Author: Operations

Marcia Alesan Dawkins, PhD
Sr. Research Scientist & Founding Co-Lead of Center for Creative Leadership’s Latinx & Hispanic ERG

Latinx & Hispanic Heritage Month plays a complicated role in present-day U.S. society. Research reveals the Latinx population as the largest minority group in the U.S., and the second fastest growing. This month (and every month) we take time to honor and recognize the Latinx community: a wide-spanning, endlessly nuanced population who reimagines and reshapes leadership, arts, advocacy, language, and all facets of American culture in the face of consistent discrimination and xenophobia.

First, some history. Hispanic Heritage Month (which now also goes by Latinx Heritage Month) began as “Hispanic Heritage Week” when 20 congressmen introduced it as a joint resolution in 1968. The initial resolution states the purpose is “to recognize, cherish, and conserve the many cultural contributions of the people who have helped achieve the greatness of our Nation.” President Johnson issued a proclamation formalizing the celebration week, which later became a month-long honor thanks to efforts of California Congressman Esteban Torres in 1988. Latinx & Hispanic Heritage Month now takes place from September 15th – October 15th. This timespan coincides with Independence Day for eight Latin countries.

Next, why this month matters. Because representation matters. Change and challenge matter.  As we celebrate the presence and creative contributions our community makes, we must acknowledge Latinx and Hispanic Americans face unique challenges, especially when it comes to health and wellbeing. For instance, even as Latinx and Hispanic Americans are likely to live an average of 1.3 years longer than their non-Hispanic white counterparts, they are generally in poorer health: CDC data shows that in 2022 approximately 16 percent of Latinx and Hispanic adults were in fair or poor health, compared to 13.5 percent of non-Hispanic white adults. Latinx and Hispanic health is shaped by several factors , including language and cultural barriers, lack of access to preventative care, and lack of health insurance. People who lack access to quality healthcare are less likely to receive preventative care and more likely to have chronic health conditions and die prematurely.

So, what can we do? We can start by being as transparent about our challenges as we are about our change-making.  At the Center for Creative Leadership, we engage this polarity with our theme: “Unidad en la Diversidad,” or “Unity in Diversity.” We believe this concept captures the essence of our community. We come from different countries and backgrounds, speak languages like Spanish, English, Portuguese, Yucatec Maya, Quechua, Nahuatl, and many others. We have unique cultural traditions and expressions. Yet we are united by a common heritage and shared values.  Diversity enriches us all and is one of our greatest strengths. Benefitting from diversity requires creating the conditions to overcome its challenges.

Join us in learning how.  You can listen to our curated playlist called Unidos y Diversos, featuring popular Hispanic and Latinx musical artists. Music leads by bringing people together through rhythm and melody to highlight challenge and change.  You can watch our LinkedIn Live conversation Thursday, October 12, 2023 at 11:30am Eastern Time, focused on developing inclusive leaders, featuring Hispanic voices discussing challenges and change-making across various backgrounds and industries. You can support the community economically and socially. Click on this resource map highlighting Hispanic and Latinx-owned small businesses, creators, and community organizations addressing challenges and making change. You can savor visual art by North Carolina Heritage Award Winner, Cornelio Campos, depicting the theme of unity within diversity as it relates to leadership. Art sparks change and leads the way to new futures in which we can overcome the challenges we face.

Like colorful threads woven together, our differences make the global tapestry richer and more vibrant. Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month is about inclusion, not exclusion. Unity, not division. When we take time to understand, appreciate, and celebrate Hispanic and Latinx communities, we build mutual understanding and respect among all cultural groups. We show our shared humanity and common future bind us together.  We partner with The Carol Emmott Foundation as we inspire leaders to act at individual and system levels. The challenges faced by Latinx communities require courageous leaders to take compassionate action. Let’s champion connection, community, and care and carry the spirit of Hispanic Heritage Month all year long. We can make it happen with courageous empathy, active listening, and bold conversation.

I leave you with the words of Ricardo Alberto Maldonado, President of the Academy of American Poets. We celebrate this time as “an honor // para nosotres/for us // and an expanding definition of whom an us could be, with an open and generous heart // we will be here.”   United and diverse.

¡Nos deseo a todos un feliz Mes Nacional de la Herencia Hispana!

by Felisa Schneider, Chief Operating Officer, The Carol Emmott Foundation

The last thing I expected would energize my commitment to our work in gender equity in healthcare leadership was a podcast on Criminal by Voxmedia Podcast Network. I was on a late-night flight, clicking on random downloads, when I found myself listening to an inspirational talk by Dr. Dudley Flood.

Dr. Flood was a key figure in desegregating the North Carolina school system. He shared his experiences of blatant racism and untenable situations with the wisdom that extraordinary circumstances generate. I have read and heard numerous accounts of injustice, but what struck me about this story was his thoughtful perspective, his innate understanding of “the human condition,” of the good and the bad. There was a steady focus on the hope of a better future. There was a focus on – and belief of – the ability of people to connect and truly listen to understand. And there was the perspective that humanity can be ignorant, cruel, and confusing, and yet we are all still human.

I am often asked why I do the work I do. Why continue to push against an overpowering system that perpetuates biases which are incorporated into its scaffolding? Why fight for equal pay when it is not something that will come to fruition in my lifetime? Why spend time solving issues that are seemingly unresolvable? Although we can envision what a just world could look like, do we really believe there will be a time in history when all issues are solved? When biases are acknowledged and dealt with, and all humans treat each other as equals? That the system is fixed to the extent that organizations like ours are no longer needed?

No, I do not believe that a specific moment in time will come when all wrongs are righted. But if it does, I certainly do not believe that moment will stay in place forever. And this is where being okay with being human plays a role. Humans are complicated and messy. We disagree. We have opinions and biases formed by our personal experiences, our predispositions, our family lives, our education, our religion, our society. We have strong, profound feelings that drive our values. When there is more than one human in a room, the politics of maneuvering and working with another being always come into play.

I am not tied to an imagined perfect outcome of an equitable, utopic world. Rather, I am tied to the process of continuously instilling hope that we are making our way toward a better world. Hope is key to continuing the pursuit of betterment of any type. I believe in the process itself of bringing together community, the power of connection and listening, and the ability of humans to touch other humans’ lives. And I experience through our work daily the strides we are making toward a world of equal opportunity and access. I see our Fellows using their influence to make noticeable differences. I see top leadership at incredible health institutions invested in making their organizations better for all humans. I see the success of my work at the Foundation through them. And I see their successes throughout the process of this journey that we are all taking. I am motivated by the understanding that if we can affect change in gender equity in the top leadership of an industry that represents 18% of the US economy, we will see real transformation that will have a ripple effect throughout our world.

We are currently interviewing the nominees for the Fellowship Class of 2024. I have participated in almost every interview since we started seven years ago. I marvel at the constant themes we see around the need for increased access, inclusion, improving patients’ lives, women’s rights, and more. I do not think there is one blueprint that any one of us believes will lead to the creation of a flawless system. It is instead the continued process of striving to make the world a better place that spurs them on and drives my work. It is living the process itself and connecting with others that create the constructive changes we seek. Dr. Flood’s work was successful because he brought together people with divergent thinking and ensured they felt heard. He created a new sense of community that could work together toward building a better future.

And so, we continue to do what we do best. We build community, and we listen to understand. We work together to find solutions and inspire others to create positive change. We acknowledge our humanity and our flaws. At the same time, we continue to feel hope. And we celebrate the successes, big and small, along the way.

By Douglas Riddle, The Carol Emmott Foundation Curriculum Director

You can never do just one thing. Everything is connected, which means that the consequences of certain choices reverberate through whole systems. That certainly is the case with the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The case ended the right to abortion prior to the viability of the fetus. The downstream consequences of that choice go far beyond the plaintiffs’ wish to prevent the deaths of those they call “the unborn,” and the net result may very well result in more human death than what they hoped to prevent.

Let’s start with the most immediate consequence of Dobbs.

In many states with new restrictions on abortion, Sg2 (Vizient’s analytics and consulting company) estimates that Dobbs will result in over 150,000 new live births. Of those, 17,000 or more will be pre-term births with an unknown impact on nursery intensive care. Think carefully about the societal consequences of this many new children added to social safety net services, like food stamps, Medicaid, and so on. This impact will be disproportionate because 49% of current abortions are to patients living below the poverty line. The already disturbing generational patterns of poverty and exclusion can be expected to be amplified, particularly because the most strict limitations or outright bans on abortion are governed by legislatures and governors with known antipathy toward funding social services. Our cultural habit of blaming the victims of unjust systems will be fed more fuel if past patterns are continued.

How about the impact on healthcare, especially women’s care? The news is full of articles describing the reluctance of obstetricians to move to states where reproductive rights are being targeted by lawmakers. The Washington Post reported last year that the president of Merritt Hawkins cited 20 situations where candidates refused to consider moving to states with abortion bans. Hospitals across the nation have closed or indicated their intention to close labor and delivery services in states that have restricted abortion and, in many cases, criminalized physicians for care that politicians have decided violates the law. The uncertainty generated by shifting rules and political climates that encourage vigilantism with respect to women’s health services are expected to increase the areas across our country where access to maternity care is limited or inaccessible. Beyond maternity care there are hospital and provider liability issues which increase the cost of all healthcare and may reduce access to emergency contraception and preventive health services, not to mention fertility services.

This is all taking place in an environment where we are seeing an increased incidence of high-risk deliveries, requiring expensive NICUs. At current trends, 40% of pregnancies will be high risk by 2033 according to Sg2, exacerbating the distressing rates of maternal mortality that are also rising significantly for all racial and ethnic groups in the United States, especially Black women.

The truth is that the focus on abortion as the single issue misleads us. The restrictions and bans on abortion are part and parcel of a governance culture that ignores or punishes care for women and those who care for women. The habits of underestimating women and dismissing women’s experiences and viewpoints are woven into our history and practices. We are still at the beginning of taking the unique needs and resources of women into consideration, and the consequences of Dobbs are an indication of how far we have to go.

By Jeri Koester, Heather Nelson, CHCIO, Lisa S. Stump, FASHP
Published in partnership with the American College of Healthcare Executives

The genie is out of the bottle: artificial intelligence. Generative AI. ChatGPT. It’s all the buzz now. In healthcare IT, CIOs are being asked by leaders, physicians and staff: “Can we use ChatGPT?” “Is ChatGPT safe … accurate … will it save me time?” ChatGPT holds incredible promise to streamline work on harried clinicians, to enhance communication with patients and to drive efficiencies in many administrative functions. So, what is the role of the CIO when it comes to partnering with your organization to define the who, what, when, why and how of it all?

Generative AI is not like traditional software solutions such as an EHR that has been implemented and supported, optimized and managed through a governance process. Generative AI is a dynamic and learning technology that can produce varied types of content, including essays, images, poems or computer code. It can solve problems and even summarize large volumes of content. It is a very powerful tool, and as Winston Churchill said, “Where there is great power there is great responsibility.”

The potential for generative AI to augment and complement our work is very exciting—and a bit frightening. What if the AI model builds its conclusions and recommendations off a data set wrought with bias? We have software modules that help clinicians identify disparities and care gaps in their patient populations (remember the boom of “pop health tools” in 2013 and 2014?) with the hope they will allow us to demarginalize cohorts of patients and focus on caring for the individual when and where they need it. While we continue to enhance those technologies and slice and dice the data from them, does AI introduce another hurdle we will need to climb to ensure health equity for our patients?

AI is also giving patients the opportunity to do more of their own due diligence before stepping into the doctor’s office or sitting in front of a screen for a virtual visit. We know how, in some instances, physicians and care team members can do the very same thing. Who is responsible for validating the information that scrolls onto our screen when it is asked a question? How can we as patients feel secure knowing that the conversations, the diagnosis and the treatment plan are from a trained provider and not some algorithm on an AI site? Does this change how we disclose, store or use data for research? Will consent forms need to be changed to reflect this emergent new world?

All of this is to say, healthcare leaders need a thoughtful plan that carefully evaluates the use of AI tools to identify and mitigate any unintended consequences, to protect the privacy of our patient data, to maintain the confidentiality of intellectual property and business intelligence, and to avoid the propagation of misinformation that could significantly affect healthcare decisions and health outcomes. This means that we need to think about what data is shared with AI platforms and how the data is delivered and used.

This will require strong governance and accountability, guided by the input of privacy and compliance experts, technology leaders, legal advisers and clinicians. While we work to establish the right protections, we want to encourage the innovation and flexibility to explore and study these tools within those boundaries, exercising caution and constraint around this exciting exploration.

It is on all of us to ensure this new opportunity is purposeful, effective and safe. It also needs to be transparent and explainable to clinicians, care teams and patients. Healthcare is built on trust between care teams and patients. This technology must not be allowed to damage that empathetic relationship; put to good use, it should augment the care we provide.

Striking this balance is no small effort. By coming together as an industry on this, we can ensure that these innovations make a positive impact that benefits us all.

