To celebrate Women’s History Month, Conduit Health Partners is excited to feature some of our incredible employees.
We asked our employees, to share stories of what is most rewarding to them, their female role models, how companies benefit from having women in leadership roles, and to highlight what it is like to be a female leader.
We hope you enjoy these inspiring stories as much as we do.
Colleen Williams, Manager of Triage at Conduit Health Partners, oversees 75 employees across the continental United States. She is responsible for operations, day-to-day responsibilities, management of the team, and providing services for internal and external parties.
“Leading remotely is extremely hard, as I have employees in Texas, Ohio, Florida, Indiana. Coordinating all of us on the team takes up a lot of time, but the payoff is that we are able to offer great care to patients across the United States.”
Before becoming a Manager of Triage, Colleen was a nurse herself, and it helped give Colleen insight into the responsibilities that the nurses she leads have. According to Heather Kelsey—Conduit’s Director of Triage and Virtual Care—in her current role Colleen leads by listening to her team and setting strong goals.
“Colleen is a caring and determined nurse leader with nearly two decades of nursing experience, from inpatient nurse providing cardiac care at the bedside to clinical educator and Magnet Program director, to her current role of Manager of Triage at Conduit Health Partners. For the past three years, Colleen has led her team through expansive growth and a pandemic, at times working right alongside them to answer patient calls. Colleen has a love of learning and growing, for herself and those she leads. It is an honor to work with her!”
There have been many highlights during her time at Conduit, despite the pandemic lingering over most of the healthcare industry and the world. When asked about some of the most rewarding experiences in her career, she had this to say:
“The most rewarding aspect to me is watching my staff grow, watching them be a nurse on a computer and make that difficult transition from in-person nurse to remote nurse. Hearing about our success stories is also rewarding. One of our nurses was able to deliver a baby over the phone!”
Colleen has learned from many mentors over the course of her career. The woman that stood out to her above all was Conduit’s Vice President, Client Solutions Dusti Browning.
“Dusti is so good at communication and has a wonderful demeanor. I have always been truly inspired by her and her leadership skills. She is always someone I can depend on, she knows answers to questions I have, and she is a great speaker.”
Conduit Health Partner’s leadership team is almost 90% women, a stark contrast to many executive leadership teams that can suffer from a lack of diverse perspectives. Women’s History Month is a time where we can learn and celebrate the advances of women in leadership. Reflecting on Women’s History Month, Colleen explained the many ways companies can benefit from having women in leadership roles.
“We bring, especially nurse leaders, compassion and an entirely new perspective. It almost feels like being a mom—while none of my staff are my children, I have that same opportunity to guide them and teach them. They learn from everything they get here.”
Women can tend to underestimate themselves. Traditionally, women have been less likely to apply to jobs where they believe they are unqualified compared to men. To Colleen, Women’s History Month is a time to encourage other women to become more confident in their abilities and truly put themselves out there.
“I didn’t think I could be a direct manager, at first. I didn’t think I was good enough. But I knew I could still take this job and grow to become a good manager. As a woman especially, we have to take that first uncertain step in order to grow into a leadership position.”