Her Story
About Shayna
Shayna Chiarelli is an experienced healthcare leader based in Rockford, Illinois. She began her nursing career in 2012 in inpatient settings at a local hospital before transitioning to primary care at Crusader Community Health, an FQHC, where she advanced from RN to team lead, manager, and director in 2018 over 12 years. She later served as outpatient cardiology manager at UW Northern Illinois, drawn by opportunities to build a specialty program. Currently, she contributes to Chiarelli Consulting, her husband's firm established in 2020, providing fractional leadership and project management support to FQHCs and community health centers focused on ambulatory operations and leadership growth. Chiarelli earned her master's degree online from Rockford University, formerly Rockford College, with a practicum at the Winnebago County Health Department, and achieved Nurse Executive Board certification in 2023. She attributes her success to mentoring others in developing polished communication, reflective decision-making, and team leadership skills, and she advises aspiring leaders to prioritize listening, collaboration, and assembling the right resources over being the sole expert in the room. Crusader Community Health remains especially meaningful to her due to its role serving underserved patients.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Shayna
01What do you attribute your success to?
Probably the one thing that I find the most motivating about leadership and management is working with either a peer or a direct report and you start to see them grow. You start to see them becoming more polished in their communication, becoming the person who does do listening more than they're talking. Seeing them sort of grow to be a person who's not reactive in the moment but takes time to reflect on what's occurred and then come back and provide additional explanation or a different perspective after taking that time. When I'm able to work with managers and others that move into that space you start to see them grow and develop to be able to lead teams and to accomplish projects. That's what gives me the most motivation.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think one thing that I would advise people on getting into leadership and management is that it's not always about being the smartest person in the room. But it's about your ability to bring in the right people at the right time and the right resources around the table to work and collaborate and to move the next step. Listening is so much important, much more important than talking. So your ability to take a step back, not be the one to answer every question, not be the one to have every solution, but to listen more than you speak is of the utmost importance when you go into a leadership role.
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