Jeri Koester, Carol Emmott Fellow Class of 2017, is chief information and digital officer, Marshfield Clinic Health System.

Heather Nelson, CHCIO, Carol Emmott Fellow Class of 2020, is the senior vice president/CIO, Boston Children’s Hospital.

Lisa S. Stump, FASHP, Carol Emmott Fellow Class of 2018, is the senior vice president/chief information and digital transformation officer, Yale New Haven Health System and Yale Medicine.

By Stella Cao, MS, MPA, FACHE, Fellowship Class of 2022
Director of Managed Care, San Francisco Department of Public Health

At The Carol Emmott Foundation Annual Conference 2023, I had the opportunity to share a story of how I became my strongest self through a reckoning of my mental health. I shared this story with many of whom I had just met to provide a safe space for others in the conference to open up and talk about their own mental health journeys.

As a follow up to the conference, I wanted to share my reflections on the root causes that prevented me from seeking timely treatment, how I felt after treatment, and what I have been able to accomplish since my anxiety has been under control.

The root causes of my anxiety can be summed up in the following three areas:

1. My perception of mental health in relation to physical harm

I did not know what trauma or childhood trauma was until I saw my first therapist in 2011 in San Francisco. “Craziness” and “psychological abnormality” were the common terms used to define mental illness by villagers in my hometown in China. What we understood back then was that no one had ever died from mental illness or committed suicide because of it. On the other hand, everyone knew that if we did not have enough food to eat and clean water to drink, we would certainly die fast. Since we did not know anyone died from mental illness, no one had the time or resources to better understand what mental health really was and what the treatment options were in the 1970s and 1980s.

2. The stigma associated with mental illness

There were serious consequences once someone was labelled as psychologically abnormal. It could ruin one’s marriage prospects, for example, and the person with mental illness was very likely to be single for the rest of his life. This was because traditionally marriages were arranged, and both sets of parents would inquire about their child’s marriage prospect in the surrounding area before committing their child to a marriage, making sure that he was truly the person he and his parents claimed to be. No family wanted to marry off their daughter or son to someone who was “abnormal.” Since we did not have the resources to better understand, diagnose, and treat mental illness, the villagers assumed that mental illness was genetic and there was no cure for this “abnormality.” After all, no one wanted to possibly have defective children and grandchildren with uncurable diseases.

3. The myths about western medicine

My family and many around me believed in natural healing. We trusted that as long as we slept well, exercised, and ate appropriately, good health would come our way. Because of that, my family resisted any treatment of illness using western medicine unless we had life threatening health issues such as bodily injury, pain, or high fever. From childhood I had been programmed to be skeptical about western medicine. I was frequently told that western medicine may cure symptoms at a faster pace than Chinese medicine, but the latter could cure the root causes of our diseases even if it took longer. I was also told that all western medicine had side effects and could cause other health issues down the road.

All of this helped shape my early identity as Chinese and my perception towards mental illness and western medicine. My story is merely one of the millions of stories on how people from different cultures stigmatize their mental health starting at a young age. These perceptions, unfortunately, hindered my and many others’ willingness to talk about it, be diagnosed, and treated, even when we had the resources to do so in this country. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), mental illnesses are among the most common illness in this country. More than 50% of the U.S. population will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder at some point in our lifetime, and one in 25 Americans lives with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression.[1] Mental illness, once defined by my villagers as someone being psychologically abnormal, is now the new normal around us.

In hindsight, I kept ignoring my anxiety syndromes because I learned at an early age that mental sickness cannot cause physical harm; because I did not want to ruin my reputation and be labeled as psychologically abnormal; because of my concern about the side effects of western medicine; and, more importantly, because of my competing identities as Chinese and as American. I was holding onto my initial Chinese identity formed in the first 23 years of life and was not able to recognize my expanded identity as a Chinese-American and use the resources available to me.

With over 15 months of weekly therapy that just ended in March of this year, educational classes, and continuous medication, I am so glad that my anxiety is finally under control. I have never felt so strong. Professionally, in addition to championing changes that strengthen the financial sustainability of our Medicaid and City programs and serving as a mentor to other city government leaders, I have recently been asked to take on a new role in a SWAT team for three months in one of our hospitals. The success of this project is estimated to have a cost impact of over $55 million to our organization annually. I may never be able to say that I am free from anxiety because of my early childhood trauma–chronic food insecurity until the age of 13, and favoritism played by many people around me due to sexism and colorism. But having it well managed has allowed me to take on this new challenge with plenty of excitement, curiosity, and confidence that I can help solve the problem that my organization is facing. Personally, it also allows me to enjoy my relationships so much more with family, friends, and colleagues, with a heart filled with gratitude, love, and joy.

So, please don’t wait to get help if your mental health is affecting your life and relationships.

 

[1] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2021). About Mental Health. Accessed on April 23, 2023.  www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/learn/index.htm

Pride Month serves as a crucial platform to shed light on the intricate challenges faced by individuals worldwide. Historically ignored and underrepresented populations have confronted a multitude of societal expectations, inequalities, and gender-based violence, which can profoundly impact their mental well-being.

This month invites us to acknowledge and address these issues, striving for a more inclusive and compassionate society. It is imperative to recognize that mental health affects all of us – across diverse backgrounds, ages, and cultures. For women, societal pressures, body image concerns, reproductive health issues, and the struggle to balance multiple roles and responsibilities can all contribute to mental health challenges.

To foster awareness and support, it is vital to create safe spaces for all to share their stories and seek help without stigma or judgment.

Amplifying the voices of women in our community, providing accessible mental health resources, promoting self-care practices, and advocating for gender-specific mental health policies are essential steps towards building a healthier future for all.

Let us use Pride Month as an opportunity to embrace empathy, understanding, and empowerment, encouraging conversations that break the silence surrounding mental health and promoting a more compassionate society that values the well-being of all its members.

Let us continue to honor and learn from each other and seek to understand first.

~ Anne McCune, CEO, The Carol Emmott Foundation

by Doug Riddle, PhD, DMin, curriculum director for The Carol Emmott Foundation and
Gayle Capozzalo, FACHE, director of The Equity Collaborative, an initiative of The Carol Emmott Foundation
Published in partnership with the American College of Healthcare Executives

The damaging effects of racism on the health of Americans of color have been demonstrated in multiple studies going back decades and in anecdotal evidence of generations. The roots of the causes may be found in historic patterns of disenfranchisement, exclusion and the persistent biases built into many of our institutions. We cannot allow unfair treatment to continue to be the norm. We all have roles to play in creating a more humane system of healthcare.

As healthcare professionals, where do we begin to chip away at systems that do not serve all patients fairly? Here are four targets for change.

1. Professional growth: Medical caregivers, especially physicians, nurses and licensed mental health professionals need to reflect the demographics of the communities they serve. We need more physicians of color if we are to improve healthcare. For example, Black physicians make up a small percentage of doctors relative to the Black population. When Black doctors care for Black babies, mortality is cut in half. Yet, after 20 years of attention to this, Black physicians still only make up 5% of doctors. We have recently seen work at places like Rush Medical College in Chicago, where a determined senior associate dean has driven significant improvement in the diversity of medical students admitted and who complete their course of study.
2. Practice: Quality and safety improvements need to be targeted at communities of color. When Black women, even those of means with higher education still die at three times the rate of white women in childbirth, improving your organization’s safety and quality ratings will yield top results if you focus on ensuring that people of color are given significantly improved attention. We are all affected by the biases built into medical education and the pervasive effects of cultural barriers. Studies have shown medical students who believe that Black people feel less pain or need less pain medication become doctors who inadequately medicate and who may tend to trivialize the symptoms reported by Black patients.
3. Practice: Stratify healthcare data collection and analysis in your organization with attention to factors known to reflect marginalization. It has to start with race, but other factors like gender amplify the differences. Attempts to improve healthcare results with blanket practices or those based on the narrow assumptions associated with research based on nonrepresentative samples cannot be expected to make a difference. Many of our large healthcare systems cannot at present tell what the difference in outcomes on most procedures is for different racial groups. If we don’t know what is differentiating our results, we can’t address the practices that lead to poor quality care. For example, UChicago Medicine ensures all data in the warehouse is cut by race, gender and ZIP code so all users have access to that level of information.
4. Personal: Mentor and (more importantly) sponsor leaders of color, whose access to advancement and experiences of prejudice and unresponsive systems have them out in the cold. Sponsorship has demonstrated benefits for those who are sponsored through creating visibility and opportunities, and it has large benefits for organizations who are trying keep their talent. And sponsorship is a team activity. Leaders from underrepresented communities benefit from multiple sponsors who work together or in parallel to ensure top talent is given room to blossom.

Health systems that neglect some populations or who allow distrust to grow because they haven’t focused enough attention on what patient diversity requires will lose their connections to those communities. Healthcare organizations are already under pressure from so many directions. It is important that the industry takes the lead on ensuring high quality, readily accessible healthcare to all of our people.

My own mother was pretty clear about the whole parenting thing: while she loved us enough, if she’d felt she had a choice, it wouldn’t have included being a mother. She was accepted to college, but lacking the support of her family, got engaged before she graduated high school. She really came into her own once her three sons were out of the house. She became active politically, learning website creation in her 60s, started activism about homelessness, and became a wonderful gadfly for her local city council well into her 80s.

I’ve been thinking a lot about her since her death two years ago as I read the changes we see among women in succeeding generations since the 1950s. Starting with the Baby Boomers, each generation of women has chosen to postpone having children a few years later. And more women and their partners are choosing child free lives. A small (1,000 participant) study of GenZ women for a real estate publication found that 27% of them don’t want to have kids and another 38% are undecided. 89% of GenZ women say they value the flexibility of not having children.

This is just one aspect of the changing social environment for women of child-bearing age, all of which have significant potential implications for healthcare and employment. In 2018 the number of babies born in the USA fell to its lowest level in 32 years. For my mother, marriage and having babies was about the only acceptable life path available to her, but we have seen increasingly varied options for women in work, in relationships, in choices for sexual partners, and in how work fits into their lives.

As Elizabeth Morgan, associate professor of psychology at Springfield College, notes “Fifty years ago, you couldn’t have a life if you didn’t marry a man and settle down because he needed to provide for you.” This has corresponded to a dramatic change in sexual fluidity among women in only 8 years: from 77% reporting exclusive heterosexuality in 2011 to 65% reporting only being attracted to men in 2019. The rising acceptance of alternative gender and sexual identities has been noted as one of the most significant social changes in the last century. For GenZ it is also being accompanied by a greater acceptance of more diverse environments around race, ethnicity, country and language of origin, and disability status.

At the same time, GenZ women are observing the toll that “having it all” is having on the mental, physical, and social health of prior generations. While more women are participating in the workforce than ever before, their choices about what they buy and how they shop are different. A marketing advice company (responsemedia.com) asserts that GenZ moms consider “whether or not the item makes them feel good about themselves, receives positive online reviews, helps them stand out, or is based on a recommendation from others they know.” The ethical and environmental effects of their choices are more real and visible to them.

A few years ago a dear colleague and brilliant research scientist, Jennifer Deal, discovered that the differences between generations were way over-hyped. In fact, what people valued was quite similar across age groups. However, the identities available to us (the ones we don’t feel we have to cover) shape our behavior and life choices.

One of the things I had to learn as a parent in a blended family was to make sure I knew whom I was talking with. My life partner is both mother and wife, and I get different reactions depending on which of those identities she inhabits in the moment. If I’m talking about family finances, we are having a conversation as husband and wife. If I have a concern about one of our daughters who is her biological offspring, then she will hear that as the child’s mother, not as my wife. As leaders in healthcare organizations, we must recognize that we live in a time of multiple, sometimes contradictory, identities, and that we don’t automatically know how our colleagues are hearing what we hope to communicate.

GenZ is neither better nor worse than the Millennials, Xers, Boomers, Greats, etc., but they deserve to be heard as they navigate today’s complex and chaotic world. Listening skills continue to be the most important leadership capability, but they require that we are listening to each other with sensitivity to the whole context. When it comes to gender and race and more, history is not in the past. The whole of the social world is present in our daily interactions and the casual conversations of our work. Some tender regard for the challenges of each other and willingness to journey together is our shared mandate.

 

Douglas Riddle, PhD, DMin.
Curriculum Director
The Carol Emmott Foundation

It is only April, and it has already been a year to remember!

The Carol Emmott Foundation community gathered for the 2023 Annual Meeting and Christine Malcolm Symposium in Chicago last month, bringing together 150 top health leaders, partners, and keen minds from around the country.

Fellowship and Equity Collaborative member organization leadership, board members, fellows, and health partners and sponsors had the chance to connect in an intimate and memorable environment during this year’s open reception.

We honored Fawn Lopez, publisher emeritus of Modern Healthcare, with The Carol Emmott Foundation’s Amplifier Award for her guidance of Modern Healthcare’s long-term partnership, support of the Foundation’s mission, and numerous thought leadership opportunities for Fellows and Collaborative members on a national stage.

