Ep 60: Creating Your Own Opportunities

[00:00:18] Ceci Connolly: Hello, everyone. Welcome again to Her Story. I’m Ceci Connolly, President and CEO of the Alliance of Community Health Plans, as well as a proud member of the advisory council of Her Story. You are being joined today by Yasmeen Long. She is a long time friend and healthcare peer of mine here in Washington, DC. As you can see, we taped this just right before the Christmas holiday. She’s got the terrific tree in the background. but you know, how it is busy women executives. We squeeze the time in where we can. So, I am going to say hello to Yasmeen and invite you to tell our listeners a little bit about your day job and about FasterCures.

[00:01:09] Yasmeen Long: Sure. Well, thank you for having me Ceci. It’s a pleasure to be here and certainly a pleasure to be interviewed by you. So I’m at FasterCures, which is a center of the Milken Institute. The Milken Institute is a nonprofit nonpartisan think tank. We focus on practical and scalable solutions to global challenges by connecting them to human, financial and educational resources. And FasterCures, which is a center of the Milken Institute, is working to build a system that is effective, efficient, and driven by clear vision patient needs above all else. So, some of the work that I focus on there is specifically on, we have a portfolio focusing on health equity across the biomedical research ecosystem. That includes focusing on diversity in clinical trials, how we look about leadership in our health research and medical workforce, and as well as creating solutions for policy development and recommendations. And so, I lead many of those efforts at FasterCures and I also lead what’s called our COVID-19 Treatment and Vaccine Tracker, which is this very large resource that’s available on our website, that we have been tracking treatments and vaccines in the development since the start of the pandemic. And it’s been a resource for the world, particularly those who are heavy in research and development. So I lead those efforts at FasterCures and it’s really a great part of my career and my professional development as well.

[00:02:27] Ceci Connolly: Well, and talk about some of the most pressing issues of the day that you just rattled off. So you’re in the thick of things right now. Let’s go back a tiny bit. Just to catch folks up a little on your background, if I’m not mistaken, you grew up here in the DC area. Is that right?

[00:02:47] Yasmeen Long: It’s true. Yes. I was born in Washington, DC. I grew up in Silver spring, which is a suburb of the DC area. So I’m a Washingtonian. I certainly consider myself that.

[00:03:00] Ceci Connolly: There are not many. And early in your career, let’s hear a little, how you got to this really important role at FasterCures. And I’m always curious to know if healthcare was a passion from early days or how you found your way to healthcare.

[00:03:19] Yasmeen Long: My mother shared with me years ago that when I was a child, I think three or four years old, I was sort of a helpmate to my great-grandmother. I was organizing her medications and organizing them by date and type, and I would give her tea or put a blanket over her legs. I remember it very vaguely because I was so young, but what struck me about that is that a three-year-old child is organizing medications by day, and I thought, wow, that’s quite remarkable. Then it’s like, oh wow. That was me. And so when I say that that was really the start of my healthcare career. I have always wanted to be a part of healthcare of it. There have been many thoughts, medical school. I entered into undergrad as a physical therapy major actually. But throughout my time in school, in grade school, and then throughout college, I knew that this was the career for me, because it really spoke to my heart and it comes naturally because I believe that perhaps there’s some healing qualities. I like to heal. I like to make people feel better and I want people to be healthy with their nutritional habits and their health care. It just comes natural to me.

[00:04:25] Ceci Connolly: Well, that’s terrific. And I’m picturing you with your great-grandmother. I had the opportunity to spend time around my great-grandmother. I think the two of us might be a little bit rare in that sense.

[00:04:37] Yasmeen Long: It’s special.

[00:04:38] Ceci Connolly: What an amazing opportunity for you. So as you kind of came up in the ranks in healthcare, and you are quite young to be so accomplished, so I know we also want to talk about vision and what’s ahead. But as you were coming up, were there particular opportunities that came your way that might offer some guidance for other women, in particular. How did you get to this important place?

