October 9, 2025: Join Sarah Richardson live from SOAR 2025 in Boulder, Colorado, as she sits down with remarkable women in healthcare IT and their allies for candid conversations about leadership transformation. Hear personal stories about climbing literal mountaintops in Italy, learning from their children's courage, and standing firm when asked to compromise their values. These authentic voices share how research, mentorship, and staying true to yourself create lasting impact. Discover why helping others reach the summit matters most in healthcare IT leadership.
This transcription is provided by artificial intelligence. We believe in technology but understand that even the smartest robots can sometimes get speech recognition wrong.
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[00:00:05] Sarah Richardson: I'm Sarah Richardson, a principal here at this week Health where our mission is healthcare transformation, powered by community. This is Flourish Soundbites, unfiltered Conversations with healthcare leaders. Let's get real,
Lori, so good to see you here at Soar.
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[00:00:20] Sarah Richardson: Here we are at SOAR 2025.
Hey, we are live from, so:
we are live at SOAR 2025 from Boulder, Colorado. I am joined by Allie and Erica with some very important questions.
Ladies, are you ready? Superpower swap. Ladies, what superpower would you bring to work and how would you use it?
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[00:00:43] Amy Oliver: I feel like if I could just snap my fingers and have research be done in a second, I feel like I don't spend enough time doing the necessary work because I'm just bogged down with other things and I feel like somebody talked about that yesterday or today, where it's just being able [00:01:00] to have, be intentional.
About doing that type of research, um, or whatever it is, you know, even if it's just a new policy that came out or a new, uh, product that came out or something like that.
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But, uh, yeah. Um, multiplying myself.
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[00:01:29] Laurie Wheeler: I will say my oldest child taught me, um, the strength and individuality and as they've grown through their life and made choices in their life to become the person that they want to be. Um, I have nothing but admiration for the strength that my kid has had. So that's powerful.
As a mom, it's, it is pretty. It takes your breath away sometimes
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[00:02:13] Sarah Richardson: In fast changing times, how do you decide which opportunities to pursue and which ones to avoid?
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And also tapping into resources as far as learning more what's coming with AI and what we should pay attention to and what we shouldn't. Maybe not be the first out of the gate. Let some other people understand and, um, feel the water before we jump all in.
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[00:02:58] Sarah Richardson: What defining moment changed how you [00:03:00] lead or who you are as a leader?
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Type of situation. So that was a huge turning point and I, I just became more comfortable with being more open about my process and, uh, and just getting better myself
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And so the comments made today about needing to bring people up to the top with you. That stuck with me in both the exercise of actually going with a team up a mountain together, but also understanding that when you get to that pinnacle top, [00:04:00] you really wanna be surrounded with peers and people you know, like-minded.
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[00:04:22] Sarah Richardson: What place visited or dream destination feels like rest for you and why?
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[00:04:52] Kendall Brown: Sarah and I recently went on a river cruise, a wine river cruise down the Rhine River, um, which was really nice. I'm not a big cruiser, [00:05:00] but the, the river cruise was a, a, a completely different aspect. Um, but Sarah and I are avid scuba divers and Cosmo, uh, when was that? July. May. May. Yeah. Um, that was amazing.
Uh, if I, and I need that again. And it was a great reset of recharge, just what the doctor ordered.
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[00:05:35] Sarah Richardson: What impact do you hope to leave, especially for women and underrepresented leaders?
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And that's really kind of the legacy and the kind of impact I want to have [00:06:00] because everyone deserves that chance. All of the upcoming women leaders, I mean just all of the underserved, um, they just need a champion in their corner. Yeah. And I think as we grow in our roles. The biggest piece you can do is give back and you can help mentor and support other upcoming women leaders.
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[00:06:46] Amy Oliver: I'm such a people person, a relationship person, a community person, connection, both professionally and personally.
r that is like-minded people [:
[00:07:04] Erica Wiliams: The impact I wanna make is that I had a hand in lifting others up and that I had a hand also in encouraging women, especially to take risk because we are so inclined to not do so. Our male counterpart. Are really happy to say, yeah, jump in. I got that. I have 50% of that. Um, you know, the expectations for that role I'm in, and women tend to just try to check all the boxes before we're ready.
So being able to encourage and have a hand in helping others succeed.
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So glad you're here.
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[00:07:38] Sarah Richardson: Thank you ladies for your wisdom. Thanks for joining us at Soar. See ya. Thank you.
Thank you so much for being here.
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[00:07:45] Sarah Richardson: You heard it here from Soar, help others to the top and make sure they're following you on your way there. Thanks so much for joining us