Other highlights:

• We recognized the sixth cohort of Fellows who completed their Fellowship in February and welcomed the new cohort of 21 Fellows in the Class of 2023 who were just beginning their journey.
• We held our first Leadership Council meeting of the year with almost 100% participation of this core visionary group of senior leaders who are ambassadors of the Foundation’s work in the industry.
• The Fellowship Network met for its second in-person annual conference, with 69 of 115 Fellows in attendance, two days of programming, and ACHE, ACCME, and ANCC CEU credits available for the first time.

And we celebrated as we built a stronger community. We could not have summed it up any better than the attendee who said, “Together, we can create significant change in healthcare! I am not connected to any other network like Carol Emmott.”

We look forward to working together to see all that can be accomplished this year!

~Anne McCune, CEO

Join us as we launch this year’s Fellow Scholarship Campaign to raise $150,000 to support three Foundation-sponsored fellows for the Fellowship Class of 2024, as we lead the way to gender equity in healthcare leadership!

Women who complete the Fellowship join an expanding and powerful community that is networked for visibility and impact in the health industry. We are seeing real change as we begin our 7^th Fellowship cohort: 63% of Fellows who have completed the Fellowship to-date have been promoted during or following their Fellowship year, and 64% of those promotions have been internal.

“The Carol Emmott Fellowship is becoming a coveted pathway for growth and a leadership track at Penn. Results have been stunning,” says Kevin Mahoney, CEO of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, a sponsoring organization of the Fellowship.

Institutions that support the Foundation understand that diverse leadership in healthcare systems leads to better performance, higher employee engagement, and improved patient outcomes. Our Fellowship and The Equity Collaborative programs empower remarkable healthcare leaders and forge accelerated pathways for women into senior healthcare leadership and governance positions.

As the Fellowship Network grows in the number of individual women leaders primed for senior executive leadership, we are proud to share that across just three years*, The Equity Collaborative, our learning community of large healthcare organizations that addresses how to shift organization cultures to be more equitable, has made significant strides to improve the lives and accelerate the career trajectories of women in healthcare. Member organizations of The Equity Collaborative have:

• Increased female representation on their governing boards from 10% to 24%.
• Specifically increased women of color on their governing boards from 5% to 7%, significantly outperforming other healthcare organizations.
• Increased the presence of women of color in senior leadership (vice president / senior vice president / CEO roles) from 10% to 14%.
• Hired more women of color, measured from a baseline of 41% new hires in 2019 and increasing this to 45% new hires in 2021.
• Established Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging offices and officers, of whom 90% are women.

* Source: McKinsey & Company’s Women in the Workplace survey as measured during a three-year period from 2019 to 2022.

Almost 80% of The Equity Collaborative members are now tracking representation, mobility, and program outcomes, the starting point for truly making a change, taking action, and creating gender and racial equity.

Ready to join our initiatives to change the face of healthcare? We welcome your inquiries!

For interest in the Fellowship, contact Felisa Schneider, COO, at felisa@carolemmottofoundation.org;
for The Equity Collaborative, contact Gayle Capozzalo, TEC Executive Director at gayle@carolemmottfoundation.org.

As we reflect on 2022 with its whirlwind of activity, challenges, and accomplishments, we want to pause and acknowledge that we would not be where we are today without the support of our incredible community.

We are grateful to the Leadership Council, the Fellowship Network, our Collaborative members and Fellowship sponsor organizations, and our distinguished governing board as well as the innumerable partners, major donors, corporate sponsors, and overall ambassadors to the cause of gender and racial equity in healthcare leadership. Your commitment to the Foundation’s mission, your invaluable volunteer hours, and your financial support have made possible the growth and achievements of the organization.

We honor you, the Carol Emmott Foundation community, who are moving forward our mission to accelerate gender equity and diversity in healthcare by connecting a powerful network of women, allies, and organizations.

Despite the turmoil we face in the current healthcare environment, we are engaging the “power of the network” to rebuild a brighter future where we will truly change the face of healthcare.

I look forward to continuing this important work with you, and we wish you a successful 2023.

~ Anne McCune, CEO and The Carol Emmott Foundation Team

Highlights of 2022

We are pleased to look back at 2022 and share some of our favorite highlights with you.

The Fellowship Class of 2022

The Fellowship Class of 2022 brought us the largest and most diverse cohort to-date. The 22 women leaders hailed from new geographies including Missouri, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and North Dakota, widening our reach across the nation.

Two new sponsoring organizations joined: the Mayo Clinic and the University of Oklahoma, Carol B. Emmott’s alma mater. Additionally, we exceeded our goal and were able to accept and fully fund four Foundation-sponsored fellows from safety-net institutions that otherwise would not have been able to participate in the Fellowship. A successful program year throughout, led by our new Fellowship Curriculum Director, Joanne Dias and in partnership with the Center for Creative Leadership.

A Growing Fellowship Network and Our Impact

In 2022, the Network welcomed the CEF5 cohort into the Fellowship Network membership, growing it to 93 fellows from 48 organizations!

The Network hosted their first in-person annual meeting in two years, with robust representation across all cohorts. The meeting took place just prior to the Foundation’s Symposium and open reception in Chicago and was successful on all counts – from participation to hosting keynote speakers such as Dr. Allison Arwady, the Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health.

We developed a new strategic direction for the Fellowship Network, complete with rebranding, and thanks to continued support from BDC Advisors, a sustainable annual investment business model and structured governance which will support a scalable future.

We also continued to develop our longitudinal impact research, focusing on outcomes based on being a past Fellowship participant and part of the Fellowship Network. An astounding 63% of the Network Fellows have received promotions during or following their Fellowship. Of those promoted, we are proud to say 5% have been promoted twice, and 64% of all promotions have been internal.

We are excited to watch this group of remarkable women leaders grow exponentially and start to make far-reaching changes in our health communities.

The Equity Collaborative

The Equity Collaborative member organizations entered into their third-year commitment to make real change in gender and racial equity their organizations. Major actions that members took in the past three years due to their participation in The Equity Collaborative included:

• Recognition of DEI as a business imperative with the highest priority.
• Creation of sponsorship and allyship initiatives.
• Creation of metrics and DEI scorecards with leadership accountable for process, outcomes, and representation goals.
• Changes in policies, procedures, actions, and leadership behavior to reduce bias in hiring, performance review, benefit and compensation packages, decision-making, and more.
• Creation of strategic and action plans to measure the DEI journey.
• Creation of ERGs, Offices of DEI, and training programs that measure action, not just listening!

We continue to work in partnership with McKinsey & Company, enabling our member organizations the unique opportunity to benchmark their collective organizations’ advancements in equity to the healthcare industry as a whole. It is rewarding to share that have seen 3% to 5% increases in representation of women and women of color in our members’ senior executive and board member positions since they joined the initiative.

Leadership Council

This volunteer group of about 50 prominent senior executive leaders in healthcare continues to remain at the core of the Foundation’s work and is part of our “secret sauce.”

Leadership Council members are extremely engaged with 80% or more participation at each quarterly meeting. They provide our Fellows with exceptional mentorships, and in their enthusiasm to further contribute their wisdom and experience, they decided to offer “Just in Time Resource Advisor” hour-long consultations to both current and Network Fellows.

Looking at our own DEI efforts, this past year we added more remarkable leaders with diversity of thought and diverse backgrounds and positions into the fold. The work and incredible resource the Leadership Council provides is fundamental to the workings of the Foundation and our ability to positively impact gender equity in healthcare leadership.

Outreach & Engagement

The Carol Emmott Foundation continued to foster and grow brand awareness among health organizations across the US last year.  Kevin Mahoney, CEO of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which has participated in the Fellowship–our longest-standing initiative–since inception, recognized our work, stating, “The Carol Emmott Fellowship is becoming a coveted pathway for growth and a leadership track at Penn. Results have been stunning.” What an honor to see Carol B. Emmott’s legacy come to fruition as we begin our 7^th Fellowship program year!

Our thought leadership also grew in 2022. Thanks to a longstanding partnership with the American College of Healthcare Executives, we cross-published quarterly articles that reached a wide audience. And Fellows and leaders in our community made up a significant portion of speakers and panelists at the 2022 Modern Healthcare’s Women in Healthcare Conference.

And we keep growing! The Foundation’s Fellowship organizations and Equity Collaborative members now represent over 50 institutions from 29 states and the District of Columbia.

We achieved our $100K Annual Campaign goal as well as our $150K goal for the Fellow Scholarship Fund, thanks to the contributions of many of our Fellows, Leadership Council members, and Board members. We want to especially recognize the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Duke Health for their large donations that helped us close the financial gap to secure three Foundation-sponsored fellows for the 2023 program year! We ended the year in a strong financial position, despite inflation, with a balanced budget and no intention of raising program fees.

We are excited to see where all of this work will lead.

With your help we will continue to ‘move the needle’ and positively influence the face of healthcare leadership and patient outcomes in a more equity-driven world!

We are honored to welcome our newest Carol Emmott Foundation board member, Kulleni Gebreyes, MD, MBA.

Dr. Gebreyes is a physician leader with more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry across the commercial and public sector. She is the US Consulting Health Care Sector Leader and US Chief Health Equity Officer at Deloitte. We are thrilled to add her expertise and wisdom to our brain-trust of senior industry leader board members.

To read more, see our governing board page.

 

Twenty-one women leaders from across the United States representing large public and private healthcare systems, academic medical centers, health plans, healthcare performance improvement management, and specialty care companies were welcomed into the Carol Emmott Fellowship Class of 2023. The Carol Emmott Fellowship is a signature initiative of The Carol Emmott Foundation, established in 2016, dedicated to increasing gender equity and diversity in healthcare by focusing on establishing pathways for accomplished women to senior healthcare leadership and governance positions.

The Carol Emmott Fellowship is a 14-month experience for exceptional, innovative women leaders who are making an impact in their communities and institutions and serving as advocates for equity in healthcare.

“The Carol Emmott Foundation is becoming a coveted pathway for growth and leadership track at Penn Medicine. Results have been stunning,” said Kevin Mahoney, CEO of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, a sponsoring organization of the Carol Emmott Fellowship since its inception.

Carol Emmott Fellows are nominated and sponsored by their healthcare institutions. The competitive process includes the submission of an original impact project supported by the institution’s top leadership and designed to accelerate action toward equity in the organization and community. Fellows receive mentorships from nationally recognized senior executive health leaders throughout their tenure.

Among the cohort, three women from public safety-net institutions with no budget for professional development have been selected as next year’s Foundation-sponsored Fellows. Program fees for these participants are covered in full by the Foundation.

“We are creating intentional opportunities for visibility, sponsorship, and access for these accomplished women to be considered for the most senior positions in healthcare,” said Anne McCune, CEO of the Foundation. “We are proud to share real results, with 75 percent of our fellows promoted post-Fellowship, with the majority accepting senior roles in their organizations.”

Class of 2023 Fellows

* Foundation-sponsored fellows are denoted with an asterisk

Sarah Conway, MD; Chief Medical Officer, Johns Hopkins Clinical Alliance; Sr. Medical Director, Physician Alignment & Integration; Assistant Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Poonam Desai, MHSA; Executive Director – Ambulatory Operations Community Health and Hospital Division, UChicago Medicine

Loretta Erhunmwunsee, MD; Assistant Professor, Division of Thoracic Surgery and Division of Health Equities, City of Hope

Jacquelyn Frombach, DNP, RN; Chief Nursing Executive, Marshfield Clinic Health System

Andrea Gibson; Chief Strategy Officer, Cook County Health*

Laura Hendricks-Jackson, DNP, NEA-BC, RN-BC, CPHQ; Vice President of Patient Care Services/Chief Nursing Officer, Sibley Memorial Hospital/Johns Hopkins Health System

Jessica M. Johnson, MHA; Chief Operating Officer – Charleston Division, MUSC Health

Sarah Johnson, MBA; Chief Operating Officer, Penn Medicine at Home, Penn Medicine

Fran Maddox; Senior Vice President Spend Management Delivery, Vizient, Inc.

Katie McKittrick; Chief of Staff, Office of the SVP & CHRO, Duke University Health System

Robin Menefee, RN, BSN, MBA; Regional Director of Operations, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Sutter Health

Melissa Ortega, PharmD MS; Vice President, Ambulatory Pharmacy Services, Tufts Medicine

Kiren Rizvi Jafry, MPA; Service Line Executive, Neuromusculoskeletal Specialties and Surgical Services, Sutter East Bay Medical Foundation, Sutter Health

Adia Kamali Ross, MD, MHA; Chief Medical Officer, Duke Regional Hospital

Caroline Sarratt Russell, MSHA; Associate Administrator, Mayo Clinic in Florida

S. Monica Soni, MD; Associate Chief Medical Officer, New Century Health

Maureen Stevenson, MD; Senior Vice President, John Muir Health Foundation Practice Operations, John Muir Health

Denise Torres, MD; Chair, Surgery Institute and Department of General Surgery, Geisinger

Steph Willding, MPA; CEO, CommunityHealth*

Deremius Williams, MPA; Senior Vice President, Payer Strategy and Innovation, Yale New Haven Health

Christine Yang, CHCIO; Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Alameda Health System*

 

Learn more about this year’s Fellows, as well as the work and mission of The Carol Emmott Foundation, by visiting carolemmottfoundation.org.

