a social welfare non-profit, and as a private investor in cleantech startups. She also serves on multiple environmental boards including the board of League of Conservation Voters. Ning received her B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from Tsinghua University and M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Arizona. Blue Wave Postcard Movement: https://www.bluewavepostcards.org Chiu-Ki Chan Activist/Android Developer Chiu-Ki is an Android developer with a passion in speaking and teaching. She runs her own mobile development company, producing delightful apps such as “Monkey Write” for learning Chinese writing and ‘Heart Collage’ for snapping photos to stitch into a heart. When she is not writing apps, she can be found travelling the world, sometimes sightseeing, sometimes dispensing Android tips on stage at various tech conferences. You can follow Chiu-Ki HERE.

In this Mentorship Series episode, Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Women Monique Terrell, a Senior Director at the College of American Pathologists and Brande Martin, a Director at Covetrus. Monique and Brande have both been working in digital marketing before it was cool. Maybe even dating herself, Brande thought she would “try that LinkedIn” and connected with Monique who hired her at CAP. Their working relationship turned into friendship and they continue to learn a lot from each other sharing mutual respect. Monique’s leadership style emphasized coaching, guiding and mentoring all of her team members but how far it goes is largely up to the individual. With Brande, she has celebrated all of her accomplishments, first at CAP and now well beyond, and hopes to see her continue to advance and lead from the front of the room. Brande seeks guidance from Monique because “she has my back”, their relationship being grounded in support and trust. Does Brande always take the advice? Usually (because it is valuable!) but shaping it to fit her unique leadership style. Best and consistent advice from Monique – Hire strong. And make sure you lead by pulling the best from each of your team members as that will help them pull together as a team. Brande has taken that advice and is proud of how this has helped her develop as a leader. Brande reminds us that when you receive, you need to pay it forward, which she does by mentoring others. Monique tells younger women to Be Bold, Be Present and Be You! Monique Terrell | Senior Director Annual Meeting, Events and Engagement, College of American Pathologists Monique is the first senior-most digital executive at the College of American Pathologists, the leading organization in the practice of pathology and laboratory medicine worldwide. At the CAP, she has led teams from 7 to 16 people across the digital, creative design, and now the Annual Meeting and Events team. She has over 15 years of experience as a digital strategy leader who works with organizations to maximize opportunities that effectively leverage technology. Through the comprehensive use of qualitative and predictive analytics, she drives brand experience, improves digital operations, and broadens revenue streams while being a catalyst for company-wide digital transformation. An effective leader and mentor who can train and motivate staff, increase productivity and retain talent. As a digitally centric executive, she specializes in the planning and implementation of digital solutions. Rounding out her expertise includes experience in user experience, technology selection, information architecture, e-commerce, web, search, email, social, video/audio, and mobile. Career Milestones: Created position of first Director of Digital Strategy for the second-largest U.S. medical association; founded one of the first dedicated social media agencies in Oklahoma City; Awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal. You can follow Monique on LinkedIn. Brande Martin | Director B2B Marketing, Content and Creative – North America, Covetrus Brande Martin is a digital content strategy, marketing and health care communications professional. Brande also is a certified master coach, specializing in leadership and wellness coaching. She is a leader focused on training and mentoring teams. Throughout her career, she has developed successful content strategy and digital marketing direction to increase sales and provide thought leadership. She is a member of the United Way, Metro Chicago, Women United board. Brande has presented at several conferences and been a guest panelist on various webinars and podcasts. She has published articles in Forbes, Ellevate Network, Medscape, and other outlets about health care, medical topics, diversity and general interest topics. Find out more about Brande by listening to her podcast: Strive, Thrive & Shine. You can follow Brande on LinkedIn.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Michaela Griggs, CEO of Southern California Reproductive Center. Over Michaela’s career, she found herself on the leadership track in a global company – this meant international work and complex assignments. But she also found herself slipping into what she calls the “good girl syndrome” – where if you just work hard and do good work, believing that you will be noticed and rewarded. It took being “cheeky” which meant stepping outside of the norm and directly asking for the assignments that Michaela really loved – big thorny problems that perhaps require a different point of view. At first, she did not always get that plum assignment – but she did receive direct and actionable feedback. Such as how to be more specific about what was important to her and how it is relevant and valuable to the corporation. These cheeky actions led to larger assignments and responsibilities and learnings which remain important to Michaela today. As Michaela balances the needs of growth of a high growth center with advances in technology and leading in the area of innovation, she also remains committed to her belief that a willingness to learn, continuously learn, is imperative to business growth. And she also finds that a longer term view on career growth and the journey, to simply be more satisfying. Michaela Griggs CEO , Southern California Reproductive Center Director, Guardion Health Sciences Michaela has over 20 years of experience at leading Pharmaceutical, Health, Wellness, and Beauty organizations, bringing to Guardion her strong marketing acumen and deep experience in consumer-driven and healthcare professional-driven markets. Most recently, she served as CEO for Southern California Reproductive Center, and prior to that was part of Barco Uniforms, Allergan, Bayer Healthcare, 3M Unitek, and Tria Beauty where she was instrumental in developing and improving brand, retail, and distribution strategies. You can follow Michaela on LinkedIn.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Women Helen Figge and Alexis Balingcongan in this Mentoring Series episode. Helen and Alexis are both clinicians working in the healthcare tech industry and are involved in HIMSS, serving on the New York state chapter Board (Helen is the incoming President). Meeting there, they found mutual interest as well as admiration for each other in their different points of their career. Helen found Alexis to be a bright “up and comer” and urged her to become more involved beyond just her current job at the time. This relationship, which began as just casual conversations from seeing each other at events, grew to where Alexis would reach out to Helen for specific advice or coaching on specific career steps Alexis was considering. Both view the mentor/mentee relationship as something positive for each of them and fits within their shared desire to give back to others. Helen Figge Chief Strategy Officer, MedicaSoft President Elect, HIMSS New York Award recognition for building sustainable teams with emotionally intelligent leadership using diverse skill sets; I marshal healthcare technology entities to heightened financial growth and understand the complexities associated with government standards. My professional accomplishments are transparent: leading teams with innovative strategy, product commercialization, business development, and go-to-market success. I easily launch emerging markets (e.g. startups and large publicly traded companies) to best practice and commercial success, understand the healthcare ecosystem in support of unbiased measurable data, and excel in: cloud-based FHIR standard solutions, artificial intelligence, population and behavioral health solution development, predictive analytics, and clinical workflow. I create growth and sustainability models supporting consumer centric applications for health & wellness, patient engagement, compliance, early disease detection, & evolving care model management. You can follow Helen on LinkedIn. Alexis Balingcongan Regional Connectivity Executive, Hillrom Board Member, HIMSS New York Experienced Registered Nurse with a demonstrated history of working in the hospital & health care industry. Skilled in Electronic Medical Record (EMR), Nursing, Critical Care, Hospitals, and Teamwork. Strong healthcare services professional graduated from New York University. You can follow Alexis on LinkedIn.