Inspiring Women with Laurie McGraw: Recent Episodes

Laurie McGraw

Professional. Polished. Accomplished. Thoughtful. Made It. Ready to Make It. “Inspiring Women” is an interview show hosted by Laurie McGraw. 30 years of leadership in both commercial companies and non-profits has taught Laurie one thing: Women need women. Women need Inspiring Women. Hear short-form interviews every week from Inspiring Women who are at the pinnacle of their careers and Inspired Women who are just starting out.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Tiffany Gamblin, Director of HR Business Services at Paycom.

Tiffany shares her journey into HR, initially considering a career in veterinary medicine but pivoting into HR under the guidance of her mother-in-law. She describes her role at Paycom overseeing HR business partners, employee relations, compliance, and more. Tiffany emphasizes the importance of a culture of support and development, aiming to create a workplace where employees thrive.

Regarding leadership, Tiffany reflects on her transition from benefits into management, driven by her passion for developing people and fostering a positive work environment. She credits her mentorship under Paycom’s Chief HR Officer, Jennifer Kaszewski, for shaping her leadership style and aspirations within the organization.

Looking ahead, Tiffany discusses the future of work, particularly the integration of AI in HR practices and the importance of balancing technological advancements with human interaction. “AI plus HI equals ROI” (the HI being human intelligence). She advocates for understanding employees’ diverse needs across different generations and maintaining clarity in organizational values, especially concerning remote work policies.

Throughout the interview, Tiffany emphasizes the significance of authenticity, courage, and adaptability in leadership, encouraging HR professionals to ground themselves in their core values and build supportive networks within their organizations.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Kayla Randolph. Managing Director of Human Resources at IDEA Public Schools, as part of the Women Who Inspire: HR Leaders Series – A collaboration between Transcarent and the Inspiring Women Podcast with Laurie McGraw.

Kayla oversees HR for 11,000 employees across multiple states, emphasizing values like respect, dignity, and integrity. Kayla discussed challenges in education, such as teacher retention, and highlighted IDEA’s focus on comprehensive employee benefits to support their workforce.

Starting in HR unexpectedly, Kayla’s career evolved through roles like recruitment and Title IX coordination, advocating for employee rights. Title IX is often only thought about as it relates only to athletics. Kayla emphasized its broader scope in addressing issues like sexual harassment, assault, and gender discrimination within educational settings. At the SHRM conference, she explored HR’s future, emphasizing transparency and the role of AI.

Drawing from her Title IX coordinator role, Kayla underscores the importance of advocating for equity and respect in the workplace and educational environments. She believes in creating inclusive cultures where all individuals feel valued and supported. Finally, Kayla emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and staying updated with industry trends and advancements. Attending conferences and networking with peers are crucial for personal and professional development.

This series of Human Resources Leaders and the future of work is sponsored by Transcarent, a One Place for Health and Care.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Lana Krasnyansky, Senior Manager of HR Transition at TriNet, as part of the Women Who Inspire: HR Leaders Series – A collaboration between Transcarent and the Inspiring Women Podcast with Laurie McGraw

Lana shares her journey and insights into leadership. Her diverse career path started with a passion for creativity and the arts. From launching a dance studio in her kitchen at 13 to managing HR at a prominent PEO, Lana emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and resilience in achieving professional success.

Throughout the discussion, Lana highlights the critical role of empathy and authentic leadership in her approach. She discusses the challenges and complexities of HR management, especially in navigating evolving regulations and supporting diverse organizations. Lana’s leadership style focuses on empowering her team and fostering a supportive work environment where individuals can thrive.

As an advocate for women in leadership, Lana encourages listeners, particularly women, to embrace career pivots and pursue their passions without giving up. She underscores the value of balance between personal and professional life, sharing practical advice on achieving fulfillment in both realms. Lana’s dedication to making a meaningful impact on her team and clients exemplifies her commitment to driving positive change in the workplace.

Overall, Lana’s story serves as a beacon of inspiration, demonstrating how creativity, resilience, and empathetic leadership can shape a successful career journey in HR and beyond.

This series of Human Resources Leaders and the future of work is sponsored by Transcarent, a One Place for Health and Care.

About Lana: Skilled human resources professional & people leader who has structured HR departments and supported companies in successfully implementing benefits, policies and organizational structure that focuses on strategic HR business solutions that drive growth, change, and instill a culture of excellence. Throughout Lana’s successful 25-year career trajectory, she gained expertise within employee relations, recruitment, compensation, benefits design/administration, HRIS implementation, pension and retirement planning, policy and procedure creation, orientation and training, performance management, and talent retention. For the past 10 years, Lana has been guiding companies and built an internal team that provides consultative HR guidance to TriNet’s onboarding new larger customers by trouble shooting and leading clients through employment laws, principals and “best practices” gained through diversified experience at mid-size to large private, public, and non-profit corporations, including start-ups. Lana managed the implementation of Human Resources Informational Systems, policies, procedures, company-wide strategic programs and initiatives. Lana created streamlined HR departments, that were controlled in expenditure and focused on goals of internal and external stakeholders. Lana continues her successful track record of building high performing teams. Ms. Krasnyansky holds a BA from the University of Akron, is an active member of SHRM, HRNY, as well as various Chambers of Commerce.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Women Drs. Marjorie Rallins and Holly Miller who are experts in the space of data standards setting and the landscape of interoperability.

Both Marjorie and Holly have devoted their expertise and careers towards building the infrastructure and plumbing that fuels the clinical data information highway so that clinical data is trustworthy, useful and actionable. They share the progress made over the past few decades and the opportunity in front of us with the adoption of TEFCA (Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement). They emphasize the complexities of standards and terminologies governing health information flow and highlight interoperability’s critical role in improving healthcare quality, safety, efficiency, and patient engagement.

Dr. Miller notes that while health data exchange is widespread, data often lacks reliability and usability for seamless integration into patient care. Dr. Rallins reflects on improvements since the inception of interoperability initiatives, citing advances in electronic health records (EHRs) but noting persistent challenges like semantic interoperability with standardized terminologies. She also notes that this may be technical, but is also not that hard. The “Internet of Interoperability,” prioritizing data accessibility alongside security and privacy protections is the aim.

They also discuss challenges such as data blocking and regulatory efforts to promote patient access and adherence to interoperability standards like USCDI. Overall, they express cautious optimism about interoperability’s progress amid ongoing issues of data usability, trustworthiness, and regulatory compliance, with an eye toward evolving technologies like AI for future improvements

Both Marjorie and Holly recognize that there are fewer women who, like them, have pursued a field of data standards and interoperability. Yet, they are NOT alone and with appreciation for those who work alongside them, they encourage others to choose this deeply technical path.

We close with giving both doctors a magic wand to advance the healthcare landscape. Holly officially wants to “ax the fax” and get to standardized data. Marjorie also looks to standardized terminologies but asks for national health equity as the most important path for us to pursue.

Dr. Holly Miller

Chief Medical Officer, MedAllies

Dr. Miller is an internist who has practiced medicine using several EHR systems and has well over two decades of healthcare IT experience.

Since 2009, Dr. Miller has been the Chief Medical Officer of MedAllies a company that operates multiple networks in support of interoperability. At MedAllies, Dr. Miller provides operational, tactical, and strategic collaborative leadership.

Dr. Miller is currently a Chair, Co-Chair, or member of many Health Information Technology (HIT) Interoperability related committees and workgroups engaged in enhancing healthcare value. These include committees within the following organizations: Carequality; Sequoia; DaVinci; CMS: PACIO; ONC: 360X; IHE; NCQA; HIMSS; Moving Forward and KLAS. She continues to be a frequent speaker at national conferences.

Dr. Miller was formerly a VP and the CMIO of University Hospitals and Health Systems (UH), a community-based system with more than 150 locations, seven wholly owned and four affiliated hospitals throughout Northern Ohio. Prior to joining UH, she worked as an HIT Managing Director for the Cleveland Clinic where she also maintained a clinical practice in General Internal Medicine. She has been active in healthcare informatics research and has been a co-investigator on multiple grants.

As a member of HIMSS since 1999, Dr. Miller is a past Vice Chair of the HIMSS Board and a past inaugural member of the HIMSS World-Wide Board. Her past roles within HIMSS also included being a physician leader of the HIMSS/AMDIS Physician Community and serving as the Board Liaison to HIMSS Europe for four years. She was also active in a variety of previous S&I ONC committees and other state and government HIT committees. Dr. Miller earned her MBA at Hautes Etudes Commerciale in Paris and her Doctor of Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

Dr. Marjorie Rallins

Executive Director of Health Data Standards,LOINC® at Regenstrief Institute

Marjorie Rallins, DPM, MS, is a nationally recognized leader in health data standards and informatics. She began her duties with LOINC® at Regenstrief Institute January 11, 2021. She previously served as vice president and chief scientific officer of the PCPI® Foundation in Chicago as well as director of clinical informatics for the American Medical Association. Her proven experience in a unique combination of clinical research, business development and thought leadership positions Regenstrief Health Data Standards to continue facilitating healthcare interoperability at a crucial time for public health.

Dr. Rallins received her podiatric medical degree from the William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine in Chicago and completed her master of science degree at Northwestern University in Chicago. She was chief resident at Southwest Detroit Hospital and practiced as a podiatrist before working as the director of clinical editors for the College of American Pathologists, where she led international clinical teams in SNOMED CT® development. Dr. Rallins received her undergraduate degree from Towson University in Towson, Maryland.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Melissa Bell, long time health tech executive ad CCO of Enliven Health. For Melissa, working hard was obvious and natural. She was always one to raise her hand for the next challenging assignment which gave her the reputation of being the company’s go to person for the most visible difficult projects. One of Melissa’s “fun facts” includes a lot of prison time…. having led a multiyear implementation at the nation’s largest correctional corporation. Another major project meant leaving her Midwest roots and relocating to California. This is home today having met her now wife there and where they have their family. The arc of Melissa’s career moves from leading important projects to being an executive leader at growth companies focused on patient outcomes. She is very intentional about how she shows up as a leader, her brand, and her style of leadership. Diverse teams and inclusivity mean a lot to Melissa. “Showing up as your authentic self” is more than a catch phrase. In those early years Melissa kept a sharp line between her professional self and her “weekend” self. Times have changed and those divides no longer exist for Melissa. She recognizes that depending on who you are, where you live, or the environment you are in, this may not be the case for everyone. Which is why it is so important to Melissa to be known for being inclusive, to gain trust of others, and to earn credibility as a leader. Melissa leaves us with a message of celebration, celebrating Pride and inclusivity. Melissa encourages us to stay true to being our authentic selves. And she invites us all to demonstrate and go the distance as allies to the LGBTQ community. It matters.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Jenny Schneider about the new Home[ward] Grown program to elevate women founders and leaders that was launched last year. Dr. Sipra Laddha, CoFounder and CEO of Luna Joy discusses her experience with the program. Jenny is very vested in female founders and believes that the worn battle scars are useful to others. She has particular affinity to founders who are also physicians. And with Sipra, not only are they both doctors, but being Mom first is key to them both. You have to do it all and if there ever was a superpower for knowing that trying and not doing it all right all the time – being a mom is IT. Sipra began LunaJoy because she saw women’s health issues and mental health issues up close and personal in the early days of her practice. When she became pregnant with twins while practicing and trying to do it all, she found the needed resources to support women at every stage of the reproductive journey were either subpar or not available. LunaJoy aims to solve that with women’s mental health reimagined. Reproductive psychiatry begins from the moment that that person is thinking about conceiving or getting pregnant through fertility (or a fertility journey). LunaJoy aims to prepare women to have the best possible outcome.

As to the mentorship program, for Sipra this was intensely different. Every discussion with Jenny led to actions she could immediately take within LunaJoy. Sipra would bring the TL;DR approach to her team even though she would be taking copious notes in every discussion. Jenny also talks about how with most people who are involved in a company, as the CEO, you are always trying to impress them. Some of the magic of the mentee/mentor discussions is that nothing is off limits. “Things are crazy….3 people quit today…..how do I even deal…..”. Sipra emphasizes that we really don’t need to pathologize messiness, that is exactly what entrepreneurship is. Like Jenny, Sipra is also committed to paying it forward. And no matter how busy you are – if it is important to you to bring more female founders forward, to advance more women into leadership – you have the time. Small comments and actions matter. Showing up matters. Inspiring Women looks forward to showcasing future conversations with women in the Home[ward] Grown mentorship program.

Guest Bios:

Dr. Sipra Laddha, CEO and CoFounder, LunaJoy

Throughout my education and career, I have been dedicated to improving the lives of others. My background in psychiatry and deep interest and experience in women’s mental health has allowed me to support women through various life transitions, including pregnancy and postpartum.

I gained firsthand knowledge of the challenges women face in accessing affordable and convenient mental health care. I co-founded LunaJoy with these challenges in mind. A unique platform that improves access to high-quality therapy, medication, and mind body interventions.

With our telemedicine platform, you spend less time commuting and waiting and more time engaged. And our ability to work with most insurance companies reduces the financial burden for patients who have previously seen cost as a barrier. Every woman should have access to the care she needs. We aim to make this possible.

From adolescence through menopause, we support women through their emotional challenges, allowing you to engage in other parts of your life with more joy and efficiency. It is time to live fully, unburdened, and authentically. For personalized psychotherapy and women’s mental health reimagined, send a message or visit us https://hellolunajoy.com

Dr. Jenny Schneider, CEO and Founder, Homeward

I am CEO of Homeward, a technology-enabled healthcare provider delivering care to those who don’t have it, starting in rural America.

Previously, I served 5 years as the Chief Medical Officer and President of Livongo. At Livongo, I was responsible for product, data science, engineering, marketing, clinical operations, and our growth strategy. In my final year at Livongo, we led the company through the largest consumer digital health Initial Public Offering in history, a secondary offering, a convertible debt offering that raised over $540 million, and 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. I was honored by Modern Healthcare as one of the 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives and by Fierce Healthcare as Woman of Influence for our work empowering women and modeling diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

In October of 2020, I joined the Board of the Health Assurance Acquisition Corp., a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) with Hemant Taneja, Glen Tullman, Dr. Stephen Klasko, Quentin Clark, and Anita V. Pramoda. Our mission is to partner with leading health and care businesses leveraging technology. We aim to support their efforts to become iconic category winners that accelerate the digital transformation of existing healthcare into a new system of health assurance.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Jami Youmans, President and CEO of HealthEco.

Jami is an athlete and expected to be seven feet tall when she grew up and likely playing professional basketball. It was her sincere curiosity that led her to healthcare and building her company HealthEco.

In this 2024 WBL (Women Business Leaders) Series finale, Jami talks about her early stage career as a healthcare administrator which gave her tremendous experience understanding the front lines of healthcare while also needing to be operationally efficient. Her curiosity and love for innovation led her to a background in venture which then further led her to forming HealthEco.

There, Jami and her team partner with health systems to find new and alternative revenue streams. She describes one of the solutions where she is building a national network of hospital based clinical labs to buy and sell their capacity. Today, those labs are managed only by the hospital schedule. However, they may have more or less capacity to serve those immediate needs. By creating a larger scale network, this in turn can bring new revenue to the health system or allow them to support higher demands when needed.

Jami also finds that building out her own professional network is critical to being a successful CEO with a growth mindset. And who doesn’t want to be around women leaders? With WBL, Jami has found not only a professional network, but also trusted advisors to help her expand her thinking or solve tough problems. For Jami, collaboration, trusted relationships, and staying curious are key to building out her business today and for the future.

About Jami:

Jami Youmans

President and CEO, HealthEco

Jami is a healthcare executive and entrepreneur, serving as the President and CEO of HealthEco where she strategically collaborates with healthcare organizations to foster and scale pioneering innovations throughout the industry. Her foundational experiences at Trinity Health and BJC Healthcare laid the groundwork for her leadership, enabling her to spearhead the expansion of HealthEco’s robust healthcare provider network, venture studio, commercialization accelerator, and investment platform magnifying its influence across both established providers and emerging startups. Beyond this, Jami’s entrepreneurial spirit is evident in her establishment of two niche healthcare consultancies focused on advancing innovation across the healthcare ecosystem and Vantedge Ventures, a venture fund aligned closely with U.S. health systems. Jami received a Master of Health Administration from St. Louis University and a Bachelor of Science in Cell and Molecular Biology, Chemistry from Missouri State University.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Denielle deWynter, CFO and SVP of Hearst Health. Denielle has spent twenty years in finance and half of them in various Hearst businesses. It’s the mission driven focus that Denielle finds so meaningful, making this her best position so far.

In this 2024 WBL (Women Business Leaders) Series, Denielle describes her natural curiosity growing up in rural Canada which led her to travel the world. She credits her ability to think broadly and strategically from having worked in five different countries where she needed to learn and work effectively across many different cultures.

