Dana Elizabeth Cohen

I attribute my success to my mother, hands down. She was a single mother, and we grew up without a lot of money. She told me, 'I'll be damned, you're gonna go to college, and you're gonna be successful, and you're gonna be able to take care of yourself.' I saw how hard she worked and how it paid off for her, and I said, I'm gonna work hard too. Even as a kid, I told her, 'I'm gonna take care of you when I'm older, I promise.' When she needed it, she said thank God she raised two kids that actually really like her. My family, between my mother and my sister, we're a small but super tight-knit family. My mother lives upstairs, my sister lives down the street, and we're all very close. That drive to make her proud and to keep my promise to her is what pushes me.

The best career advice I've ever received came from my mother, and it's two things that I live by and teach to others. First, follow your gut. And second, do what makes you happy, because honestly, if you're not doing what makes you happy or what you're passionate about, that doesn't come through. I truly am in healthcare because I have a personal passion for it. I know a lot of companies use the line of 'oh, we want to help patients' and their job is to make a profit, but I really want to help people. I want people to get the care they need and understand it. For me, if you're not doing what makes you happy or passionate, that doesn't come through. I happen to just love what I do. I love marketing, but I also love doing all these other things.

I'd say two things that my mother always taught me, which I do a lot of teaching and mentoring with my own teams. First, follow your gut. And second, do what makes you happy, because honestly, if you don't have a personal passion for what you're doing, it doesn't come through. I know a lot of companies in pharmaceuticals use the line of 'oh, we want to help patients,' and their job is to make a profit, but I truly am in there to say I really want to help people. I want people to get the care they need and understand it. For me, if you're not doing what makes you happy or passionate, that doesn't come through. So go find something you love and that you're passionate about, because it shows.

The biggest challenge in healthcare right now is how the system is changing and how insurance companies are dictating care. I had to have spine surgery because of a congenital disorder, and I was literally hospitalized and stretchered to the hospital, but insurance denied the surgery saying it's not medically necessary even though I couldn't walk. It turned out my spinal cord literally collapsed on itself. My doctor and I went through that whole process, and I actually ended up suing the insurance company because he did the surgery anyway. We went all the way to the governing body to say, no, this person needed the surgery, how dare you deny it, go back and pay for it. I think it's starting to shift because there are third-party organizations and governing bodies stepping in now. That experience is part of why I started saying, you know what, we gotta teach patients how to be patient advocates. With the healthcare industry the way it is now, people need to learn how to advocate for themselves with their own doctors, how to do research, and learn more about what they have.

The values most important to me in both my work and personal life are family, self-reliance, trusting and following one’s instincts, and a strong commitment to patient advocacy and helping others access the care they need.