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Pam Pure, experienced digital health executive and CEO/CoFounder of Posterity Health. And importantly, for many years she has also been a personal friend and mentor to me. Most successful women find help, advice and guidance from a mentor, someone who cares about you and your success and often removed from the intricacies of current work relationships. Pam Pure has had a storied career as a leader and one of the most powerful women in healthcare. Spanning those years of success, she also had time, or made time, to be a sounding board for career decisions or to help navigate untold number of transitions or complex work relationships. For me, Pam has been one to push my thinking and vision of my career opportunities, often before I realized I was capable – and she wasn’t afraid to coach or point the way. In this Mentoring Series, I wanted to explore several mentor/mentee relationships – how they work, how each person benefits from the interaction. This series is meant to inspire and encourage women of all career stages to ensure they have someone who is there for them. As we kick off this Mentoring Series, I do want to say THANK YOU PAM PURE. For all of the advice, support, guidance and friendship throughout the years. Pam Pure | CEO Posterity Health Pamela Pure is an experienced digital healthcare executive. She focuses on companies in high growth mode or in need of reinvention. Her tenure provides her with a unique ability to craft strategic direction and drive operational execution. She is an inspirational executive coach. Market entry and new product launch planning are key areas of expertise. Pam was actively involved in the rollout of HiTech, the Healthcare IT component of the American Recovery Act, recognized as Atlanta Woman of the Year in Technology and named one of Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Women in Healthcare. You can follow Pam on LinkedIn.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Cheryl Rucker-Whitaker, CEO of Complete Care Management Partners. Dr. Whitaker is used to breaking new ground, focusing on care management before care management was cool; focusing on solving the problems by focusing at the root cause. Understanding data and the financing of healthcare came with an awareness that was just appalling to Dr. Whitaker – health disparities were evident long before the pandemic and she has made it her life’s work to address them. This includes meeting people where they are like the southside of Chicago. Yes, of course, as an African American physician she has had many people who did not believe she was capable or qualified and the subtle shade or disrespectful comments are more numerous than she can count. Guess what? Dr. Whitaker knows what she is talking about, she has done her homework, and feels it is important to do the work to become expert. Her advice for women? Get involved, join your professional societies, and work at being expert in your field. Dr. Cheryl Whitaker is a practicing entrepreneur in search of innovative solutions for underserved communities and economic inclusion for such business. She is currently CEO of Complete Care Management Partners LLC, a delegate care management entity providing care management for the most difficult to reach members. She is a senior medical advisor to MyBexa, an innovative breast screening technology, a member of the board of directors of Equality Health, a consultant to Health2047, Inc., and a member of the Hyde Park Angels. She was Founding Chairman and CEO of NextLevel Health, a medicaid health insurance company dedicated to helping underserved populations access and manage Medicaid services. At the time, they were only 1 of 2 Black owned medicaid companies in the United States. This innovative for-profit company used a rigorous population health data-analytics approach to help coordinate extensive patient services provided through a geographically co-located Culturally Competent Care Management Team model. Her expertise includes executive management, building and leading high performing teams, change management, organizational transformation, leveraging IT to transform practice. From 2011-2013, she served as the inaugural chairman of the Illinois Health Information Exchange Authority, where she guided the State’s effort to create secure data exchange for health information. From 2009 to 2011, she worked as a Senior Program Officer for the Chicago Community Trust, overseeing strategy for all health-related grants—including efforts related to healthcare reform and the health information exchange. She also served as a faculty member at Rush University Medical Center. Dr. Whitaker earned a medical degree at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and a Master of Public Health in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health. She completed her clinical training in internal medicine at Stanford University and University of California San Francisco, and a fellowship in health services research at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. She is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, Fellow of the Institute of Medicine Chicago, The Chicago Network, The Economic Club of Chicago, Women Business Leaders of the US Healthcare System, and Founding Member of Chief. You can follow Dr. Cheryl Rucker-Whitaker on LinkedIn.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Sara Sweat, Head of Customer Success of Incredible Health, a new type of staffing company focused on nursing. Sara talks about how her background in in high growth health tech companies prepared her for her current role and how her personal work as a mental health advocate and counselor inspires her to address some of the larger macro issues of workforce burnout. Where does her confidence come from? Well. Singing for one. “If you can sing in front of 200 people, you can speak to 5 in a boardroom.” Sara notes that people describe her as “borderline annoying” with her niceness and questions, but she has found curiousity to be her effective way of learning, growing, and becoming the leader that she is today. Sara Sweat, MA | HEAD OF CUSTOMER SUCCESS Sara believes in the power of relationships. Bringing nearly 20 years of experience in healthcare technology to her role at Incredible Health, Sara has spent her career successfully leading sales, performance coaching, and client management teams – across Payer, Provider, and Channel Partner segments. She values authenticity, collaboration, and creativity and has leveraged those skills in her previous roles at companies like Teladoc Health and Change Healthcare. Sara holds a Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Performance and a Masters in Counseling and is an active advocate of mental health in her local community. She believes strongly in the mission of our organization and is honored to be part of Incredible Health. You can follow Sara on LinkedIn.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Lucia Huang, CEO and CoFounder of Osmind, a company focused on the future of mental health with an EHR as well as an engagement and outcomes platform. Lucia is committed to rapid growth but not at all costs. Silicon valley may be great for innovation but move fast and break things simply does not apply here when dealing with patients and patient care. Lucia talks about how she and her co-founder came up with the idea for Osmind as well as how they are using data to transform the future of mental health. Lucia is co-founder and CEO of Osmind. Prior to Osmind, she led business and operations at Verge Genomics, invested in innovative healthcare technology companies at Warburg Pincus, and advised life sciences companies in investment banking. Lucia graduated Yale with a B.S. in Chemistry and earned an MBA at Stanford. Lucia is passionate about mental health and has devoted her career to improving healthcare, from life sciences to new technology innovation. She has been named to Forbes 30 under 30 for her innovative work in healthcare. You can follow Lucia on LinkedIn. Read the transcript here.

