Like many young people, Eric Thome moved to a new state to be with the love of his life. However, moving meant he needed to find a job . . . and quick. After a few jobs that didn’t quite fit his desire to help people, Thome landed a job as an account manager with a health maintenance organization (HMO). His new role involved taking health insurance renewals to small employee groups, where he explained renewals, claims, and other aspects of small group insurance. The young professional continued carving out his career in the healthcare field and worked his way up through roles in large group s ..read more

After twenty-five years in the US Navy, Fred was ready for a new challenge. He took a job as an in-center hemodialysis nurse and found more than a second career—he found a home. DaVita, the dialysis and kidney care company, refers to its workforce as the DaVita Village. Its leaders like Oliver McKinstry are committed to ensuring Fred and each of his 60,000 colleagues has a place and a purpose within that community. McKinstry is DaVita’s vice president and associate general counsel of labor, employment, and investigations. In that role, he leads DaVita’s labor and employment law function and i ..read more

Tom Brown joined Hormel Foods straight out of college, and he’s stayed with the Minnesota-based organization ever since. His history with the food company, however, began even before he came on board some three decades ago. “I’d grown up on all the brands,” Brown says. “On top of that, I had relatives going back to my great-grandparents who had worked for Hormel, so there was a family connection in addition to just my familiarity with the company.” Brown’s connection to Hormel Foods has only grown as his career within the organization has progressed. Today, as assistant VP of total rewards, h ..read more

Brian Anderson’s real estate, facilities, and security teams at Option Care Health employ one unifying mindset that allows the rest of their organization to focus on their own roles. “We are the built environment,” Anderson says. “My teams know they’re here to support others so they can focus on patient care. That’s it. That is our mission, and it’s what we’re good at.” Brian Anderson, Option Care Health (Photo by Brian Hook) Anderson, director of real estate, facility management, and security at Option Care Health, is flanked by a team of discipline leaders, including Silja Yanz, Kyle Hoch ..read more

On his road to becoming vice president and chief information officer of CenterWell Pharmacy for Humana Inc., Gaurav Khanna took a fortuitous route that began with a different career in mind upon entering Lehigh University. “I went to school for IT, doing computer engineering in college,” he shares. From there, he worked as a consultant for companies in the architecture, capital projects, and infrastructure spaces. “Healthcare happened by chance,” Khanna explains. “I was looking to make a geographic change to get closer to family in the Northeast and an opportunity came up that allowed me to c ..read more

Trilogy Health Services is committed to exceeding expectations and embodying the service standards and values that set its resident and employee experiences apart. Trilogy’s leaders know that “it’s their employees that make the difference.” That belief guides leaders, like Bill Moore, who set the tone in Trilogy’s Louisville, Kentucky, headquarters. These values are especially important considering what Trilogy Health Services does. The company is one of the nation’s leading senior living community operators. Trilogy provides services in five midwestern states and has approximately 130 locati ..read more

James Mele recalls an often-told story about President John F. Kennedy’s visit to NASA headquarters in 1962. The story goes that the president saw a custodian on the premises and introduced himself. He asked the custodian what he did at NASA, and the custodian allegedly replied, “I’m helping to put a man on the moon!” That was a man who understood his own personal contribution to the greater mission at hand. As VP of core systems operations at MetroPlusHealth, Mele may not be operating on patients, but he has a hand in saving lives. Since 1985, MetroPlusHealth has built a reputation for provi ..read more

It’s not about perfection, it’s about adaptability. Michael Simpson learned that lesson early. The chairman and CEO of Clinisys has seen perfection as an enemy of progress since his days as a Boy Scout, and later an Eagle Scout. Success is rooted in preparation, not perfection. “Scouting taught me the importance of always having a plan B, a plan C, and a plan D,” Simpson says. “Nothing ever goes as planned, and it’s how you deal with that shift that, I think, can say everything about you. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the secret of success is just moving forward and pivoting when you need ..read more

As a biotechnology company focused on developing life-saving vaccines to fight infectious diseases, Novavax has spent the new year reaffirming its commitment to making the world a better place. What Is a Protein-Based Vaccine? According to Novavax, protein-based vaccines have been protecting people from infectious diseases since the 1980s when they were first developed. They include carefully identified protein fragments of a virus combined with another substance that helps to increase the immune system response to the fragments. The process trains the body to recognize the whole virus and cr ..read more

When Jaime Allen reflects on her journey to becoming a successful financial executive in healthcare, she’s brought back to the way her unconventional path started. “I feel like I did everything backwards,” Allen says. “I married young, had kids young, and then started my first real job as a bookkeeper at an auto dealership.” That real-world experience is what inspired her to continue her education at a local community college before transferring to a four-year university for her bachelor’s in math. While an unexpected pregnancy kept her from completing her degree at that time, that moment did ..read more