[00:05:09] Yasmeen Long: I’ll start back to my undergrad years. I graduated from Howard University with a degree in health sciences. It’s actually a health management degree, which combines healthcare science and business as a part of that degree program. And that was quite rewarding for me. This, I must say. I’m also Howard legacy. I’m a third generation Howard University graduate. My mother graduated from Howard, as well as my grandfather. Her father graduated from Howard with his master’s that he used to get with the GI Bill funds. And then my grandmother, my mother’s mother, worked at Howard’s School of Fine Arts for 20 years in the administration department. And then I was also a preschool kid at Howard. So there’s a lot of legacy there. But that was the beginning of my sort of leadership journey, because my education there, they really do instill in you leadership qualities, what it means to be a leader. And sometimes you have to be a leader and things that people don’t teach you, you have to figure it out. I spent a lot of time, throughout my career, having to figure things out. And I can explain that a little bit later, but when I was graduating Howard there was a thought that literally came into my head and that thought was you should work at Johns Hopkins. And so what I did was is I set up a plan that I was going to move to Baltimore. I was living in the DC area. And living in Baltimore at the time, the rents were cheaper than they were in DC and I was just thrilled to have my own apartment with no roommates, as like about 22 years old here. And so I thought to myself, well, I could move to Baltimore, try to get a position at Hopkins, and then I can have my own apartment. I mean, I was really that.Thoughtful about it. And so it wasn’t that easy to get into Johns Hopkins. It’s a very large institution. And sometimes in large institutions, at least in my experiences, when they’re familiar with you, it’s sort of easier to get in there. So I had a plan. I became a temp. And during my time temping, I happened to temp with some of the best minds in medicine and public health, and ended up working ultimately at Johns Hopkins for 11 years of my career. So that was like, so I graduated Howard and I worked at Hopkins because that was my plan to work at, or learn at, an institution that’s one of the best health and public health medicine and public health institutions in the world. And so I sought out big time. I always say, go big or go home. So I went big and I temped and ended up sort of networking and building relationships with the faculty there. And ultimately I was hired for a full-time position and I grew quite a bit at my time there working in chronic diseases and health disparities and patient physician communication, working in chronic kidney disease and end stage renal disease, working in HIV prevention and microbicide development. And then I had, one of my final stints there was working in global health policy, where I traveled quite a bit internationally. So as you can see, I gained a significant amount of skills there. This is, I think, one of the great things about working in an academic institution as a staff member I’d say, is that I also took advantage of the opportunities that they provided, so you’d get tuition remission and all those types of things. So I amassed other types of, I took different courses and wanted to build my skillset as best as I could. I did not have like a mentor who took me under their wing and sort of coddled me along. I always wanted to have that, but I didn’t. Now, it didn’t mean I didn’t have help or people that supported me along the way that I worked with. I don’t mean it that way. But oftentimes there’s that sort of, oh, well we see something special in her. We’ll take her under our wing. I just never had that in the way that I envisioned it, I see how that works with others. Now that did not discourage me from executing the vision that I had for myself, because I’ve always been very determined and thoughtful and intentional about what I do so that it makes an impact for people and also supports me as well.

[00:08:57] Ceci Connolly: Wow. Well, determined was coming to mind as I was listening to you recounting that. And talk about focus as well. And that probably leads to one of the great Her Story questions that we often like to pose in these conversations. And in your case, would you describe yourself as an accidental or an intentional leader?

[00:09:20] Yasmeen Long: You know, I would say a little bit of both. I would say more intentional because I tend to operate intentionally. I don’t do things by accident. I mean, accidents happen, but I typically don’t. So I usually think critically and I strategize, how do I want to get there? What are the means I need to do to get there? Are there financial resources? Are there human resources? Are there other things I need to gain and learn? I don’t know why I’m that way. I just am, but that’s worked out very well for me. I’ve always been very determined and focused and always, slightly, kind of had that want to prove myself kind of thing. And so I think that has worked out well for me, but at times there’s a different side of that where you can also overwork yourself and I’ve learned not to do that as well. But I would say I’m definitely intentional. But throughout my career, there have been opportunities that I have had that weren’t intentional. Like I was intending to do this, but then something else came along that was even better than I could have expected and just took me to another level in my career. So some of that is by chance, but I would consider myself an intentional leader.

[00:10:32] Ceci Connolly: So, along the way, talk to us about the fact that you have navigated this incredible trajectory and journey as a woman, as a black woman. And to what extent have you found those characteristics to be advantageous, problematic? What has been the experience of a black woman, specifically, aiming to succeed in places such as University, Johns Hopkins, FasterCures navigating Washington, Baltimore. Maybe you can reflect on that.

