By Douglas Riddle, Chief Impact Officer, The Carol Emmott Foundation and Gayle Capozzalo, Executive Director of the Collaborative, The Carol Emmott Foundation
There have been times when policy and practice in healthcare were driving toward fair and inclusive organizational structures. In the United States of America any such momentum has stalled. In the last two years we’ve seen a clear decline in women succeeding other women in Chief Executive roles. While women following men in CEO positions remains about 14%, only 1% of hand-offs from women CEOs are other women. Legacy structures and habits reliably return old patterns that perpetuate the loss of talent and organizational advancement demonstrated when women lead organizations.
In 2016 the efforts of a group of friends and family of Carol B. Emmott resulted in the formation of a fellowship for senior women leaders in healthcare. Carol was responsible for the healthcare practice of a retained search firm and had left a legacy of positive impact for underserved communities. From the beginning this fellowship recognized that more leadership development was a tiny part of what fellows needed. Rather, it organized with a mind to using the fellowship as a means of influencing the leaders and structures that limited opportunities for women executives.
It was pretty clear from early on that practical change was going to need a different approach: one that was more direct and involved the leadership of major healthcare organizations. Fortunately, a long-time advocate for fair and inclusive healthcare, Gayle Capozzalo, was retiring from her role as head of strategy for Yale Health. She had partnered with Yale’s CEO, Marna Borgstrom to advance their health system’s emphasis on just and inclusive culture and supporting practices. The Carol Emmott Foundation (as it had become) engaged Gayle to form a collaborative, directed by member organizations to work together to improve the climate, practices, and standards for truly equitable workplaces.
In the summer of 2019 representatives from a number of healthcare systems across the United States gathered in Chicago to create what became the Collaborative. The idea was simple: gather healthcare providers and others in the healthcare arena who were committed to just and inclusive systems to work together, hold themselves accountable, and develop best practices for making organizational life work for everyone. The participating organizations agreed to meet four times each year (2 virtually), identify meaningful metrics for the work, and focus on realistic practices that could ensure fairness and inclusion in leadership accession. Gayle Capozzalo took the reins as the Executive Director of what was then called The Equity Collaborative.
In August of 2020, 45 healthcare leaders from multiple institutions met. The focus of the meeting was on mentorship and sponsorship as a part of identifying and developing top talent. Because of the pandemic, this meeting was virtual but the enthusiasm for the work led the group to form several workgroups, in particular one focused on getting the right metrics for the nascent organization. In its first couple years, this nonprofit, non-governmental, membership organization has hosted more than a dozen meetings at member organizations and invited experts on merit-based selection, leadership, and organizational policies and practices. The main value proposition of the Collaborative continues to be the open sharing of challenges and solutions by member organizations with each other.
In the course of the first 7 years, the Collaborative had seen modest improvement in measures of equity and inclusion in member organizations. Since membership in the Collaborative may signal commitment to advancing these issues, improvement may be a reflection of the organizations’ attention to them as much as to the meetings themselves. Participants have repeatedly affirmed high value in having a community of other healthcare leaders also committed to just and fair workplaces and the number of organizations who continue to renew their membership suggests the need continues.
The Collaborative provides a range of resources including publications on Affiliative Groups and Sponsorship as well as regular consultation on critical questions. As part of The Carol Emmott Foundation, it plays an important part in the community. The community is based on demonstrated effectiveness in mutual support and resources. Collaborative member organizations are often sponsors of Carol Emmott Fellows (now over 200 women) and are involved in the Fellows’ Network. The Leadership Council, with a diverse mix of 50-60 top healthcare leaders from around the United States, provides mentors for Carol Emmott Fellows and advice and other resources for the rest of the community. It has been the conviction from the beginning that vital connections among leaders from all disciplines and over 30 states is, in the long term, the most powerful way to affect fair and inclusive healthcare.
It should be kept in mind that this is an entirely voluntary organization. Membership requires financial support and a willingness to be forthcoming about each organization’s progress and challenges. Progress is measured annually and compared with industry trends. Perhaps the greatest power is the opportunity for representatives to learn from each other, discuss issues that may be difficult to address in more official settings, and have the company of others who are committed to a better working and service environment for all. Organizations are like the humans they’re composed of. They like to avoid hard things and resist change until it is unavoidable. The Collaborative is made up of leaders and organizations who are willing to swim against the tide for the sake of fair and inclusive workplaces.
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