Sharita Richardson

I attribute my success to the mindset I developed early in my career as a high school teacher in an inner-city school. I wore a suit every day and worked to show young people that there is hope, that they are more than just what they believe they can be, that the sky is the limit. I take that mindset with me into what I do every day. I'm a woman of color in an industry that there aren't a lot of women - it's very much male-dominated - and you don't see a lot of people who look like me doing what I do, especially in leadership roles. I think representation matters. Even though it started for me as a teacher, I take that same tone with me, and I hope that people can see me and think she can guide me, she can be a mentor, and I can do it too. I also credit my superintendent when I was a teacher, a Black woman named Floridiz, who was very stern and ingrained in my brain that you have to come prepared. She told me not to come into any of her buildings with my coffee in my hand, that I needed to be standing there prepared, ready to teach. I have taken that mindset with me for 30 years - whenever you come into a room, you come in prepared, whenever you come into a negotiation, you come into the negotiation prepared. That has set the tone for how I've progressed professionally over the past 30 years.

The best career advice I ever received came from my superintendent when I was a teacher, a Black woman named Floridiz who was very stern and very intimidating. She ingrained in my brain that you have to come prepared to teach these students. She told me, do not come into any of my buildings with your coffee in your hand, you need to be standing there prepared, ready to teach. I have taken that mindset with me for 30 years. Whenever you come into a room, you come in prepared. Whenever you come into a negotiation, you come into the negotiation prepared. That has just kind of sat with me for 30 years and set the tone for how I've progressed professionally. In the role that I am in, it takes a lot of preparation - I manage 5 states, I don't live in 5 states, I only live in one. I feel like I haven't quite mastered it because there's always something to learn, especially in spaces where you don't live every day. I try to talk to people so that I can prepare myself to be armed with the same breadth of knowledge that these folks have who actually live there, to negotiate agreements and structure contracts that work for them.

I would say you would want to have a passion for people and wanting to make people's lives better and easier. At the end of the day, we're all gonna be a patient in somebody's waiting room. We're humans, we all get sick, and whether we have insurance or not, we're all gonna need an urgent care visit, we may end up in the emergency room with the flu. There's a process in all of that. If you don't have the compassion for people, then all you'll see is the numbers. You won't see the people that your decisions impact. So I would tell a young person that you have to have compassion, you have to have understanding, and you have to have conviction to be in this role.

The values most important to me are compassion, understanding, and conviction. I believe you have to have compassion for people and want to make people's lives better and easier. If you don't have the compassion for people, then all you'll see is the numbers - you won't see the people that your decisions impact. I also believe that representation matters. I'm a woman of color in an industry that there aren't a lot of women, and you don't see a lot of people who look like me at the table making hard decisions. I take the mindset from my teaching days with me - showing people that there is hope, that they are more than just what they believe they can be, that the sky is the limit. I also believe strongly in preparation - coming into every room, every negotiation, prepared. And I believe that every point of contact you have with a human is an opportunity to influence and improve and inspire. You can have a conversation with someone in the grocery store and it can resonate with them two weeks later and change their life.