Gabrielle Frontera

I think just my perseverance and nothing-is-a-problem attitude. You know, we'll figure it out. And again, I kind of joke about swimming being this in-your-head type of sport, but you know, it's you against the water and no one's really coaching you through it, it's just you. So I really attribute a lot of my success to that foundation of swimming, that I just, you know, if you wanted to make it across the pool, it was you and yourself, and how you spoke to yourself and talked to yourself to get yourself through it. Sometimes it's what you've said to yourself that could be your best advice, and I've had multiple conversations with myself once I'm swimming.

The best career advice would probably have been just go for it, and take any opportunity that's presented to you. Someone took a chance on me back in 2009, and they thought I would be fantastic in the healthcare setting from an operations perspective even though I came from a different life doing other things. I took that opportunity, and look what happened - I'm now the assistant director. It's about being willing to seize opportunities when they come your way.

I would tell them to follow whatever path is in front of you, but don't be afraid to take a different one. You need to be willing to change course when the right opportunity presents itself. I came from a completely different background, doing other things in a different life, and someone saw potential in me for healthcare operations. I took that chance, fell in love with it after a couple of years, and then went back to get my master's to further my background. Every role I've had has been created for me because I wasn't afraid to forge my own path and do things my way.

I think some of the challenges are really with how the government is governing healthcare. It makes our lives difficult, and you have to kind of be nimble and hope for the best, expect the worst. That really has been interesting. I'm in an academic medical center, so research is very big here for us as well, so all the funding for research is a major concern. The break in continuity with the continuation of research and all that we're doing doesn't just set us back the few months or couple of years we're having the break until someone else comes in, but more importantly, it's going to set us back decades because of the fact that we are so far behind all the other countries that have continued their research programs.

I think being authentic and true to yourself is the value that I kind of stand by. I'm reading this fantastic book right now called The Silent Feminine Power, and it's basically for somebody who's not an extrovert or very loud, but has a lot of thoughtful things to say, like myself. It's about how you continue that trajectory of being your authentic self in an environment where you can potentially be overshadowed by people who are louder than you but not necessarily have more things to say, they just like to talk. At this point in my career now, I've been seasoned a little bit, and I kind of see how people operate, and you just wonder, how can you stay true to who you are but still progress and advance in your career when you see other things kind of being rewarded? There's a beautiful analogy in the book about how water is like this quiet force, and it doesn't fight, it doesn't resist, but water just keeps running and running and running, and then over time, it carves out canyons and shows the persistence is key. It's not loud, it just keeps going. There's power in that quiet persistence, and that's the silent feminine power.