Ep 40: Are You an Accidental or Intentional Leader? Part II

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Ivelyse Andino
Founder and CEO, Radical Health

Ivelyse Andino is an award-winning, Afro-Latina, health equity innovator born and raised in the Bronx. She is a Roddenberry Fellow, as well as the founder and CEO of Radical Health and a Commissioner on the NYC Commission on Gender Equity. 

In founding Radical Health — the first Latina-owned-and-operated Benefit Corp in NYC — she combined her expertise in healthcare and her passion as a community organizer. Coming from a historically marginalized community herself, Ivelyse initially built Radical Health around her kitchen table and hearing first-hand from voices who are otherwise never given a say in their own healthcare destiny. 

Through Radical Health, Ivelyse is transforming healthcare by facilitating healthcare fluency and self-advocacy, as well as forging a relationship between meaningful face-to-face conversations with cutting-edge technology.

Emily Yudofsky
Co-Founder and CEO, Found

Emily Yudofsky is Co-Founder and CEO of Found. Emily is the daughter of two academic physicians who have devoted their careers to teaching and publishing about the importance of considering the psychological, biological, and social dimensions of mental illness.  She saw first hand how her parents’ efforts helped to destigmatize mental health conditions and resulted in optimal care for their patients.

Along with her lifelong passion for health and wellness, this sensitized Emily to the fact that obesity and other weight-related conditions were still being treated with outdated models that overemphasized willpower at the expense of addressing the biological, psychological, and social factors at play. Therein, the idea for Found was born.  Emily completed her undergraduate education at Yale University, where she studied Psychology and Neuroscience and conducted research on the effects of advertising on health-related decision making, and graduated with honors. Prior to starting Found, Emily received her M.B.A. from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and was an early employee at X (formally Google X), The Moonshot Factory. She currently resides in San Francisco.

Ruth Williams-Brinkley
President, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States, Inc.

Ruth Williams-Brinkley is president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States, Inc. In this role, Williams-Brinkley oversees all of Kaiser Permanente’s care delivery and health plan operations in Washington, D.C., and suburban Maryland, Baltimore, and Northern Virginia. The Mid-Atlantic States Region operates 34 medical office buildings and has 768,154 members.

Williams-Brinkley reports to the group president for markets outside California, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Hospitals.

Williams-Brinkley joined Kaiser Permanente in November 2017, serving as president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals of the Northwest. She oversaw all of Kaiser Permanente’s care delivery and health plan operations in Oregon and markets in Vancouver and Longview/Kelso, Washington.

Prior to that she served as CEO of KentuckyOne Health, Kentucky’s largest integrated health system. KentuckyOne was a division of CommonSpirit Health, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit health systems.

Prior to her tenure with KentuckyOne, Williams-Brinkley served as president and CEO of Carondelet Health Network in Tucson, Arizona, and as president and CEO of Memorial Healthcare System in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Sumbul Desai, M.D.
Vice President of Health, Apple

Sumbul Desai, MD currently serves as Vice President of Health at Apple, overseeing health initiatives including clinical product development, innovative clinical partnerships and medical research. She also leads the regulatory and quality teams at Apple. Apple is also working with the best in the medical field, including Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the American Heart Association, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Johns Hopkins University, to conduct landmark health studies and advance discovery with the ResearchKit and CareKit platforms. Apple recently launched its ECG, Irregular Heart Rhythm, Hearing and Women’s Health features to continue its work in Health. Apple also recently worked with the CDC to launch the Apple COVID-19 app and website, to provide up-to-date resources and guidance to people across the US.

Dr. Desai recently served as Vice-Chair of Strategy and Innovation in the Department of Medicine at Stanford Medicine, as well as Associate Chief Medical Officer at Stanford Healthcare. She also serves as Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine.

Lisa David
President and CEO, Public Health Solutions

Lisa David is the President and CEO of Public Health Solutions (PHS). She leads the organization to support vulnerable families in achieving optimal health and building pathways to reach their potential. Under Lisa’s guidance, PHS improves health outcomes and helps underserved families thrive by providing services within communities that need them most, serving as a critical link in public-private partnerships with government agencies to support over 200 community-based organizations across the city, and conducting independent research to evaluate program impact.

Lisa has over 30 years of experience in the public health and healthcare sectors. Prior to joining PHS, she held positions as the Interim CEO of Medicines360, the EVP and COO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the Vice Chair for Administration of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Columbia School of Physicians and Surgeons. Lisa currently serves on the Health and Mental Hygiene Advisory Council and the Health and Mental Health Advisory Committee for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Policy Committee of the United Hospital Fund, the Priority and Strategy Council of the Human Services Council, and the New York City Mayor’s Public Health Advisory Council. She also serves on the board of directors of Medicines360, the board of trustees of the Women’s Health Activist Movement Global (WHAMglobal), and the board of National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI).