[00:11:12] Yasmeen Long: Yeah. I’m taking a deep breath, like even thinking sometimes when, you know, I’m at a point in my life now that, let’s say, when you’re 25, 10 years before you were 15, so I’m not 25. However, I can look back whatever many years ago I was still an adult. So the reason I say that is sometimes I look back in my life and career and I’m just like, wow, I can’t believe I did all that, but I think, some of the things that… it is challenging. It’s very challenging. I’ve always had to sort of be, that’s why I’m so intentional. I like to work with quality. I like to work with integrity. I like to work with honesty. I’m naturally that type of person, and I’m naturally a very gregarious person. So that helps with building relationships and networking. I have a knack for that. And I think that’s helpful, no matter what your race or ethnicity is. However I would say some of the challenges I’ve experienced is quite frankly being very much overlooked undermined, underestimated, and ignored. I would say those would be the challenges. And I say that because it doesn’t matter the talents and the education or the background you have. If people make a judgment about you by the way your skin color is, they might lose an opportunity to have that sort of intellectual contribution. It’s a part of your life. When I say it’s part of your life, there’s all kinds of discriminatory practices that take place in the workforce. I have certainly experienced many of them, but not as many as others. And again, that’s why I say sometimes it depends on who you work with. Sometimes it depends on the ,institution. Sometimes it depends on your own thought process. And sometimes it just depends on how much you’re willing to tolerate and accept. It’s like, I’m a human being just like everyone else. And I deserve that respect. So I tend to go into things thinking like that, and that is also challenging as well, because there’s all kinds of images and things that we see in media that are inaccurate when it comes to black women, at least the way that I see myself and the way I was raised in my home and my family, and I come from a lineage of very strong and fearless black women. And so I think some of that has rubbed off on me. So if I needed to figure out how to navigate a challenge, then I had those resources within my family to say, well, how do I navigate this? And so you have to be savvy not only in your work, but you also have to be savvy in how someone might think about you, might portray you. And then you have to sort of do that dance. There isn’t a way to explain how to do it, but you really do have to take care of yourself. And I always say, if you don’t believe in yourself, nobody else will.

[00:13:47] Ceci Connolly: Terrific advice. Coming back to that notion of maybe being ignored or overlooked or, I frequently had the experiences of being the lone woman in the room, in the meeting, on the team, whatever it is. And I see you nodding your head as well. So if you think back to any of those circumstances, what were some of your strategies?

[00:14:12] Yasmeen Long: Let’s see. Well, one, and I was nodding my head at that comment because one of the positions I had working at Mass General and Harvard, I was a full-time graduate student. And I went to grad school about 11 years, worked at Hopkins for nine, went to Boston, and then came back to Hopkins and then ended my time there. I was working part time as like an office manager for this group of biomedical physicists. I do not have physics experience. And I also was a part-time intern at the Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health. So, I was burning the candle on both ends, as they say. Again, I don’t even know how I did all that. But the position with the biomedical physicist, I was like the lab manager, but I was the only woman on the team. And I was the only American on the team as well. And that was an interesting experience. One, learning from these scientists doing cutting edge things I’d never seen before, building lasers and equipment and all kinds of imaging, really fantastic group of people and I still talk to the person who was my supervisor to this day. Wonderful man. Because that experience, all of the men on the team were not American and they were born and lived in their country, so it wasn’t like they had been here for years, but some of them, but that was a different type of experience than being in the room. I find that in the US our healthcare and medicine, it’s a lot of women in this field. I haven’t experienced too much in the U S in terms of being like the only woman. I’ve certainly experienced being the only black woman in rooms. That does not intimidate me. The way that I grew up in Silver Spring, I grew up incredibly diverse. I think in my high school, like every country was represented in my high school,or something like that. So, being around people of different ethnicities, whether they’re from another country, whether they are first-generation, whether they’re here or… I think just growing up in that type of environment sort of equipped me to be myself in no matter what situation I’m in. So in that situation, with working with those physicists, again, being the only woman, but then as time went on, I learned how they worked and it was a different type of environment. I wasn’t treated poorly or anything like that. So that’s just the experience I’ve had in that case, but certainly I’ve had experiences of being the one and only black person in the room, but it is what it is.

[00:16:34] Ceci Connolly: Yasmeen. Another question that we really like to ask at Her Story is, in your view, what do you think has been a characteristic that’s given you an edge? I mean, such an accomplished career. Can you tell us your secret recipe?

