Her Story
About Nikita
Nikita Raina has worked in the health tech field since 2019. After earning a Bachelor of Biology from Tufts University in 2019, she spent two years at a healthcare PR firm before pursuing further education. She then completed a Master's of Public Health in Epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health in 2023, which shifted her focus toward healthcare and real-world data. In her current role at a small AI health tech startup, which she has held for about five months, Nikita manages existing customer partnerships by scoping projects and fostering growth while also helping establish processes to support company scaling. She has presented independent research at a recognized conference in her field, where it was voted one of the top posters of the season. Nikita attributes her success to hard work and determination instilled by her parents, and she values integrity and staying true to one's own ideas, especially when working with AI tools.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Nikita
01What do you attribute your success to?
I definitely attribute most of my success to my parents and how they've raised me to always focusing on working hard. I believe that there's always luck involved with any career, educational, or even personal life opportunity, but I think that luck doesn't go far enough if you are not determined and willing to put in the hard work to make those successes actually amount to something.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The career advice would definitely be from my dad... Don't run away from new opportunities and try and dive in headfirst, because usually those new opportunities that seem really scary and undefined in the moment are the ones that will kind of define and shape the path that your career will eventually take.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think the advice that I would give is to never be afraid of speaking up in a room that might seem intimidating. I think I spent a lot of the early years of my career being a little quiet and deferential, and I saw things shift and open up for me as I got Bolder and more comfortable with sharing my thoughts and speaking my mind. Several times, people are thinking very similar things and agree with you. And the best 1% of the time is when you introduce a new idea that no one else is thinking about.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I would say the biggest challenge is uncertainty and not having a lot of structure. Most of my other jobs have been on big teams with like a lot of pod-like structures, where we kind of each have our roles and responsibilities very cleanly sketched out, and now working at a startup the day-to-day priorities can shift pretty dramatically and quickly, depending on what's important, what client we're engaging with, what things are going right or going wrong that you know maybe need urgent hands on deck. So I think that would be the biggest challenge, but also kind of one of the biggest draws as well to working in a setting like this.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I mean I think working hard is kind of one of the most obvious ones, but I think if I wanted to branch out outside of that I think a lot of like integrity and staying true to yourself and you know being honest with your work because I think we're living in a world of AI which is amazing. I use it a lot. I work for an AI health tech company. It's a part of my life my career and I'm sure it's a part of many other people's careers but I think it's important to still find that integrity in your work and think about what you can call your own and what you can call your own ideas. So I think that's truly some of the most valuable things because those are things that you can be proud of and hold onto throughout your career moving forward.
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