We also discuss her efforts to create WE@HH – an inclusive community for learning and mentoring of the next generation of company leaders. Started as a monthly zoomcast during the pandemic, they are forty sessions in and going strong. As the senior most female leader at Hearst Health, Denielle’s view was, if I am not going to do it, who is? This including her efforts with Hearst Labs which funds female led startups are very rewarding and Denielle’s way to give back.

Denielle is a strong advocate for networks like WBL where she has realized that she does not need to solve all the hard problems alone. Her strong advice for others is to stay curious, have a growth mind set, learn to manage up well and most importantly, be a strong advocate for yourself.

Guest Bio:

Denielle deWynter

CFO and SVP, Hearst Health

A highly accomplished professional with 20+ years of global finance experience in finance, accounting, tax, audit and operations. Roles have included financial & operational transformation & financial planning & performance improvement with increasing components of behavioral change and relationship building to create buy-in cross functionally and cross company. Diverse & international work assignments have enhanced strategic thinking & analytical expertise to deliver global growth & performance across rapidly expanding businesses.

Specialties: Finance Transformation, Change Agent, Spin-off Transaction, Mergers and Acquisitions, Financial Due Diligence, Acquisition Integration, Enterprise Risk Management, ERP and System Implementation, Accounting Policy, Budgeting and Forecasting, Accounting Operations, Control, Financial Reporting, Financial Shared Services and Internal Control Environment.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Kristin Rodriguez. Kristin is many things, and one of those things is that Kristen is funny. Don’t confuse her quick wit and humorous approach to career trajectory (a winding path indeed!) with anything less than her seriousness in how she expects to help Heroes. Who are the Heroes? The people who are trying to improve their health while often taking on more financial risk, navigating new places to receive care, and sorting through a complicated system.

In this 2024 WBL (Women Business Leaders) Series, Kristin gives us a view to her original career plans. Plan A: Run a Coffee Shop. Plan B: Go the Naval Academy and then into military service. Seven colleges later along with a “bohemian walk about” led her to fall into healthcare sideways. This is where she fell in love. Love of serving customers and meeting their needs. Her career throughline appears to be that of service and continuous exploration of new possibilities.

As Kristin works to support heroes in their healthcare journeys, she considers these key trends:

Shifting risk to the healthcare consumer. A worry as it is just too complex for people. This type of risk is as complex as the tax code and Kristin feels it is important to bridge that gap.
The important race to new sites of care delivery – telehealth; more care at home; remote monitoring; more virtual care. Kristin believes we should lean in more here.
And social determinants of health. Where healthcare payers are being asked to influence and quantify nonclinical interventions. It remains important to have focus where well-being meets care.

As Kristin discusses some great choices she has made along the way, these include getting her advanced degree, even while working full time and with young children. She also believes the network she has found professionally with WBL is second to none.

Best professional habits for staying sharp? Kristin is a huge believer in the power of sleep. As a recovering over achiever, she has learned to put her energy on the right things which does not mean all things. She finds that she has to continuously work on protecting her time for “deep” work. Her best advice for others is making sure just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should which has been key to her own growth as a leader.

Guest Bio:

Kristin B. Rodriguez

Chief Product Officer, Vitality Group

Kristin Rodriguez is a mission-driven healthcare executive with a 16-yr track record of launching successful products and transforming organizations to solve problems, bring people together,

and create lasting value. She has a passion for collaborating in pursuit of high-quality outcomes for health care consumers. Kristin has deep experience in change management and has led teams through the disruption of leadership changes and the uncertainty of operationalizing strategic plans and mission-derived aspirations. She also has extensive experience in systems thinking, continuous improvement, as well as product design and strategy. Kristin maintains the strategic direction of Vitality Group’s product portfolio and customer success. She supports health plans and employers across the country get the engagement they want and the health results they need from their employees and healthcare beneficiaries by helping them lead engagement where wellbeing meets care, leveraging the world’s largest behavioral engagement platform and digital health solution.

Prior to joining Vitality Group’s executive leadership team, Kristin was Chief Operating Officer of the Health Plan Alliance, a for-profit venture designed to be a vehicle for collaborative innovation among provider-sponsored, regional, and independent health plans across the United States. She was responsible for value portfolio implementation and designed specific programming goals and strategies to achieve organizational objectives. She led the teams responsible for programming execution, member engagement and insights, communication, and knowledge management. Prior to joining Health Plan Alliance, Kristin was recruited to GHG Advisors, a leading consulting and software solutions firm specializing in government-sponsored healthcare programs, where she led the creation and launch of GHG Advisor’s subscription-based content aggregation service. Kristin served as the firm’s director of marketing and corporate communications and her team executed on overall market engagement and branding, product management of the online knowledge center, and the regular introduction of GHG Advisors’ sister companies into the marketplace. Prior to joining GHG Advisors, Kristin served as the founder and executive director of RISE, Financial Research Associates’ flagship healthcare networking association.

Kristin holds a BA from the University of California at Berkeley and a Master of Science in Health Care Informatics from the University of San Diego. Kristin is a member of Women Business Leaders and sits on WBL’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion committee. Kristin is a sitting director for CIMRO, a URAC accredited independent peer review organization serving the public and private healthcare sectors since 1972. She also sits on the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors’ National DPP Medicaid Expert Panel. Kristin presents on issues related to leading change, has led multiple workshops on incubating innovation and is often asked to educate industry executives and governing boards on managed care industry trends.

StrengthsFinders® Signature Themes

STRATEGIC: I see patterns where others simply see complexity, play out alternative scenarios, and develop sound strategies grounded in the organization’s “Why”

ACHIEVER: An internal fire pushes me to excellence and my unwavering commitment is one of the ways I inspire others

LEARNER: I am energized by the steady and deliberate journey of continuous improvement

COMPETITION: I set ambitious goals with clear measurements of success

RESPONSIBILITY: My impeccable ethics and psychological ownership of commitments make me utterly dependable

In this 2024 WBL (Women Business Leaders) Series, Emily talks about her leadership journey from the point of view of a “mid careerist”. Today she is leading innovation operations at Geisinger. Her path to leadership was not a clear straight journey and she credits her prior diverse experience to giving her the confidence to lead innovation where she doesn’t need to be the subject matter expert in everything.

We go back to the time when Emily was first becoming a manager. She is quick to thank her mentors who she looked to for advice at that key time in her career (Maureen Jones, Karen Murphy, Sajeev Thomas). Their advice was meaningful and helped her shape her leadership style. Establishing trust and learning from her team members and their experience is important to Emily. Being kind first and smart second is part of her personal mantra.

As a “Mid-careerist” Emily also shares how she approaches wanting to be excellent professionally while also doing her “best job” of being a mom. Easy? No. A juggle? Sure. She gets help. She doesn’t expect perfection from herself in everything. And just because there isn’t a balance – she still finds peace and excitement in all of it!

Emily also talks about her excitement in joining WBL and attending her first conference. Finding women at similar stages in their career journeys. Expanding her network and investing in herself is a priority for Emily so that she too can do her best work.

Guest Bio:

Emily Fry – Vice President, Innovation Operations at Geisinger

Strategic Healthcare Innovation Leader | Value Based Care & Automation Enthusiast

I am dedicated to driving transformative change, fostering innovation, and elevating consumer experiences. My journey has been marked by a pursuit of operational excellence and a passion for enhancing healthcare quality. With a background in developing strategic directions and crafting innovative solutions, I have championed cross-functional collaboration to propel organizations towards their goals.

I firmly believe that a positive outlook paves the way for positive outcomes. My personal mission is to drive positive change in both my own life and the lives of others. For me, there’s no greater way to make a meaningful impact on the world than by working in an industry dedicated to creating healthier communities. Let’s connect and collaborate towards a healthier, brighter future!

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Michelle Wright.

In this 2024 WBL (Women Business Leaders) Series, Michelle begins our conversation talking about what it means to play the long game. She has always been in Maryland and for nearly thirty of those years she was a senior executive at Carefirst BlueCross BlueShield. To play the long game, it must be interesting.

Michelle started off in finance and then moved into HR. Michelle is quick to point out that the HR field has evolved significantly over the past two decades. But at the time, she was concerned about being pigeonholed. With curiosity and purpose, she earned her MBA, learned the business of BCBS, and took on responsibility for several of their product lines. Today she uses that experience to consult with others who are entering the payer space. The lines are blurred today with provider organizations and growth companies taking on risk.

Michelle also opened up as to what drives her strong advocacy regarding access, opportunity for best health, and why innovation is so important. Her adult son is very affected by autism. Less than 5% of mental health professionals will see those with severe issues. Many years of multiple powerful medications. Five years of worsening symptoms, declining health, and limited remaining options that might provide benefit. So Michelle went back to school to gain her PharmD. She began exploring emerging therapies such as medical cannabis. And this began to work. After two years, her son is now off his previous six different medications. And while this is not a cure for her son’s autism, it has been an enormous step forward. For everything Michelle has accomplished professionally, she is very clear as to her why. She is a Mom. “This is why we do what we do.”

Closing out the conversation, Michelle provides her WBL story. She has established a strong network and was connected to her most recent Board appointment through WBL. “This sisterhood is powerful.” And if you want to get connected, be connected, all you have to do is ask.

Guest Bio:

Board director, strategic advisor, business and community leader, with a unique mix of value-based health care, integration and human capital management experience; including finance, strategy and planning, M&A, product management, and governance; all resulting in alignment across operations, organization and services.

– A proven record of managing boards, distributed organizations, and executive teams through transformation and integration.
– Experience in health care payor, provider and health IT, value-based care, behavioral health, wellness, disease & care management.
– Board, corporate, integration, quality and system governance.
– Executive Compensation, Leadership & Succession, Diversity & Inclusion, Business Continuity.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Nadine Hauf.

In this 2024 WBL (Women Business Leaders) Series, Nadine begins our conversation with a view into how she developed an innovative technology hub for health plan members. A place where people can come into the care system and understand what is available to them. She built this hub at a time when there was no playbook to look to, so innovation began with an idea and a blank piece of paper. This is where working collaboratively with her team was imperative.

Over the years Nadine has pushed herself into areas where she had both energy and opportunity to move up the ladder. Relationships are important to her as is building her tribe. When she wants to pursue something, she relies on them for advice and encouragement. Even when she is headed into an important meeting or presentation, a quick call or check in from the network can give her that extra boost. WBL has become a very important part of that tribe for Nadine.

On staying sharp, Nadine relies on nutrition and fitness as key parts of her daily routine. And she is always cultivating her mentor and mentee relationships. These have been critical to her own success, and she is now very committed to paying it forward.

Guest Bio:

Nadine Hauf, leads an integrated and synchronized concierge experience dedicated, personalized and focused only for National Account clients. Nadine supports our underlying deliverable focus on trend management each day and is accountable for commitments made to National Account Clients.

Primary Responsibilities:
– Serves as an operational leader for advocacy and clinical teams supporting National Account Clients with overall accountability to include the staffing, coordination, and leadership of the integrated call, clinical, and behavioral health teams of top talent.
– Leads a team of Lead Operations Directors supporting the front line advocates and clinicians providing concierge service to the Premier members in a solution that removes the heavy lifting from the member, while focusing on overall medical trend reduction and increasing member satisfaction.
– Partners with the account management teams to ideate and disseminate new solutions and best practices from across the enterprise, using a sound working knowledge of multiple functions (e.g. clinical, network, member incentive structures, provider strategies, fraud/abuse, contractual issues)
– Analyzes and interprets client data and reports, health assessment data, and other relevant population statistics in order to make recommendations for client strategy, programmatic interventions, benefit design, or to communicate the performance of clinical and other client programs.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Karen Walker Johnson.

In this 2024 WBL (Women Business Leaders) Series, Karen begins our conversation talking about her path to sorting out retirement. What I learned from Karen is that she is exceptional at just about everything she has ever set her mind to with the minor exception of retirement.

Welcome to Karen Walker Johnson’s world of “reWIREment”. I am here for all of it.

Karen is a nurse… and she is a lawyer… and then decided she wanted to run a health plan. So she did that. She wasn’t lucky. She was clear and determined. She had a mentor who believed in her. He gave her opportunities. She took every one of them.

In this Inspiring Women conversation you are going to hear about an exceptional woman who has a strong interest in making a difference. In doing great work that serves vulnerable underserved populations. Someone who is grounded in family (Karen points to her 88 yo father as her greatest cheerleader and champion) and is committed to bringing the next generation along with her.

In talking about the trends to pay attention to, Karen points out that value based care is here and ensuring there is demonstrable focus on health equity is coming along with it.

Aiming to find a way to deal with the aftermath of George Floyd, Karen put her energy towards action and leadership. Karen turned her attention to Board Service where she is a Director at a number of organizations which she does today. We also spent time laughing about Karen’s desire to retire…which led her to her current role as CEO of another health plan . For Karen, retirement really just means reWIREment.

As we are speaking at the WBL Summit, Karen also talked about the importance of finding an active network of senior executive women committed to supporting each other just as she did at WBL.

Guest Bio:

A change catalyst and innovative problem solver, with a 35-year track record of driving organizational transformation in the healthcare industry. Having worked with Fortune 50 companies, experience encompasses P&L management, market share growth, product development, hospital administration, health plan operations, and sales serving Medicare, Medicaid, Long Term Care, and Commercial populations.

As an established strategic leader, pursues her passion for leadership development and positively impacting and improving the health status of vulnerable populations. Has consistently demonstrated the ability to drive innovation, market share growth (double-digit year over year), and superior quality outcomes as evidenced by achieving the coveted Medicare 5-star rating. Previously responsible for developing innovative clinical care models and end-of-life programs.

Currently serves on public and private boards.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Carla Harris. THE Carla Harris…the renowned international public speaker, top 40 female speakers in the world who is sharing her “Carla’s Pearls” on career success.

This is the first of the 2024 WBL (Women Business Leaders) Series where Laurie and Carla are speaking to a live audience of senior executive women in healthcare. “There is NO question where I will not have a prescriptive answer” and Carla most certainly lived up to that promise.

In this powerful conversation, we touched on many of “Carla’s Pearls” including the different types of currency you build, and bank, over the course of a career. Performance currency is what you are building over the course of a career. But as you get more senior, performance currency has diminishing returns. What becomes more valuable is relationship currency. Herein lies power. What will people say about you behind closed doors? In those conversations when decisions are being made for senior leaders, these conversations do not include numbers, it is about what people know about you. “Danguole is our most creative person. If she can’t do it, it can’t be done.” Those conversations do not happen if you have not taken the time to build that relationship currency.

Another Pearl from this conversation is busting the myth of the imposter syndrome including a bit of exhaustion of still talking about it after decades. Carla reminds us that in today’s world to get into the chair (whatever chair that is), you are being vetted by 8…12…more people. They are wrong about you? Not possible. Own your truth.

One more favorite Pearl is the strong push to support others. “You cannot be in that room and not support another.” Carla is clear that no one would support someone if that was not deserved. At the same time, the idea that you wouldn’t bring along others, like you, diverse from you, when you have the opportunity to use your currency……. Carla’s Pearl: When you have relationship currency you USE it. That’s power.

Guest Bios:

Carla Harris is a renowned international public speaker and is also a Senior Client Advisor at Morgan Stanley. She was most recently the Vice Chairman responsible for increasing client connectivity and penetration to enhance revenue generation across the firm. In her 30+ year career as an investment banker, Ms. Harris has had extensive industry experiences in the technology, media, retail, telecommunications, transportation, industrial, and healthcare sectors. She is highly regarded as a motivator, executor and leader. In August 2013, Carla Harris was appointed by President Barack Obama to chair the National Women’s Business Council.

Named as one of the Top 40 Female Speakers in the World in 2020, Carla engages audiences around the world with her popular “Carla’s Pearls” where she shares with both leaders and emerging leaders how to maximize their career success across all industries using the “hard earned and hard learned” lessons

that she acquired during her Wall Street Career. Her most recent book, Lead To Win, shares her pearls of Intentional Leadership to help professionals become powerful, impactful, influential leaders into today’s challenging professional context.

Carla has been named to Fortune Magazine’s list of “The 50 Most Powerful Black Executives in Corporate America”, Fortune’s Most Influential List, U. S. Bankers Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Finance(2009, 2010, 2011), Black Enterprise’s Top 75 Most Powerful Women in Business (2017), and “Top 75 African Americans on Wall Street”, and to Essence Magazine’s list of “The 50 Women Who are Shaping the World”, Ebony’s list of the Power 100 and many more. She has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, Fast Money, Barrons and many other publications.

In her other life, Carla is a singer who has sold out concerts at Carnegie Hall and the Apollo Theatre, and released 4 Gospel CDs: “O This is Christmas” (2021) “Unceasing Praise” (2011), “Joy Is Waiting”(2005), and her first CD entitled, “Carla’s First Christmas”(2000), was a bestseller on Amazon.com in New York and was featured on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather in his “American Dream” segment.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Judy Goldberg about her book WonderSHIFT , a guide and program for results driven transformation

This Inspiring Women conversation was recorded in the New York office of Redesign Health and followed by a WonderSHIFT workshop.

