Her Story
About Anika
My main area of expertise is in healthcare operations and strategy. A lot of my days consist of back-to-back meetings throughout the day talking about process and workflows and being able to jump in live and understand what's happening on the ground at the hospital, so that we can come up with rapid-fire initiatives or interventions to put out fires. A large piece of my work is that I get to work on special projects where I get to roll out products and services that are new to our health system, like kiosks and so forth. I spend a lot of my day in planning and implementation meetings and also putting out fires. In the not-for-profit space, I run an amazing organization for women and girls in New York City where we provide grant funding through a micro-grant for women that are doing amazing work across the city, and we want to empower them to keep doing that work. I'm very lucky to have an excellent board of directors that support into keeping our operations and the organization also moving forward based on its vision and mission. The not-for-profit side is more fulfilling because I am connecting live with people within my own discretion. I get to be the decision maker, the direction for the org, and determining what's next and what's our priorities. Because of the autonomy that I have with my philanthropy work and what I do with Women's Empire, it allows me to cater to exactly what women like me, Black and brown girls, are looking for.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Anika
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I always tell people, don't write off healthcare, it's a great industry. It's a changing landscape. People are always going to be sick, and there's always a need for people that are not necessarily clinicians. You can be good with finances, and you can be the finance person for the organization. You can be good with connecting with people - roles can be crafted based off of how well you engage in connecting with our patients. So, not everything has to be a direct service provider. Operations exist. When you think about the hospital, the first thing you think about is the doctors and nurses, but we have to think about who keeps the light on, who makes sure that the building is open, and the floors are clean, and things are happening beyond the doctors and the nurses, because they're just showing up to a workplace, but who is making sure it's ran? I spend a lot of time explaining some of those positions and administrative and operation positions that exist, because people always divert to the clinical degrees, which are amazing, because that's how we save lives. But there are other elements that support those physicians to help them in better saving lives. In the not-for-profit space, I believe everyone should have more than one thing. I believe that we were born to serve, so additional to having our jobs, if your job gives you the ability to serve directly or indirectly, take that. I tell people, identify in your younger self, what were you lacking, or what did you think you need, and do you think that that is an area that you can serve and support people in with new knowledge or resources?
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