IW-LM Jenny Schneider RD1 Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Jennifer Schneider, CEO and CoFounder of Homeward, a company focused on “re-architecting care delivery in markets for people who do not have quality care starting in rural markets”. Jenny talks about her new venture which fits her familiar model of picking a problem that matters, clearly describing and demonstrating economic value, and the importance of building your team. She doesn’t like the term work life balance. For Jenny, it’s all just life and she tells us that you really can have it all, you just can’t have it all at the same time. Taking a break after having led at Livongo was important to Jenny. She knows that for many women, FOMO (fear of missing out) can be an issue, that thought of …if I am not doing it right now, they will forget about me…which she views as a false narrative. Jenny’s best advice for younger women is to “bet on yourself”. Someone is getting that best seat at the table, and she suggests that young women ask for it. Prior to Homeward, Dr. Jennifer Schneider, M.D., M.S., was the Chief Medical Officer and President at Livongo, and oversaw the strategic, technical and clinical direction of the company. During her final year at Livongo, Dr. Schneider was instrumental in leading the company through the largest consumer digital health IPO in history, a secondary offering and a convertible debt offering that raised over $540 million, in addition to the industry’s largest merger ever between Livongo and Teladoc Health, valuing Livongo at $18.5 billion and beginning a new era of consumer centric virtual care. Currently, Dr. Schneider is on the Board of the Health Assurance Acquisition, Board of the Revolution Healthcare Acquisition, Board of Cityblock Health, and CEO/Co-Founder of Welina Care. Dr. Schneider has been honored by Modern Healthcare as one of the 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives and Fierce Healthcare as Women of Influence for her work empowering women and modeling diversity and inclusion. You can follow Dr. Jennifer Schneider on LinkedIn. Read the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Patrice Wolfe, CEO of AGS Health, a global revenue cycle technology, analytics and services company. Patrice was only a few months in at AGS before the pandemic hit and talks about how she worked with her ~10,000 employee workforce, mostly based in India, while still serving the needs of her clients. Challenges certainly yet she also finds that she has been able to attract many more women to leadership by offering flexibility. Creating opportunities for women to grow into leadership is important to Patrice. This means providing networking opportunities and giving opportunities to manage a P&L, even if it is a just a sliver of the larger project. While Patrice loves the complexity of healthcare, she really enjoys taking the complexity out… “it just shouldn’t be this hard!”. She also spends a lot of time with young female founders and finds the enthusiasm and innovative ideas bring her a lot of energy, recognizing that not all the companies work out, and while she applauds all the successes, she also enjoys helping founders work through the needed company pivots. Patrice provides frank advice for how to deal with leadership challenges which are not always all “unicorns and rainbows” and advises all leaders to remember the importance of the human side of leadership. Treat people with dignity is just some of her sage advice on this Inspiring Women episode. Patrice describes herself as a high-energy, visionary CEO with a focus on transforming companies for maximum success. I am a strategist and operator who combines keen analytical mindset with willingness to roll up my sleeves and get things done without losing sight of long-term business goals. I am known as a passionate mentor and collaborative leader adept at setting high standards, capable of building and unifying great teams committed to excellence. A versatile business executive, I bring 30 years of healthcare industry experience serving payers, providers, employers, federal/state government agencies, and pharmacy/device manufacturers. You can follow Patrice on LinkedIn. Read the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Kelli Clifton Ogunsanya, a healthcare leader over a network of community health centers. In addition to her work serving the population needs of underserved individuals and families, Kelli is very focused on supporting women in their own personal development as leaders. Her own leadership journey started with the confidence building that came from programs like 4-H and later public speaking while working as a consultant. Key life moments like becoming a mother were times when Kelli needed to re-assess what was most important to her as a professional but also in finding joy in her own life. Today she is building out workforce pipeline programs for future leaders, while still finding time to teach university courses, and starting her own life coaching business. These pandemic years have taken their toll on all of us but Kelli wants us all to use this year, 2022, to manifest greatness, through growth, life balance, and leadership. Kelli Clifton Ogunsanya currently serves as the COO of STRIDE Community Health Center. With over 18 locations, STRIDE provides community and refugee medical, dental, mental health, substance abuse, pharmacy, and community-based services, including case management, outreach to the homeless, adolescent services, health education, and maternal child health to the more than 57,000 underserved, uninsured and working individuals and families Kelli believes that access to physical, mental, and emotional wellness are foundational for an equitable and productive society. Kelli is committed to using a systems-thinking approach to spark transformational change, foster operational excellence. Prior to her current role, Kelli was a Client Executive for Optum, a division of UnitedHealthcare Group. In this role, Kelli partnered with national primary care and specialty medical group leaders to improve chronic care management through risk adjustment strategies including patient activation, telehealth integration, point of care technology optimization, and medical group governance. Kelli’s leadership initiatives also include EHR interoperability for leading provider groups including the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs. While at PwC, Kelli supported the planning and activation of new medical facilities and provided program management for the Sierra Leone Trial to Introduce a Vaccine against Ebola (STRIVE), a collaborative Phase 3 clinical trial between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation. Kelli earned a Bachelor of Science in Public Health at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and a Master of Health Administration degree from The Ohio State University College of Public Health. Internationally, she has studied and worked in South Africa, Costa Rica, Ghana, Liberia, and Ethiopia. With more than 18+ years of experience, Kelli is the Owner and Founder of Kelli Ogunsanya Coaching where she shares her business expertise with high performing women who are looking for life clarity, purpose, and renewed confidence. Get immediate access to Kelli: Gain insights via her podcast “She Needs a Life Coach with Kelli Ogunsanya” https://anchor.fm/sheneedsalifecoach Book your first FREE 30-minute BREAKTHROUGH CALL with Kelli at www.kelliogunsanyacoaching.com Get Kelli’s book “Madame Millennial” at www.barnesandnoble.com You can follow Kelli on LinkedIn Read the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Lisa Rangel, CEO and Founder of Chameleon Resumes. During this time of great workforce shifts, Lisa has advice for how to be noticed and not forgotten and talks about why it is so important to keep building your network at any stage of your career. She finds that the more senior someone becomes, they often are surprised when they have to advocate for themselves v being pulled into that next higher level position. Terrific advice and wisdom for anyone wishing to advance in their career. Executive resume writing services for game-changing executives. We position you as the candidate to hire for your next 6- or 7-figure role using our 4-stage M.E.T.A. Job Landing System. #joblanding As top executive resume writers, we have direct expertise hiring executive talent and navigating economic cycles successfully. As an accomplished executive, you want to hire a recruiter-endorsed executive resume writing service who reverse-engineers the hiring process to get hired faster! Our team has 110+ LinkedIn recommendations from clients landing jobs since we draw from 80+ years as successful executive recruiters, 12+ resume/HR certifications and senior-level job landing success in 88 countries. Schedule a chat to learn how our M.E.T.A. job landing system can help you ► http://chameleonresumes.com/contact-us Executives get hired faster using visually-compelling executive resumes, keyword-optimized LinkedIn profiles and recruiter-designed job landing plans for today’s economic climate. Companies hire game changers because the game has changed. Executives are getting hired by essential companies, forward-thinking firms and organizations who ethically capitalize on the opportunity this economy has created. Be prepared. Now is the time to bring in the most experienced job landing consulting team for your job search. Check out our LinkedIn Recommendations and testimonials (http://chameleonresumes.com/testimonials/) showing our long success track record to date. We have succeeded in 3 economic cycles and know what executive job seekers need to do to succeed in landing their next role. ■ AUTHOR of The Definitive Guide To Executive Resume Writing. Free copy here: https://chameleonresumes.com/writing-your-executive-resume-this-year/ ■ FORBES TOP 100 CAREER WEBSITE | Forbes Coaches Council ■ HIRED BY LINKEDIN for 8 years as a Moderator Expert ■ RECRUITER-ENDORSED RESUMES that land COO, CFO, CIO, CEO & CMO interviews http://chameleonresumes.com/recruiter-reviews ■ GLOBAL EXECUTIVE RESUME EXPERT – Cited 180x in publications like Fortune, Fast Company, Newsweek, Time Money, CIO, CNBC, Investor’s Business Daily, BBC, Crain’s NY, Chicago Tribune, Good Morning America & more. Executive Resume Writer | LinkedIn Profile Writer | CEO Executive Resume Writer | CFO Executive Resume Writer | COO Executive Resume Writer | CMO Executive Resume Writer | CIO Executive Resume Writer | Supply Chain Resume Writer | Sales & Marketing Resume Writer | Retail Resume Writer | Pharmaceutical Resume Writer | Manufacturing Resume Writer | Finance Resume Writer You can follow Lisa on LinkedIn Read the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Johanna Fic, a Senior Manager of Engagement Delivery at Salesforce. Johanna is a technology consulting professional with experience helping clients in the consumer products industry, oil & gas industry, and the public sector improve and implement customer-centric technologies and business processes. Her passion is solving problems and improving customer experiences. Johanna knew from an early stage that she wanted to move into leadership and actively pursued opportunities. She also learned some hard lessons early. A large project went awry and yet the team delivered very good results given the circumstances. However, she did not ensure the original evaluation objectives were changed to match the circumstances. Result – less than stellar evaluation. Those hard lessons have made Johanna a better leader of people and more attentive to results and measurements today. You can follow Johanna on LinkedIn. Read the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Nicole Christian Brathwaite, who works with under-served children and families in the area of mental health. Dr. Christian Brathwaite is concerned about the mental health of children today in particular those who are experiencing trauma which may come from discrimination, racism, as well as other impacts from this pandemic. Her first most important mentor was her mom, oriented towards social justice and action. There may have been issues of financial instability but that did not prevent actions like forming organizations to help and support others who have rights. These early beginnings give Nicole constant perspective of what it looks like to not have. And she doesn’t take that for granted. Over the course of her career, she has purposefully sought mentors who could provide knowledge or experience she wanted but did not yet have. And to do her best work, she is a huge proponent of self-care. She might not be expert at that yet, but she is working on it. Nicole Christian Brathwaite, MD | Senior Vice President and Medical Director, Scheduled Care and AtHome at Array Behavioral Care I am committed to working with under-served children and families both locally and globally. I am also interested in the interface between technology and medicine. I am Medical Director and SVP of Array Behavioral Care’s AtHome and Scheduled Care Divisions. Array Behavioral Care (formerly InSight + Regroup) is the leading and largest telepsychiatry service provider in the country with a mission to transform access to quality, timely behavioral health care. Array offers telepsychiatry solutions and services across the continuum of care from hospital to home with its OnDemand Care, Scheduled Care and AtHome Care divisions. For more than 20 years, Array has partnered with hundreds of hospitals and health systems, community healthcare organizations and payers of all sizes to expand access to care and improve outcomes for underserved individuals, facilities and communities. As an industry pioneer and established thought leader, Array has helped shape the field, define the standard of care and advocate for improved telepsychiatry-friendly regulations I am the CEO of Well Minds Consulting Company. Well Minds Consulting is a multifaceted organization dedicated to advising schools and educators on how to better understand and support youth with mental illness. We provide psychiatric expert witness support and testimony as well as implicit bias, trauma sensitive, and mental health training for schools and businesses www.wellmindsconsulting.com www.techwavegroup.com You can follow Dr, Nicole Christian Brathwaite on LinkedIn

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Women Corbin Petro and Jessica Gelman, founders and CEOs of Eleanor Health and Kraft Analytics Group respectively. As a married couple, Corbin and Jess jokingly refer to themselves as Team CJ, yet their drive and passion for growing their companies is anything but a joke. There may be fewer female CEOs in their respective tech focused sectors – healthcare and sports analytics – however, both are used to pushing boundaries. Which requires fortitude and hard work. In the career stages of learning, earning and returning, both Corbin and Jess are determined to not wait until the end for the “returning” phase and recognize their unique position as role models. Working hard and helping others seems to be the Team CJ approach. And when asked about the future for women in their respective fields, they also recognize there is still a long way to go – “how much better do women need to be?” – yet they share optimism that we are on the right path. Corbin Petro is an experienced CEO, industry leader, and entrepreneur with a mission-driven, analytic approach to innovation. She is the CEO and co-founder of Eleanor Health, providing evidence-based, whole person care specializing in addressing the unique complexities of individuals and populations with substance use disorder and mental health needs. Eleanor Health leverages proprietary technology and data-driven insights, compassionate teams, and value-based payment to deliver superior clinical and financial outcomes. Prior to Eleanor Health, Corbin was the founding CEO of Benevera Health, a payer-provider JV and population health company. Corbin has an extensive background in healthcare including as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Massachusetts Department of Medicaid (MassHealth), a $13 billion agency providing health care to 1.4 million Massachusetts residents, advising a US Senator on health reform, and roles at Bain and Company, Goldman Sachs, Deloitte Consulting, and American Management Systems. Corbin is passionate about improving health for vulnerable populations, equity for women and other marginalized groups, and animal rights. She is co-chair of the board of visitors of Fenway Health, and on the boards of Reaching Out and the Eleanor Health Foundation. As a former collegiate distance runner, she enjoys long distance running and biking, and has completed 5 marathons and biked solo, self-supported across the country. She is active in local and regional politics, currently serving as the Chair and Treasurer of a campaign for Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor. She was honored as one of fifteen healthcare executives under 40 named a 2018 Up and Comer by Modern Healthcare. She received a BA from Yale University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Jessica Gelman is an experienced CEO, industry leader, and entrepreneur with a data-driven, customer-centric approach and intrinsic ability to define what is next. As a founder of the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference & Kraft Analytics Group (KAGR), she has a track record of delivering results by building high performance teams, identifying business challenges through analytics, and defining the path forward through data and technology. She is widely respected for her impact on the sports industry. Expert in building businesses, identifying growth opportunities, defining strategy and driving plans to successful completion. A proven leader who empowers teams. 2014 Forty Under 40: Sports Business Journal 2018 Power Players, Ticketing: Sports Business Journal 2012 Game Changers, Women Leading & Innovating in Sports Business: Sports Business Journal 2015 Power 100 Women: Brand Innovators Corbin and Jess are married, have two sons, and reside in the greater Boston area. You can follow both Corbin and Jess on LinkedIn HERE and HERE.