Lakesha Farmer, PharmD, MBA

I attribute my success to my parents. They were actually teenage parents when they had me, but they did not allow that to define what type of parents they would be. My parents, even from a very young age, always spoke greatness into me, and told me that I would be something great, I would be a doctor, I would be all of these things, and so I believed it. And because I believed that from that point in life, I just didn't want to disappoint them. Another thing they shared with me was my faith. My mom is in the ministry, my father is in the ministry as well, and so they've always instilled that in me from a young age, and that's what I've leaned on whenever times got rough. I could always lean on my faith, and it made me very resilient throughout my life. When tribulations came up, I knew that I would be able to handle it, because I knew that I depended on a higher power, so I attribute all of my success to my parents.

To never give up. I know it sounds very cliche, but there have been so many obstacles that I've had to face along the way. That simple advice to never give up means so much more than what the surface meaning of that is. If I would have given up, then you never know how many people are watching you, right? So my failure becomes someone else's failure, because they gave up either. So I remain resilient because I know I influence a lot of people. I get a lot of women that come up to me and be like, you know what, I was afraid to do XYZ, and then I thought about you and how you're doing it, and I was like, if she can do it, I can do it. And that's fuel for me to say, you know what, this is why you do it, this is why you can't give up.

The advice that I would give to other women looking to break into healthcare, or even healthcare leadership, would be to lean on others that have walked the same path. Mentorship, sponsorship, all of those are buzzwords, but they're all very meaningful. I had to go through the school of hard knocks and learn it myself, and I had to fail like a million times. I didn't give up, but we have so many women now who have gone through it and have faced those paths, and it is upon us to give back. To reach a hand back and pull other women up, and be influential to those women and help them. So don't be afraid to network with other women that you see that have already traveled that path. Reach out to them, be fearless, ask them for help, ask them for advice, ask them for sponsorship or mentorship. It could be definitely worthwhile. I've helped so many women along the way through mentorship and sponsorship, and so that's the advice that I would give. Your network is actually your net worth, so use it to the best of your ability.

The biggest challenge right now, I believe, is there is still a very large gap that we're seeing in terms of women leaders, especially minority women leaders, versus our male counterparts, and I would like to see that change. I feel like a lot of it has to do with women, once we get to a certain point, the rejection is very heavy because we're facing the rejection at a higher rate than our male counterparts, and so sometimes we just give up due to the inequities we face. People typically hire what they're familiar with. And so I would like to see more women moving into more executive and senior leadership roles, and extending their hand back to recognize other women who possess the talent and the skill sets to also be executive leaders and make room at the table for them as well. I think that we are on the receiving end of problem, but we can flip that and be on the side that makes it to where women are helping to change that dynamic once we do get into these roles. Women have the power to be the change that we want to see!

The most important value to me in my work and personal life is finding that balance, right? Being a mom, being a wife, being a very driven career woman, all those things are very important to me. So having that work-life balance to where my family doesn't feel abandoned, and my work doesn't feel like I'm abandoning it either is very important. I think that it took some time to balance all of that out, especially when you're trying to climb the corporate ladder. You have to be kind of like a juggling force when you're trying to move up. But I understood from a very young age that this makes me happy as well, so going to work and being successful feeds me. And because it feeds me, it helps me to feed my family in more ways than one. I think a lot of women have some guilt when we are super successful and trying to juggle it all, but I also have to understand that if I wasn't going after what I really, really wanted, I would also be very unhappy, and if all is not well with me, all is not well with my family. Therefore, finding that balance between work and life has been extremely paramount for me, and I think that I've found it. I have a very supportive spouse. I have very understanding daughters who understand that mom works hard, and when it's appropriate, I'll put work to the side so that I can be their mom and show up for when they need me most.