[00:16:51] Yasmeen Long: Sure. I think what really changed my life, quite frankly, and my career Ceci is, well I’ve had really great opportunities throughout my career, and I’m very appreciative of them and the people I’ve worked with throughout the years as well. But one position in particular where I was working in global health and policy, and this was at Johns Hopkins. And I was traveling for three years, so I went to Bangladesh, I went to China, I went to India. I went to Egypt. I went to Indonesia, I went to Turkey. And I’m going to tell you, there is no better education than international travel. And I say that because as someone, I consider myself an academic. I don’t have a terminal academic degree. That’s something I’ve tried, but I’ve moved on. You just keep moving, you keep it moving as I like to say. But, I had so many experiences with that, with those travels. Good ones and bad ones. Some of those bad ones included issues with personal safety or things like that. But overall, those environments, I don’t know how to explain it, but it certainly builds your character in a way. And when you see how others live in other countries, regardless of social economic status, their culture, how they do business, the foods that they eat, those are very enlightening experiences that I think really toughen me up. And one, those are some really long flights, those are some far travels. So you have to kind of develop some calluses to sort of handle that. It taught me how to think a little bit differently about things, one to get out of my own head, get over myself. But I mean that in a way, because my experience in the United States and I’m from here, my parents are from here for generations. But you know, we have our culture, the way that we live and there’s other cultures in which people live in other countries. And it’s just good to understand and observe and see that that’s just a part of the world. When you experience those sort of things, like, for example, I’m talking to someone in the US, if I see you Ceci, I’m like, oh, hi, give me a hug. But that might not be appropriate in another country. And so you have to learn that fast. No one teaches you those kinds of things. They may teach you this and where to go. But when it comes to having to interact with people, you have to learn it on the spot. And so that toughened me up quite a bit and a lot of things I saw and experienced. So I think that was something that was very helpful for me. It certainly matured me and it really did take my sort of leadership and project management and program management development experience to the next level, because I was not only juggling sort of technical things, but also how to do business with other folks and learn how they want things to work and you have to find a balance and you really have to find a way to reach common ground. And I think that can be very challenging. It is very challenging, but it builds character.

[00:19:50] Ceci Connolly: It’s so interesting listening to you recounting those stories. And even though we’ve known each other a while, I did not realize how much international travel you’d done. And it’s bringing me back to my years in Latin America and the same feeling. I mean, I thought, as a Washington Post reporter, I was pretty tough and had a bunch of challenging situations and that sort of thing. And certainly hurricane Katrina was up there in the list. But getting to Latin America, and I remember when I was first sent to language school in Guatemala and I arrived on a Sunday. Nothing was open on a Sunday. I mean, nothing. I did not have any sort of telephone that worked in that country yet. I was staying with a family that did not have a telephone. They had already had their meal for the day, so there was nowhere to find food. No hot water. And I just remember landing and thinking, oh my goodness, how inept am I here? But the richness of those experiences and you find it within yourself and you learn, in Latin America, everybody hugs. So it’s so neat to hear you recounting that. And I couldn’t agree more. I do want to ask you to maybe offer, for a lot of the women listening for sure,many young women inspired by all that you’ve achieved, have you got a good piece of advice, lesson learned, especially some of those younger women that would love to follow in your footsteps?

[00:21:31] Yasmeen Long: Just to repeat what I had said earlier, if you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will, right? And I think that’s a helpful piece of advice for all women, but particularly black and brown women. When people might not believe in you or they tell you this, or they have all kinds of thought processes just aren’t true. And that’s challenging, but you really have to stick to your core. And whatever that is, and it doesn’t matter what age you are, what can you do for yourself to make yourself feel better and feel good and stay focused? For example, journaling, exercising, reading books, dancing, whatever it is you do. So there is a strong self care component that I think ,early in my career, and sometimes later, too, that I didn’t adhere to as much. But getting enough sleep, for example, the simple things, but that’s how we work with high quality. That’s how we get to enjoy our lives by taking care of ourselves. So, I think that that’s the first thing you’d have to do. The work will be waiting for you the next day, right? It will be there. It will be there, but first you have to take care of yourself. And then the second thing I would say is I’ve always been a sort of focused and determined person. But when I was younger, I think that sort of overlooked everything. And I wished I had spent more time cultivating my personal relationships. I have friends, I have many friends I’ve grown up with all my years, but then when you get a bit older and you’re building a family and those kinds of things. So I’m a bit of a late bloomer there and I’ll get there, but, when I was younger, I would say to women, stay mindful and keep your eyes out for building those relationships and partnerships and companionships that you’ll have for your life.

[00:23:11] Ceci Connolly: Oh, such excellent advice for all of us on every step of the journey. I can’t tell you what a delight this conversation has been for me, Yasmeen, and just, I want to share with our audience, check out her great work at FasterCures and I can attest, she comes from a family of amazing women. I’m just going to leave it at that and thank Yasmeen

[00:23:37] Yasmeen Long: Thank you Ceci.