Healthcare leaders bring a unique perspective to policy discussions because they have specialized expertise and first-hand knowledge of how the healthcare system is affecting their patients. Sharing this knowledge with government officials can lead to better and more impactful policy decisions and programmatic interventions that benefit everyone – payors, providers, patients, and communities overall. It is important to bring this experience to the advocacy table to advance ideas and recommendations that will improve healthcare for their patients and organizations. The following five tips are practical tools and guidance to help healthcare professionals become effective advocates at the federal, state, and local levels.

Top 5 Tips:

1. Know the value and influence of your voice in healthcare policy
   • Advance an issue that aligns with your expertise, passion, or both
   • Amplify the position of your organization, a coalition, or as an individual advocate

2. Know your audience
   • Research the appropriate official(s) you want to meet with about your issue
   • Understand your audience’s priorities, e.g., what matters to them
   • Be flexible – respect their time, bandwidth, and competing priorities

3. Craft a concise, compelling, and influential story
   • Prepare background materials and talking points in advance
   • Define the issue and why it matters
   • Incorporate credible data and a personal story that brings life to the issue
   • Reflect the patient voice and impact of the issue on medically underserved communities and vulnerable populations
   • Connect the issue to the priorities of your audience

4. Be clear on your ask
   • Share recommended solutions, highlighting the value, cost, and impact, including any unintended consequences
   • Leave behind an executive summary

5. Build relationships…advocacy is not transactional!
   • Follow up on opportunities to support your audience and your recommended solution (thank you letter, testimony, letter of support, etc.)

Authored by:
Carol Emmott Foundation Class of 2022 Fellows:
Caprice Knapp, PhD; Principal, Health Management Associates
Marissa McKeever, Esq; Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor, Office of the Dean and CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine
Brenda Sulick, PhD; Vice President, Public, Government, and Community Affairs, SCAN Health Plan

by Gayle L. Capozzalo, FACHE, director of The Equity Collaborative – The Carol Emmott Foundation and
Douglas Riddle, PhD, DMin, curriculum director of The Carol Emmott Foundation
Published in partnership with the American College of Healthcare Executives

The importance of social determinants of health is no longer new to most healthcare systems. Many healthcare organizations have taken steps to positively affect the communities they serve, including the circumstances of their own employees. What’s missing is sufficiently detailed demographic data that captures the pervasive influence of structural racism and other marginalizing factors that affect health outcomes.

Reporting population averages on any measure may disguise the problems caused by biased systems. Our contention is that large improvements in quality, safety and outcome metrics will come for healthcare institutions only when we begin to track the impact of race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability status and other crucial factors on those metrics.

In her recent book, The End of Bias: A Beginning, Jessica Nordell devotes a chapter to the inferior care women, especially women of color, receive in part because of provider bias, myths and the lack of participation in medical research studies. Many landmark studies on aging and heart disease never included women because medicine considered the male body as the default and women a subcategory that could be safely left out of studies. Women of color are at particular risk for poor treatment. A recent analysis of their childbirth experiences found they frequently encountered condescending, ineffective communication and disrespect from providers. Socioeconomic issues do not explain all the poor outcomes. The gap between heart disease rates for Black and white women is greatest at the highest levels of education.

The concept of treating man as the default human and not studying sex differences in medicine is the cause for much of the poor outcomes for women, particularly women of color. Recent studies found sex differences in every tissue and organ system the human body, as well as in the prevalence, course and severity of the fundamental mechanical working of the heart. There are still vast data gaps, but the past 20 years have proved that women are not just smaller than men: male and female bodies differ down to a cellular level.

Why don’t we practice medicine and conduct research using this knowledge? The challenge is the universal and subjectively invisible nature of bias, especially when it is baked into the structures of healthcare. We need metrics that lead to change, and a few organizations are beginning to drill down to more specific and actionable measures that can lead to significant improvements in safety, quality of care and health results for all.

The National Committee for Quality Assurance has started including stratification by race and ethnicity in its health plan quality measure set. In 2006, the National Institutes of Health declared the importance of measuring to uncover health disparities. However, in 2019, 76% of commercial health plans had incomplete race data for their members, and 94% had incomplete data on ethnicity. Information is not available on how many health systems and hospitals are currently stratifying their information on treatments and health outcomes by these factors, but some resources are available. For example, the American Hospital Association provides tools and guidance on data collection, stratification and use of the stratified data, emphasizing REaL data (race, ethnicity, language). The AHA cites Henry Ford Health, which collects REaL data on more than 90% of patients through its “We Ask Because We Care” campaign.

At a recent meeting of The Equity Collaborative (an initiative of the Carol Emmott Foundation), leaders from the University of Chicago Health shared their preliminary steps toward actionable metrics to achieve equitable health outcomes and a more equitable environment for healthcare workers. Among those steps is reorganizing their data warehouse to focus on intersectional data. That drove the creation of a section of the organization’s operating plan for the current fiscal year that identified people goals stratified by factors known to be marginalizing (gender, race, ethnicity, etc.), including employee engagement, clinician engagement, workforce turnover, workforce diversity and promotion rates. University of Chicago Health’s Clinical Excellence Scorecard also includes an equity and opportunity lens on all quality data that reports differences related to gender, race, ethnicity, age, financial source and ZIP code.

Yale New Haven Health’s new office of health equity is developing a data infrastructure that can generate actionable responses. The first stages are involved in aligning work with the Yale University Office of Health Equity Research. One lesson that has already emerged is the value of asking patients and employees to define their “racial identity” rather than “race.” This reflects the complex nature of social identity and its impact on care, something that has required changing terminology in its EHR system. The alignment has allowed a comparison of COVID mortalities by race among patients with population data.

These disparities in healthcare have persisted throughout our history, but real change is possible. Getting the metrics right and having the right metrics are critical to bringing real equity to healthcare. The ubiquity of electronic health records and the possibility of a more universal understanding of disparate impact can make the difference.

by Anne McCune, CEO, The Carol Emmott Foundation

September is Hispanic Heritage month.  Started in 1968, Hispanic Heritage Month starts annually on September 15 which is the independence anniversary of eight Latin American Countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Chile, and Belize.

The terms Latino and Hispanic are typically used interchangeably, though there is a technical difference. Hispanic describes people from Spain or Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America. However, that would exclude Brazil, where the official language is Portuguese. Latino (or the feminine version, Latina) refers to people from Latin America, including Brazil, but excludes people from Spain. The U.S. Census Bureau most often uses the term “Hispanic,” according to the Pew Research Center.

The term Latinx emerged about a decade ago as part of a global movement to introduce gender-neutral words, according to Pew. It also is now considered an all-encompassing word that includes both “Hispanic” and “Latino.”  Only 4 percent of Hispanic/Latino individuals prefer the term Latinx over the others. Pew found that 61 percent say they prefer Hispanic, while 29 percent prefer Latino.

Hispanics represented 19 percent of the U.S. population in 2020, up from 16 percent a decade earlier. One broad study, based on data from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, found that Hispanic workers hold only 5 percent of executive level jobs.  Black executives account for 3 percent of such posts, while Asians hold 6 percent.  Women represent a small fraction of these opportunities.  Additionally, Hispanic leaders represent only 2.3 percent of the board members of companies on the Russell 3000 index, according to Latino Corporate Directors Association. However, they noted that appointments of Hispanic board members grew four-fold in 2021.

The Association of American Medical Colleges found about 5 percent of medical school graduates identified as Hispanic in 2019. Healthcare workers and physicians need to represent the communities we serve.  There are many reasons why this is important, including cultural beliefs, religious beliefs, and language barriers.

This month, we recognize that Hispanic heritage is American heritage.  We benefit from the contributions of Hispanic scientists working in labs across the country and doctors, nurses and healthcare workers on the front lines caring for people’s health. When healthcare providers reflect their communities, there are better chances with preventive medicine and active engagement.

In this podcast, Gayle Capozzalo, executive director of The Equity Collaborative, The Carol Emmott Foundation, and Morgan Jones, Fellowship Class of 2022 and vice president, Strategic Planning & Business Development at Duke Health, discuss how to position oneself as a woman in the health industry – how to acquire the necessary skills to be a successful leader, and offer personal insight as senior level executives in the field.

 

by Anne McCune, CEO of The Carol Emmott Foundation

Every year on August 26th, people across the United States come together to celebrate Women’s Equality Day. This annual commemoration, designated by Congress in 1973, recognizes the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, which granted American women the right to vote. In celebrating the gains of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, we must recognize the complex and oppressive history that accompanies this day.

The 19th Amendment was passed by Congress on June 4, 1919, officially ratified on August 18, 1920, and certified eight days later on August 26, 1920. However, despite achieving such a landmark victory, voting inequities and the uneven distribution and access to political power was still deeply evident in the post-19th Amendment era. A mere 3% of voting-age Black men and women were registered to vote in the South in 1940 due to violence, poll taxes, literacy tests, and public intimidation. Voting rates and registration numbers for Black citizens rose significantly after the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, a notable achievement of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s-1960s, which outlawed discriminatory voting practices and essentially enforced the liberties guaranteed by the fifteenth amendment.

But legislation can only go so far without active cultural, pedagogical, and systemic shifts. On this 49^th celebration of Women’s Equality Day, women of color, poor women, immigrant women, queer women, disabled women, and trans women still face barriers not only to accessing political power, but to basic human rights and services. In 2022, 102 years after the ratification of the 19th Amendment, women are still subjected to disproportionate levels of violence, face workplace discrimination, and most recently, have had their bodily autonomy revoked with the overturning of the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade on June 24th, 2022.

This Women’s Equality Day, I encourage you to celebrate the ratification of the 19th Amendment, actively combat historical erasure, commemorate the suffragists, and engage in racial healing and rest. The fight is not yet over.

By Dr. Garima Singh, Fellowship Class of 2022
Chief Medical Officer for Burrell Behavioral Health and its parent company, Brightli.

“We value and celebrate diversity and inclusion among those we serve, within our workforce and in our communities. At Burrell Behavioral Health, we have initiated multiple community programs, care pathways, behavioral crisis program, school-based services, and Be Well Initiatives to help provide access to competent mental health care in a safe, informed, and respectful environment.”

July is BIPOC Mental Health Month, which was previously designated as National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. It was founded in 2006 by Bebe Moore Campbell and Linda Wharton-Boyd to increase awareness and meet the mental health needs of historically oppressed racial and ethnic minority groups.

Black and indigenous people, and other people of color (BIPOC), suffer from unique mental health challenges and are more likely not to seek or receive treatment. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, nearly one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness; these illnesses are observed to last longer, be more severe, and result in significant long-term disability for people of color (POC). Per a 2021 report, during the COVID pandemic there has been an exponential increase in mental illness, and the impact has been severe for POC. Some 40.3% of Hispanic people experienced depression, and 36.9% had an increase in or initiation of substance use, compared to 25.3% depression and 14.3% substance use reported in Whites.

One of the silver linings of the pandemic for behavioral health was the acceptance and expansion of tele-medicine. Tele-medicine has significantly improved access to mental health care; we have been able to serve more patients than before, reduce no-shows and eliminate barriers including transportation and privacy concerns. I am personally very passionate about easy access to mental health care, and telemedicine has tremendous potential to improve the lives of patients suffering from depression, anxiety, high-functioning Autism and other mental disorders. I have so many patient stories to share from COVID, where I saw the positive impact of virtual platforms. As a child psychiatrist and Autism specialist, I have seen kids struggling with increased anxiety and stress in waiting rooms and clinic spaces. However, during COVID through the means of tele-medicine, I was able to evaluate them in their home environment, saw their relaxed selves that I had never observed before, and (virtually) met hamsters, pythons, mice, birds and other pets. I had a few individuals who shared their challenges with gender identity and sexual orientation, and mentioned their shame and struggle with discussing these topics during an in-person appointment. My team and I have seen that such conversations and breakthroughs are not limited to the LGBTQ population, but to patients of many ethnicities and identities. The power of telemedicine has the ability to break down so many walls… some we may not know existed. As a human and a professional, nothing breaks my heart more than the fact that an individual would need the security of a screen or phone to discuss their basic needs and concerns. We definitely still have lot of work to do.

During the pandemic Burrell also started a daily virtual (now three times weekly) self-care and connection opportunity for our staff and community. The Be Well Community has become a pillar of our system-wide philosophy of trauma-informed care, connection and inclusion.