Judy’s life’s work is centered around education and teaching. This started in her basement at 8 years old where she would “teach classes”. Fast forward to years of teaching in schools and abroad and then focusing her studies and work on what happens when change, or shifts, happen. Shifts can come in the form of natural shifts (getting older), imposed shifts (things thrown at us – natural disasters, health issues), and initiated shifts (starting a business, making a career change).

Judy had been developing her SHIFT methodology (Shape; Harmonize; Imagine; Focus; Team) for a few years when an imposed shift of a breast cancer diagnosis occurred. What she thought would be six weeks became a significant care journey. Judy brings us into her life (and health!!) and how this experience, amazingly, fueled her work of Wondershift. She also describes the power of Wondershift for more than just those imposed shifts but also those that are initiated. And how to bring methods and tools into your professional life for more purposeful results driven transformation.

Closing out the conversation, Judy provides her best advice for other aspiring women. Show Up even on the darkest, hardest of days, as that is where growth and change happen.

And Be as intentional about the recovery, as you are about the grind.

Guest Bio:
Wondershift can transform your leadership, your team and through world class design can ensure positive, long lasting results. Whether you have a new team, an established team, or a group who don’t yet work together or are located around the globe, Wondershift will find the right approach to achieve the results you need to navigate tough targets and unique challenges.

Those who succeed develop skills and awareness to appreciate individuals, engage in healthy debates, recognize valuable ideas, and ultimately enable the organization to thrive.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Jenny Schneider about the new Home[ward] Grown program to elevate women founders and leaders that was launched last year. Nikita Singareddy and Cydney Kim, co-founders of Fortuna Health, are the first mentee graduates of Home[ward] Grown and join this Inspiring Women conversation.

Home[ward] Grown has both an external and internal focus to strengthen and support women in their leadership journeys. Jenny shared Home[ward] Grown was launched because empowering women is more than just a matter of equitable representation – It’s a business imperative. Jenny believes in order to achieve the ultimate promise of healthcare’s triple aim of improved patient experience, outcomes and cost requires us to elevate the vital perspective of healthcare’s leading consumers: women.

In this discussion, Jenny, Nikita and Cydney discuss how this program went and how they all benefitted. Mentorship and mentEEship is fluid. Setting up regular calls with open ended agendas put responsibility on the shoulders of Nikita and Cydney. One of their important conversations was about simply discussing all of the hard business problems they were facing at the company today. How should they approach a current business decision, and could they go through how it might impact their trajectory in the future? For Nikita and Cydney, they were able to take these discussions and use them in their reality of building Fortuna Health. For Jenny, while she has significantly more experience in building and scaling companies, she too learned new approaches to business problems – or certain areas of healthcare where she wasn’t as familiar. From this conversation you can also hear the energy that Jenny, Nikita, and Cydney drew from this opportunity to work together in a concentrated way during the course of the program. Energy from solving big problems. Energy from getting to know other passionate builders who also dream of solving big problems and aim to have a large impact.

The Home[ward] Grown model for mentorship is a new time based and concentrated approach to mentorships which is so important for leadership success. As the first “graduates’ of this quarterly program, both Nikita and Cydney were effusive regarding the opportunity and how they felt it was helpful to them and their company. For other leaders who want to give of their time and experience to other founders/leaders, this approach to mentorship may be appealing and may also align with otherwise busy calendars.

Inspiring Women looks forward to showcasing future conversations with women in the Home[ward] Grown mentorship program.

Guest Bios:

Nikita Singareddyis the co-founder and CEO of Fortuna Health, a multi-lingual platform to easily check eligibility, enroll, and recertify on Medicaid (backed by Andreessen Horowitz). Nikita has worked as a healthcare investor and served in strategy and operations roles at Oscar Health and Truepill. She is a former Medicaid beneficiary.
Cydney Kimis the co-founder and COO of Fortuna Health, a Medicaid navigation platform. Prior to Fortuna, Cydney served as VP of Strategy & Operations and GM for a Series C health tech company (HALO Dx) where 30% of the patients were Medicaid beneficiaries. Cydney has worked in a number of commercial and operator roles spanning healthcare and tech/media.
Dr. Jenny Schneider is the CEO of Homeward, a technology-enabled healthcare provider delivering care to those who don’t have it, starting in rural America. Previously, she served 5 years as the Chief Medical Officer and President of Livongo responsible for product, data science, engineering, marketing, clinical operations, and growth strategy. In her final year at Livongo, they led the company through the largest consumer digital health Initial Public Offering in history, a secondary offering, a convertible debt offering that raised over $540 million, and 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. Honored by Modern Healthcare as one of the 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives and by Fierce Healthcare as Woman of Influence for work empowering women and modeling diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Cheryl Capps, a trail blazing leader and maverick in the world of supply chain.

Supply chain came to be in the late ‘90s, early 2000 time period. Cheryl viewed the discipline of attacking problems from many different angles as simply, interesting. She did not view it as a disadvantage to be one of HARDLY ANY women in the field at the time (less than 11% of senior executives in the discipline of supply chain are women), rather an advantage to provide an important point of view.

Certainly, she led by example, but more important was attacking the problem at hand. The core to supply chain was understanding People, Process, and Technology. Cheryl had a 24/7 vision for supply chain that was based on this three-legged stool and international operations. And this was all PRE-pandemic. You cannot underscore the importance of the innovation approach that Cheryl led in defining a discipline that led to ALL plants and ALL operations open for business across the globe in multibillion $$ conglomerates during a pandemic….WELL BEFORE everyone knew how stressed these systems would become in the pandemic era.

For Cheryl, it was not about being the first woman to break these barriers, it was about methodical planning, thinking, and viewing innovation as a process. Cheryl comments on how this structured thinking should be applied to innovation today (think AI/ML) – break down the process, there are always people in that process, and technology – and all need to work in harmony.

Further, Cheryl suggests and advises that we must not be afraid to innovate. Shots on goal is the name of the game. We must try. Thoughtfully and in earnest. But try and continue to try. And that is where the magic happens.

Guest Bio:

Cheryl Capps is a technology-focused board director who has built, transformed, and run manufacturing, engineering, supply chain and business operations at multiple global businesses at Corning Incorporated, Bristol Myers-Squibb (BMS) and GE. Cheryl is an innovative leader who has consistently delivered fast, flexible, low-cost solutions that increased competitiveness and enabled growth. She is an expert in enterprise risk management and sustainability and is highly qualified to advise CEOs and boards seeking to scale their businesses while growing bottom line profits and increasing free cash flow.

Cheryl currently sits on the Integer Holdings Board of Directors (NYSE: ITGR) and has experience on Audit, Corporate Governance & Nominating, Compensation & Organization and Technology Strategy Board Committees. She also serves on the executive advisory board for Elementum, ketteQ, and o9 Solutions and is serving as a C-Suite advisor for World50.

As Chief Supply Chain Officer at Corning, Cheryl was part of Corning’s Senior Leadership team and was a management representative at general board meetings and for the Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Committee. Cheryl built, developed and transformed the Global Supply Chain function, delivering more than $1.3B in year-over-year savings to the P&L. She also led the development and implementation of multiple business transformation initiatives including capital excellence, realizing over $800M in capital efficiency. Under Cheryl’s leadership, Corning developed a digitalized global risk detection and mitigation system which was recognized by the National Association of Manufactures as the ‘best of the best’. It kept all 80 factories operating and customers served throughout and after the pandemic. Cheryl was an early adopter of digitalization in supply chain sustainability and social responsibility, and the program she deployed quickly set new standards for the industry.

Previously, Cheryl led the Global Manufacturing, Distribution and Customer Service Network at ConvaTec as it transitioned from a Medical Device division of BMS to a PE stand-alone owned by Nordic Capital and Avista Capital Partners. In this role, she became a limited-partner and participated in all board meetings. She led the integration of the Unimedical acquisition and exceeded all PE financial improvement milestones including gross margin (7 points) and FCF (25%). Previously, Cheryl led a Supply Chain Transformation for the Pharmaceutical Business at BMS, materially reducing operating costs, while simultaneously reducing inventory and improving customer service. Cheryl joined BMS at Zimmer Orthopedics where she delivered fundamental changes in material cost structure, inventory/cash flow and customer service through a business process transformation.

At GE, Cheryl was a part of the Aircraft Engine, Aerospace, Medical Systems and Industrial Motors businesses. In Industrial Motors, Cheryl developed and executed a strategy to restructure the manufacturing network, enabling a gross margin improvement of 4 points, before assuming responsibility for the private label business -doubling sales and increasing operating margin by 16 points in two years. Previously, Cheryl ran the Technology, Test and Deep Space Power Operations for the Astro-space Division, developing the new capabilities and scale needed for a four-fold increase in scheduled launches. In Aircraft Engine, she was a part of a greenfield start up team and built a new product development operation to support the development and flight testing for the first digital engine controls. Cheryl joined GE on the Manufacturing Management Program.

Cheryl has a BS in Electrical Engineering and a BA in Psychology from Rice University and an MS in Engineering from Purdue University.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Stephanie Mercado of the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ).

Stephanie was recently named as a Top Most Influential person in healthcare which is representative of her work and the work of NAHQ. NAHQ, aims to provide solutions for the most pressing issues in healthcare which today vast.

“…..but I think could be summarized in three words. Care, cost andcliff. We want to stay ahead of where health care delivery is going. We want to make sure that from a cost perspective that we are helping to make health care sustainable. And that we are readying ourselves for the workforce cliff. Because we know workforce shortages are going to get much worse over the next 15 years and we really see quality and safety, equity and value as huge drivers and business strategies to advancing all of that.”

In talking about quality, Stephanie provides historical context as to how that has evolved over the years since Medicare was signed into law in the ‘60s to today where there are not shared definitions or common language across all of the people whose job in one way or another does bear responsibility for quality and safety. NAHQ defines the profession of quality and safety with detailed competencies for the entire workforce.

“We tell people what to do in healthcare all the time. Make it safer, make it more affordable. But we are not really good at telling people, the workforce, the leaders, how to achieve it. And that is really where we need to focus. It’s as much on the how as it is on the what.”

As to advice for other emerging leaders….. Being prepared, doing your homework, and walking the talk matters. As a leader, Stephanie also consumes a lot of information, yet she is very pressed for time (work, travel, speaking engagements, two boys in travel hockey. The list goes on!). Her new favorite time hack is listening to summarized books while on the treadmill or out walking the dog.

And she needs that time. Owning the issue of the profession of healthcare quality, the discipline of healthcare quality and the competency standards for that profession are big and important jobs for NAHQ. Yet, with tremendous potential to impact, as Stephanie would say, cost, care and cliff.

Guest Bio:

Stephanie Mercado is the chief executive officer/executive director of the National Association for Healthcare Quality® (NAHQ), the leader in the development of industry-standard healthcare quality and safety competencies, training and certification in healthcare quality. The Chicago-based association serves healthcare professionals across the country and internationally.

Mercado brings more than 20 years of healthcare industry experience to her lead role at NAHQ. Since joining NAHQ in 2013, she has implemented innovations and introduced methodologies to research and define standardized competencies for the healthcare quality profession. This has resulted in advancement of quality professionals and increased visibility and credibility of the quality workforce within healthcare.

Under Mercado’s visionary leadership, the Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality® (CPHQ) certification has doubled from approximately 7,000 CPHQs to more than 14,000. Over the same time period, NAHQ membership has grown from about 4,500 members to nearly 9,000.

In partnership with NAHQ’s board of directors, staff and volunteers, Mercado led the development of industry-elevating initiatives, such as the twice-validated Healthcare Quality Competency Framework, and the profession’s first workforce study, offering critical insights to workforce development opportunities for healthcare quality and safety professionals. She also orchestrated the development of the first and only database that articulates the work of those working in healthcare quality. A builder by nature, Mercado, with the partnership of NAHQ leaders, then conceptualized and deployed Workforce Accelerator®, a scalable organizational solution to assess, organize and leverage the quality workforce.

She is committed to educating leaders on the impact that a coordinated, competent workforce can make in advancing healthcare. To that end, Mercado is a highly sought-after speaker and author on workforce development and system sustainability and speaks nationally about strategies to drive quality in healthcare and improve healthcare outcomes. She is an innovative thought-leader and influencer who contributes insights on the critical need to reduce variability in healthcare quality competencies and the training needs that are vital with the decreasing shelf-life of skills in the rapidly evolving healthcare environment. Mercado currently participates on:

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s National Steering Committee for Patient Safety
The Association Forum Healthcare Collaborative steering committee
The Commission on Accreditation for Healthcare Management Education as a board member
The Patient Safety Movement Foundation as an advisory member
Patients for Patient Safety US (United States) as an organizational partner working to achieve the World Health Organization Global Patient Safety Action Plan’s strategic objective of health worker education, skills, and safety

Prior to joining NAHQ, Mercado served in an executive position with the American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and supported the American Orthopaedic Association. Throughout her career, she has been focused on advancing workforce and professional competencies and skills in practical and actionable application for various professions.

Mercado holds the CPHQ credential and is a Certified Association Executive (CAE). In 2018, she was recognized by .orgCommunity with the Outstanding Nonprofit Leader Award. In 2022, she was included on the prestigious national list of nominees for Modern Healthcare magazine’s “300 Most Influential People in Healthcare” ranking. In 2023, Modern Healthcare recognized Mercado as one of the Top 25 Women Leaders.

Mercado is also a proud “hockey mom” to her two sons, Sam and Ben. She and her husband, Bryan, enjoy spending weekends at their many hockey tournaments.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Candace Richardson of General Catalyst.

Candance talks about her investing philosophy, why measuring portfolio success based on societal impact is important, what Black History Month means to her, and then we also talk some girl math – as in when closing the gender health gap has a $1T global impact ….WHY is it that we saw investment in women’s health companies cut in half in the last two years??. Spoiler alert – the answer is complicated… Well, actually, it is NOT that complicated. One of the solutions to squaring that circle includes having more women on the funder side of the table.

But first, let’s start at the end and let’s talk tennis!!
Why tennis? Because Candace loves tennis. Not just a fan, but a previously competitive player, now turned teacher and coach. For the past seven years, Candace has been teaching tennis at the Kings County Tennis League, an organization that uses tennis and education to spark the potential in kids living in Brooklyn public housing. And when Candace talks about what it means to her to be teaching tennis to young kids (4-8 yo), she describes it as “one of the most fulfilling things she has ever been a part of.”

This level of personal commitment speaks to the underpinning of her investment philosophy. We can bend the cost curve in healthcare, if we direct care to those who need it most. We can improve outcomes and have financial returns when we focus on historically underserved populations (ie Cityblock Health). We can hold ourselves accountable for societal impact (Homeward Health’s recent B Corp designation).

And as someone who grew up as someone very interested in history and current events…..expecting to be a journalist…..demanding her parents take her to CNN headquarters just because….Candace also talks about what Black History Month means to her.

“It’s American history and it serves all of us if we have kind of a clearer picture of kind of what got us to where we are today, so we can make sure the future is brighter. And I think that future gets so much better, much brighter, when we have more people, more women, more black women, more people around important tables making big decisions.”

Guest Bio:

Candace Richardson
Principal, General Catalyst

I grew up in Asheville, North Carolina watching the news every night believing I would become a journalist, keen to have a grasp on what was happening around the world and why. After moving to NYC for college I continued on this pursuit academically, studying economics, philosophy and history but my career aspirations evolved, and like many at that age I entered an exploratory phase professionally. After discovering that my mother had been a political activist in Ethiopia before she emigrated, I traveled there with her to create an oral history project on the role of secondary students in the Ethiopian Revolution, and that got me thinking about a career in academia. I also spent time at a think tank to explore economic policy at the federal and state level. In the end, I received and followed wise advice that a career in finance would keep me connected to current events, and the integral role capital markets play in shaping them, while affording me the opportunity to make a difference in the world.

Beginning my career at Goldman Sachs, I got a fast, immersive education in healthcare finance across the capital structure. I furthered my interest at Town Hall Ventures, where I was able to work closely with companies that serve medically vulnerable and historically underserved patient populations. And because the firm was relatively small, I was able to contribute across a range of essential activities, from raising a fund and portfolio management to observing boards.

General Catalyst has a tremendous opportunity and influence in healthcare, including how care is delivered and paid for successfully, and equitably, for all stakeholders. The firm also has deep technology and consumer experience that is essential to the transformation of healthcare from a “sick care” system to a more proactive and resilient Health Assurance system designed to make quality care more affordable and accessible to help people stay well.

It’s probably no surprise that I enjoy tackling big problems that require extensive collaboration to dissolve barriers and create new solutions. I think of it as a combination of lofty and grounded, creative and practical. It’s the same in my personal life, where you can find me painting one day and teaching tennis to kids the next.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Bayo Curry-Winchell, known to many as just Dr. BCW. She is the creator of Beyond Clinical Walls, a popular video series where Dr. BCW discusses a wide variety of health topics. Her intention is to create awareness and advocate for patients while also infusing health equity into the series. Advocacy and standing up for people has been important to Dr. BCW since she was a little girl. Her why comes from her father who would bring her to rallies and have her hold signs. She may not have understood the issues at the time, but she learned that it was important to speak out.

