Katherine Allam

My journey into healthcare began when I was a very sick child, spending most of my time from ages 3 to 13 at Children's Hospital of Michigan undergoing countless surgeries to rebuild my entire upper respiratory system. During one particularly difficult recovery from experimental laser sinus surgery, a nurse brought me a Pocahontas Barbie doll to comfort me, and that moment of compassion stuck with me my entire life. I initially went to school for nursing but switched gears and got my EMT license through MedStar Ambulance's training program, where I was in one of the first classes. I worked as an EMT doing 911 calls and transfers, then became an ER tech at St. John Moross in Detroit, working night shift. I was a trauma junkie at that point, young and living my best first responder life. Then COVID hit, and I completely fell apart. By June 2020, I was taking bodies from the morgue to refrigerator trucks, and I had personally lost over 100 patients. I transitioned to a smaller ER to get my brain on straight, then moved to Children's Hospital working in their genetic and metabolic disease clinic doing scheduling and prior authorizations. A boss there encouraged me to consider healthcare administration, saying I was really good at it. I ended up at Harmony Cares Medical Group, the largest and oldest in-home healthcare practice in the entire country, where I was promoted to create an outbound call center team from scratch to educate patients on the medical system. I love knowing that what I do has a positive impact on someone's life, whether through health or just listening to what they have to say.