I am hopeful for a future where everyone can seek and receive mental health care. Everyone, regardless of their color, race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, or sexual identity deserves quality mental health services. Through integration, partnership and working together we can remove all barriers and help our communities receive the care they need to heal, grow and thrive.

by Anne McCune, CEO of The Carol Emmott Foundation

Pride Month commemorates the Stonewall Uprising, a fateful day in 1969 when Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex individuals (LGBTQI+) people fought back against police mistreatment and discrimination.  Their act of protest led to the birth of a human rights movement.  That movement ultimately helped secure greater recognition of the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons and strengthened American Democracy itself.

Pride, at its core, is about accepting and celebrating those who are different.  It affirms the gay teenagers scared to come out to their friends at school, the nonbinary persons estranged from their families for living as their authentic selves, the transgender children shamed by communities because of who they are.  It was that spirit of acceptance that made the Stonewall Inn such a special place in the 1960s.  It was a place where LGBTQI+ individuals were embraced without having to pretend.

Unfortunately, the rights of LGBTQI+ Americans are under relentless attack. Members of this community, especially people of color and trans people, continue to face discrimination and cruel, persistent efforts to undermine their human rights.  An onslaught of dangerous anti-LGBTQI+ legislation has been introduced and passed in States across the country, targeting transgender children and their parents, and interfering with their access to health care.  These attacks have left countless families in fear and pain.

Megan Rapinoe, a gay American women’s soccer champion, and advocate for equal pay said it best: “The more I’ve been able to learn about gay rights and equal pay and gender equity and racial inequality, the more that it all intersects.  You can’t really pick it apart.  It’s all intertwined.”

This month, we reaffirm our belief that LGBTQI+ rights are human rights.  The Carol Emmott Foundation is committed to delivering protections, safety, and equality to LGBTQI+ individuals so that everyone can realize their full potential.  We recognize the valuable contributions of the LGBTQI+ community across America, and we affirm our commitment to standing in solidarity with LGBTQI+ Americans in their ongoing struggle against discrimination and injustice.

by Emily Moorhead, FACHE, ’21

Early in my career, I spent a lot of time thinking about balance. Like the vision of the scales of justice, I imagined if I just kept my composure, I could keep the weight of my personal world in line with that of my professional pursuits.  

Those scales of justice are an apt symbol of just how deluded I’d become in my pursuit of balance. First, because I don’t lead a life where I can neatly fit work into one tidy space and life in another; most of us don’t operate with that kind of binary ease. Second, that my mind conjured up those scales of justice every time I thought of balance reminded me that success or misstep too often comes with (and from a place of) judgment. I was judging myself for failing at a paradigm that was never going to work for me.  

To be sure, there have been those rare and glorious moments when I was enthralled by my own sense of got-it-togetherness – when I was briefly mastering the juggle of mother, colleague, spouse, and general extraordinaire. Like the adage goes, however, this too shall pass – our hardships and our highs. And just as Lady Justice is perched on a pedestal, the sudden loss of footing can be a rough stumble.  

From the dust of “work-life balance” came the rise of “work-life integration.” I aspired to the former; I loathed the latter. A new image came to mind: that of a mother, on the phone with her boss, while at her child’s soccer game, one index finger raised as she mouthed the words, “Just one more minute,” to her spouse. Let’s be clear, this is not a healthy (much less sustainable) image of success. In an era of self-care proselytizing, this seems exceedingly inconsistent. It’s no wonder that feelings of burnout and inadequacy are ubiquitous among working adults.  

So where does this leave us? 

As I was reflecting on my sense of personal and professional weariness, my mind wandered to those few things I know to be absolutely true. I’m a chemist by training, soothed by the certitude of science. So, I rested on the wisdom of my field. Facts like chemical pathways, for example, with predictable reactions. And chemical equilibrium, defined as an energetic state where the concentration of all reactants remains constant. The reactants aren’t necessarily equal, but they’re unchanging and in optimal flow.  

This reflection was my own kind of eureka. I doubted I’d achieve balance and was adamant against pursuing integration. It was equilibrium that I sought.   

Applying this concept to our own lives, the concept of equilibrium is an invitation to start thinking less about work and/versus/or life and start identifying the reactants that are part of our daily rhythm. To get rid of the big mixing bowl of ingredients that we hope turns out alright, and instead single out the aspects of our lives that are essential and fulfilling. The chemist in me thinks of this new framing as a kind of alchemy of the best of ourselves. The shift also moves us from the question, “How can I balance tasks to get more done?” to “How do I want to be?”  

So, as I lay down the proverbial scales and step away from the metaphorical soccer field, I’m heartened by the new image of my beakers and burners, as I identify, mix, and adjust all the elements that will yield a life of purpose and gratitude. Of equilibrium.  

Emily Moorhead, FACHE, is a seasoned healthcare executive, Carol Emmott Fellow, and thought leader. She currently serves as both an interim president and chief operating officer within the Henry Ford Health System.

By Gayle Capozzalo, FACHE
Published in partnership with the American College of Healthcare Executives

Summary

The upheaval of the global pandemic has caused millions of women to leave or change their career, providing the healthcare industry a decisive moment to pursue gender equity in the workplace.

 

It’s happening right now across our industry: health systems both large and small, having survived the worst of a global pandemic and the accompanying systemic shocks to our organizations and society at large, are contemplating a “new normal” for their employees and workplaces.

This is also a long-overdue moment for fundamental reimagining of the workplace that actively supports women. Knowing a “new normal” is now inevitable, healthcare leaders can use this opportunity to actively shape a better, more sustainable future for our industry.

At The Equity Collaborative, an initiative of The Carol Emmott Foundation, we work with healthcare executives to enact this change that we so desperately need. Driven by the goal of gender equity in healthcare leadership and governance, and especially as it intersects with larger DEI initiatives, we provide support, a robust network, and national visibility for women leaders and help our Foundation members create meaningful policies that accelerate change.

We have found that our member organizations are able to make significant and noticeable impact in their institutions through three areas originally identified by Girls Who Code founder, Reshema Saugani who was also instrumental in the development of the “Marshall Plan for Moms”: pay equity, flexibility, and child and senior care. These issues represent the common needs of women and caretakers in the workplace, regardless of age or stage of life.

Our members have realized that real change for pay equity can begin with the way we recruit, hire, and retain. Actions they’ve taken in this arena that other healthcare executives can and should follow include:

• Revisit training for human resources professionals: Ensure that training includes tactics for addressing unconscious bias in policy writing, hiring, and promotion practices.
• Rethink the value of job categories: Consider how skilled positions are paid in other industries and adjust payment for female dominated work categories like nurses, therapists, and other highly skilled healthcare employees accordingly.
• Rewrite job descriptions: Across the organization, remove non-inclusive language and include new language that promotes change for the way your employees see their value in their jobs.

All of these are ways you can make pay equity change, and many of them are possible to begin right now, today.

To improve flexibility, The Equity Collaborative members are building processes and systems that allow us to listen to our workers rather than simply make decisions on their behalf. Actions we’ve seen work include:

• Creating systems and structures to listen to workers: Often the most important thing to do is to recognize the specific concerns and needs of individuals rather than instituting a one-size-fits-all solution.
• Allowing shift workers autonomy over their collective schedules: Set up systems where employees can swap and problem-solve amongst themselves when their lives and schedules require some flexibility.
• Providing non-clinical and administrative workers hybrid and remote work options: Return to work policies should respect the ways that employees’ lives have become easier by working remotely or in a hybrid structure and seek to maintain that benefit. Examine policies to ensure they require in-person work only when there is an actual reason to be in person.

Assisting with child and senior care also improves flexibility. So many well-meaning solutions for childcare and senior care fall flat because they don’t meet the caretakers’ actual needs. It’s important to think creatively, but feel free to borrow some approaches our members have taken:

• Find a customizable range of options that meet working parents’ needs: Find ways to help with finances and other challenges that answer many circumstances.
• Forge partnerships with local care centers: Improve access for employees to an increased number of reasonable care options.
• Provide flexible spending accounts for dependent care: Set up plans that give workers the flexibility to meet the specifics needs of their families.

Now is clearly the moment to make these kinds of sweeping culture changes, and not only because of the acute staffing shortages health systems are facing. As an industry, we also know that creating more inclusive workplaces, with diverse, equitable leadership, leads to both better patient care and improved bottom lines.

In the midst of every crisis lies opportunity. If healthcare leaders don’t seize this opportunity, we risk losing an entire generation of working mothers who are the senior healthcare leaders of tomorrow.

It’s up to healthcare leaders to reimagine our workspace in support of our workforce. A more deeply equitable and employee-centered culture is not only desirable on its own, it has also never been more clearly necessary than it is today.

It’s spring, a time for new beginnings. It’s hard to believe that it’s already time to recruit the Class of 2023! Nominations are now open. At the same time, I’m still savoring the magic and power of coming together in person for the Annual Meeting. If you couldn’t make it to Chicago in March, you will want to take the time to watch the Christine Malcolm Symposium speaker videos. I am excited to share our fellows’ talks as well as highlights of our Annual Meeting events with you here.
—Anne McCune, CEO

The Christine Malcolm Symposium

Four of our Carol Emmott Fellows spoke about “The Power of Community” at the Christine Malcolm Symposium, a part of The Carol Emmott Foundation’s Annual Meeting, last month. Each Fellow shared her intensely personal journey as women leaders in the field.

“How do you dismantle generations of structural racism and mistrust from communities? It starts with creating a community framework.”

—Kenyatta Elliott, MBA, MHA ’21, associate vice president of Duke Primary Care, Duke University Health System, spoke about medical racism, in particular regarding the COVID vaccine.

“We just have to act. We have to take a step. We have to do something to create the forward momentum for the change we want to see in this world.”

—Jennifer Nickoles, MS ’20, vice president of system integration and affiliations, Johns Hopkins Health System, spoke about launching a 250-bed field hospital in four weeks, unlikely allies, and sustainable change.

“As time progressed, I was gaining my voice. I think most of us have shared their badassery stories. Well, mine was quite a memorable one.”

—Tammy Simon, RN, MSN ’19, vice president for quality, innovation, and patient safety, Marshfield Clinic Health System, described her journey as a Carol Emmott Fellow and how she found her voice.

“We live in times of great uncertainty. We live in times of tremendous negativity. I’d ask you to consider putting your fear aside and being optimistic as some really, really good ways to be resilient.”

—Carolyn Carpenter, MHA, FACHE ’17, president, Johns Hopkins National Capital Region, Johns Hopkins Health System, told her story of how she overcame fear as a mother.

2022 Annual Meeting Highlights

More than 100 people, including Fellows, alumnae, board members, Leadership Council members, and sponsoring-organization leaders, attended the Carol Emmott Foundation’s Annual Meeting, held in Chicago last month.

Marna Borgstrom, recently retired CEO of Yale New Haven Health, and Larry Goodman, MD, retired CEO of Rush University Medical Center, each received The Carol Emmott Foundation Architect Award at the open reception. The award recognizes their longtime guidance and instrumental contributions to creating the Fellowship and The Equity Collaborative initiatives.

Other highlights included celebrating the close of the Class of 2020 (whose Fellowship extended until September 2021 due to COVID) and the program completion of the Class of 2021.

At the same time, Fellows from the first through fifth cohorts met for their third annual Alumnae Network meeting—only the second to be held in person. Allison Arwady, MD, MPH, the Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, gave a poignant keynote, addressing working within a charged political environment and keeping public safety top of mind. She addressed how we have to care for ourselves as we care for others, incorporating history, humor, and thoughtful reflections that resonated with the group.

Also at the Alumnae Network meeting, Victoria (Shu) Zhang, PhD, assistant professor at the Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin, Madison, conducted a workshop , which offered an important opportunity to network within the CEF community.

Those opportunities to connect in person after such a long hiatus, along with such compelling speakers, left all of us feeling reconnected, reinvigorated, and ready to take on the next challenge, knowing that we’re not alone but part of a larger community that has our back.

By Elizabeth Dougherty

In a nation where the pandemic has disproportionately affected the Latinx community, one Carol Emmott Fellow’s work has raised $16 million to advocate for COVID-19 vaccine equity and has reached more than 36 million Latinos with public health information.

“I didn’t expect us to have such a huge impact,” says Rita Carreón, ’20, UnidosUS vice president of health, who leads “Esperanza Hope for All,” a bilingual, culturally responsive public health education and outreach campaign. UnidosUS is the nation’s largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization, based in Washington, DC. Rita oversees its health efforts to improve Latinos’ well-being and access to quality, equitable healthcare by addressing the social determinants of health; expanding where health happens; building healthy, equitable, and resilient communities; and cultivating healthcare leaders.

“We knew we needed to set up a holistic way to mitigate the health, economic, and educational impact on the Latino community,” Rita says of the pandemic and specifically of an equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. To do this, the Esperanza Hope for All campaign deploys what Rita describes as an “air” game and a “ground” game.