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Abby Sears, President and CEO of OCHIN, a nonprofit health care innovation center designed to provide knowledge solutions that promote quality, affordable health care for all. Early on Abby learned she had a passion for business and science. Then someone opened the door to leadership. Every day Abby feels a responsibility to honor that opportunity, for her employees, her members, her supportive network which includes her board. More than ever, Abby believes that team members/employees should not be forced to separate their professional life from their personal life. She spent years leading OCHIN taking calls from the soccer field or the parking lot of where she was picking up her kids. Having to choose family over career was never a choice she was willing to make and if that means getting your work done with your toddler or your dog by your side, so be it. What started out as a grant project, laden with stigma and obstacles, Abby has built a sustainable business which was required to ensure that she could provide premiere systems to support the needs of Medicaid populations and the uninsured. And having data matters. With data, Abby and OCHIN have been able to pinpoint key equity issues during this pandemic like vaccine availability to vulnerable populations and with that, support policy changes. Abby is incredibly optimistic that we can build sustainable systems and realize OCHIN’s vision of providing ”quality, affordable healthcare for all”. Abby Sears | President & Chief Executive Officer As Chief Executive Officer, Abby Sears is responsible for the overall strategy and executive leadership at OCHIN. Abby has been with OCHIN since its inception and has helped grow the organization nationally, focusing on building a learning organization that supports the transformation of healthcare through the use of data and technology. A prominent national speaker and HIT advisor with over 15 years of healthcare expertise, she is focused on building a premier information and technology network leveraging Health IT products, services, and the use of practice-based research to help community practices nationwide achieve federal and industry standards for healthcare delivery, quality, and cost control. Abby was appointed to the federal Health Information Technology Advisory Committee (HITAC) for a three-year appointment, starting in January of 2020, where she will work to help elevate the voices of the patients and providers in historically underserved communities throughout the nation. HITAC advises policy makers on how to safely advance electronic access, exchange, and use of health information nationwide. In 2012, Abby was named CEO of the Year for Nonprofits in Oregon by the Portland Business Journal. She holds an MBA and MHA, both from the University of Minnesota. Read the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Ann Barnes, CEO of IMO a healthcare company focused on data and insights. Ann has purposefully built her teams to focus on diversity because this simply makes sense for her business. She encourages other leaders to move from the discussion of DEI to doing the work of DEI. As a senior leader she also believes it is both an imperative and a responsibility to pay it forward. Early on she was struck by how few seats there were for women at senior tables and today she is committed to ensuring there are more of them. Ann Barnes, Chief Executive Officer Ann Barnes joined IMO in 2018 as Chief Executive Officer, leading the company’s day-to-day operations. In November 2008, she joined MedData as Vice President of Client Services and rose quickly to the position of Chief Operating Officer. In February 2013, Ann was promoted to President, then to CEO soon after. She also served on their Board of Directors. Prior to MedData, Ann was Executive Vice President for the student loan division of Wachovia Bank, she led a national sales force for New Horizons Computer Learning, and held leadership roles with Avolent, an enterprise software solution for electronic bill payments. Ann is a graduate of the University of the Pacific in San Francisco where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Marketing. You can follow Ann on LinkedIn. Read the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Stacey Vanek Smith, acclaimed business and economics correspondent for NPR and author of Machiavelli for Women: Defend Your Worth, Grow Your Ambition and Win the Workplace. Stacey recognizes that we are in a powerful moment right now with a convergence of forces that has the potential to be very good for women. She turns to the unlikely hero of Machiavelli to write this women’s power playbook recognizing the clarity that comes when you remove the emotion of gender disparity issues. Women may make 15% less in certain areas, and while that’s wrong, that also means there is 15% more on the table somewhere, now how do I go get it? Stacey tackles tough and relatable issues with precise guidance from 500 years ago. The combination of humor, wit, and personal stories tied to history lessons makes Machiavelli for Women one of the best business books I have read in quite some time and the top gift for my daughter this coming holiday! Stacey Vanek Smith, Co-Host, The Indicator from Planet Money; Correspondent, Planet Money Author, Machiavelli for Women: Defend Your Worth, Grow Your Ambition and Win the Workplace Stacey Vanek Smith is the co-host of NPR’s The Indicator from Planet Money. She’s also a correspondent for Planet Money, where she covers business and economics. In this role, Smith has followed economic stories down the muddy back roads of Oklahoma to buy 100 barrels of oil; she’s traveled to Pune, India, to track down the man who pitched the country’s dramatic currency devaluation to the prime minister; and she’s spoken with a North Korean woman who made a small fortune smuggling artificial sweetener in from China. Prior to coming to NPR, Smith worked for Marketplace, where she was a correspondent and fill-in host. While there, Smith was part of a collaboration with The New York Times, where she explored the relationship between money and marriage. She was also part of Marketplace‘s live shows, where she produced a series of pieces on getting her data mined. Smith is a native of Idaho and grew up working on her parents’ cattle ranch. She is a graduate of Princeton University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature and creative writing. She also holds a master’s in broadcast journalism from Columbia University. You can follow Stacey on LinkedIn, her website, or Twitter. Read the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Rona Matthew, a leading woman in marketing and entertainment and currently a senior product marketing manager at TikTok. Rona’s career has already been an adventure from when she started at Howard University to spending eight years in South Africa leading her own brand agency. Being part of the majority, surrounding herself with other creatives has been very meaningful to Rona, so when she decided to “upskill” and go to Columbia Business School she had to develop a new network. Finding her tribe and being a leader today at TikTok’s black employee resource group is important to Rona. As a woman, a woman of color, Rona knows she is part of a small community in the workplace and affinity groups are just not enough. Rona is pleased that TikTok took her advice to begin recruiting from HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities) as an important step to creating a more diverse workforce. With her work, Rona aims to sustain artists and creatives and she is just getting started. Rona Matthew is a Product Marketing Manager at TikTok where she drives the development, positioning, and sales of the company’s marquee advertising product, the Branded Hashtag Challenge. She’s an accomplished marketing professional, collaboration facilitator, and dealmaker with a passion for creating and growing meaningful brands in tech, CPG, media and entertainment. Rona started her career in branding and advertising in Johannesburg, South Africa. While in Johannesburg, she founded a brand consulting company, Brandpulse and also led business development at Bamboo Network, a brand innovation firm. Rona has worked with a number of budding start-ups and multinationals including Spotify, IBM, Unilever, 3M, BET, Ericsson, and Pernod Ricard. Rona holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in Marketing from Howard University. You can follow Rona on LinkedIn or Twitter. Read the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Dana Zanone, a family medicine physician who has been implementing technology solutions for most of her career. Now she wants physicians to have less time with the computer and much more of it focused on the more important work of being a physician – time with the patient. Dana is a self-described “click-counter” and knows how valuable that time with patients can be. She also shares how patients can get lost in the system and her own very personal experience with mental illness in her family. Talking about these topics is important to Dana to remove stigma and to find solutions. Dana Zanone,MD VICE PRESIDENT, HIO, ADVENTIST HEALTH Dr. Dana Zanone is a health information physician with experience in implementing and optimizing EMR for Epic, Allscripts Enterprise and Professional, and Nextgen for greater than 12 years. She was the chief medical information officer during large-scale implementation of >130 clinics using a cooperative team-building approach between IT and organizational leaders. Zanone also coordinated the development of a physician builder program, and development