Today, Dr. BCW is sharing medical information in helpful and disarming ways to help build trust which is often lacking. Topics range from complex diagnoses, uncomfortable medical terms, and consistently, teaching patients how to advocate for themselves. Bias is pervasive in healthcare. Breaking through those barriers includes telling real patient stories to get beyond the statistics. This includes sharing her own story of nearly losing her life after the birth of her second child. Knowing something was wrong, asking for help, and not being heard.

We have a long way to go to break through bias in healthcare. Dr. BCW aims to educate, to share medical information, and to tell real patient stories. And if she can reach one patient, break down one barrier, that is what she is after. Her purpose is to save lives.

Dr. Curry-Winchell (Dr. BCW): A Medical Contributor Going Beyond Clinical Walls* TEDx Speaker * Founder of Beyond Clinical Walls * Medical Contributor * Columnist * Board Certified Family Medicine Physician * Urgent Care Medical Director

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Nishi Rawat, Bamboo Health’s Chief Clinical Officer. In medical school, like most physicians, Dr. Rawat had little to no training on mental health or substance use disorder. And yet, day in and day out, as a critical care physician this is what she was seeing. Dealing with these medical issues, the overdoses, over and over without having the right tools at her fingertips, led Dr. Rawat to want to do more than just putting a band aid on this this public health emergency.

The reality is not pretty. Over 110,000 deaths last year. Fentanyl on the rise. Complex drivers of mental pain, physical pain, economic pain – all moving in the wrong direction. Dr. Rawat discusses the role of stigma and bias, fundamentally at the root of payment parity issues (substance use disorder is not paid at par as physical disorders). And while what works has been well known for forty years, a patient that presents to an ED with overdose will be connected to life saving evidence-based care only 10% of the time.

Dr. Rawat points to recent efforts of Medicaid incentives, providing community based localized care, the post pandemic stickiness of virtual care for behavioral health where people may want to remain anonymous, as the beginning of change. But so much more is needed. While the holy grail may be hyper localized virtual scalable care, Dr. Rawat emphasizes the importance of the low hanging fruit, let’s just do what works.

What keeps her going? Working on one of the most intractable problems of our generation. Knowing that she is working in an area where people are really suffering, and doing something about it.

And when asked about her best advice for other younger women, Dr. Rawat invokes Barbie. How it is hard to succeed as a woman and consistently tie yourself in knots trying.
Her advice? Don’t tie yourself up in knots. And practice. Practice untying a knot.

Guest Bio:

Nishi Rawat, MD, MBA, is a critical care physician and health leader working at the intersection of medicine, public health and technology. She has dedicated her career to improving healthcare access and outcomes for all with a focus on behavioral health within the lens of whole person care.

As Chief Clinical Officer at Bamboo Health, Rawat’s focus is on developing innovative solutions and products that improve whole person care by bridging healthcare silos and reducing fragmentation across the healthcare industry that will improve patient outcomes and reduce costs across the healthcare industry.

Rawat began her healthcare career as an emergency medicine and critical care physician at Johns Hopkins. As a healthcare faculty member and researcher, she led quality measure development and implementation at Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. Clinically, she experienced the frustration of locating definitive care for patients with behavioral health conditions, which led to the development in 2015 of OpenBeds, a software platform to expedite access to care. In 2018, Bamboo Health acquired OpenBeds. The OpenBeds system now serves 15 states to improve access to behavioral health and crisis care. The OpenBeds platform was recognized as a “Best Behavioral Health Company” finalist for the UCSF Digital Health Awards in 2019. The platform’s Crisis Management System module was named a Best-in-Class finalist for the “Mental and Behavioral Health Category” of the UCSF Digital Health Awards in 2022.

Through her work, Rawat is intimately familiar with the challenges faced by various stakeholders, including the public, hospitals, health systems, health plans, treatment providers and county and state governments. She uses her current role to look for ways technology can help overcome those challenges, not by replacing providers, but by amplifying hands-on care.

As a member of Bamboo Health’s executive leadership team, Rawat uses her clinical expertise and experience building and innovating IT solutions as a thought leader. A sought-after speaker and contributor to external media, some notable contributions include being named to Becker’s “Women Power Players in Health IT” and “Women in Health IT to Watch in 2022 and 2023,” lists and serving as a keynote speaker for NCQA’s Quality Talks in 2022.

Rawat completed her residency and fellowships at Johns Hopkins and Harvard, M.D at Queen’s, B.Sc. from McGill and MBA from Georgetown.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Nicquel Terry Ellis, CNN’s Race and Equality Senior Writer and an award-winning journalist.

Nicquel’s love for journalism started early as a staff writer for the high school newspaper where she covered protests on school dress code policy. Being extremely curious about what is happening in the world around her led to covering all the newsroom beats over the years. The coverage that matters the most to her, as a black woman living in America, is zeroing in on the issues of race and inequality. Today, Nicquel is the face and the voice for CNN’s race coverage. She gives voice to the voiceless.

Journalism may have become harder, but it is also clear that this is an important time. Nicquel’s drive has only become stronger in today’s culture war climate where issues like DEI are being unfairly weaponized. If people are going to take a position or have an opinion, she wants them to be grounded in facts.

As a black woman she is often reporting through that lens. Her reporting on the “glass cliff” talks about seeing many women being put into what might be seemingly exciting new DEI leadership positions, yet then not given the resources, the funding, or the support. Cleaning up a mess in a time of chaos leads to stress and burn out. Nicquel also discusses the intersectionality of being black and being a woman in the workplace where it is a real thing to have to work harder to earn your keep or prove your worth.

Doing this hard work requires energy and stamina. What keeps her going? Finding out the truth and telling the truth. Knowing people count on her for that. And for Nicquel, the best things in life do not come by staying in a comfort zone.

Guest Bio:

Nicquel Terry Ellis is an award-winning journalist who serves as the senior writer for CNN’s Race & Equality team. She joined CNN in November 2020 and much of her work focuses on the intersection of race and politics, health equity and the advancement of women of color.

Prior to joining the network, Ellis served as a national correspondent for USA TODAY covering race, inequality and activism. She led much of the newspaper’s coverage of the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks, and the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted across America. In 2020, she did a one-on-one interview with the mother of Tamir Rice ahead of what would have been his 18th birthday. Ellis also spent six years working in local news at The Detroit News and the Asbury Park Press. In 2018, she wrote an award-winning story about life for residents in one of Detroit’s most dangerous zip codes.

For CNN, Ellis led coverage of the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022 and its impact on Black and brown women. Her stories have also shed light on missing people of color and the fight to get more attention on their cases. As the nation slowly reopened following the Covid-19 pandemic, Ellis covered the disparities in healthcare access that were laid bare. And in the summer of 2022, Ellis traveled to Jackson, MS where she covered the historic water crisis that left the majority-Black city without clean drinking water.

In addition to writing for CNN Digital, Ellis has made appearances on various shows including CNN New Day, CNN Newsroom and Early Start. She has also hosted podcast episodes for the CNN Political Briefing and Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction. Ellis is a five-time winner of the NABJ Salute to Excellence awards including an honor in 2022 for an interactive project on the maternal health crisis facing Black women. Ellis has been awarded twice by the New Jersey Press Association.

Ellis holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Michigan State University. She lives in Atlanta with her husband Andre, daughter Harper and dog Chase.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Naomi Allen, CoFounder and CEO of Brightline. This is the finale episode of this Inspiring Women collaboration highlighting several of the extraordinary women leaders in the 7Wire family.

Naomi is no stranger to building and scaling companies and her experience includes near seven years working in the area mental health on the adult side. IT was when her son had a mental health crisis, that her passion turned to pediatrics. Recognizing there was a market gap, she launched Brightline. Initial feedback was that no one really cared. But that was then and in just four years, a LOT has changed. Brightline today is a notable category leader providing pediatric mental health services across the nation.

Hear Naomi talk about:

Today it would be hard to find someone who does not see the need for pediatric mental health services given significant attention to this crisis issue. Naomi is very optimistic about where we are headed. A silver lining of all the reporting has resulted in stigma reduction. She also notes how resilient kids are where serious issues can manifest as early as fourteen, and if detection, treatment, interventions can be provided at the right time, they are often very successful. Meeting the need, focusing on the care delivery model and working on the important change component of payment is where she is focused.
Meeting demand when mental health professionals are scarce. Three key areas – measuring progress against evidence-based treatment plans (noting that <20% of professionals are using these guidelines); providing innovation around the care delivery model like a library of online resources, screening tools, and coaching which can meet many initial needs; and very importantly, focus on payment reform so that families do not need to wait.
Being a woman founder and CEO – the landscape is changing with more women serial entrepreneurs who have a track record. Also, an ecosystem of women investors who are writing bigger checks….this can’t be done with small $$.
Advice for other women founders includes how to tell the category story, not just the company story. Noting that some investors (7Wire noted as a leader here) are very focused on founder market fit. If you are trying to break into a new area, that larger vision of the category and how as a founder you relate to it is what will resonate.

Naomi closes this conversation with a reflection about how being an entrepreneur is a selfish act. She is lucky to have a support system where her schedule can come first. When things get very hard, this is where she goes to reset, “I chose this.” Finding small moments of connection with her kids, even staying hydrated, are today’s focus to provide balance in an otherwise very busy life of this CEO.

Guest Bio:

Currently Co-Founder and CEO at Brightline. Brightline is building the world’s first technology-enabled Behavioral Health Home for children and their families.

Entrepreneur with 20 years of hands-on experience developing high growth health tech companies. Advisor to startups, world traveler, mom to 3 amazing kids. Board member: Bright Health. Frequent speaker on healthtech, behavioral health, and entrepreneurship.

Former Chief Growth Officer @ Livongo, co-founder @ Castlight Health, leader @ McKinsey, Microsoft, Deloitte, Stanford GSB.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Robin Berzin, Founder and CEO of Parsley Health. This is the next episode of this Inspiring Women collaboration highlighting several of the extraordinary women leaders in the 7Wire family.

A third of this country, ~100M Americans, have two or more chronic conditions which also equates to about seventy percent of the cost of care in this country. Robin quickly draws our attention to the fact that the majority of these conditions are risk-adjustable – which means, that people can get better. But today’s healthcare system is optimized to triage, refer, refill … handling symptoms but not optimized to make patients well.

So in 2016, Robin tried a new approach and began the pioneering journey of Parsley Health focusing on root cause medicine. This includes a very deep dive clinical history (any first visit is an hour), smart diagnostics and a deep review of social determinants of health including understanding stress levels, what are you eating, how are you moving.

Several years later of connecting the dots using the body as the ecosystem, and evidence to back it up….. a lot of improved outcomes and lower total cost. I admit to asking Robin A LOT of questions about Parsley, because well, the approach was just different. And so promising!

As Robin discussed building the company, she also didn’t sugar coat her reality. The experience of a previous start up did not make it that much easier. Back in the day, it seemed like everyone was raising $100M on just ideas (Not her!). Two years in, not taking a salary, being the Chief of Everything Officer (IT/Ops/Billing/Doctor..) was hard. What kept her going was taking her passion and pouring it into a proof of concept. That gave her the confidence and needed resilience to weather what was ahead.

Her advice to other passionate entrepreneurs is to disregard the noise, the press, the comparisons and focus on YOU and YOUR metrics. Because that is what matters most.

Guest Bio:

Dr. Robin Berzin is the Founder and CEO of Parsley Health, America’s leading holistic medical practice designed to help people overcome chronic conditions. She founded Parsley to address the rising tide of chronic disease in America through personalized holistic medicine that puts food, lifestyle, and proactive diagnostic testing on the prescription pad next to medications. Since founding Parsley in 2016, Dr. Berzin has seen 80% of patients improve or resolve their chronic conditions within their first year of care, demonstrating the life-changing value of making modern holistic medicine accessible to everyone, anywhere. Parsley is available online nationwide. Dr. Berzin attended medical school at Columbia University and trained in Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Her book, Prescription for Happiness: How to Eat, Move, and Supplement for Peak Mental Health, was published by Simon Element in January 2022.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Jennie Shulkin, Founder and CEO of Override Health at HLTH 2023.

This is the next episode of this Inspiring Women collaboration highlighting several of the extraordinary women leaders in the 7Wire family.

Jennie joined forces with her father, Dr. David Shulkin, former US Secretary of the VA to address to create Override and to address chronic pain. Why? Two traumatic brain injuries left her with complex chronic pain and seeking treatment was not just hard, it was near impossible. Today, one in five people live with some sort of pain and solutions do exist for more simplistic targeted pain issues. But chronic pain requires a team-based approach and a more wholistic solution, queue up Override!

Hear Jennie talk about:

Her journey from competitive athlete to criminal law to health entrepreneur. Growing up with her father, she wanted to avoid being in healthcare. Her frustrating lived experience with chronic pain pushed her to find solutions and not just for herself.
How Override works: Pain physicians, coaches, physical therapists working as a team with a virtual platform to give everything a patient needs in one place. Functional, cognitive, and physical progress does take time and commitment. Override patients need to opt into the program. Those that do have excellent satisfaction. Jennie speaks with pride about patients who have now been discharged from the program or the woman who was bedridden for months, finally able to fulfill a dream goal of getting to the beach.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Jennie talks about building a company and what it means to have high standards of excellence (not a surprise when you consider her athletic career and Harvard Law training) coupled with the balance needed to build teams and deliver results.
Her advice to other aspiring entrepreneurs? Do not seek to make yourself in the mold of others, being yourself matters!

Jennie Shulkin, JD###### Co-Founder & CEO

CEO and Co-Founder Jennie Shulkin was a nationally ranked tennis and squash player and a student at the University of Pennsylvania when she suffered two head injuries within a year-and-a-half of each other. Soon after, she developed a complex chronic pain syndrome affecting multiple parts of her body. As best she could, Jennie continued living her life – pushing through Harvard Law School and building a career in law. All the while, she carried the burden of the agonizing, time-consuming, expensive, and both physically and emotionally painful journey of seeking pain relief. When each medication, intervention, and various other treatments failed, the treating providers shrugged, sent her away, and often told her she was “out of options.” Adding to the frustration, many of the doctors, physical therapists, and psychologists Jennie consulted treated her chronic pain no differently from acute pain and were therefore ineffective. Additionally, most had little interest in or time to communicate with other providers working with Jennie. The result was fragmented care, inconsistent messaging, and contradicting plans of action.

‍Jennie wanted a better way. Joining forces with her father, she began creating a solution that she and others in pain needed but did not exist elsewhere: a comprehensive, team-based approach to care that is implemented by providers who really understand chronic pain. Jennie lives with pain every day. But she has learned to stop cure-seeking – to stop putting life on hold until a pill, procedure, or doctor brings about the magic fix – and has found more effective ways to interact with the pain and build a fulfilling life.

Kicking off this Inspiring Women collaboration highlighting several of the extraordinary women leaders in the 7Wire Ventures family.

As a seasoned healthcare executive, entrepreneur, and previous government servant, Lori is familiar with the need to address healthcare problems at scale. Given the tsunami of need, Lori created Caraway to redefine healthcare for an entire generation, the GenZ population. Caraway is focused on healthcare delivery of this population with an approach that makes sense for this first generation of digital natives. Bringing together a virtual approach of on-demand care where “no question is too small”, Caraway is bringing evidenced based solutions to this population.

Hear Lori talk about:

Why Gen Z? Not just the first fully digital population, but also the one that is the largest, most diverse, as well as socially minded group. In 2030, GenZ will make up 30% of our workforce.
Reproductive rights and now uncertainty. This is also the population that has fewer reproductive rights than their mothers. When discussing the devastating Dobbs decision, Lori is quick to point out the impact to individuals in all
A tsunami of need. A generation that should be at its healthiest and happiest simply is not. Mental health issues have become front and center as GenZ lives have been radically disrupted due to the pandemic.
The importance of being bold: Addressing large scale issues and populations requires bold actions and a very aspirational vision. Lori suggests to all women entrepreneurs to not forget that reality.

Guest Bio:

Seasoned healthcare executive with 25+ years of experience in healthcare and health tech as an entrepreneur, operator and government leader.

Lori is the CEO and co-founder of Caraway, a women’s+ digital healthcare company taking on the societal and medical imperative of caring for college students by providing integrated mental, reproductive and physical healthcare. Previously, she was co-founder and president of HealthReveal, a clinical artificial intelligence (AI) company dedicated to combating chronic disease, which was recently acquired by Accolade (NASDAQ: ACCD), a personalized healthcare and benefits company providing millions of people and their families with exceptional healthcare.

Previously Lori held a series of leadership positions with growing health tech firms:
(President, GSI Health acquired by Medecision)(CEO, ActiveHealth Management, Provider Solutions acquired by Aetna/CVS Health)(Director, CareScience, previously NASDAQ: CARE now part of Premier healthcare informatics (https://www.premierinc.com/transforming-healthcare/healthcare-performance-improvement/).