The air strategy uses traditional and social media to provide accurate vaccine information in English and Spanish and to counter ubiquitous misinformation and disinformation. The campaign also targets specific groups, such as parents, and works with influencers and trusted messengers.

At the heart of the ground game are a national mobile educational tour and close to 300 community-based organizations (CBOs), including federally qualified community health centers, which serve as trusted public health messengers to the Latino communities they serve.  Thirty-three of the CBOs are also part of an initial cohort working on a five-year CDC-funded effort to address COVID 19 vaccine disparities among Latinos, which resulted in the administration of 114,000 vaccines during the first year.

“With trust, comradery, and collaboration we can do big things,” Rita says, crediting the CBOs with closing the disparity gap through education, partnerships with private/public entities, and increased access to COVID-19 vaccines. For example, San Ysidro Health Center in San Diego took mobile vaccination units to neighborhoods and administered 2,000 vaccines within a six-month period. Key to this success: transportation to/from the site and onsite childcare.

Nationwide the numbers are encouraging with the number of Latinos who have had at least one vaccine reaching approximately 38 million as of the end of February, according to CDC.

Throughout the campaign, Rita is grateful to have had the support of UnidosUS leadership and cross-component teams; the CEF community, including her national mentor, Sachin Jain, president and CEO of SCAN Group and Health Plan; and her network of Carol Emmott Fellows. “I knew I wasn’t alone,” she said.

As a Carol Emmott Fellow, Rita reports that one of her biggest changes as a leader has been “recognizing that my voice matters.” Through the Esperanza campaign she has become a regular spokesperson in English and Spanish national media. “It became clear that lives are at stake,” she says. “My voice and our [Latino] narrative need to be heard.”

She also gives herself (and her team members) permission to be vulnerable. “This self-awareness matters because it allows you to show up as your authentic self,” she says. Part of that identity is the daughter of immigrants, a lived experience that informs her personal and professional stories.

So, what keeps Rita up at night? “I’m afraid that our nation will forget or not have the systems in place to make sure that we continue to learn from the pandemic and will not invest in public health, healthcare systems, and communities to be ready for the next crisis,” she says. “How can you support everyone and set up stronger and more equitable healthcare systems? That’s the challenge.”

 

Elizabeth Dougherty is a freelance writer based in Palo Alto, CA, who specializes in women’s leadership and gender equity. She also works directly with women executives to define, refine, and amplify their voices. 

We want to take a moment to reflect on our 2021 successes that your commitment, your patronage, your innumerable volunteer hours, and your donations have made possible. The Carol Emmott Foundation would not be what it is today without the profound support of the Leadership Council, the Fellowship’s sponsoring organizations, the Collaborative member organizations, the Alumnae, and the many more leaders, colleagues, and friends throughout the nation who put their name behind our mission and give their time as our speakers, mentors, ambassadors, advocates, and more.

We thank you, the Carol Emmott Foundation community, who are leading the way to achieve fully inclusive gender equity in healthcare leadership and governance!

We look forward to continuing this important work with you, and we wish you a most successful 2022. Keep reading to see some of the highlights of 2021 that we would like to share with you, below.

~ Anne McCune, CEO and The Carol Emmott Foundation Team

The Fellowship

We conducted our first longitudinal extended network research, thanks to a grant from the Josiah Macy Junior Foundation, of the Fellowship’s impact on the career trajectories of the alumnae. Data were collected from December 2020 to April 2021 for the first and third cohorts of the Carol Emmott Fellowship focusing on two surveys:  1) within-cohort networks survey and, 2) extended networks survey.

The results were extremely positive, and we’re proud to share them with you.

Key Insights

Insight 1: The Fellowship is effectively building networks within and outside of Fellows’ immediate cohorts.

In fact, when asked to compare the Fellowship to all the various ways they have been able to develop networks, the Fellowship is rated as better than or among the best ways that Fellows have developed impactful networks throughout their careers.

Insight 2: Networks are sustained over time.

Only 12% of the respondents from the Extended Network (outside their immediate cohort) indicated they had not stayed in contact with the Fellows. Some relationships were initiated five years ago, indicating that the networks developed are enduring.

Insight 3: The within-cohort and extended networks are valuable in multiple ways.

The Fellows reported that they leveraged their networks in several ways, including sharing information with one another, encouragement and emotional support, and career advancement. Of these outcomes, career advancement had the lowest density for both cohorts, meaning that fewer Fellows were receiving and/or providing career advancement support than they were interacting in other ways.

Interestingly, while the direct support with career advancement may have been less frequent, there is evidence that these Fellows are supporting one another’s careers in important ways. For example, in both cohorts, 85% of the Fellows report that their satisfaction with their careers in healthcare had improved or significantly improved as a result of their within-cohort relationships. Another example is that 75% of cohort 1 Fellows and 85% of cohort 3 Fellows reported improvement in their own national visibility as a result of these relationships

Insight 4: The Fellows helped one another through the COVID-19 pandemic by sharing information specifically related to their organizations’ COVID-19 response.

The COVID networks were not as dense as general information sharing, meaning there was relatively less of this support. However, this type of collaboration and support was happening within both cohorts.

Insight 5: More distal outcomes such as advancing gender equity and advancing organizational objectives were less impacted than individual outcomes.

This is to be expected in that these outcomes go well beyond impact on one individual in the program. These outcomes require time and are influenced by multiple factors. It is encouraging that some Fellows do see their relationships contributing to these outcomes.

What does this mean?

For advancing gender equity. The results of this research provide clear evidence that networks are about more than just creating new friendships. Oftentimes, peer and professional relationships provided the additional benefit of sharing information that helped the women navigate challenges they faced in their organizations and their responses to a global pandemic, all which can directly or indirectly contribute to career advancement. Additionally, it was the relationships with the Extended Network that seemed to be particularly helpful for career advancement. Those in the Extended Network tended to be very senior level leaders in healthcare and were able to connect the Fellows with opportunities. Both types of relationships (peer and those with more visibility or seniority) are critical for women to advance.

For applicability to other leadership development initiatives. We cannot underestimate the power of the relationships that can be formed in a cohort-based leadership development program. This is applicable not just for women, and not just in healthcare contexts. In many programs, the intimate sense of community formed by participants is seen as a pleasant side-effect. This study adds to the growing awareness among researchers and leadership development professionals that the creation of strong, extensive networks should be a central objective of leadership development design, particularly for marginalized groups.

For networks’ role in supporting and retaining women leaders in healthcare. The within-cohort networks were particularly powerful in providing emotional support and encouragement. And both within-cohort and Extended Networks had a positive impact on these leaders’ job engagement and career satisfaction. Some of the comments provided in the survey pointed to an improvement in resilience and wellbeing as a result of these networks. This has tremendous implications for preventing burnout among senior women leaders in healthcare.

In the words of one of the Fellows who participated in the program, “The energy from the group propels me to cope, use my voice, have bravery and confidence, and the courage to pave a way forward for other women.” The Fellowship is developing a diverse community of remarkable women leaders, and together they can have a tremendously positive impact on gender equity in healthcare organizations.

*******

While participating in the Fellowship, the extended Class of 2020 and Class of 2021 fellows worked tirelessly to combat a pandemic, stand up ICU clinics and telehealth in previously unheard of timeframes, and address employee burnout and an enormous reduction of the healthcare workforce, all while taking care of family, children, parents, and themselves.

These fearless and resilient women stepped up during a crisis not yet experienced in this generation. They leaned on each other, learned from each other, and shared their courage and leadership with each other and their communities. We applaud you all!

In 2021, The Fellowship welcomed two new health institutions, SCAN Health Plan and MaineHealth, as sponsoring organizations of three Class of 2021 fellows. Additionally, Mayo Clinic and the University of Oklahoma, Carol B. Emmott’s alma mater, signed on to sponsor a fellow each in the Class of 2022. We want to give a special thanks to the Lloyd & Peggy Stephens Foundation for providing a grant for the development of the Fellowship initiative in Oklahoma.

The Foundation offered three full Foundation-sponsored Fellowships (formerly referred to as scholarships) to three members of the Class of 2021 and four Foundation-sponsored Fellowships for the Class of 2022. Our CEF4 cohort, inspired by their own program year, led the charge to obtain funding to subsidize one Class of 2021 fellow, raising $54,000 in 75 days. We want to thank our incredible community for their generous contributions.

The Equity Collaborative

The Equity Collaborative completed its second full year and made measurable progress in the representation of women and women of color in senior management and on boards. The progress was due to the structural changes member organizations made in quantifying recruitment and selection processes and implementing best practice changes to promotion policies. We are moving into our third year with high momentum, strong partnerships with ACHE and McKinsey, and numerous success stories behind us that help keep us energized and engaged in our work.

We are seeing real, measurable changes.

• Equity Collaborative members have increased the number of women in senior leadership over three years. While there is variation among members, the Collaborative average has moved from 51% to 53%.
• TEC members all report that diversity, equity, and inclusion are high priorities, and the majority of organizations report that senior leaders have accountability for achieving diversity goals.
• TEC members are clearly trying to recruit women of color through changes in recruitment methods.
• The majority of TEC members report that they have made changes in their recruitment, selection, and performance review processes to reduce bias and make them more inclusive.

Some stories from our Collaborative members about organization changes they are making that we want to share with you:

Rush Health
During the pandemic, Rush created a Racial Justice Action Committee. Believing that Rush has an opportunity to excel in the diversity, inclusion, equity, and anti-racism space, and can become the place where more people want to work, receive healthcare, and learn, they collected qualitative survey data on the lived experience based on racial and other marginalized identities from individuals throughout the organization. Their recommendations have been fully accepted, and a plan of action is under development.

HCA Healthcare
As a foundational piece of their larger strategy to retain and advance colleagues of color and women, HCA Healthcare has launched a sponsorship program that pairs high potential Black leaders with senior executives who are invested in offering valuable guidance, creating opportunities for exposure, and advocating for the advancement of their protégés. This is a phased approach that will expand in scope to include a broader focus on leaders of color and female leaders by the end of 2022.

Alumnae Network

The Alumnae Network hosted its second annual meeting virtually with opportunities for group gatherings and one-on-one “virtual speed networking.” Twenty-one alumnae from the Class of 2020 and 21 from the Class of 2021 were welcomed into the fold, adding to our quickly growing network of 93 women leaders who have completed the Fellowship. Despite a zoom-fatigued world, we had considerable participation at the Alumnae Network meeting with equal representation across all cohorts, as well as a robust turnout from our community at the subsequent 2^nd Annual Christine Malcolm Symposium where much love and excitement was shared among attendees.

Leadership Council

The Leadership Council, a group of about 50 senior executive healthcare leaders from across the nation, representing health system CEOs, C-suite executives from payer organizations, leading global health consultancies, and others, took on an expanded role to provide strategic thought leadership in support of The Carol Emmott Foundation’s two initiatives. By expanding the focus of the council from a Fellowship-focused council to one that supports the full Foundation, we are excited to leverage our collective voice to accelerate change in gender equity in healthcare organizations. Many of these prominent leaders have spent time shaping the unique network that sets apart the Foundation while also volunteering as keynote speakers, panelists, and experts in their field for the Fellowship and The Equity Collaborative. Leadership Council members have virtual and in person opportunities to connect throughout the year with peer leaders from other institutions working toward similar goals and facing similar challenges; others have created lifelong relationships with the fellows they have mentored; others yet are focused on ensuring a national and robust pipeline of women leaders ready to step into senior roles.

Twenty-one hand-selected mentors supported the Fellowship Class of 2020 through the end of their expanded Fellowship journey which they completed in September 2021. Twenty-one new mentors volunteered their invaluable time and expertise to the members of our 5^th Fellowship cohort, the Class of 2021.

“Mentoring Palav has given me a terrific opportunity to get know a talented and engaging individual who is trying to make a difference for the most vulnerable among us. It has also been a wonderful opportunity for me to learn about MediCal and to delve, by proxy, into the challenges that a bright, skilled mid-career female health care leader has to grapple with as she takes on major new public sector responsibilities.”
~ David Blumenthal, President of The Commonwealth Fund

Just In Time Expert Resource Advisor volunteers from our Leadership Council responded to increasingly diverse requests from the fellows and alumnae for expertise in areas ranging from increasing quality while lowering costs, to advising on CEO work/life balance, to staff recognition and retention strategies. Over the course of the year, Just In Time advisors offered 12 consultations, and the specialty group is garnering great interest among the alumnae as well as current fellows.

Larry J. Goodman, CEF Leadership Council member and former CEO of Rush University Medical Center and president of Rush University, was paired as a Just In Time advisor with Ratan Milevoj, ’20, director of innovation and organizational renewal and assistant chief strategy officer at Valley Children’s Healthcare. Milevoj was interested in gaining a broader perspective on leadership taking a position on sociopolitical issues; how to position herself and her ideas within the senior team; whether to change her approach to others as a senior team member, and work/life balance. According to Milevoj, “It was one of the best conversations I have had in a long time. We spoke about leadership style, work-life balance, governance, politics at work, and making an impact. I left the conversation inspired and encouraged.”

