Women in Healthcare: 6 Leaders Driving Progress

In honor of Women’s History month, Jennifer Henley, COO of NAS Recruitment Innovation, subsidiary of M3 Talent Solutions Organization, sat down with six amazing women leaders who shared their insights as forerunners in the healthcare space. In this webinar, our panelists discussed the steps their organizations are taking to help women advance, the biggest barriers within the healthcare space, and key insights for overcoming gender bias on the path to leadership.

Our Panelists

Novonda Lilly

Director of Talent and Community Outreach for Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Rupinder Kaur

Executive Director, Physician/APP Recruitment, Baptist Health System (KY & IN)

Darleen Souza

Senior Vice President/CHRO, South Shore Health

Barb Martin

Executive Director, Ambulatory Care Talent Selection, Mercy Health Systems

Andrea Leland

System Vice President, Provider HR Services, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and Clinics

Theresa Mazzaro

Recruitment Manager, Fairfax Radiology Centers

Moderator: Jennifer Henley, PHR, SHRM-CP

Chief Operating Officer at NAS Recruitment Innovation

How has the journey of women in healthcare evolved in your organization over the past few years? What programs or tactics have been adopted to enhance the growth of women in higher level roles?

Novonda: I’ve been able to witness women being added to our executive board and women that are in our executive leadership roles. I feel we have a growing recognition that women’s voices and leadership styles bring invaluable perspectives to the table. There has been some major impact to women in leadership roles, but there’s also still work that we need to do because it’s really about equipping women with the tools and support they need to lead confidently.

Rupinder: I feel like Covid really made an impact on embracing everyone’s strengths and celebrating areas of opportunities rather than structures that’re designed to hold people back. My team is 100% all women – not designed that way, but when you hire for the right fit, you go with the best candidate. Kentucky is very unique and different; most of it is rural, but the eastern part of the state looks very different from the western part. We tackle sourcing within each market while still having a standardization, and I think that’s how that type of empowerment and collaboration helps us place more quality candidates that we can retain longer.

Andrea: At Dartmouth, we’ve worked hard in our executive recruitment to make sure that we pay attention to how we are sourcing. We conduct a blinded review so that we’re paying attention to the qualifications of candidates rather than gender or racial indicators that may be biasing our search committees. This allows us to put forward the best candidates based on competency alone. So, it’s been a really unique process that’s allowed us to improve placing diverse candidates in C-suite level positions and to have a stronger, more diverse gender pool in our placements. And we’re seeing more women in those C-suite positions which is really exciting for us as we move away from historically male-dominated positions.

Theresa: There’s a really great theme here when sourcing; it’s so important to remove the name and address so that we’re just focusing on the actual skillset. I’m so proud to say at Fairfax Radiology Centers, 4 out of 5 of our executive team are women.

What barriers to women advancing in healthcare do you see today? How can you and how have you addressed them?

Theresa: I was reading an article yesterday at Hewlett-Packard that said that approximately 60% of women won’t apply for a role if they don’t meet 100% of the requirements. Whereas men will apply for the job if they meet 50-60% of the requirements. So, we’re not focusing on our strengths and transferable skills enough. I knew nothing about recruitment at first, but I could sell something, and I could care for people, and I learned the rest along the way.

Rupinder: I would like to speak to this as a person of color and as an immigrant to the country. I didn’t come from a household where my parents went to work and were exposed to a boardroom. I didn’t really grow up around speaking up for and advocating for myself and asking for the opportunity – this is something I learned through my mentors. I think culturally, we have to identify some of those backgrounds, have respect for that, and help coach and mentor folks to celebrate that within themselves.

How can mentoring or sponsorship programs really help elevate women?

Barb: I think having strong leaders and women partners where you can brainstorm together, and they can call you out. There’s a variety of barriers within the workplace that we experience, but being bold and reaching out to individuals who inspire you is a great way to connect.

Darleen: I think, from the mentorship perspective and supporting other women or other people, it’s really about understanding. You’re not alone in how you’re feeling and what you’re experiencing. We need to form the right networks and ask for what we want, because we have come to understand that we won’t be asked. We need to build confidence and address how we’re going to show up. As women, we have to acknowledge that we want things to be different and decide what that environment is and not settle.