Additionally, Lori is known for bringing her entrepreneurial spirit and deep industry expertise to the government realm as senior advisor to nation’s first health IT Czar and New York state’s first deputy commissioner of health IT transformation, NYS Department of Health.

Lori currently serves on the board of Sanctuary for Families, a human rights organization dedicated to addressing domestic violence, sex trafficking and other forms of gender violence.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with the Inspiring Women co-founders of Iron Health at HLTH 2023: Stephanie Winans, CEO, Kristina Furlan, Chief Product Officer, and Susanna Wiborg, Chief of Staff.

This is the finale episode of this Inspiring Women collaboration highlighting several of the extraordinary women leaders in the Redesign family.

Each of these founders came to Iron Health to improve equity, access, and outcomes across women’s health. And to raise the bar. In the US, women have worse outcomes than in any other developed country. Primary care is part of the issue. Only half of US-based women see a primary care physician regularly. Growing mental health issues also play a factor as are the severe shortage of healthcare professionals in these areas.

The bright spot (and opportunity) is that most women see their OBGYN for an annual checkup. These specialists are now becoming the go to resource for women to handle their broader primary care needs. Additionally, they are handling mental health issues. 84% of OBGYNs are now prescribing psychiatric medications.

Enter Iron Health, the virtual practice extension of an OBGYN. This company came out of stealth in March of 2023 and in just six months is working with over 50 OBGYNs across four states. Early feedback is positive for both patients and providers.

Stephanie, Kristina, and Susanna also talk about what it means to build a purposeful leadership team, mostly women, who have not worked together before. Energy; excitement; leading by example; not having to compete for the one available seat at the table were some of the comments from this “Badass” team.

Their closing advice? Ask for the informational interview. Surround yourself with allies. And this call to action: If we are going to close the gender gap in leadership, Stephanie asks all women leaders to find a woman and mentor her.

Guest Bios:

Stephanie Winans, CEO

Stephanie Winans is a seasoned healthcare entrepreneur passionate about applying creative problem solving to deliver better outcomes for patients and providers. She possesses diverse experience spanning both B2C and enterprise healthcare, media, and technology. Prior to Iron Health, Stephanie was the Chief Growth Officer at BioDigital, and led two successful healthcare exits at The Wellness Network (acquired by WebMD) and Bundoo, a maternal and infant health startup (acquired by Wafra Partners). Stephanie received her MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and holds a B.S. in Marketing and Psychology from Spring Hill College.

Kristina Furlan, Chief Product Officer

Kristina Furlan is a driven business leader with over 16 years of experience developing and commercializing digital health solutions. Prior to Iron Health, Kristina led two successful internal startups at Philips and held product leadership roles at Stryker and St. Jude Medical. Kristina has a Masters in Science and Bachelors in Science from Texas A&M University.

Susanna Wiborg, RN, MBA, Chief of Staff

Susanna Wiborg is an innovative leader with a diverse background having worked as a nurse, hospital administrator, consultant, and in data/tech. Prior experience includes leadership positions at Penn Medicine, Lumere, Sg2, and Northwestern Medicine. Susanna received her MBA from Kellogg School of Management and holds a BSN and BSE from the University of Pennsylvania.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Kathy Kaluhiokalani, Founder and CEO of Pip Care at HLTH 2023.

This is the next episode of this Inspiring Women collaboration highlighting several of the extraordinary women leaders in the Redesign family. Pip Care was launched out of the Redesign process to address support for patients before, during and after surgery. Kathy has such a clear vision and leads with purpose and intensity, coupled with perspective and a sense of calm that she attributes to this NOT being her first rodeo as the Chief.

Hear Kathy talk about:

Career inflection points. Kathy has led at very large healthcare organizations and she has done innovation. Her view is that the highest impact for innovation is with startups that can then implement in health systems. A pandemic inflection point led her to think seriously about startups again.
How can we improve the surgical process? And it has nothing to do with the clinical aspect of surgery – it’s all those important surround things – did I follow the diet and exercise instructions correctly? Where do I park? Is my insurance covering all the folks involved in my surgery? Kathy describes the purpose of Pip Care to provide a patient partner as an extension of the surgery team.
Why is she excited about the company? The data – reducing length of stay, or post-op ER visits and readmissions – backs up that the solutions are working. Kathy was also excited to talk about new clients like UChicago which she was announcing at HLTH.
Bringing along the next generation of women leaders. Kathy expects of herself and other women executives to make room for others and to bring women with her. And for Kathy, this “responsibility” is not only important, well, it is also quite fun.

Guest Bio:

Kathleen Kaluhiokalani has been characterized as a leader with “flawless execution, innovation, and grit, who approaches obstacles with a vision of sustainable, long-term success in mind.” Her distinguished career is in steering healthcare business organizations to their next level of success. This is accomplished through explosive growth, performance turnarounds, business and culture transformations, corporate rebranding, and restructuring organizational matrix. Her expertise is in vision and execution, being able to see the big picture and immediately identifying the path to reach the objective, while building and empowering top-talent to partner and capitalize on the opportunities presented. She develops strategies that drive revenue and fuel profit growth, navigating complex business challenges and delivering effective solutions, and leveraging people, process, and technology to achieve key business outcomes.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Rachael Jones, Founder and CEO of Syntax Health at HLTH 2023.

This is the next episode of this Inspiring Women collaboration highlighting several of the extraordinary women leaders in the Redesign family. Syntax Health was launched out of the Redesign process and Rachael could not be more excited to talk about the company, how data and analytics support the industry’s move to Value Based Care. And then of course, what it really means to be part of the 1% club…. meaning, the few African American women who are also CEOs.

In this episode you will hear Rachael talk about the move to Value Based Care, true value based care. The importance of understanding all of this data means the opportunity to determine, up front, best fit delivery models to achieve best clinical outcomes. It takes all of seconds to hear Rachael’s depth of expertise and excitement about data analytics, understanding how to use data to reduce time to provider contracting and to provide a much better understanding of how the finances will work in VBC. Today, the move to VBC (imperative in her view) is that it is too complicated. She doesn’t have simple answers. but she does have the tooling and understanding to do dynamic negotiation of contracts at the most effective stage – the beginning.

When talking about her own ascent to leadership, Rachael took the step to CEO with a clear vision of her why. Wanting autonomy to scale her grand vision, building her own team, and leaning into a clear strength of hers – having significant impact and leaving a legacy. There is no better space for this than in healthcare.

When Rachael shares her leadership journey, it has the appearance of a smooth trajectory to the top (haha). She shares a bit of behind the scenes of what it took to get here. This includes a strong core of support. For her, it’s family first that provides grounding and an escape when needed. Professional groups are valuable, supportive, help expand perspectives. But there is nothing more valuable than the lived experience of very tough moments. The times when the heads-down, just work “twice as hard” approach was a miss in terms of reading the room when leadership changed (and so did support for her project). And with great challenge, Rachael also knows this is the calling of leadership. She calls it the need for Grit and Grace. She adds (importantly), and a little bit of “SuckItUpNess”.

Best advice for other women leaders? Claim credit. And if that does not feel natural (and very often, it does not), write it down in your own personal Win log.

Guest Bio:

Rachael Jones is the Co-founder and CEO of Syntax. Syntax is a SaaS-based enterprise tool that helps payors and providers model out their value-based care contracts. Rachael is an award-winning healthcare executive, bringing over 20 years of experience transforming healthcare through strategic leadership, operational oversight, product strategy, P&L management, and data-driven analytics.

Rachel joins Syntax after serving as SVP of Performance Analytics & Quality at Cotiviti where she led a team that updated, refreshed, and delivered industry-leading, flagship healthcare analytics tools and AI solutions. She also held several leadership positions at Anthem, HealthFirst and the TriZetto Group. Rachael is passionate about paving the way for a smoother journey to value-based care by allowing health plans to transition from simply reporting quality measures to driving the purchase, delivery, and utilization of higher-value healthcare.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Brenda Schmidt, Head of Enterprise Growth at Redesign Health at HLTH 2023.

In collaboration with Redesign Health, Laurie is speaking with several of the extraordinary women leaders in the Redesign family. This first collab conversation is with Brenda Schmidt. Brenda joined Redesign after a substantive career in healthcare as an executive, builder of companies, venture studio chief, board member….the list goes ON. She self describes as an “INTRApreneur”, a hand raiser when it came to opportunities along the way that allowed her to learn. The consistent career thread is curiosity. And with all that learning, comes the desire to give back, share with others and work with companies to accelerate their opportunities for growth and impact.

Hear Brenda talk about:

What’s a venture studio?If you have seen one, you’ve seen one. And Brenda has seen She believes that Redesign Health has “the model right for what young entrepreneurs really need to build successful companies.”
A different approach at Redesign starts with internal ideation with smart teams who understand healthcare business models and then (and only then) they look to build the founding team. RH provides initial valuable capital and supporting resources to aid the company more like a slingshot and not a crutch. Brenda also announced how RH is newly providing this model to other companies.
Innovation is a spectrum. Value can be created at every stage.The core is business process improvement…help me do my job better. The Adjacent is looking at different markets to drive revenue growth. And the Disruptive is entirely new ideas but this is really only about 10% of innovation. At the same time, ensuring that innovation is focused on the largest problems in healthcare is imperative, and that starts at the beginning.
The best CEOs know how to sell. This means listening intently to what the potential customer is saying. Brenda’s rule of thumb is talking more than 30 or 40% of the time is TOO MUCH. She also invests time helping CEOs bolster those skills with workshops and role-playing scenarios.
A look into the future means expecting many more partnerships, public/private, government funded and other interesting models.

Brenda’s closing advice for aspirational women is to surround yourself with those folks who can help you, forget about the imposter syndrome, and become resilient to hearing no…no is just a pathway to yes!

Guest Bio:

Brenda Schmidt, Head of Enterprise Growth, Redesign Health

Brenda is a proven innovation leader focused on go-to-market speed and growth of healthcare technology and technology-enabled services startups. Brenda founded Viridian Health and Solera Health to create new models for whole-person care. She also led Coplex, a venture studio partnering with health systems to validate, design and launch new healthcare companies.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Chelsea Clinton.

What an honor to speak with Chelsea Clinton at the HLTH 2023 conference in Vegas. Despite thumping music and flashing lights, Chelsea didn’t miss a beat to focus on the important space of healthcare and use her platform to address inequities.

Hear Chelsea talk about:

Maximizing time requires an amazing team + a robust calendarTo be the professional that she wants to be, focus, being regimented, accountable, and surrounding herself with a strong team are the keys to maximizing impact. And do not underestimate the power of partnerships.
Metrodora Ventures
Her early-stage health and learning investment fund backs founders from places of lived experience with deep empathy for those they intend to serve. When we talk about innovation, many gravitate to the “bright, shiny object” types of opportunities. Yet, durable solutions (and perhaps the most impactful) are often those “unsexy challenges” addressing the complex connective tissue areas in healthcare.
The less than 2% of funding being awarded to female foundersIt’s a thing and are we really surprised when less than 2% of venture funds are led by women? When pressed on “what should women founders do?”, Chelsea was UNYIELDING in her response. It is unacceptable to expect those on the other side of inequity to bear the responsibility of convincing others to acknowledge and address their bias. It is the responsibility of those with power, with platforms, and with voice to lead the change.
Her aspirational vision for healthcare (next 5 years?)
Where everyone has the opportunity to receive a high standard of care; where dignity and respect is afforded always; where we are not timid and lean into the major societal issues of guns and substance abuse; where we spend time holding ourselves accountable for decarbonization; and more broadly, where we spend more and do more for kids.
On being a momIf nothing else, this has only made her more intense in her approach to work. Looking at issues through the lens of our youngest.
And a few other fun facts…. like the color blue…like a love for the Barbie movie (parents, bring your sons too!).

….and one last special shout out to my very own daughter Chelsea.

To Chelsea Clinton, thank you for this conversation.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Lisa Suennen, veteran healthcare leader and commentator. Also, founder of CSweetner, now a part of HLTH supporting the advancement of women in healthcare.

Kicking off HLTH 2023, Lisa provides her views on 5 key topic areas at the conference – what’s exciting and where we might be a bit more skeptical. Hear Lisa’s Hot Takes on:

Stand-alone technology is uselessPay attention to the important convergence of technology with services or medical devices. Today, addressing important areas (workforce burnout; administrative overhead). Still key to making it all work: Interoperability and workflows.
AI, the 60 y.o. overnight sensation, needs to stay in its lane (today that is)AI in practice is limited but still promising. Reducing burdensome admin overhead on very busy clinicians; detecting fraud; streamlining scheduling – start there. HOLD UP on clinical applications until we gain confidence in what is more “sketchy” data today. That said, in 25 years, expect AI to be ubiquitous and not a stand-alone thing.
Mental Health – the new thing that’s not at all newLisa sees promise in solutions targeted to specialized or unique populations. Opioid addiction is very different than teen depression or loneliness. She is quick to point out that a more holistic approach is still needed v point solutions..
Big Tech and Healthcare ….and Impacting the Quadruple AimQuadruple aim is just not the business model of Big Tech v quarterly earnings. Lisa sees Microsoft as ahead of the pack today, yet she remains skeptical that the impact will match the marketing. That doesn’t mean she is not hopeful that it will!
Weight Loss and Food as MedicineA very promising area with misaligned incentives today. A multidimensional approach is needed, and we simply MUST do something about our food…

Of course, we had to close out on the state of play for women in healthcare. I forced Lisa to choose something positive to highlight. Harder than it should have been! The pockets of progress are there , but she was quick to point out that women have still lost more of the jobs of late and recent reports on the state of funding which show further declines in progress. Sticking with the positive though, Lisa highlights the new focus and investment in Women’s Health. Promising indeed!!

Thank you Lisa for sharing these views and pointing out some of the key topic areas for HLTH 2023.

Guest bio:

30+ Years of Healthcare and Team Leadership – living in the center of the Venn diagram between healthcare, entrepreneurship, and technology. Very comfortable coloring outside the lines.

I love to lead and work alongside creative, exceptional talent to build high value healthcare enterprises that thrive in a transforming world.

I have worked in and/or with all sides of the healthcare continuum (digital health/health IT/payer/provider/ health services /medical device/pharma); I have also worked on multiple sides of the business equation (executive/operations leadership, venture investor, strategy consultant, board member). As such, I think of myself as having a sort of Rubik’s Cube of healthcare knowledge that I can apply to new situations in a highly flexible way. From a practical standpoint, it means that I have an unusually broad perspective on the interplay among the different healthcare disciplines, the economics that drive them and the incentives that make buyers/decision-makers pay attention.

I combine that knowledge with a broad skill set in executive and operational leadership, strategy/BD, sales & marketing, partnering, and fund-raising to deliver results, whether it’s launching a new company or product, developing new go-to-market and partnering strategies, building a team and ensuring esprit de corps, accelerating growth in existing and/or new markets or raising capital. I’m keenly aware of the need for balancing strategy with the pragmatic realities of money and markets – a need that applies across early stage, growth and established companies. I draw energy from things that are new, different, transformative but also actionable.

What I’ve Done: Executive/Operating Leadership, Venture Capital Partnership (Corporate Venture and Independent Funds), Strategy Consultant, Board Member, Advisor to companies large and small

Other Activities: Advisor to Startup Companies, Venture Valkyrie blog (http://venturevalkyrie.com), Faculty at UC Berkeley/Haas, Frequent public speaker. Founder, CSweetener.org

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Elisabetta Bartoloni, a Heidrick & Struggles Partner and leader of the Americas Global Markets Practice.

In our post-pandemic workplaces where opportunities to advance to leadership have changed, who better to speak with than Elisabetta Bartoloni from Heidrick & Struggles to understand the 2023 state of play for women in the workplace and the opportunities (and headwinds that remain) for advancing to leadership.

Leadership opportunities for women align with the key skills for today’s most successful leaders – empathy and inclusivity. These styles tend to be more female forward and are harder to learn. There has been a lot of investment in unconscious bias training and focus on honing these skills – but it simply has not worked.

Research also indicates that CULTURE has moved to the top slot for the drivers of performance (above strategy, operating model, and talent). Also (and perhaps not surprising), companies with the highest scores on culture (where employees feel a sense of belonging….ability to show up as their authentic selves…), these companies financially outperform other by 2x.

Elisabetta points out that there has been progress of women advancing in leadership. The missing link remains in advancement to positions that own P&L’s. Her advice to others is to jump at those opportunities to have responsibility for the financial performance of a business, project, or unit.

Elisabetta also walks the walk with her efforts on the internal company Women Inspired Network and other external organizations that support girls seeing a path for themselves into leadership. We continue to have a LOT of work to do to address gender parity in the workplace.

Starting early with girls, providing a company culture of support, community and advocacy, and leading by example – all so very important. Thank you Elisabetta!!