Branding & Engagement

We rebranded! At the beginning of 2021, and with the help of our community, we rolled out a brand new look that illustrates our bold ideas, thinking, and actions. Through the grapevine, we heard that Carol B. Emmott loved these particular colors, which pleases us that her presence continues to be felt loud and clear.

We began regular monthly newsletters highlighting news from the Foundation community and resources as well as established a social media presence to help support our mission and share as an entry point for more in-depth engagement with the Foundation’s initiatives. We helped alumnae, fellows, and Collaborative members publish compelling articles exemplifying their thought leadership in gender equity in healthcare.

Finally, we are proud to showcase our very own CEO, Anne McCune, who received the Modern Healthcare’s 2021 Top 25 Women Leaders award. Additionally, more than a dozen of our Board members and Leadership Council members were awarded for their leadership in 2021 by Modern Healthcare, Becker’s Hospital Review, and other prestigious trade publications.

With your help we will continue to ‘move the needle’ and positively influence the face of healthcare leadership and patient outcomes in a more equity-driven world!

Help support us by investing in women leaders now!

by Denise Brosseau,  presenter on Thought Leadership for the Carol Emmott Fellowship

I was taking questions following a webinar on thought leadership with the amazing Carol Emmott Fellows of 2022, when one of them asked me about something that has long been on my mind. How, she wondered, do you keep going when you are fighting for change in an arena like racial justice or health equity, where every day you see evidence that the fight is unwinnable?

I can relate, I assured her. The two issues that I have been fighting for throughout my career— women’s right to choose and women’s access to capital—also feel like unwinnable battles. After decades of a national debate on Roe v. Wade, and many millions of dollars raised to preserve it, the other side is poised to overturn our fundamental rights—not because they are in the right, not because they are in the majority, but because they found an issue that galvanizes a small minority to come to the polls.

And despite decades of national efforts on women entrepreneurs’ access to venture capital, we have only grown the share of the pie from 1% to 2% for companies founded by all-women teams.

Yes, there are times I feel defeated, I told her. Yes, there are times I want to give up.

But here’s what keeps me going—I think about the women who came before me—those who fought for women to even have a right to vote in this country. Their battle was much harder than mine. Unlike me, they went to jail for what they felt was right. They were force-fed, beaten, and vilified, and they fought on. So, I do, too.

Now that was an okay answer, because it’s true and right, but after I left the meeting, I realized there is more to the story. I decided to ask a few people I trust, who are also working on intractable challenges, what keeps them going. Here’s what they said:

• One shared that she looks for the bright lights—the small wins that show things are moving in the right direction—and she celebrates each one. By keeping her eye on the positive outcomes, it feels more possible to believe that there will be others.
• A second had just returned from a trip to Spain where she had spent time at the Alhambra, built in 1238, and learned about the history of the Muslim and then Christian conquests of this area throughout millennia. She said the trip reminded her that time moves really slowly, and we have to play the long game, overcoming our conditioning of wanting change to happen now.
• Another said she no longer fights for change for herself. Instead, she focuses on the next generation—giving them the tools, context, and history to keep fighting on long after she’s gone.
• A fourth said she tends to be a glass half, or even three-quarters, full person and by maintaining a growth mindset, she keeps believing that things can change and she can make a difference.

I think all of those answers are helpful, and I’m sure you have others. But what summed it up for me was a story from the first chapter of Will Smith’s new biography, Will, by Mark Manson, which I read, fittingly, on Martin Luther King Day. (It’s great. I highly recommend it!)

In it, Will tells a story from his childhood about how his father had set Will, age 11, and his younger brother a seemingly impossible task: to rebuild a 12 foot by 20 foot brick wall at the front of his store. Neither boy had any knowledge of construction. Their only tools were cement, sand, lime, water, buckets, shovels, and an old-fashioned level with a water bubble in the middle.

Every day, for nearly a year, the two boys came to the store to work on the wall. They didn’t get vacations. They worked every weekend and holiday and all throughout the summer without a day off.

Will tells the story of discouragement and overwhelm, of heat and frustration, of feeling trapped and believing that his father was a “kook.” The boys felt the entire project was impossible. They could see little progress and were sure they were never going to get it done, or if “they ever did finish, there would tragically be another hole, right behind it, that immediately needed to be filled.”

One day, Will recounted that their grumbling and complaining got to be too much for their father, and he came over to where they were working and “he snatched a brick out of my hand and held it up in front of me. ‘Stop thinking about a damn wall!’ he said. ‘There is no wall. There are only bricks. Your job is to lay this brick perfectly. Then move on to the next brick. Then lay that brick perfectly. Then the next one. Don’t be worrying about no wall. Your only concern is one brick.’”

As I read that, I realized that it was a perfect metaphor for making change happen—one that sums up all of what I’d been thinking and everyone else had been saying. If you want to keep going, stop worrying about the wall and just focus on your next brick—and lay that brick perfectly.

I can do that. That feels possible. After all, I do believe, as Martin Luther King once said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I just have to do my part to make sure that it does.

What about you? What if you let go of your focus on the wall, which can feel insurmountable, exhausting, and overwhelming, and instead concentrate on what is within your control—the next brick?

_________

Denise Brosseau is a thought leadership strategist, executive coach, consultant, and speaker. She frequently works with CEF Fellows who want to get their voice heard, advance important causes, build their brand and reputation, and spread their ideas widely through thought leadership. She is the author of the bestselling book, Ready to Be a Thought Leader?, and she has two popular courses on thought leadership on LinkedIn Learning. To connect with Denise and/or sign up for her newsletter, visit www.thoughtleadershiplab.com.

By Gayle Capozzalo, FACHE
Published in partnership with the American College of Healthcare Executives

Amid new variants, surges and vaccination resistance, front-line healthcare workers are exhausted, with many stressed to the breaking point. In fact, the industry has lost nearly half a million workers since February 2020—as much as 18% of the workforce. Burnout is one major culprit. Many who have left have simply thrown in the towel because they felt overwhelmed, in danger and unable to deliver care at the level they expect for themselves.

Low clinical staffing levels, in turn, make it even more likely that those who stay will also suffer from burnout. Women employees across industries have been disproportionately leaving the workplace and experience burnout at a higher rate than men, according to McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2021 report.

As executive director of The Equity Collaborative, an initiative of The Carol Emmott Foundation, I work with executives representing member healthcare systems committed to leadership gender equity. The good news is that the best practices we champion support equity for all and are intended to make working in healthcare better for everyone. At our most recent meeting, we strategized on addressing burnout and clinical employee retention and satisfaction.

Here are three successful strategies our members are using.

1. Lead with care.

Meeting the demands associated with a constant state of emergency has been extremely hard on front-line workers.

Our industry has made great strides in recognizing the stress and psychological impacts associated with managing the COVID-19 pandemic. Mental health has moved front and center. This is one tangible benefit of the experience; the pandemic has destigmatized mental health issues such as burnout. It’s become OK to ask for help and, with the right management support, front-line workers and managers feel safer about seeking help.

How you and your executives conduct themselves during the crisis has a direct impact. For example, McKinsey reports that workers in the pandemic feel psychologically safest under a blend of consultative and supportive leadership. Executives clinging to the authoritative style of leadership do so at their peril; this old-school leadership approach does not foster psychological safety.

Unfortunately, the study shows a minority of leaders adopting these behaviors in the pandemic. That represents a significant opportunity for you and your executive team. To give workers the best psychological edge, align leadership and leader development with consultative and supportive practices. In addition, transformational management is taking the place of transactional management. A singular focus on transactions, which is important in the industrial age, does not consider the ecosystem of healthcare and can further alienate health workers. Now more than ever, cultural competency is necessary; we must take time to be sensitive to others and avoid filtering through our own biases as leaders.

2. Invest in psychological support.

Rush Health is a network of hospitals and physicians based in Illinois and a member of The Equity Collaborative. Understanding the risks of burnout and anticipating a potential surge, its leadership has been proactive with offering new ways to provide psychological support.

Rush Health commissioned a special wellness task force, which developed key mitigation strategies to triage employees at risk, including having psychology staff accessible 24/7 for free. Initially, they embedded psychological support experts in the patient care areas. Based on feedback, this became an on-request service, so that experts could be deployed to the area of greatest need. The effort also included consistent staffing ratios and schedules and enhanced communication and reporting.

Rush reports a dramatic increase in wellness program utilization. Monthly participation in psychotherapy, coaching, yoga, mini retreats and stress management training went from a few hundred in August 2020 to more than 1,000 in June 2021 and more than 1,500 in December 2021.

3. Look at the schedule.

Asking front-line employees to work longer hours is a major cause of burnout. Many of the HR best practices performed by our members, including consistent scheduling and capped overtime, can help mitigate stress, prevent burnout and improve employee retention. Recommendations surrounding scheduling include a core schedule, where the employee has a set of shifts or a set number of hours per week, schedules posted two weeks in advance and the ability to swap shifts.

Flexible hours and eight-hour shifts may seem counterintuitive and impractical in an era when staff hours are in short supply. However, striving for these standards is critical to maintaining the psychological health of those taking up the slack, so they do not join the exodus.

Doing Nothing Isn’t an Option

Some of these strategies to mitigate burnout probably feel difficult if not impossible amid so many competing and pressing priorities, especially financial pressures.

Even when we can’t do everything to mitigate burnout, doing nothing isn’t an option. Employee retention and satisfaction depend on proactively addressing this issue. If eight-hour shifts won’t work right now, offering employees the opportunity to take breaks more frequently might. Maybe there’s a space that can be dedicated to quiet reflection for front-line employees. Adapt a consultative and supportive leadership style and ask them what ideas they have. By offering psychological support, making connections with employees and striving to use strategies such as scheduling best practices, organizations can make a real difference when it comes to burnout.

 

Gayle L. Capozzalo, FACHE, is the executive director of The Equity Collaborative, an initiative of The Carol Emmott Foundation, and a past ACHE Chair. She will be a presenter at the 2022 ACHE Congress on Healthcare Leadership. Gayle can be reached at gayle@theequitycollaborative.org.

Chicago, here we come! Mark your calendar for the 2022 Annual Carol Emmott Foundation Meeting. We’re gathering in person in the Windy City on Wednesday, March 2.

We’re so glad for the opportunity to meet face-to-face again (following recommended pandemic guidelines). The events include:

The 2022 Christine Malcolm Symposium will focus on the Power of Community. This year’s featured alumnae speakers are:

• Carolyn Carpenter, MHA, FACHE ’17, President, Johns Hopkins National Capital Region, Johns Hopkins Health System in Maryland
• Kenyatta Elliott, MBA, MHA ’21, Associate Vice President of Duke Primary Care, Duke University Health System in North Carolina
• Jennifer Nickoles, MS ’20, Vice President for Operations and System Integration, Johns Hopkins Health System and Chief of Staff, Johns Hopkins Medicine in Maryland
• Tammy Simon, RN, MSN ’19, Vice President for Quality, Innovation, and Patient Safety, Marshfield Clinic Health System in Wisconsin

We are very excited to host the third annual Alumnae Network Annual Meeting, our second alumnae meeting to be held in person.

The Open Reception will celebrate and honor the Fellowship Classes of 2021 and 2020. The pandemic has presented significant challenges to the Fellowship, but the fellows have risen to the occasion and turned it into an opportunity for real growth, action, and resilience. We will also welcome the Class of 2022.

The Foundation’s Leadership Council will gather for its first in-person meeting of 2022. The Council is a dynamic group of Fellowship mentors and advisors to the mission of the Foundation.

For more information, contact Felisa Schneider at Felisa@carolemmottfoundation.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Felisa Schneider, COO
felisa@carolemmottfoundation.org

November 4, 2021—Twenty-two women leaders representing public and private healthcare systems, state departments of health, payers, and academic medical centers across the country were welcomed into the Carol Emmott Fellowship Class of 2022. The Carol Emmott Fellowship is a signature initiative of The Carol Emmott Foundation, established in 2016, dedicated to inclusive gender equity at the highest levels of healthcare leadership and governance.

The Carol Emmott Fellowship is a prestigious, 14-month experience for exceptional, innovative women leaders who are making lasting change in their communities and institutions, and serving as exemplary advocates for equity in the workplace and beyond.

“As our country continues to confront alarming injustices in all aspects of health, work, and society, we need diverse women executives who will lead the healthcare industry,” said Anne McCune, CEO of the Foundation. “We are a national movement of women and allies who are doing just that.”

Among the cohort of new Fellows, four were awarded full scholarships to increase participation of women from backgrounds historically underrepresented in this and similar programs.

Carol Emmott Fellows are nominated by their sponsoring organizations. The competitive process includes the submission of an original impact project proposal designed to accelerate action toward equity in their institutions and communities. Fellowship recipients also receive mentorship throughout their tenure from nationally recognized senior executive health leaders.