Novonda: I think women need to do more of the mentoring. Women need advocates who will speak their names in rooms of opportunity, because an advocate will help foster, guide, and shape the next generation of leaders by recognizing their talents and connecting them with opportunities that will help them learn and grow. My call to action is to commit to speaking women’s names in rooms of opportunity, because there’s room for all of us to win.

What changes do you hope to see in healthcare over the next 5 to 10 years?

Barb: I think getting arms around it operationally and asking the important questions. Where do we have an opportunity? Where can we support someone? How are we showing career paths? How do we encourage them to expand? Making sure when we have an opportunity to talk about skills and investment, that we are doing so for those individuals that are high performers. Looking at those opportunities and gaps we can help close so that they can be at the table and be seen. I believe it’s possible to be successful as a female leader, a mother, a wife, and a member of society. But what we’ve said throughout is we have to make that active investment.

Darleen: I would say, continue to give people the voice in the platform to have these discussions. We need to move away from the 1976 definition of work. It’s 2025. How are we as leaders removing those obstacles, removing those barriers and letting people know it’s okay to want? It’s okay to aspire. It’s okay to ask. We need to make accommodations for women. It needs to be accepted, and we need to be able to offer those channels of support, and we don’t do it enough. If we have new opportunities, we need to create an infrastructure within corporate America to support it.

Theresa: One of the things that we’re doing within Fairfax Radiology centers for all people that are aspiring for leadership is training sessions. We teach them about honing your negotiation skills, learning how to network, and taking the steps to get to the next level. NAS just helped us launch a career page where we talk about how to get to that next level in leadership. But the idea of just changing people’s mindsets in the future is going to be important. Having sponsors that help women negotiate. As a woman in healthcare or a woman anywhere, you have great value, and whatever it is that you want to do, that’s what we need. You do absolutely deserve this.

Novonda: When I think about what changes I would like to see in healthcare over the next 5 to 10 years, I hope to see a healthcare landscape where women’s representation in leadership, including C-suite, reflects their presence in the workforce. I hope for a shift in organizational cultures, where success is not tied to outdated leadership models, but embraces diverse leadership styles. True progress means not only breaking glass ceilings, but eliminating the walls that have kept women from advancing in the first place.

Andrea: I would just add to that: for each of us here it starts with us as leaders. We’re responsible for our actions in the culture we create within our teams and the people who look up to us and report to us. There’s no monopoly on success, so we should be empowering and encouraging other women and other people who look up to us and creating opportunities for their success. Whether that means putting their name on a slide where I’m presenting to senior leaders or giving them credit for something that they really helped to advance. Those are the little pockets that catch and grow, and that is how engagement really expands within an organization.

Any final advice you want to give rising leaders or current leaders today?

Rupinder: I would say, bank on yourself. Speak up. It’s okay to say, “give me a shot at it.” I want to try it. Go in with ideas, even if you don’t think they’re the best ideas. It’s that one idea or thought that could lead to something really great. You will miss all the shots you don’t take, so take the shots.

Darleen: I would say, if it was easy everyone would be doing it. You’re going to hit obstacles, but it’s about the recovery of those obstacles and hurdles. You always do better with a strong group of people around you to help support you. But in order to do that, you’re going to have to lean in to vulnerability, and you can only lean in to vulnerability if you have the confidence in yourself to do that. It starts with us keeping relationships alive and network opportunities alive. And it starts with us to make a change.

Novonda: I would say, own your ambition, speak up about your goals. Don’t wait for someone to notice your potential – advocate for yourself. Seek out mentors and sponsors who will do the same and invest in continuous learning. Most importantly, we need to lift as we climb and support other women on their paths because leadership is not a solo journey. The more we support one another, the more we all rise. Speak up for what you want and how you want to grow, because I feel that development is personal. You know someone can see the strengths in you, but you have to own your development, and you have to speak up for what you want, and then others can support that.

Theresa: We can really help people succeed just by listening. Taking an interest in somebody and hearing what they have to say in their unique story. I have spoken with many people who have come from other countries and have led these amazing lives before coming here. What they bring to the table is quite unique, and it’s a contribution that makes all of us better.

If you want to hear more, you can view the entire panel discussion here. Be sure to sign up for our communications by subscribing to our blog or filling out our contact form. We’ll notify you of upcoming webinars and posts.

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