Guest bio:

Elisabetta Bartoloni is a partner in Heidrick & Struggles’ New York office and sector leader of the Americas Global Markets Practice. She also co-chairs the firm’s Americas Women Inclusion Network (WIN). Previously, she led the Americas Investment & Corporate Banking Practice. She has more than 20 years of experience in executive search.

Elisabetta’s executive search and advisory practice spans from managing directors to functional roles, including CEO and board positions, across investment banking, global and capital markets, and asset management. In addition to working with global financial institutions, Elisabetta has worked extensively with boutique and middle market investment banks and other investment management and fintech companies.

Before joining Heidrick & Struggles, Elisabetta was a managing director at Westwood Partners focusing on investment banking and asset management in the Americas and responsible for the firm’s Latin America executive search practice. Prior to joining Westwood, Elisabetta was a director at J.H. McCann & Company, a boutique executive search firm exclusively serving the financial services industry and a senior associate in the global financial services practice of another global executive search firm. Elisabetta began her career in the financial services industry, having worked as a data research analyst in investment banking at Goldman Sachs.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Deepthi Bathina, CEO and founder of RhythmX AI and Healthcare Partner at SAIGroup.

Deepthi’s interest in healthcare is personal. She lost her grandmother early due to complications from diabetes. What Deepthi remembers was the lack of understanding of how diabetes could be controlled. And the suffering, not only in her family but across many other parts of the world. And she wants to do something about it.

As a teen, she discovered coding – simply magic!! Which is how she feels today about AI and the endless possibilities. She has recently launched her new company, RhythmX AI. A generative AI-native health company driving a paradigm shift in hyper-personalized care. Deepthi talks about what it means to provide whole person care. Using enormous amounts of data to fill in gaps and then provide information within the workflows of clinicians. Importantly and using her background as the chief product person at a large payor, a key aspect of the platform will be to understand the benefits or gaps in benefits of the patient to address the access and affordability of healthcare.

As we talked about her leadership journey, Deepthi reflects on working with iconic leaders like Jack Welch early in her career and today, Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, founder and CEO of SAIGroup and recently honored on the inaugural TIME100 AI list. From Jack Welch, she has embraced extreme candor and transparency. And from Dr. Wadhwani, knowing that the journey of 1000 miles begins with incredibly important first steps. Also, she knows the problems they intend to solve at RhythmX AI are extremely complex, so the advice to get to the 4mm level of the problem is key. But advice on networking (pick up golf!!!!), raising a family (take them on the road with you!!), that didn’t work for her, so she did it her own way…. which has seemed to work out just fine.

Deepthi closes our conversation with advice for leaders, and for women leaders in particular. Simply put, take risks. Push yourself and aim high.

Deepthi Bathina | CEO and founder of RhythmX AI and Healthcare Partner at SAIGroup

Deepthi Bathina is founder and CEO of RhythmX AI, a new health AI company driving a paradigm shift in whole-person primary care. The innovative Rhythm AI-powered platform is helping physicians pioneer a new era of hyper-personalized patient care. RhythmX AI is owned by the private equity firm SAIGroup (Symphony AI and Concert AI), one of the largest and fastest-growing Silicon Valley firms focused on enterprise AI.

Bathinais chair of the board of the Kerry Murphy Healey Center for Health Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Babson College. She is the former chief product officer at Humana, a Fortune 50 healthcare firm, where she led product development and management of all healthcare solutions for the entire company and led customer success functions across Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial segments. Before Humana, Bathina was general manager of operations for the $1 billion Healthcare Technology Division of Nuance Communications. She is the former head of global operations for the clinical decision support division (UpToDate) at Wolters Kluwer, leading global customer operations in 170 countries.

Inspiring Women and Boulder, Colorado is stop # 9 on the HIT Like a Girl Pod Road to HLTH 2023. It was planes, trains, and automobiles for founder Joy Rios who journeyed across the country, visiting innovative health tech hubs and speaking with women about some of the most pressing problems in healthcare today. Along the #RoadtoHLTH23, the ideas flowed freely, as did the laughs, networking and idea sharing.

In Boulder, Colorado, our day began with an early morning and very gorgeous hike, some stretching, and then a joint podcast with Inspiring Women and HIT Like a Girl. In this special episode, hear Laurie McGraw and Joy Rios talk about:

The magic that happens when women can be in nature and let their guards down.
A seemingly new and exciting trend with women leaders who are actively bringing others with them and making more room at the leadership table. There’s power in a pack!
Ways to combat the imposter syndrome or other struggles with confidence. Joy provides some PRO Tips on ways to use AI to serve as a sounding board or coach.
Some of the healthcare trendlines heard along the Road to HLTH such as houselessness, mental health issues and how these are impacting all communities but in different ways.
Innovation in healthcare, all of which is exciting, but pressing on how these potentially innovative solutions can actually impact severe trendlines of cost, access, or outcomes.

May this lively conversation lead to many others on the Road to HLTH!!!!!

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Marta Ronquillo Newhart, longtime Chief Communications and Brand officer to Fortune 100 companies.

When Marta tells her “how did you get here?” story, it begins and then comes back to her roots, her family. Marta comes from the family Ronquillo. She talks about her renowned grandfather Rosalio Ronquillo married to her grandmother Virginia (pronounced viahinya) Bermudez Ronquillo. Her grandfather was a storyteller. A businessman. An entrepreneur. And a caring community and government leader. The influence and connections of storytelling to business, innovation and leadership have become core to Marta’s own success.

At age 13, Marta’s mother delivered some sobering news. You are different. You will need to work twice as hard and then they will see you only as half as good. Was it because of being a woman? A Latina? Marta was never concerned about that. Rather, she took it as her reality and set her expectations. It meant working harder to get that recognition, but it never took away any of her ambition.

Today, Marta is focused on her work in the boardroom. She discusses the transition from operator to Director. How she had to learn to be “Nose In, Hands Out” and the importance of managing risk in the boardroom. Also, how diversity in the boardroom leads to better decision making.

All of this and a whole lot more in this excellent Inspiring Women episode!

……………………………..

About Marta Ronquillo Newhart

C-Level/Former Westinghouse CCO & Brand Officer

Boulder, Colorado

A Chief Communications and Brand Officer to Fortune 100 companies with the business acumen to drive value creation and bottom-line results. Deep domain expertise in crisis and risk management, corporate strategy and reputation, digital transformation, and brand equity. Experience leading through high profile industry-changing mergers, acquisitions, major crises, ESG, and brand evolutions for one Dow Component, three Nasdaq companies, and one startup company.

Considered one of the foremost communications thought leaders in corporate America today. Recognized for creating impact-driven communication strategies that transform brands while increasing investment and driving revenue, employee engagement, and industry influence.

Builds purpose within companies and demonstrates how it lives at the intersection of company strategy, values, and mission. Approaches CCO role as Chief Counselor to CEO, Board, and Leadership Team.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with the very inspiring Congresswoman Diana DeGette, now in her fourteenth Congressional term representing Colorado and the nation. Congresswoman DeGette reflects on her life of public service as ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Women Morgan Diaz, VP of Strategy, Operations and Partnerships at athenahealth. In her day job, Morgan has responsibility for the largest, most connected marketplace in healthcare ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Women Carolyn Starrett, CEO of Flatiron Health. Carolyn Starrett grew up wanting to be a judge. Over time and through early jobs, she found a love ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Women Priya Bathija, Jhaymee Tynan, and Phoebe Yang at the WBL (Women Business Leaders of the U.S. Health Care Industry Foundation) Annual Summit. A consultant and ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Tuyet DesJean at the WBL (Women Business Leaders of the U.S. Health Care Industry Foundation) Annual Summit. A daughter of immigrants, an infant refugee whose ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Katherine Saunders at the WBL (Women Business Leaders of the U.S. Health Care Industry Foundation) Annual Summit. Dr. Saunders is an obesity medicine specialist ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Mary Flipse at the WBL (Women Business Leaders of the U.S. Health Care Industry Foundation) Annual Summit. Mary gives us a view into the life ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Tesha Montgomery at the WBL (Women Business Leaders of the U.S. Health Care Industry Foundation) Annual Summit. As a registered nurse, Tesha spent years delivering ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Women Sara Ratner and Sarah Richardson at the WBL (Women Business Leaders of the U.S. Health Care Industry Foundation) Annual Summit. These senior executives give us ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Ulya Khan at the WBL (Women Business Leaders of the U.S. Health Care Industry Foundation) Annual Summit. Uyla found her tribe when she attended her ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Jen Peña.

It has been a few years since she left the White House. So many firsts…..the first Latina physician in this office …the first from Puerto Rico. Two administrations (Obama and Trump) and physician to the Vice President. A deep honor. A tremendous privilege. And your sworn duty. One that tested the very core of what you signed up for when you took the Hippocratic Oath. Personal beliefs sometimes severely tested and kept to oneself. At the end of the day, you are just the help. And then it ends.

Her work was not done. She was wronged (publicly) on the way out. The scars linger. But today, a brighter, stronger light shines on her enormous pride for a job well done. For staying true to ethical and moral principles. And in the words of her mentor – she showed them “how the skirt fit on the way out.” Fierce.

Today and recently, Dr. Peña has moved home to San Juan. She is on a mission to address the healthcare gaps and access issues that exist in Puerto Rico. Over 10,000 physicians left the island in recent years, making challenging issues only worse. Innovation with digital platforms and tools are keys to a better future, but this requires an understanding of culture to make them really work.

Dr. Peña is bringing her disciplined army background with boots on the ground to deliver what matters most – quality outcomes.

BIO

Dr. Jen Peña served as White House physician under both the Obama and Trump administrations, and Physician to the Vice President of the United States. A former US Army combat veteran of 15 years, she is a digital and telehealth expert, clinical leader, board-certified internal medicine physician and directs the Vidalús free clinic of the Boys and Girls Club of Puerto Rico. Chief Medical Officer of Medaica, a digital diagnostics platform company. A fellow of the American College of Physicians (ACP) and member of the American Telemedicine Association’s Advisory Group to Eliminate Healthcare Disparities and Inequalities. BS-Yale University. MD-University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Residency-Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Featured speaker and medical contributor for several TV and radio networks, and at various national, international, and virtual conferences on digital and telehealth, COVID-19 and Veterans affairs.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Inna Plumb, CoFounder and COO of MedArrive, a company bringing healthcare to the home through both and EMT workforce and a connected platform. Inna conceived of this company when she was one of the original team members of ReDesign Health. Building out a de novo company idea like this may seem obvious today in a post pandemic world, but at the time, we were well before digital health tools were at the level of adoption they enjoy today. Making the leap to launching this company was a risk. Just as the leap from her “cushy” but comfortable job in finance before she made the leap to a different start up (Blue Apron).

For Inna, risk taking is a familiar friend. She came to the United States at age seven and often reflects on what it means to not have a safety net and starting from scratch. But she was brought up in a family where her greatest inspiration was her grandfather. He was said doing well at something was simply not enough. It was important to actually do more, be better, be different. That meant taking risks and ensuring you had an impact. For Inna it also means being cautious and calculated in that risk taking.

Inna brings that mindset to MedArrive. She considers delivering care to be a privilege and a serious responsibility. The company started with straight forward use cases, vaccinations, and then added episodic wellness visits. With their latest funding, significant growth is on the horizon. This includes adding new services such as delivering maternal care through their partnership with Ouma Health.

In 2023 as Inna works towards these large objectives ahead, she is also trying to be gentler with herself if everything is not perfect. Her advice to younger women is to go for it….you are indeed enough and there are many people here to support you.

BIO

Inna Plumb, co-founder and COO of MedArrive, an end-to-end platform that connects health plans, healthcare providers, Field Providers, and patients to bring hands-on care to the home.

Before MedArrive, Inna was a founding partner at Redesign Health, where she helped to build a variety of companies across the healthcare industry and led the Venture Building team. Prior to that she held leadership roles on the Supply Chain team at Blue Apron, where she was responsible for national procurement and sourcing. She started her career in finance, first as an M&A banker at Evercore, and subsequently as an associate in the private equity group at Soros Fund Management.

She’s always had a strong desire to build things from scratch – she’s happiest when she can have a direct impact and create something new. She was working on a variety of ideas in early 2020 and the more she dug into the opportunity to help humanize healthcare, the more it struck her. She was overwhelmed by the unfolding global health crisis and deeply worried about its impact on her family, in particular her aging grandparents. The more she learned about the EMS space and saw an opportunity to tap into this underutilized labor force and enable them to treat patients safely in the home, the more it felt like absolutely the right thing to be doing. Not only was this a great idea pandemic or not, but it could have a powerful impact on the lives of people like her grandparents and help them feel safer and live healthier lives. She dove in with all of her energy, and she says it’s been an incredible journey ever since.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with three Inspiring Women CEOs and Founders coming out of Hashed Health. Molly Moore, (Bramble Health), Leigh McCormack (Platypus), and Raelyn Wilson (Peer Supply).

At the Vive 2023 conference I had the opportunity to speak with three CEOs and Founders who have all participated in the Hashed Health venture studio. Their companies have all been incubated in the Hashed Health venture studio. Even though they were on day two of pitching, pitching, pitching…they had the energy (maybe some exhaustion?) to sit down with me and discuss what they are finding in their current CEO roles.

Is funding really that hard? (spoiler alert….it’s hard). What are the hard things about hard things? Even if you are expert, confidence can still be a thing. And yes, it IS lonely at the top.

But they also surprise themselves. Areas where they might have agonized over a NO, today serves as just useful information as they move onto whatever is next.

These incredible women are NOT particularly excited about being in a smallISH club. They aim to plow through the current numbers (ONLY 2.4% of available funding is going to women CEOs and Founders). The sooner this is yesterday, the better.

They will also ask you to come along on this journey with them. Get out of your own head!! Just do it, please do it!! And recognize the resources and comradery (like they have with each other) is available.

And through it all – the hard work, the chaos, the balance of trying to have it all… comes EQUANIMITY. Putting on the calm, no matter what comes crashing at you.

You will enjoy this energetic, fun, and very informative episode!!!

BIOs

Raelyn Wilson is the CEO and Founder of Peer Supply which is on a mission to transform the healthcare supply chain by unlocking the value of data and collaboration.

Leigh McCormack is the CEO and Founder of Platypus which leverages the collective power of data and knowledge to democratize healthcare analytics.

Molly Moore is the CEO and Founder of Bramble Health which provides a transparent provider marketplace. And allows you to configure and create networks instantly.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Leanna Clark, CEO of Girl Scouts Colorado who paved the way for the first ever Girl Scouts DreamLab.

When you think about the Girl Scouts, what do you think about? Maybe your favorite cookie? (Thin Mints anyone?). But then in February of 2023, the CDC published a devastating report on US Teen Girls with 3 of 5 experiencing sadness or hopelessness. And then in March, the Girl Scouts, the oldest and largest girls’ organization in the US did something remarkable. They opened the Girl Scouts DreamLab. A first of its kind physical space built for girls, designed by girls where you can experience everything it means to be a Girl Scout.

What does it mean to be a Girl Scout? It means pushing limits, building resiliency and confidence, learning skills in key areas like STEM, in a supported and supportive environment. This space is meant to build the leaders of tomorrow.

We need solutions for the health and well-being of girls. And we need more Girl Scouts and more DreamLabs. And don’t forget to get your Thin Mints.

Hear Leanna talk about:

Her Career Journey

Like a Girl Scout actually –many instances of really stretching for that next objective while armed with skills, confidence, and a sisterhood of support.
Not your typical CEO background – POWERFUL but often under-appreciated skills of relationships that build partnerships and effective communication are foundational for a CEO

Girl Scouts: More than just Cookies…..

…and campfires and crafts. It’s a premiere leadership organization.
To be a Girl Scout means pushing limits, building resiliency and confidence, learning skills in key areas like STEM, in a supported and supportive environment.

DreamLab

Ribbon cutting March 2023 in Denver. The First but not the last.
A space where you can experience everything it means to be a Girl Scout.
A place for Girl Scouts to meet and troops to gather. Also open to the public.

It’s hard to be a girl: 3 of 5 teen girls feel sad or hopeless (CDC)

Girl Scouts can be one of the solutions and for the different stages a girl may be in.
Recognizing a “rainbow of feelings”; what do healthy relationships look like; focusing on positive body image and providing the support of a community that is bigger than yourself.

Her absolute favorite thing:

Spending time with any one of 1 million Girl Scouts in the US or 2 million across the globe

BIO

Leanna Clark is CEO of Girl Scouts of Colorado, the preeminent leadership development organization for girls. GSCO is a statewide nonprofit with 125 full-time employees, more than 22,000 members and 10,000 adults dedicated to building girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place. As CEO, Clark sets organizational vision and strategy, oversees all operations, and works to expand visibility and create opportunities for strategic partnerships.

Leanna has more than 25 years of business experience, including 12 years as a small business owner of one of Denver’s largest marketing and public relations firms, as well as roles in Denver’s corporate, foundation and nonprofit communities.