Class of 2022 Fellows
*Scholarship awardees are denoted with an asterisk

• Jennifer Blaha, MBA; Vice President, Operations, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
• Stella Wan Qin Cao, MS, MPA; Director of Managed Care, San Francisco Department of Public Health*
• Alesia Coe, DNP, RN, NEA-BC; Associate Chief Nursing Officer/Executive Director, Adult Inpatient Hospitals, University of Chicago Medicine
• Stacy Gray, MD, AM; Associate Clinical Professor, City of Hope
• Juell Homco, PhD, MPH; Assistant Professor, University of Oklahoma
• Sucharita Kher, MD; Vice Chair, Clinical Operations and Quality, Department of Medicine, Tufts Medical Center
• Caprice Knapp, PhD; Medicaid Director, North Dakota Department of Human Services*
• Rachel Manotti, MHA; Vice President, Strategy and Market Advancement, Geisinger
• Heather Marstiller, MBOE; Vice President, Continuous Improvement, Duke University Hospital, Duke University Health System
• Marissa McKeever, Esq; Director, Government and Community Affairs, Sibley Memorial Hospital, Johns Hopkins Medicine
• Terri Newmier; Vice President, Human Resources, Marshfield Clinic Health System
• Katie O’Leary, RN, MPH; Vice President, Care Continuum, Yale New Haven Health
• Priti Patel, MD; Chief Medical Information Officer, John Muir Health
• Florencia Polite, MD; Chief Division of General Obstetrics and Gynecology, Penn Medicine
• Angelique Richard, PhD, RN, CENP; Chief Operating Officer/Chief Nursing Officer, Rush University Medical Center
• Stefanie A. Roberts Newman, MSN, RN, NEA-BC; Chief Nursing Officer/Vice President, Patient Care
• Services, Henry Ford Health System
• Garima Singh, MD, FAPA; Chief Medical Officer, Burrell Behavioral Health*
• Elizabeth Stedina, MBA, MS; Vice President of Data Analytics, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health
• Brenda Sulick, PhD; Vice President, Public, Government, and Community Affairs, SCAN Health Plan
• Timshel Tarbet, MBA; Vice President, Business Excellence and Diversity Strategy, SCAN Health Plan
• Lakshmi Warrior, MD, MPH, FAAN; Chair, Neurology, Cook County Health*
• Rahma Warsame, MD; Associate Professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic

Learn more about this year’s Fellows, as well as the work and mission of The Carol Emmott Foundation, by visiting carolemmottfoundation.org.

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Gayle Capozzalo, executive director of The Equity Collaborative, an initiative of The Carol Emmott Foundation, shares her thoughts on the McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace study that came out in September 2021:

McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace, the largest study of the state of women in corporate American, published its 2021 report in September 2021.  A year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic, women have made important gains in representation, especially in senior leadership, but the pandemic continues to take a toll.

Women are rising to the moment as stronger leaders, taking on more work, and more often doing more to support DEI efforts and be allies to women of color. They are not being recognized for this work.

There is also a disconnect between companies’ growing commitment to racial equity and the lack of improvement in the day to day experience of women of color.

The path forward is clear.

Organizations need to take bold steps to recognize and reward women leaders who are driving progress and they need to do the deep cultural work required to create a workplace where all women feel valued.

The full report can be found at https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace.

By Anne McCune, CEO, The Carol Emmott Foundation
Published in partnership with American College of Healthcare Executives

This March brings a number of somber remembrances. We reflect on 500,000 lives lost in the worst pandemic in American history, with Black, Latino and Indigenous Americans suffering at least double the death rate compared to whites. We remember Manuel Ellis, a Black man killed in police custody whose last words—I can’t breathe—became an international rallying cry for social justice after the death of George Floyd. We recognize International Women’s Day as we grapple with the SheCession that has pushed more than 2.5 million women out of the workforce and threatens to undermine decades of progress.

At the heart of each of these crises is the same disease: inequity. Manifesting as sickness, mental health and substance abuse, generational trauma, despair and poverty, the plague of inequity shows up every day in America’s clinics. And because our health systems bear witness to the impact of this disease, there is no industry better poised to lead change than healthcare.

That change must start at the highest levels of healthcare leadership.

A Call to Action

Healthcare is the most expansive, powerful industry in America, with 20 million workers employed in a field that accounts for nearly 20% of the nation’s GDP and boasts a richness of identity, socioeconomic status, nationality, and racial and ethnic diversity. Three–quarters of the workforce is women. The vast majority of home health aides, community health workers and nurses are women and underrepresented minorities. Tom Brokaw once penned, “You can find the entire world inside your hospital.”

But there’s a ceiling for this abundance of talent and diversity. Women make up just 16% of leadership roles in academic medical schools, and less than 40% of hospital executives. Worse still, only 2% of physicians are Black women. In the C-suite, representation of people of color and openly LGBTQ+ individuals remain in the single digits.

If we are called to usher in equity, anti-racism and accountability in all areas of health access and outcomes, then we have to demand it at the top of the very systems that deliver that care. In a recent editorial appearing in The New England Journal of Medicine, authors state, “Equity in health leadership is both a fundamental social justice issue and a population health issue.”

And these changes need not be gradual. “Given the agility with which healthcare systems have reorganized in the face of COVID-19—many establishing new practice patterns, payment models and delivery mechanisms,” writes Hardemen, et al, “the response to the pandemic has made at least one thing clear: systemic change can, in fact, happen overnight.”

As CEO of The Carol Emmott Foundation—an organization with a singular goal of achieving full equity in healthcare leadership and governance—we are seeing rapid progress in a range of large and small health systems. We’re testing and implementing new human resource policies that build cultures of inclusion. We’re matching incumbent leaders with promising talent to ensure more representative succession and establish new and essential roles. We’re lobbying for the dissolution of all-male conference panels and the addition of new quotas to ensure nonwhite, nonmale perspectives appear in publications and in the press, which directly impact the visibility of and funding for equity-driven research led by women and professionals of color. We’re auditing pay gaps and promotion policies at institutions to ensure equity in advancement practices. And we’re examining physical spaces to diversify the portraits on walls and names on buildings to reflect more authentic, inclusive spaces. Moreover, as we focus on the systems, women and allies in our network are accelerating changes in their own practices and communities to ensure that equity is imbued in all levels of healthcare.

The urgency is clear, the strategies are proven and leaders at the very highest levels of our nation are at last beginning to take steps to tackle inequity, such as President Biden’s recent actions to improve family care options and wage transparency, and build a Cabinet that looks a lot like the people it serves. We can adopt and extend these efforts in our institutions today. Indeed, on this International Women’s Day—an observance that originated as part of a campaign to expand the protections and rights of women in the workplace—there’s no better moment than now.

We’re thrilled to celebrate the accomplishments of a few of the remarkable women in the Carol Emmott community who were recently honored by Modern Healthcare in their annual listing of the Top 25 Women Leaders in America. Honorees include our very own CEO, Anne McCune!

The list also includes Foundation Board members Odette Bolano, FACHE, CEO of Saint Alphonsus Health System, and Mary Pittman, DrPH, CEO of the Public Health Institute (Pittman is also a member of the Founder’s Council). Equity Collaborative members Catherine Jacobson, FHFMA, CPA, CEO of Froedtert Health, and Susan Turney, MD, FACP, CEO of Marshfield Clinic and a sponsor of The Carol Emmott Fellowship earned a coveted spot on the list, as well.

Join us in congratulating these amazing women for their extraordinary leadership in advancing equity in healthcare and beyond!

By Gayle Capozzalo, executive director of The Equity Collaborative. Published in partnership with American College of Healthcare Executives.

After years of steady progress for women in the workplace, the COVID-19 pandemic represents a moment of both inflection and crisis. Between February and August, mothers of children 12 years old and younger lost 2.2 million jobs, with Black and Latina women disproportionately impacted. That is three times the rate of unemployment among men. And while the health and social crisis has impacted every American, working mothers have been especially hard hit as they juggle telework, increased domestic responsibilities and care for children who are attending school remotely.

This regression of women’s advancement isn’t just bad for individuals and families—it’s bad for business. Research shows companies are 50% more likely to outperform their peers when women are well-represented in leadership positions. A 2017 study by Boston Consulting Group found companies with above-average diversity had nearly 20% greater revenue from innovation than below-average businesses. In fact, the McKinsey Global Institute estimates that advancing the economic potential of women in the U.S. could add $4.3 trillion to the annual GDP. Moreover, women in the C-suite are shown to enhance culture and welcome more employee-friendly policies that, in turn, bolster retention.

With women’s participation in the workplace under threat, now is the time for organizations to double down on action to accelerate gender parity.

Last year, The Carol Emmott Foundation established The Equity Collaborative with one singular mission: to achieve comprehensive, sustainable and fully inclusive gender equity, defined as equity in all forms: across gender, race, sexual orientation, ethnicity and the myriad ways identities intersect in healthcare leadership. Joined by some of the nation’s most recognizable, respected healthcare organizations, including medical schools, hospitals, health systems and health service companies, the coalition is a dynamic learning community committed to institutional-level change. With the help of our sponsor, WittKieffer, we continue to grow.

As the executive director of the Collaborative and a healthcare executive, I’ve seen the cost of inequity in the C-suite of American healthcare. The disregard of talented women, particularly Black women, Indigenous women and women of color, negatively impacts patient care and stymies creativity and innovation in the halls of medicine. I’ve also seen the extraordinary impact women can have when we invest in their growth.

At the Collaborative, we are aiding organizations to take on the change needed. Through our cohort of equity champions, we’re developing, testing, and marshaling structural and cultural changes at the highest levels of healthcare. We’re facilitating access to data, solutions and best practices that accelerate equity at every level of healthcare. We’re sharing tools to measure progress and promote accountability. And because we’re doing it as a collective, we’re able to pool resources that individual organizations couldn’t access on their own.

Because we know institutional change doesn’t happen overnight, the organizations in the Collaborative are each committed to a three-year term, investing financial and human capital to make meaningful and sustainable change in all areas of their work—from hiring practices to family leave policies.

The Collaborative has an active partnership with ACHE that facilitates the sharing of information to better engage all healthcare executives on the path to fully inclusive gender equity in healthcare. This blog will initiate our work together on social media.

The data show us this work is important especially as we are called on to create inclusive cultures to retain our employees. The Women in the Workplace 2020 survey found senior-level women are more likely than senior-level men to champion racial and gender diversity and more often mentor and sponsor women of color. As the pandemic continues and women leave the workplace at a much higher rate than men, we could lose an entire generation of working-mother healthcare leaders if we do not pay attention now.

Gayle L. Capozzalo, FACHE, is the executive director of The Equity Collaborative and a past ACHE Chairman. Gayle can be reached at gayle@theequitycollaborative.org.

To our fellow equity champions:

This year, we’ve seen healthcare professionals answer the call to serve during the largest global health crisis in our lifetimes. People of color and allies have walked arm-in-arm to denounce racism and bigotry. Parents—especially working mothers—have juggled careers, family obligations, and dedication to colleagues as they navigate new normals amid the pandemic.

And The Carol Emmott Foundation has had the backs of every woman and healthcare leader using their voices and positions to advocate for a better, more inclusive America.

In 2020, we welcomed our largest, most diverse class of women into The Carol Emmott Fellowship. We’ve seen every one of our current Fellows advance in their careers. Thirteen organizations completed their first year in The Equity Collaborative to accelerate fully inclusive gender equity in their systems and throughout the healthcare industry. Weekly resilience sessions brought together Fellows and alumnae in support of each other and their own wellbeing.

In 2021, we’re committed to broadening our reach. We’re developing  new curricula and training, expanding thought leadership opportunities for alumnae, and working with members of The Equity Collaborative to pilot and promote new interventions to achieve equity in the workplace.

In this most extraordinary year, Melinda Gates’ words ring true, “The pandemic provides leaders with an opportunity to dismantle antiquated systems and rebuild a more equitable and resilient world. This is how we can emerge from the pandemic in all of its dimensions: by recognizing that women are not just victims of a broken world; they can be architects of a better one.”

Our work as architects of fully inclusive equity requires your support. And we thank you: for your dedication to the cause and your financial contribution on this national day of giving.

We couldn’t do it without you.

Anne McCune 
CEO, The Carol Emmott Foundation

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In a climate of political maelstrom, it’s often easy to miss the milestones. This week, as we look ahead to a season of gratitude and reflection, we also look around us at the incredible progress of women in our most public spaces. From the success of women of color in getting people to the polls, to the extraordinary accomplishment of our Vice President-elect—the first woman, the first Black individual, and the first person of Asian descent to hold the office—we deserve to celebrate the wins. Politics aside, our nation has come a long way.

So let’s keep up the progress—and turn on the heat. Now is the time to push even harder for fully inclusive equity in every sector and every space where, to paraphrase the late Ruth Bader Ginsberg, decisions are being made.