of policies and procedures for all aspects of the project for the outpatient workflows. She also supported and adapted the analytics for organizational goals in Meaningful Use Stage 1 and 2 and implemented accountable care organization metrics and population health management into the Epic EMR. Read the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Janet Dillione. Janet is an incredibly accomplished executive in healthcare that is focused, at this stage of her career, on leaving healthcare better than when she found it. As she reflects on key pivot points in her storied career, Janet has learned that progression is not a ladder and that careers are not linear. Learning, working with a team, being at Phase 0 when starting something new are all energizing to Janet and have led to other opportunities. And as Janet reflects on the industry today, she is very optimistic about the talent coming into healthcare. When we all know the denominators, having this level of creativity to solve complex problems is something that she is inspired by as she continues to enjoy the ride! Janet is: a proven CEO with experience building innovative strategies and strong teams that transform businesses for sustained growth and profitability. Throughout my career, I have always looked for opportunities where technology can support patients and clinicians by helping to solve long-standing issues in the delivery of care. As I like to share with my teams, we are compelled to “leave it better than we found it.” With leading roles in both large-scale global businesses as well as start-up scenarios, I am a dynamic leader who knows how to effectively instill a customer- and market-centric culture within an organization to drive the business forward. As a champion of sustainable and differentiated innovation, my experience managing the complexities of global deployments and FDA-regulated products extends to businesses across North America, Europe and Asia with companies developing solutions that have been sold into diverse markets including the Federal market in the US. Throughout my career progression, I have been a frequent presenter at industry conferences and have authored dozens of articles for multiple healthcare publications. Since 2015, I have served as a member of the Board of Directors for CorMedix, and in 2019, also joined the Board of CortiCare. Additionally, I continue to provide strategic advisory services to several private equity firms that are assessing M&A opportunities, strategic expansion, or repositioning of current portfolio assets. Follow Janet on LinkedIn. Read the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Katie Goodman. Katie is a podcast host, an influencer (in the world of soccer), a business owner, a yoga instructor, PR consultant and several other things. In other words, a millennial! Katie graduated from Mississippi State and spent a few years in “big girl jobs” and learned that being in a cubicle just wasn’t for her. She did learn that she was a business person. Katie has been influenced by Ikigai, a Japanese concept that means your ‘reason for being”. She began putting her business background to work with a number of her personal interests that she found deeply purposeful. What started out as a lot of hustling, has turned into a series of opportunities such as Katie’s current work as a podcast host of Tidal League FC as well as Our Cup of Tea. Katie discusses what it means to be a millennial today and how she thinks about career progression. She is unafraid to take on learning new skills and try out her new business ideas knowing that they will not always work out. Katie Goodman is going places and don’t be surprised if you see her reporting on ESPN some Katie Goodman: Podcast Host, Influencer, Yoga and Wellness, PR and Production Management. Follow Katie on Twitter or Instagram Read the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Patrice Harris. Dr. Harris speaks about what it means to be the first, one of the first, the only …..African American woman in so many spaces. She has always gravitated to where the decisions are being made and if she sees something that is not working, she feels this is usually a place where she wants to get involved and shape the direction. Her views on leadership are simply – this is where the work gets done. In her current role as CEO and founder of a digital health company, she is quite clear that with all the promise in the innovation space today – separating out the hype is key. Being HYPER vigilant when it comes to healthcare is critical – why? It’s about patients’ lives. Period. So disrupt with care and get out of your own bubble. Inspiring Women Book Club/Article: Nice Girls Don’t Ask (Harvard Business Review, 2003) Dr. Patrice A. Harris is board-certified in psychiatry and has diverse experience as a private practicing physician, public health director and patient advocate. In 2019, Dr. Harris was elected as the 174th President of the American Medical Association, the first African-American woman to ever hold the position. Dr. Harris’ life is marked by her passion to improve the lives of children and communities around her, especially communities of color. She is a recognized expert in children’s mental health and childhood trauma, leading both local and national efforts to integrate public health, behavioral health and primary care services. She has received numerous awards in recognition of her service and leadership. Upon completing her term as President of the AMA, Dr. Harris has continued in private practice. She regularly consults with public and private organizations on health service delivery and emerging trends in health policy. She is a Visiting Professor at Columbia University, an Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine and an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Morehouse School of Medicine. Dr. Harris is a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. You can follow Dr. Patrice Harris on LinkedIn. Read the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Julie Castro Abrams, founder and CEO of How Women Invest and How Women Lead. For over 30 years, Julie, who describes herself as a social justice warrior, has been intent on affecting everyone’s opportunity to advance. She takes a scientific approach to supporting and advancing women at the investment and board level. The approach covers regulatory and legislative issues; movement building; training women on the how to; and then actually doing placements. By demystifying the process, Julie aims to bring 10,000 women into the world of venture. Julie credits asset management companies being the first to move on creating more diverse boards to reduce their risk. Group think makes for bad investments. And Julie encourages women to start early. Start looking at non-profit boards while in your twenties for example as a way to add scaffolding to your career. And because 85% of all board seats get placed through word of mouth, Julie also asks women to be fierce advocates for each other including making those important introductions. How Women Invest; How Women Lead Julie Castro Abrams is an expert on building boards that add a strategic advantage including proactive searches for women on corporate boards. An experienced CEO and sought-after speaker in entrepreneurship and how women lead, she is a widely recognized because of her unique ability to connect people and facilitate rich conversations that make change happen. Julie partners with terrific CEO’s to build high performance, multicultural teams, in particular boards that make organizations better. She has a successful consulting practice with leaders she admires to achieve their growth and breakthrough goals. Julie’s commitment to justice and community are well known in her personal and professional endeavors. She serves as a leader on the boards of organizations focused on women and children, Latinos, economic development and the arts. Julie is a philanthropist who launched How Women Give and serves as the Governance Chair for the Women’s Funding Network. Thousands of new businesses attribute their launch and growth to her support which has resulted in millions toward the economic growth in communities. She is a leader in the country’s movement to build and fund start ups. Julie has won many awards including the Jobs Genius Award, Morgan Stanley Innovation Award, Cisco Innovation in Technology, “Women Who Could Be President” League of Women Voters, Stevie Award for Best Non Profit Executive, Human Rights Award from the Commission on the Status of Women, the Women of Color Action Network, Leadership California and the Marin Women’s Hall of Fame in 2011. You can follow Julie on LinkedIn. Read the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman May Busch, a sought after executive coach, speaker, advisor, and author. May was just one more incredibly smart, talented, hardworking financial analyst at Morgan Stanley when at age 23 she found she had a special strength – reading the room and performing some tai chi moves to change the