Theresa Nutt

I attribute my success to grit, passion and innovative thinking. I am naturally a person who is curious about the world and everything that happens in it. I see correlations between thoughts and ideas that could be considered unrelated. This ability to integrate, coalesce, and eventually distill things down for others has served me well. In the grit department, I have always been willing to work harder and get back up when life, people or circumstances have knocked me down. Because my mind is naturally innovative, I have survived my share of setbacks, challenges and delays. Grit helps me keep going when I want to quit. I also have an unshakeable passion for changing the future of healthcare. I have had this passion since my 20s when I was a new nurse. I could see that we weren't really helping people until it was too late and it fueled a personal quest to understand what truly contributes to healing. My insatiable desire to learn and understand is also a significant contribution to my success. I am willing to read the research or books, talk to experts, and learn new material. In addition, I want to thank my parents and grandparents for their influence in my life. They taught me to treat others with respect and remember that everyone's job is equally valuable. They instilled a desire to be compassionate and of service in the world. They raised me to be responsible and think for myself. As I close these ideas, I think there are a few other qualities that support my success. I am a builder by nature. I find an idea and keep working with it until it is fully built to last. I believe in high quality and put in the work to create it. I am also naturally good at seeing what is present, analyzing what is missing, and stepping into take ideas or programs to the next level; stabilize and level up is my internal motto for how I work. I am extremely good at reading people, building teams and being diplomatic. And finally, I am naturally creative and express that creativity in my professional life by writing, speaking, creating books and journals, running retreats, and inspiring others.

The best advice I've received about my career is don't get too narrow in your thinking. So many people are taught to find your place and then get really narrow and focus in on your area of expertise, but the people I'm most drawn to bridge the heart with science, the human spirit and spirituality with evidence, the mind, body and spirit, etc. In my opinion, the more expansive your thinking, the better. My degrees are not in the same field because it gives me different perspectives to approach challenges and opportunities, and I'm more innovative and holistic in my thinking as a result. That expansive thinking has been key in my career.

I would tell young women entering my industry to stay open, stay curious, and not narrow their thinking too early in their careers. I would encourage them to explore different roles, perspectives, and opportunities so they can discover where their strengths truly align rather than feeling pressured to define themselves too quickly. I believe growth comes from being willing to learn continuously, ask questions, and step into spaces that may feel unfamiliar at first. I would also remind them to trust their own voice, build strong relationships, and remain adaptable as the industry evolves. Most importantly, I would emphasize that limiting your mindset can limit your potential, so it is essential to think broadly, embrace possibilities, and allow your path to develop with intention rather than constraint.

We're financially in a challenging place in healthcare, and I work in academia, so the combination of academic healthcare involves a lot of budgetary restrictions. We've got AI pressing on us, which is challenging the kind of work we do and what we will and are streamlining. I also think a lot of our traditional health structures don't actually help people get well, so we have to really look at how much we keep investing in traditional medicine and treatments when the model doesn't actually cure people at the rate that it needs to. I am not implying that traditional medicine doesn't have its place, I actually think it is a very valuable part of the bigger possibility of healthcare. Add to the equation of healthcare insurance and pharmaceutical companies and the expense of delivering healthcare - it's so multifaceted. With all of that as the backdrop, when we look at whole-person integrative medicine, lifestyle, and what fuels the human spirit, it's hard to find the funding to pay attention to lifegiving, low-cost interventions when they can actually create the best outcomes but not the best revenue. Having said that, this is also a time of great opportunity to expand our definition of healthcare. A colleague of mine, Dr. Tieraona Low Dog, recently stated that we need to both treat people and restore their immediate health and also repair what has been lost in their hope and spirit. Medicine has been so focused on treating what ails that it has lost the tending to the humanity of a person. Without this key component, people may be cured of a symptom or condition but not have their lives and their vitality restored. This costs communities, families, and individuals every single day. I dream of the day when we approach health as a place for people to thrive, utilize what speaks to their hearts and minds to contribute to their healing, and work collaboratively in interprofessional teams to touch every aspect of a person's life.

One of the values I hold really, really dear is that people are the most important resource on our planet, and the more we can lead with paying attention to the humanity of things, the better the outcome. My other value is integrity and high quality - I like to see that we're doing really good work that can stand the test of time. Another value of mine is we need to take care of the people doing the work, because we have not historically done that in healthcare, and that leads to burnout and problems that impact so many levels of the delivery of care. And then in general, life is more than productivity, and I think we've forgotten that in our current reality. I am very much a soul and self-care nurturing type of person. We need to have lifestyles that actually nurtures our well-being day in and day out, so we can manage whatever life throws our way.