Most recently, Leanna served as Vice Chancellor of University Communications for the University of Colorado Denver. In this role, she served on the senior leadership team of an institution with more than 7,000 employees and 17,000 students, directing strategy and overseeing a team all internal and external communications and marketing as well as spearheading development of key community and business partnerships that advanced the university’s mission.

Before joining CU in 2010, Leanna founded and led PhilanthroTravel, a major division of the international nonprofit Project C.U.R.E. that works in more than 120 countries nationwide. In this capacity, she drove fundraising and designed and led nearly 20 trips to Cuba, Panama, Mexico, and Belize with U.S. business and community leaders, designed to help them experience travel to developing nations in a way that helps them give back.

She also directed communications and led the foundation for IMA Financial Group, one of the nation’s leading risk management companies. Previously, as principal and co-owner of marketing PR firm Schenkein, she ran one of the largest agencies in the Rocky Mountain Region, helping client organizations elevate their brands and protect their reputations, on a local, national, and international scale. She began her career as a Denver radio reporter and a TV reporter and anchor for an ABC affiliate in Nebraska.

Leanna currently serves on the boards of directors for the Denver Public Schools Foundation, the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce, Women’s Forum of Colorado, the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation, the Colorado Music Hall of Fame, and the RISE Society. She has served on a variety of other boards, including the Red Cross, Colorado Public Radio, and Public Education and Business Coalition.

Leanna has been recognized One of the Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Colorado by the Colorado Women’s Chamber and has been named a Woman of Distinction by the Girls Scouts of Colorado. She’s also been honored twice by the Denver Business Journal as a “PowerBook” award recipient and one of the “Forty Under 40” top young business leaders. She’s received national recognition from the Universal Press Syndicate as part of its “Workwise” Awards, honoring innovation and creativity among workplace leaders. In addition, she was named a ‘Woman of Achievement’ by the Association for Women in Communications.

A Colorado native, she holds a degree in journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Deb Bubb, a strategic HR leader who spent decades leading the talent function at large, high growth, technology companies. Her interest in human transformation began where she started, growing up in a single parent household where her mom was consistently making moves or taking jobs to gain a slightly better advantage for her and her brother – being closer to their school, a little more pay….

This upfront and personal view into “a grit and growth mindset” showed her what it looks like when you are out there competing with others who have different backgrounds, advantages, and privileges. Given adversity, why do some people thrive, while others do not? This central question led to her commitment to making work work better for people.

Hear Deb talk about:

The jobs landscape

Tech talent scarcity still exists despite recent big tech layoffs.
Employees: Look at the congruence of what your organization is saying v doing

Is loyalty dead? “Loyalty is EARNED”.

Talent strategies for companies need to include:
- Empathetic leaders
- Inclusive behaviors
- Investing in career growth for people
Allowing people to do their best work still means: investing in leadership, culture, and providing the context for diverse, inclusive and equitable conditions

Remote Work

The enormous experiment was successful. And now, we need to make thoughtful choices.
Remote Employees: Intentional connection needs to be a priority (for promotion seekers).

. Career advice:

Being talked over: Physically stand up and take the floor (among other strategies).
$$: 1). Educate yourself. 2) Set/align expectations with your manager (and more!)

Mid-career women professionals: The road ahead is long. Stay in it. Make your impact.

BIO

Deb Bubb is a deeply experienced, human-centered executive HR leader. Today, she is advising SucceedSmart, a talent platform company disrupting traditional executive search, and the Neuroleadership Institute, as well as functioning as the associate editor of HR People + Strategy.

Previously, she was the chief people officer of Optum, where she led all aspects of human capital, including talent management, leadership and employee growth and development, rewards and recognition and organization development. She also served as chief talent officer for UnitedHealth Group, where she was responsible for developing and driving end-to-end talent strategy and ensuring the readiness of talent pipelines to support the growth of the business.

Prior to joining UnitedHealth Group, Bubb was vice president of leadership, learning and inclusion at IBM. She also served 16 years at Intel where she held strategic business partnership roles and led organizational and leadership development, as well as learning and HR operations.

Bubb holds a Bachelor of Psychology from Stanford University and a Master of Social Work from Smith College. She is married to Howard Bubb, and parent to 14 year old twins.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Andrea Belk Olson, a Behavioral Scientist, Customer Expert and Change Enabler. Prolific writer and author of three books, the most recent one, of What to Ask: How to Learn What Customers Need but Don’t Tell Youwhich aims to discover those unmet customer needs and turn them into innovations. Andrea discusses why and how it is possible for her to be holding down and succeeding at a dozen different ventures at any one time. She provides some previews from her book(s) as to how to use client insights to build better products and businesses. She also shares perspectives on emerging technology and how that will and will NOT change the industry.

Hear Andrea talk about:

Is there anything new REALLY when it comes to marketing?

Let’s start with NOT being so obsessed with ourselves and our best previous ideas
Understanding client context, critical, means shifting your mindset

‍ Standing out in a very crowded digital market

Differentiation (Spoiler alert: Spray and pray is NOT a winning strategy)
(Your voice needs to have true value to your audience)
Reaching them where they are. (Requires a detailed view of micro communities).

𝌡 Technology change (AI specifically)

There will be casualties, sure. But where and to what extent?
Unique voices and perspectives will always continue to stand out and break through

Career choices – Everything, Everywhere, but NOT All At Once:

Secret #1: SLEEP
Secret #2: Pacing
Secret #3: Satisfaction means variety. Oh, and with a heavy dose of high-risk tolerance.

Advice to her younger self:

Chill out!! And have a lot more patience, the road ahead is long
Being a better leader,

Behavioral Scientist, Customer Expert & Change EnablerTrained as a behavioral scientist, differentiation strategist and customer-centricity expert, she teaches executives the art and science of strategic differentiation through understanding customer behavior and serves as a fractional CMO for select multi-billion dollar companies.

Andrea is the author of What to Ask: How to Learn What Customers Need but Don’t Tell You and an ongoing contributor to multiple major publications including Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur Magazine, Chief Executive Magazine, and Rotman Business Magazine (University of Toronto). She is also literally a world traveler, having worked in over 12 different countriesthroughout her early career. Andrea also serves as an instructor for the University of Iowa Venture School, and Business Coach for the Tippie College of Business Startup Incubator.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Suchi Saria, Founder and CEO of Bayesian Health and prominent AI/ML healthcare expert. With the tremendous excitement surrounding AI/ML, Suchi describes how to look behind the curtain to separate real solutions from just marketing. Her road to healthcare came after years of solving hard complex problems. After proving she could do hard, she wanted to move to something important and very impactful. Healthcare is it. With AI/ML, in just a few years she believes we should see measurable clinical impact in time to diagnose and treat, fewer diagnostic errors, more time back to clinicians all of which will remove a lot of waste in healthcare.

As Suchi continues to break new ground in healthcare, let’s all hope that she is right.

Hear Suchi talk about:

Why Bayesian Health?

Smart humans make decisions based on new incoming data and historical knowledge.
In healthcare, with vast data available in just the last several years, Bayesian aims to operationalize that decision making by surfacing data in an easy and usable way to augment clinicians who are doing more with less, treating sicker patients, and often feeling burnt out.

State of play of AI/ML in healthcare:

Digital tools adoption and ChatGPT has led to a lot of excitement but also hype.
Behind the curtain (and the marketing) of AI/ML solutions:
- Look for teams that have deep expertise in both the technology and the domain.
- Expect reproducible results – clinically validated; financially validated; and stakeholder approved.
This is really hard. Progress will not happen overnight. But the opportunity is real. This means putting one foot in front of the other every day.

Finding her compass – healthcare:

Meant moving from doing what was very hard to doing what was very important and meaningful.
It’s personal. Losing her nephew to sepsis fueled the urgency and her focus “to solve this”.

Professional growth and where she spends her time:

Every moment of growth has come from a moment of crisis.
She may have a brutal schedule, but work is play and play is work. Early mornings start with just thinking and often end watching comedy. Living in NYC, every day can be an adventure.

Future opportunity with AI/ML in healthcare:

Expect an explosion of diagnostic software tools that can aid clinicians in real time with patient specific risk assessments.
Expect to see measurable clinical impact in the areas of:
- Early detection
- Timely improvement in outcomes
- Reduction in diagnostic errors
- Time savings for clinicians
- Overall reduction in healthcare waste

BIO

Suchi Saria is the Founder and CEO of Bayesian Health, the John C. Malone Associate Professor of computer science, statistics, and health policy, and the Director of the Machine Learning and Healthcare Lab at Johns Hopkins University. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles with over 3000 citations and was recently described as “the future of 21st century medicine” by The Sloan Foundation. Her research has pioneered the development of next-generation diagnostic and treatment planning tools that use statistical machine learning methods to individualize care.

At Bayesian Health, Dr. Saria is leading the charge to unleash the full power of data to improve healthcare, unburdening caregivers and empowering them to save lives. Backed by 21 patents and peer-reviewed publications in leading technical and clinical journals, Bayesian leverages best-in-class machine learning and behavior change management expertise to help health organizations unlock improved patient care outcomes at scale by providing real-time precise, patient-specific, and actionable insights in the EMR.

Dr. Saria’s work has received recognition in numerous forms including best paper awards at machine learning, informatics, and medical venues, a Rambus Fellowship (2004-2010), an NSF Computing Innovation Fellowship (2011), selection by IEEE Intelligent Systems to Artificial Intelligence’s “10 to Watch” (2015), the DARPA Young Faculty Award (2016), MIT Technology Review’s ‘35 Innovators under 35’ (2017), the prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship (2018), and the World Economic Forum Young Global Leader (2018). In sepsis, a life-threatening condition, her work first demonstrated the use of machine learning to integrate diverse signals to make early detection possible (Science Trans. Med. 2015). In Parkinson’s, her work showed a first demonstration of using readily-available sensors to easily track and measure symptom severity at home, which can serve to optimize treatment management (JAMA Neurology 2018).

Dr. Saria has traveled worldwide to conduct lectures and keynotes and most recently was an invited speaker at TEDMED 2020. In the past, she has given invited keynotes at several prestigious meetings including at The Royal Society, TEDxBoston, the International Conference in Health Policy and Statistics (ICHPS), the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Annual Meeting, the Montreal AI Symposium, the Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI) meeting, the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR), and the Oxford Statistics Distinguished Seminar Series, to name a few.

Dr. Saria earned her M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Stanford University working with Professor Daphne Koller. She visited Harvard University as an NSF Computing Innovation Fellow and joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 2012. Currently, Dr. Saria is serving as an advisor to the FDA on AI/machine learning.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Joanne Mizell, Chief Operating Officer of the Phoenix based Banner-Aetna Payvider joint venture. Decades as a healthcare executive still did not prepare Joanne to navigate the system when her husband was diagnosed with cancer. Thankfully, his health has improved but care delivery remains complex. When presented with the opportunity to lead a new model of care delivery, Joanne leapt at the chance, leaving retirement behind.

Hear Joanne talk about:

Banner|Aetna:

A joint venture where the payer and health system align with shared goals and interests.
Changing from an adversarial approach to collaborative teamwork required significant investment in culture change.

Eliminating a pain point – simplified billing:

Why is billing so complicated anyway?
Reducing the middleman means fewer touchpoints and a better experience for patients.

Her career journey to healthcare:

Strong role models gave her opportunities by empowering her.
You can learn a lot from leaders that you do not want to emulate.

Who inspires her today:

Those who challenge or expand her thinking when seeing things in a very different way.

Closing Advice:

Watch and emulate those that you respect and admire, but be genuine.

BIO

Joanne Mizell joined Banner|Aetna as Chief Operating Officer in February 2018, with over 20 years Aetna experience and nearly 30 years in the Employee Benefits industry. In this role, and as a member of the executive leadership team, Mizell will oversee operations of the organization and support the execution of the strategic goals set by Banner|Aetna’s Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer.

Mizell is a proven leader who has consistently delivered growth to various organizations and market segments by developing strong teams, crafting creative strategies and fostering deep community and client relationships. As Chief Operating Officer of Banner|Aetna, Mizell leverages her experience and well-established network in Arizona to execute the organization’s mission of helping employers improve the health and well-being of their workforce, while simplifying the coverage-to-care-to-payment of health care for its members.

Mizell started her career in Orange County and Los Angeles, California before relocating to Arizona in 1998. Mizell’s previous roles at Aetna Included building sales and service teams for large employers, managing the growth, client satisfaction, and profit & loss for a four state market that included Arizona. Mizell also led the creation and build of a new product portfolio for Aetna’s National Accounts segment, simplifying the selection, purchasing and administration of voluntary products for Aetna’s largest clients. Outside of Aetna, Mizell was a broker/advisor at an international insurance brokerage firm, where she served as lead health care and benefits design strategist for larger, complex clients.

Mizell has also worked in both paid and volunteer leadership roles for several humanitarian and animal protection organizations. She continues to be actively involved in formal local and state advocacy aimed at improving lives through proposed legislative and policy changes in Arizona and in the United States.

Prior to beginning her career at Aetna, Mizell studied Business Administration at California State University at Fullerton, while working full-time in the employee benefits department of Hughes Aircraft Company. Making lives better by delivering best-in-class employee benefits has been her career journey ever since. Mizell’s role at Banner|Aetna takes that experience and passion to the next level.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Women Kiernan McCarthy and Natalie Studt, who both came to Montana from New York seeking an outdoor way of life and professionally, a focus on service. Today, they are staff at Wellness in Action (WIA), a non-profit organization providing mental and behavioral health resources for local residents. Big Sky Montana is a beautiful a tourist destination for many, but for full time residents, accessible and affordable resources can be challenging. Also, representing the “younger generation”, Kiernan and Natalie acknowledge that they think about work differently, but please do not misunderstand – their work is very important to them!!

Hear Kiernan and Natalie talk about:

Wellness in Action (WIA):

- Big Sky, MT based non-profit that provides mental and behavioral health resources for residents.
- Scholarships and a sliding fee scale increase access and affordability.

COVID changed everything:

- As a recent college grad, Kiernan found herself needing to move back in with her parents. Grateful, absolutely. Also, um…. stifling. Montana, here I come!
- Natalie was “an essential worker” which made her rethink her life and focus. Gaining new skills, thinking longer term, and pursuing alternatives became her priority.

Gen Z / Millennials think about work differently than their parents.

- Older generations always misunderstand younger generations’ approach to work.
- 60-80 hr work weeks….when your life is your work… mental health strain… No thank you!
- INSTEAD – Wanting to live their WHOLE life now. Which includes being engaged at work.

Quiet Quitting (Give me a break!!)

- Don’t confuse work life balance with NOT being serious about work.

Closing Advice:

- Kiernan: Keep trying new things and take risks.
- Natalie: Trust your gut

BIOs

Kiernan McCarthyMental & Behavioral Programs ManagerKiernan moved to Big Sky in November of 2021 to enjoy the slopes of Lone Peak. She holds a BA in Psychology and a minor in Spanish, from Geneseo. During college, she worked at DOROT, a non-profit in New York City that aided socially isolated older adults. As a community services intern, she would help social workers with local outreach events, meet with clients during home visits, and assist them with daily tasks such as grocery shopping or getting to appointments. After working seasonal jobs post-college, she has first-hand experience with the workforce and the needs of that population. She is deeply interested in contributing to the community and building connections to further local access to resources. In her free time, she can be found hiking, camping, or skiing

Natalie StudtOperations ManagerNatalie Studt is the Operations Manager for WIA. She moved to Big Sky from NYC in May of 2019 and fell in love with Montana. After graduating from The City College of New York with a B.A. in Economics and a B.A. in Philosophy, she worked in the New York City service industry for a couple of years before moving west. Natalie worked at Big Sky Resort for her first summer in Big Sky, followed by the Hungry Moose Market & Deli. Natalie has a long held passion for community welfare and public service. Her desire to help the people of Big Sky led her to WIA, where she can implement her varied skills and training for a cause she wholeheartedly believes in.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Rachel Snyder Good, who finished her time as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Leadership Office of the 117th United States Congress at the end of 2022. Rachel began her work in Congress, she expected to be there just two to four years. This grew to over nine after receiving multiple opportunities. Rachel began 2023 facing the work of finding a new job which included spending a lot of time networking and learning to take her own advice that she freely gives to others – creating the muscle memory of ASKING.

Hear Rachel talk about:

Congress taught her many things:

The difference between policy and politics. Politics helped her to get things done.
How to deal with power and powerful people, even when you are naturally confident.
And importantly, governing is

Deciding when it’s time to leave:

Deciding how much is enough.
And the importance of making a clean break.

Advice she gives to friends (that she is learning to take herself):

It is hard to ask….AND ….you need to ask.

What she has learned while networking:

People who want to help you will surprise you.

Rachel’s closing advice to other women is what she advises to her friends – when looking for a new job – show up as your authentic self. Culture fit is important and, for Rachel, a key criteria for where she intends to be next!