energy. Being a student of the environment meant May understood how to navigate not just the org chart, but the informal powerchart. And for women to succeed, May tells women to be in the READY position – be READY to return anything that comes as you. Her teaching, coaching, writings will help you be READY. May’s passion is helping people succeed in their career and life – to be better, do more, and make the difference they are meant to make. May’s book, ACCELERATE: 9 Capabilities to Achieve Success at Any Career Stage, helps identify, understand and master the hidden skills needed to get – and stay – ahead. Previously, May enjoyed a 24-year career at Morgan Stanley spanning two continents and nine different business roles across Investment Banking, Capital Markets and Firm Management. She was most recently Chief Operating Officer for Europe where she was responsible for the development and implementation of the Firm’s business strategy in Europe, Middle East and Africa. She chaired the firm’s European Diversity Council and was a member of Morgan Stanley’s European Management Committee as well as a Board Member of the Firm’s FSA-regulated UK broker dealer. May is also Senior Advisor and Executive in Residence in the Office of the President, and Professor of Practice at W.P. Carey School of Business, at Arizona State University. She lectures on leadership, and works on interdisciplinary initiatives across the university with an emphasis on leadership, entrepreneurship and enhancing the engagement between business and academia. She chairs The Idea Enterprise, a program for bringing experienced business leaders to ASU to help turn its best ideas into forces for change in the world. ASU is the largest US public research university, and pioneer of the New American University model for higher education. You can follow May on her WEBSITE, TWITTER, or FACEBOOK. Read the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Natalie Davis, CEO and Co-Founder of United States of Care. Natalie has been working to improve people’s lives and opportunity for health for nearly two decades. This means bringing together a lot of stakeholders including many of healthcare’s power brokers. You might find that intimidating, but not for Natalie. She looks for the human connections to drive the important issues and make progress. In addition to leading United States of Care, Natalie has a busy life with her young family and awesome husband. Balancing it all also means staying sharp and keeping herself challenged. For Natalie, that means a lot of reading and spending time talking to smart people. Inspiring Women Book Club – Natalie’s Pick: Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. By Brené Brown Natalie Davis has worked for nearly two decades shaping and implementing American health care policies to improve the lives of all people. In 2018, she and fellow national health care leader Andy Slavitt launched United States of Care to ensure that everyone in the country has access to quality, affordable health care regardless of health status, social need, or income. She is relentless in her person-centered approach to building health care solutions and has a history of building partnerships – with organizations, patient advocacy groups and everyday people – that work to create positive change in our country’s health care system. From 2010-2016, Natalie served at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, with the final two years as Senior Advisor to former CMS Administrator, Andy Slavitt. At CMS, she was deeply engaged in the implementation of one of the country’s largest expansions of health care in modern history. Natalie provided strategic and tactical support during the development of the agency’s internal and external priorities, and served as a liaison between CMS and stakeholders across the country. In 2017, Natalie served as the Director of Strategic Engagement at the Bipartisan Policy Center. There she worked to launch the Future of Health Reform initiative which serves as a resource to policymakers by developing effective and politically viable solutions to our nation’s health care challenges. This effort is led by former Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle and Bill Frist, as well as by Andy Slavitt, Gail Wilensky, and other leaders. Natalie knows firsthand that it is possible to bring the smartest minds together to innovate and get things done — regardless of political party. A social entrepreneur, Natalie also helped found Town Hall Ventures and The Medicaid Transformation Project, both of which focus on bringing the best of innovation and care delivery to diverse communities. An advocate and a mother, Natalie currently serves on the board of directors of the Preeclampsia Foundation. Natalie believes that it has never been more important to make our health care system work better for everyone. She is dedicated to bringing together leaders and advocates from across the country who can help create meaningful change in our nation’s inequitable health care system. She brings all her personal and professional experiences to the fight for better health care, working to expand access to quality, affordable health care to help people right now, while working towards durable federal policies centered on the needs of people to provide real and lasting solutions for everybody. Natalie holds an M.A. in Social Policy from George Washington University and is an alumna of Salisbury University schools of Sociology and Art History. Natalie lives in Washington, DC with her amazing husband and four children. You can find Natalie on LinkedIn and Twitter Listen to the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Miruna Sasu, PhD, and Chief Strategy Office of COTA, Inc. Always a risk taker, Miruna thrives on the challenges of pursuing big ideas and changing something drastically. But risk taking comes with having a support system, one that she trusts, not only her husband and family, but also trusted friends and mentors. With that, Miruna believes there is never a wrong time to pursue something next. Miruna has more than 20 years of experience at leading life science organizations such as Johnson & Johnson and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Most recently, Miruna was serving as the head of Johnson & Johnson’s Clinical Trial Feasibility and Advanced Analytics team where she drove global adoption of integrated real-world data and innovation strategies across several therapeutic areas. Miruna is an accomplished executive with a track record of success when it comes to driving broad-based digital innovation. Miruna brings deep experience in the utilization and scaling of emerging innovations to advance drug portfolios. She also has both a Ph.D. in biology and statistics, and a master’s in business administration. With decades of in-house life science experience, Miruna’s guidance and collaboration will prove invaluable to COTA clients that are looking to drive innovation and accelerate availability of much-needed cancer drugs and therapies through the adoption and at-scale use of real-world data. In her new role as Chief Strategy Officer, Life Sciences, Miruna will play a critical role in setting the strategy and executing the solutions delivery to meet critical needs in partnership with life science companies to drive efficient and optimal drug development. You can find Miruna Sasu, PhD on LinkedIn. Read the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Fran Ayalasomayajula. She still doesn’t understand why it took a pandemic to embrace telehealth but she urges us to continue to accelerate and to double down on universal design. Fran is clear that digital health holds great promise for global health issues, but personalization, form factors, and honing in on data science are key to sustained change. When she began her focus on public health and global populations, she was not focused on a career destination. She has been enjoying the journey ever since. Inspiring Women Book Club – Fran’s Pick: Finding Yourself in Transition: Using Life’s Changes for Spiritual Awakening By Robert Brumet With over 20 years of dedication, Fran Ayalasomayajula, executive healthcare strategist and technologist, serves the interests of populations around the world to improve the quality of healthcare, increase access to healthcare, and obtain higher rates of health literacy and patient engagement. Currently the Head of Digital Health Strategy, Worldwide at HP, Fran leads the organization in devising strategies and innovations designed to advance and deliver improved clinical outcomes and better population health. Prior to HP, Frances worked for major healthcare institutions, including PAHO – WHO, CDC, BMS, and UHG. Fran is the recipient of national awards for motivational and collaborative leadership including the National Campaign for Tolerance. She is a member of the Wall of Tolerance, the United Nations Association, and multiple global organizations on population health. She is a renown international public speaker and writer. The author