Her Story
About Danielle
I have a mixed background working in both medicine and aviation. In medicine, I've been working for about 10 years in orthopedics as a physician assistant. I always loved helping people, but I also had my own experience in healthcare early on at 16 and 18 when I had two knee surgeries as a young athlete. That gave me a different perspective as far as being on the patient side and what I liked in my healthcare journey getting from my providers. I felt I could definitely help people and be able to relate to them more on a professional but also personal basis, as I've gone through a lot of what they are going through. In aviation, I've worked for the past 2 years in business development for Aviate Realty, a company started by my brother and sister-in-law that deals specifically with aviation real estate properties. I always had an interest in aviation and a healthy respect for it - my father was in the Navy and flew naval aircraft. I do their business development, going out and interviewing potential companies that want to partner with us, helping get our name out there on social media, attending all their events and air shows, and talking to people to help them navigate our site and promote their property. I love having that variety and diversity in my background because I think it's helped me in both aspects of my careers. My Monday through Wednesday is my medicine career, going into the office or operating room for about 10 hours, seeing patients or helping to operate on them as a first assist. On Thursdays and Fridays, I get to take my kids to school and pick them up, and that's when I work mainly on the aviation business side, having meetings, making connections, and updating our social media platforms.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Danielle
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Become a lifelong student - never be afraid to keep learning. You learn something new every single day. If you feel like you've learned everything you can in your career, something's off. There's something else you can learn, there's something you can improve on. Whether it's medicine, aviation, or whatever industry you're in, there's always something new, some new advancements, a new technique that could help you in your industry as well.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
For women in healthcare: You have so much value. Don't be afraid to speak your mind and stand up for what you believe is right. At the end of the day, especially in healthcare, it's the patient that's the center of everything. So just keep that in mind - the patient is always the most important, because that's what we're treating, we're helping them. Without patients, we wouldn't have a job. For women entering entrepreneurship: The entrepreneurial field is new for me, so I'm still learning a lot, and I rely on my mentors like my sister-in-law and the women that have come before me to help shape what I'm looking for out of the company and the business and my role in that. Just go out there and make those connections. Maybe at first glance, you don't see how a connection can help advance you, but keep speaking to that person, because you never know what tidbit of information is going to stick with you or that you'll be able to incorporate into your own business or entrepreneurial adventure. Just go out there and meet people, just to meet people, and then something will eventually shake out. I feel like my most meaningful conversations happen not necessarily at a networking event, but just talking to people I'm sitting next to at dinner at a restaurant or something, and then I find that key piece of information and it kind of clicks - that's the most natural aspect of it. Don't be afraid to promote yourself, but just go after the personal level, not always looking for the how-can-you-help-me type question. I think that is very beneficial.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
In healthcare, it's learning to navigate the business side of healthcare, because things are changing as far as reimbursements. Providers are being asked to see more patients in order to make up for the lack of monetary revenue that's coming in on their end. But I don't want to sacrifice that connection that I'm making with the patient. So for me, it's that balance of seeing the appropriate amount of patients a day where I can give them my 100% for their entire visit time, but also meeting my metrics, my numbers, to make sure that the business side of healthcare understands that I'm still successful and they see that.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
In my personal life, the value that's most important is my family time. I love spending time with my family - I've got 3 young kids. Having my careers be as varied as they are gives me the opportunity to be home with them and see them grow up and support them in all of their endeavors. Professionally, what value is most important to me is that personal connection with either the patient that I'm helping, or a provider that I'm referring a patient on to, or the buyer-seller of a new home, the pilot that's looking for new hangar space. It's going to be that personal connection, that one-on-one, and that trust that develops between me and that individual.
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