“I love being a leader because I'm able to have such influence and bring people together to build them into teams" – Ruth Williams-Brinkley

Transcript

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Sanjula Jain (0:05)

All leaders share a story of how they came into leadership. Some follow a driven path to seek out the opportunity while others find themselves presented with the opportunity unexpectedly. In this special edition of Her Story, we’ve asked a few of our guests if they consider themselves to be accidental or intentional leaders.

First, we hear from Ivelyse Andino, Founder and CEO of Radical Health.

Ivelyse Andino (0:29)

I would definitely say this was accidental, but it’s a hard one to choose because I often say that my entry into healthcare was determined by the zip code I was born into. We all know in healthcare, your zip code determines your health, but for real, where I was born in the Bronx and where I live now is what shaped me back then, gave me a passion and a drive. I often say, what I do today, as professional as it is, it’s personal for me. It was a lot like a ping pong ball back and forth accidentally getting me to where I am today.

Sanjula Jain (1:08)

Next, we hear from Emily Yudofsky, Co-Founder and CEO of Found.

Emily Yudofsky (1:12)

I think more intentional because I love problem-solving and coming up with new solutions for things that exist. If I’m shopping in a grocery store and I see something done in a certain way, I’m always thinking, “How could that be done better?” Because of that quality, I’ve always wanted to start something of my own. I love improving systems and the way things are done at every level of the business. Earlier I mentioned starting small businesses as a kid. This has always been a dream of mine so it’s exciting to be here today finally doing it for real if you will.

Sanjula Jain (1:55)

Next is Lisa David, the President and CEO of Public Health Solutions. 

Lisa David (1:58)

It’s funny because I’ve moved from place to place with a network of help so, in some respects, I wind up being CEO accidentally though I will say I never aspired to be a CEO until I went through the legacy program that you set up. I never stepped back. My whole lens was impact, not power, so I never set out to be a CEO. I can’t say I’m an intentional leader, but I have felt like you don’t need to be a CEO to be a leader. I felt like I’ve been a leader in every single one of the roles I’ve had. In that respect, it is intentional. If you focus on where you are and think about the bold ideas you can put in place and make them happen, you’re going to have impact and you’re going to grow, so it’s a little bit of both.

Sanjula Jain (2:45)

Next is Dr. Sumbul Desai, the Vice President of Health at Apple.

Sumbul Desai (2:52)

I would say a little bit of both. I definitely was an accidental leader in terms of how things evolved for me, but now I try to be much more intentional about my leadership. I find that reflecting and taking some time at the end of the day to reflect, “Did I do this well? Or did I not do this well?” I’ve also gotten into the habit of getting a lot of feedback from my leaders or counterparts or colleagues. Now I try to be much more intentional about how I lead, but I also think there’s always accidental, like when you’re in new spaces and you’re innovating, there are things that happen accidentally and then you have to take that and run with it. If I were to categorize that, I would say I do a little bit of both.

Sanjula Jain (3:35)

I’m wrapping us up with Ruth Williams-Brinkley, president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States.

Ruth Williams-Brinkley (3:42)

I view myself as an intentional leader, I didn’t go into management or leadership, thinking that I would love to do that. However, after my first leadership role, I was hooked. And I love being a leader because you have such influence and such an ability to bring people together and build them into teams. So after that first time, I was very intentional. I didn’t naturally go into nursing. It was a career that my grandmother guided me into. And once I was in it, I found that I really liked it. And so I worked as a clinical nurse for years. And then I had the opportunity to get my first management role as a nurse manager. And I found that I really enjoyed it. And after that, I just kept doing different things. And I would say that my career progression has been defined by saying yes to opportunities, when I would be offered an opportunity, just as with my first role, I would say yes, and I didn’t always know that I could master the role. But I knew I knew enough to really do the role pretty well. And I just kept saying yes, and it has been a great progression. And I’m very thankful.

Sanjula Jain (5:10)

Her Story is a podcast produced by Think Medium. For more stories, tune in every Wednesday. Please subscribe to Her Story on Apple podcasts or wherever you’re listening right now. You can also access Her Story episodes and videos on YouTube and other mediums on our website, thinkmedium.com/herstory. Be sure to rate and review her story so we can continue bringing you stories from inspiring women leaders across the country, expanding our vision of what is possible in healthcare. In addition to subscribing and rating, we found that podcasts are known through word of mouth, and we appreciate your spreading the word to friends, family colleagues, and mentors who might be interested. For questions and suggestions about Her Story. Contact us at herstory@thinkmedium.com. Thanks for listening.

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