Her Story
About Cassandra
Cassandra Hodges built her career on an unusual foundation: broadcast journalism. After earning a Bachelor of Arts and Science from Louisiana State University, she worked as a medical reporter for Fox Network's Detroit affiliate, where she covered medications and healthcare mergers — an early education in how the pharmaceutical industry actually operates, from clinical developments to the business deals shaping it. That reporting instinct, paired with a hard-earned ability to translate complex medical information for a broad audience, would become the throughline of everything she did next.
From broadcast, she moved into print, eventually becoming Director of Marketing for a statewide healthcare magazine. The role put her in regular contact with physicians and health systems, and that network became the bridge into pharmaceuticals, where she stepped into sales management. Over the following three decades, she built deep expertise across more than 15 therapeutic areas — cardiology, oncology, dermatology, neurology, and nephrology among them — earning an MBA along the way and becoming Board Certified in Clinical Lipidology.
Today, Cassandra is best known for her specialty: product launches. She's led go-to-market efforts for major drug companies including AbbVie, Pfizer, Ascensia Diabetes Care, and Lundbeck, drawing on her intimate knowledge of how hospital systems, pharmacies, and patient care actually intersect. That knowledge — plus a career built on relationships with physicians rather than just sales targets — has earned her multiple national awards and two humanitarian honors, and continues to define how she approaches every new product she brings to market.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Cassandra
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to honesty, openness, and a genuine eagerness to keep learning. The pharmaceutical industry changes constantly — new therapies, new evidence, new ways of thinking about patient care — and staying curious has kept me sharp and kept the people I work with trusting me.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Someone once told me it's often better to purr like a kitten than roar like a tiger to get people's attention. I've carried that with me throughout my career. Influence doesn't have to be loud — sometimes the quieter, more thoughtful approach is what actually earns people's trust and gets results.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I'd tell them to learn how to establish common ground and to engage in real conversation, not just deliver information. And above all, own your work. When you own something rather than simply rent it, you treat it differently — you take more pride in it, and it shows.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Access is the biggest challenge I see. Getting meaningful, open access to providers — the chance to actually sit down and have a real conversation — has become harder, and it's something our industry needs to keep working to solve.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity, compassion, and finding common ground. Those three things guide how I show up, whether I'm working with a physician, a patient, or a colleague — and they've never steered me wrong.
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