Her Story
About Tracey
I initially thought I wanted to get into advertising, journalism, and public relations - that's what I had gone to school for. My first job out of college, I ended up doing sales and marketing for a radiology firm in Westchester, and by sheer accident, I ended up in the healthcare industry. I liked it, and I felt it was an opportunity for me to use my strong desire to break the glass ceiling for women and be a top-tier executive, but at the same time get into an industry where you helped people with a little bit of altruism and goodwill. After a year in sales and marketing, I realized I didn't really like the sales part, and I was presented an opportunity to get into the operational side of healthcare. I found that was my niche and my calling, because I'm wired in such a way that I don't want everything wrapped up in a perfect little package. To have value, I have to be able to run into the fire instead of running away from it. I want to work for big, complex organizations that really require transformation, and someone that's a change agent with expertise in process improvement. That's been my guiding light throughout my career, continually searching for that next organization that is a little bit broken that I need to fix.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Tracey
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my tenacity, my drive, and being completely self-motivated. I'm very goal-driven, so when an organization gives me a goal, I have relentless pursuit of achieving that goal. Because of the passion and the skill set that I put into achieving that goal, I very rarely fail. That's so much of who I am as an individual - I identify my career with that. For me, being successful is being successful in my career. It's a big part of who I am.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would tell her to have an understanding of what it is that she feels passionate about. If she can take any element of her passion and use that as a gift and parlay that into a way that she could earn a living, she'll have far more happiness and success than just blindly entering a career for all the wrong reasons, like because it pays well. Try to find your passion and balance your career with that.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge within healthcare is the reality that while healthcare isn't going anywhere - which people might look at as job security - the healthcare industry is so challenged from an operational perspective that there's so much vulnerability. There are access issues for patients and quality care concerns. The bandwidth and the financials around healthcare really do need reform. It's an industry that foundationally should be a right for every human being to have health insurance and healthcare, and it's really not that way in the United States. There is so much vulnerability and turnover within large healthcare organizations. As much transformation as there's been, there still needs to be more transformation.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
In both my business and personal life, I value honesty, integrity, and trust. I think that has to be your true North Star. There have been opportunities in my business career where I probably would have been able to climb the corporate ladder quicker and had different opportunities that would have been perceived as ideal, but I wasn't willing to derail from what my core foundation is of that truth, honesty, and integrity. I live by that in my business and personal life.
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.