of several publications on technology-enabled population health management solutions, including best practices for the successful adoption of virtual reality in the clinical setting. An acclaimed thought leader, Fran engages and inspires audiences through storytelling from the front-lines of public health and “How To” presentations sharing approaches to applied innovation and technology enabled methodologies. You can find Fran on LinkedIn. Read the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Sarah Oremland. She is an executive coach and leadership development consultant but considers herself a Business Psychologist. Sarah discusses what today’s high-performance teams need to engage and retain the workforce of today. Sarah has a quintessentially unique mix: the hunger and motivation of a former salesperson, the ability to actively listen as a trained social worker, the results-focus of a former sales manager, and the concurrent creativity and analytical talents of a consultant. With over 14 years of clinical social work, consulting, and executive coaching experience, she recognizes that getting the right mix of strategy, people, skills, tools and measurement is a significant challenge to driving revenue growth. As a skilled executive coach and assessor experienced in the commercial and strategic realities of organizational leadership, Sarah partners closely with individuals and their organization to ensure measurable growth with a sustainable impact that is embedded within the workplace. Outside of work, Sarah enjoys virtually anything having to do with the outdoors- hiking, biking, skiing, and traveling to see the beauty of this world. Recently made the move from Chicago to Colorado with her family to take advantage of the outdoor lifestyle and be closer to nature. B.S. Sociology and Fine Arts (Bates College), Masters of Social Work (University of Chicago – School of Social Service Administration), Hogan Certified You can find Sarah on LinkedIn Read the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Natasha Sheybani, a scientist focused on eradicating cancer. Natasha Sheybani, PhD, serves as Senior Scientist at the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, where her role involves supporting research programs in glioblastoma, gene therapy and cancer immunotherapy. She is also a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Stanford University, where her appointment is shared among the Departments of Oncology, Radiology, and Biomedical Data Science. Her research focuses on applications of liquid biopsy and radiomics/radiogenomics for advancing precision immuno-oncology. Dr. Sheybani received her BS (2015) and PhD (2020) in Biomedical Engineering from Virginia Commonwealth University and University of Virginia (UVA), respectively. Her graduate research at UVA centered on leveraging image-guided focused ultrasound to potentiate immunotherapy for solid tumors including glioblastoma and metastatic breast cancer. During her training, Dr. Sheybani was supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and Robert R. Wagner Fellowship, and she currently holds the prestigious NCI F99/K00 Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Fellow Transition Award. Read the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Chrissy Farr, a San Francisco-based health-tech investor with a background in journalism. Chrissy is a Principal at OMERS Ventures having joined in 2020 and is focused on healthtech, with special expertise in behavioral health, telemedicine, electronic medical records, and women’s health. Previously, she was a writer and frequent on-air contributor for CNBC, Fast Company and Reuters News, among other publications. She was raised in London, UK, and received graduate degrees from University College London and Stanford University. To follow Chrissy’s writing, check out Second Opinion here. Also follow Chrissy on Twitter or LinkedIn. Read the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Insha Haque, a family medicine doctor in New Hampshire who has led a life of service in addition to serving her patients today. Dr. Insha Haque’s focuses include Quality Improvement, Clinical Innovation, Population Health and Leadership via a Systems Change Philosophy. My clinical work is centered primarily in outpatient Primary Care Medicine. Family and Preventive Medicine + Population Health are my passions in healthcare. Dr. Haque is a graduate of Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine, she received a B.A. in Spanish from the University of Louisville in 2011. She has a vivid interest in language which she uses to connect to an international patient population. She has served five years as a medical student and translator for Children’s Aid Mission International. Dual residency program in Family Medicine and Preventive Medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. Read the transcript here.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Marie E. Lamont, President and Chief Operating Officer of Inteliquet, a clinical trials technology company. Marie E. Lamont is responsible for the overall vision and operations of Inteliquet. With the goal of providing patients and physicians access to the latest and best treatment options and care available, she helps commercialize Inteliquet’s offerings of intelligent technology, insights, and services to improve the clinical trial process, research, and translational medicine. With more than 25 years as a global biotech leader, Marie has significant commercial and operational expertise. She has held senior leadership positions in many areas focusing on corporate strategic planning and analytics, commercial operations, finance and accounting, patient services, and payer contracting and reimbursement. Prior to Inteliquet, Marie headed up an executive consulting and advisory firm for the life science and technology industries that advised companies on commercialization and integration planning, M&A support, and global market expansion. Before her consultancy, Marie was President of the Patient Services Business at Dohmen Life Science Services (DLSS), which was subsequently sold and is now part of EVERSANA (a provider of global services to the life science industry). She directed all aspects of the unit and was responsible for improving the client and patient focus by shoring up the underlying infrastructure, as well as improving patient support and employee engagement. She also was heavily involved in the success of DLSS’s brand positioning, strategic road mapping, sales business development, and patient journey adoption, along with targeting analytics for key initiatives. Prior to DLSS, Marie was Global Head of Business Strategy and Commercial Operations for Rare Disease at Sanofi Genzyme. She had stewardship for the $2.9B business where annual operating profit improved at a rate greater than revenue. As a member of the senior leadership team, she was tasked with decision analytics and support as well as bringing together disparate groups and functions into a cohesive, comprehensive global unit. While reestablishing a Rare Disease global strategy, she worked to align efforts with a range of functions, including R&D, Biologics Manufacturing, and Medical/Regulatory Affairs. She also helped to lead humanitarian programs that provided free therapy for more than 1,100 patients suffering from rare diseases in emerging markets. Prior to this position, she held several senior operational and finance roles. She took on the assignment of Vice President of Integration for Finance and Accounting following the Sanofi acquisition. Before this assignment, she was Vice President of Operations & Finance for the International Group where the business grew from $100M in 2002 to $2B at time of the Sanofi acquisition. She guided the operational strategy for the international infrastructure on a regional and country basis for the Oncology, Transplant, Renal, Biosurgery, and Rare Disease Business Units. Before this role, she directed Corporate Financial Planning & Analysis and Strategic Planning. Marie holds a bachelor’s degree in Business from Saint Michael’s College, and attended Harvard Business School and Kellogg Executive Education programs. She lives in the St. Louis area. “Early on, I was fortunate to work for a CEO who believed that when you treat patients and employees right, business success follows — and you can change the world. I believe this applies to every employee in any role whether patient facing or not. “My grandfather passed due to lung cancer, so I saw how the cycle of disease progression and therapy can be a horrid emotional journey for everyone involved. When considering a new role, I evaluate whether I can make a difference to patients now or in the future. Since Inteliquet can harness the best data to rapidly identify and qualify patients for trials, we have a significant opportunity to benefit patients, improve health outcomes, and advance the standard of care in oncology and beyond.” You can follow Marie on LinkedIn. Read the transcript here.