BIO

Rachel Snyder Good most recently served as Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of the House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer. Over her nine year tenure with Congressman Hoyer, she was responsible for legislation across many policy areas, including health care. Previously Rachel worked as a Legislative Aide for then Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD). She is a graduate of the University of Baltimore School of Law and The University of Michigan. She currently lives in Baltimore with her husband, Jordan.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Adimika Arthur, the Founding Executive Director of HealthTech for Medicaid (HT4M). As a social entrepreneur, a relentless and passionate advocate, and an epidemiologist, Adimika is committed to making meaningful and measurable progress. Don’t confuse her “toxic optimism” with her dogged resolve to make this world a better place. HT4M is now into its fifth year with big plans to DISRUPT. This includes determinants, designing with dignity and ensuring that there are dollars behind the needed innovations to support quality, equity and access to all Americans on Medicaid.

Hear Adimika talk about:

Medicaid Primer: 57 years old and serving the needs of 80 million, or one out of five, Americans. Medicaid is the largest insured population, provided in 56 different ways based on the State Ceiling and Federal Floor funding dynamic. Also, the first radical act of access to care.

Proudest accomplishments to date for HT4M:

Humanizing Medicaid through storytelling, myth busting and showing the faces of Medicaid.

Sea Change of interest due to the pandemic, the racial reckoning in the US and new regulations.

Where she finds inspiration: from all kinds of people that she meets anywhere, e.g. in the Starbucks line …. or at the food pantry where she volunteers. But also reading. Recent finds include the polymer composition of cement (you read that correctly!) and the economic levers for ESG programs.

Mantras she lives by: Faith, family, and waking up every day knowing that she intends and expects to leave this world a better place.

For herself, her family, and for her ancestors who helped build this country.

BIO

Founding Exec Director: HealthTech for Medicaid (HT4M)

Healthcare executive with significant leadership commitment to serving vulnerable populations. I am a visionary and strategic business thinker who partners with colleagues, teams and businesses to create and drive value, optimize performance and inspire high-growth companies to serve those most in need.

Trained as a clinical epidemiologist, turned successful health care administrator with a proven record of developing innovative strategies to improve the delivery and quality of health services, increase access to care, and stabilize struggling organizations. Dynamic thought leader with progressive experience providing insight in the fields of public health care.

Adept at analyzing existing health care operations and implementing necessary strategies and formal business practices to strengthen the safety-net.

Board member, advocate for women’s leadership and clearinghouse for connecting people and process. Affectionately known as “Madame Medicaid” for being able to turn any conversation into one about the health program that serves more than 79 Million people nationwide.

Specialties include healthcare cost containment, revenue cycle enhancement, budget and leadership development. Particular expertise in outpatient services, patient and employee satisfaction.

Inspiring Women with Laurie McGraw is now available on YouTube!

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Carladenise Edwards. Known for her thought leadership stemming from a thirty+ year executive career which has included three tours of duty as a chief strategy officer at various prominent health systems. In 2023, Carladenise kicks off this year with an optimistic outlook. “We need to claim joy” and “use this year to inspire our best selves.” What this means for Carladenise is prolifically writing. As a surviving sibling, she is putting words to page to capture the story of her brother. And as a healthcare professional, she is also writing a manifesto, or rather, a vision for a new system of healthcare that is sustainable, effective and efficient and can serve the needs of all – those with means and with privilege and even those without. Some of her ideas hark back to the first hospital ever formed in the 1400s in Barcelona.

Hear Dr. Edwards talk about:

Confidence came early (thanks Dad):
- As the daughter of a US Marine, an Integration Officer whose job moved from place to place and was to be the only African American at differe
- Be courageous, be fearless, own your space
Manifesto
Health Equity
Career knock downs and recovery
Most recent learning

BIO

Dr. Carladenise Armbrister Edwards has thirty years of professional experience ranging from Assistant Dean at University of Pennsylvania to government official at the state and federal level. She is an accomplished healthcare executive, most recently served as Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer for Henry Ford Health, a $6.8B integrated health care delivery system headquartered in Detroit, MI where she was responsible for M&A, innovation, government relations, planning, technology transfer, and system transformation. Prior to that she led strategy for Providence St. Joseph Health, a $24B health care company headquartered in Seattle, Washington where she also served as Chief Contracting Officer and Chief Administrative Officer for Population Health.

Dr. Edwards has proven success achieving revenue growth exceeding $3.4B and helping health care companies achieve operational efficiency on the provider and plan sides of the business, not to mention her successful career as a fundraiser. Her academic background, and professional experience in the fields of medical sociology, epidemiology, marketing & business development, health information technology, and healthcare financing make her a highly sought-after advisor, speaker, and director.

In 2022, she was recognized by Modern Healthcare and Becker’s as one of the top Women Leaders in Healthcare and she was named one of the 50 Women of Excellence by the Michigan Chronicle and elected President of the cohort by her peers. She most recently joined the board of Clover Health [NASDAQ: CLOV] where she serves on the Compensation and Governance Committees. She is also a strategic advisor to Parsley Health, 4L Data Intelligence, and the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics.

Dr. Edwards and her husband, Herman Edwards have started two endowed scholarships, one at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing and the other at Johnson C. Smith University in support of African-American students seeking higher education. She is most proud of her service to the community including serving on Heluna Health’s Board of Directors, where she serves on the Finance Committee and Chaired the Advancement Committee. She also is a board director for the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) serving on the finance committee and a board director for Rand Health, as well as Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA).

Dr. Edwards received her BA and MS.Ed from University of Pennsylvania and her Ph.D. from the University of Florida. She is enrolled in Harvard University’s Adaptive Leadership Initiative as a fellow. Dr. Edwards is currently devoting her time to community and corporate board service. When she is not working, you can find her reading and spending time with family.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Women Alyssa Jaffee, Partner at 7wireVentures. When you listen to this episode, you will hear clearly that Alyssa is passionate about her work, which she finds addicting. Healthcare has become her calling. Every single day she believes she has the opportunity, and responsibility, to change healthcare for the better. And that is a long game. She feels the gravity of this while also being energized.

Her commitment to making a difference with her work does not get in the way of being very committed to her family – in her perfectly imbalanced life. Alyssa is a strong advocate for other women leaders. Her best advice….. Remember that you are not alone, your community is here, so reach out and use it. A rising tide lifts us all.

Hear Alyssa talk about:

Success requirements in Venture:
- Pickers v Makers: At 7wire, the team is made up of operators. Alyssa spends half her time working with her portfolio companies. This means more than just making introductions – it’s getting on planes, being in the meetings and helping to close deals. 7wire companies often sell to the same organizations, so continuing to build those relationships is key.
- Vision and conviction: Alyssa believes that the job also requires being a thought leader. She spends considerable time in the industry and sharing her observations externally.
Consumer Directed Healthcare: it is the vision and the current 7wire companies focus on the informed connected health consumer. Alyssa also talks about the cycles in venture and areas they are currently revisiting such as cardiac health or personalized medicine.
#1 Strength: WOO. Winning Others Over. Insatiable curiosity ….love for learning. That’s Alyssa. She loves convincing others to be as excited about something as she is, which means a lot of WOO!
Managing Balance: There is no such thing as balance for women at work, in fact, the act of being unbalanced IS balance!! Alyssa penned THIS article for Fortune,– please stop asking us about balance! We don’t have it!!

BIO

Alyssa Jaffee is a Partner at 7wireVentures where she focuses on investments in digital healthcare and technology-enabled services that empower consumers to be better stewards of their health in today’s changing healthcare ecosystem. Alyssa sits on the board of Ayogo Health and is a board observer with MedArrive, Brightline, Zerigo Health, NOCD, and Jasper Health.

Alyssa’s prior experience in venture capital includes her time as an investor at Pritzker Group Venture Capital where she led investments in Bright.md and Tovala as well as worked closely with Apervita, Mingle Health, and AiCure. Additionally, she worked at Hyde Park Angels (HPA), one of the Midwest’s largest angel organizations and Healthbox, an early-stage healthcare innovation firm, supporting their accelerator program called the Studio. Alyssa is also a Co-Founder of TransparentCareer, a 2016 NVC winning company focused on helping people make more data-driven career decisions.

Prior to business school, Alyssa worked as the Senior Director of Performance Technologies for the Advisory Board Company. There, Alyssa was charged with expanding new business through the sales of technology platforms. With an extensive travel regimen, Alyssa met with hundreds of hospital executive teams to understand their strategic needs and recommend various solutions. She has copious amounts of experience in launching new products and thinking about go-to-market strategies.

Alyssa holds a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago – Booth School of Business.

You can follow Alyssa on LinkedIn.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Women Sara Vaezy, EVP and Chief Strategy and Digital Officer of Providence Health. Sara believes that healthcare is a human right. Her career journey has always been ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Women Dr. Geri Landman. She filled her lifelong dream when she became a pediatrician. And then, life changed when Lucy, her third child, was diagnosed with a ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Women Lita Tomas and Jean Marie McNamara, a mother/daughter duo who have just published their memoir: Lita & Jean: Memoirs of Two Generations of Military Women. Hear ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Kim McKay, practicing physician, chief medical officer of PeriGen and clinical vice president of the OB/GYN service line at Avera Health in South Dakota. Dr. ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Kathy Ford, chief product and strategy officer at Project Ronin, a company founded in 2018 by Larry Ellison and Dr. David Agus with a moonshot objective ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Brittany Barreto, PhD, a geneticist who has focused her career on FemTech (that’s not fintech, it’s femtech, which should just be called healthtech, but for now, ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Elizabeth Kirk, a senior vice president at Strata Decision Technology. Liz has spent her career at the intersection of healthcare process automation and optimization to deliver ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Julia Chang, health equity expert and Chief Health Equity Officer at Google. For Dr. Horn, her journey to being impactful in medicine began with her father’s ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Ivor Horn, health equity expert and Chief Health Equity Officer at Google. For Dr. Horn, her journey to being impactful in medicine began with her ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Women Jolene Atkinson and Kate Kruse in this special Mother/Daughter Mentoring Series episode. This is also Episode #100 of Inspiring Women. It is very fitting to showcase ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Anita Lynch about changing company cultures and having that sense of belonging even when you are one of few, or only, in leadership. Anita’s love for ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Women Drs. Paneez Khoury and Parker Ruhl, physicians, researchers, public servants who work at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. They are also friends and ...

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, ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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; ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

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 ...

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 ...

Finding Yourself in Transition: Using Life's Changes for Spiritual Awakening

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 ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Natasha Sheybani, a scientist focused on irradicating cancer. Natasha Sheybani, PhD, serves as Senior Scientist at the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, where her role involves supporting ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Alexis DiGasso, a psychologist/postdoctoral fellow practicing in Rhode Island. Dr. Alexis DiGasso is a Postdoctoral Fellow in clinical psychology at Providence Behavioral Health Associates. Dr. ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Monica Bolbjerg, Chairman, CEO and Founder of Qure4u. Dr. Bolbjerg is a doctor, an entrepreneur, and a digital health pioneer. As a young physician, Dr. Bolbjerg ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Alerie Stiles, a Vice President at TSI Healthcare. Alerie self describes as being ON A MISSION TO IMPROVE HEALTHCARE FOR PHYSICIANS 👨🏻‍⚕️👩🏻‍⚕️AND PATIENTS ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Hena Waseem, a Resident Physician and Neurologist who recently completed her Masters of Public Health from Dartmouth. Dr. Waseem currently in the Leadership and Preventive Medicine ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Renee Bovelle, an ophthalmologist, business owner, educator, cyber security expert, organized medicine leader, and more. How does she do it all? She ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Sheila Talton. Corporate executive Sheila G. Talton was born on October 12, 1952 in Cleveland, Ohio. As a teenager, she became involved in ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Denise Brosseau. Denise understands what it takes to be a thought leader, an influencer and how to build your career through experience and expertise. ...

Ready to Be a Thought Leader?: How to Increase Your Influence, Impact, and Success

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Bridget Duffy. Bridget Duffy, M.D.,is the Chief Medical Officer for Vocera. As Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Duffy plays a key role in ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Bettina Hein. Bettina Hein is a serial software entrepreneur that has built technology companies in both Europe and the United States. She is ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Meghan Krueger. Meghan Krueger, RN. Registered Nurse at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program You can follow Meghan on LinkedIn. Read the ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Brook West. Brook West, Chief Commercial Officer LinkedIn As a successful P&L leader, Brook leads the enterprise sales function for Carrum Health. She ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Sabina Shaikh. Dr. Sabina Shaikh is the Director of the Program on Global Environment and an Associate Senior Instructional Professor in Environmental ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dorri McWhorter. Dorri is in a race with Elon Musk, whether he knows it or not. There is a 30-year plan to get ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Maya Inozemtseva, a physical therapist and home health therapist. Maya found her calling with physical therapy from an early age and pursued the ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Lara Dodo. Working across different fields and industries has meant a lot of learning for Lara. One of the most important learnings has ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Van Ton-Quinlivan. Years of experience across public, private and non-profit sectors did not prepare her for how to handle launching her business just ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Joané Booth, who is passionate about engaging with communities of color in her work at the Michigan League of Conservation Voters. She entered ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Kristen Valdes who shares lessons she has learned in building her company b.well Connected Health. Kristen Valdes, the founder and CEO of b.well ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Ying Sun. Dr. Sun is a first-gen, Asian American postdoctoral scholar. She believes people need to see the whole individual to be ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Carrie Valiant. Carrie has always been focused on outside interests during her long tenure practicing law. She thinks the best career advice is ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Valerie Sullivan who is a big believer in practice, practice, practice. She also believes you have more power than you think and tells ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Nancy Ham who has been leading and growing companies for years. If you are hesitating in your career, Nancy has some advice for ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Diane Adams. Diane’s life work has been focused on culture. And by embracing the hard, she also believes you can make the world ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Nicole Neal, who pursued additional degrees while still focusing on her career, community and family. She also aims to help other women ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Rebecca Marks, a Senior Finance Manager at Grainger headquartered in Chicago. Becca has been at Grainger for nearly ten years in a variety ...

Do not be distracted. Maritza Diaz wants her kids to be proud of Mommy. She is busy creating jobs and doesn’t have time for doubters. Laurie McGraw is speaking with ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Suzet McKinney, who shares her best advice for how to handle and break through roadblocks. Dr. Suzet McKinney, a nationally recognized public ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Susan Gross Sholinsky, an expert on those workforce issues that still exist and really matter. Susan Gross Sholinsky gives employers the tools they ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Nancy Gunzenhauser Popper, attorney and new mother who talks about the importance of her network and a supportive work environment. NANCY GUNZENHAUSER POPPER is ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Gavriella Schuster, a veteran executive with ideas and a plan to solve gender equity. Gavriella describes her BeCOME framework and urges all of ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Amy Christensen, one of private equity’s Most Influential Women of Today and Tomorrow. Amy Christensen is a Partner and founding member of The ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Katie Melbourne, systems engineer and astrophysicist, ultramarathoner, and PhD to be. Katie Melbourne is a Systems Engineer at Ball Aerospace working on the ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Sumi Pitroda, an attorney with the AMA with a clear vision that supporting women is key to growing her own career while building ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. CV Harquail, author of Feminism: A Key Idea in Business and a lifelong advocate for feminism. CV Harquail, PhD, Author, Feminism: A ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. YiDing Yu, practicing physician, executive, serial entrepreneur, YiDing Yu, MD, Chief Medical Officer Dr. YiDing Yu, MD, is a practicing physician and ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Donna Thompson, RN, MS, CEO of Access Community Health Network, one of the largest FQHC networks in the country serving 180,000 patients across ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Caitlin Fleming, Chief of Staff at Transcarent. Caitlin Fleming is Chief of Staff at Transcarent where she leads strategic initiatives and advises on ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Barbara Levy, a lifelong advocate for women’s health. Barbara Levy, M.D., FACOG, FACS, is a lifelong advocate for advancing the quality of ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Kelsey Prestesater who discusses how she forces herself to pursue new opportunities even when that means facing the uncomfortable. Kelsey Prestesater is a ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Ning Mosberger-Tang, an activist and community organizer. Ning has a background in computer science and has worked for a number of years in ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Amy Boerger who is learning the ropes of sales having started off in communications. Amy is a 2014 SUNY Oswego graduate, earning her ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Joanne Burns an accomplished C suite executive and board member. She didn’t get where she is today by being silent, and when she ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Meg Barron Vice President of Digital Health Strategy at the AMA. Meg is passionate about driving change by collaborating with physicians, technology leaders, ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Emily Blair a fifth-year Molecular Biology Ph.D. candidate. Emily Blair graduated from Pepperdine University with a B.S. in Biology. As an undergraduate, she ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Dr. Aletha Maybank, Chief Health Equity Officer & Group Vice President at the American Medical Association. Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH currently serves as ...

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Lynn Shapiro Snyder, Board Member and Senior Member of Epstein Becker Green Lynn Shapiro Snyder is a Board Member and Senior Member of Epstein ...

Advancing Women in Business: Ten Best Practices

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Chelsea Pauga, a Master’s student at the University of Chicago. Chelsea Pauga is an early career professional currently studying for her Master’s in ...