We are fortunate to have an advisory board, comprised of multi-sector industry leaders from a variety of disciplines, to guide our strategy and growth. We have created the “Meet the Advisory Board” series as a way to introduce you to these talented leaders and learn about their perspectives on leadership and cross-sector collaboration.
In this interview, meet Advisory Board member Laura Landy, President & CEO of the Rippel Foundation and the Founder and Chair of ReThink Health, the Foundation’s flagship initiative.
Why did you choose to join TLD Group’s Advisory Board?
With deep experience in helping foster system change, I genuinely appreciate TLD Group’s commitment to a mission and vision for health and well-being in America. I also know their highly experienced team is positioned to offer insights and learning that will help advance the health of our communities and the capacity of system leaders to guide us to a better future. Given the challenges facing healthcare today, supporting what is often demanding and risky work is invaluable, and providing a platform for learning and sharing is critical to opening our eyes to the new approaches we all need to create an equitable, thriving, and sustainable system for us all.
As President and CEO of The Rippel Foundation, I guide a nonprofit operating foundation dedicated to fostering equitable, exceptional health and well-being for all. Together with partners and co-investors, we work with healthcare organizations, foundations, corporations, government institutions, and change agents throughout the United States to guide thinking and action that inspires innovative system transformation and to promote shared stewardship as a rising norm. Rippel’s flagship initiative, ReThink Health, continually explores how to achieve equitable system change in real-world settings. FORESIGHT, Rippel’s equity-focused futuring initiative, aims to envision a new future for health and well-being.
What is the biggest leadership challenge facing leaders today?
These are not easy days for leaders in the health sector. In addition to the uncertainties of COVID and all the associated implications, leaders are being challenged to redefine their roles and responsibilities, as well as the roles and responsibilities of their hospitals and health systems. Increasingly the role of the health sector in communities and in promoting regional equity and inclusion is a topic of discussion and a focus of action.
Growing workforce challenges and the need to rethink our relationships with our employees and their families, and the economic well-being of communities, are raising new challenges and presenting new opportunities. Payment models remain uncertain, and often insufficient, given rising costs of operations, technology, and more. Add to this the aging population and expected rise in demand for care, and the realities of rural and community hospitals that face even greater challenges as resources diminish, facilities close, and demand for care remains or increases. These are only the tip of a complicated iceberg floating in a rapidly changing environment.
The good news is that there are new system models emerging and many who are willing to work together to craft experiments and explore new ideas. Rippel has had the privilege of working with many of these leaders and organizations over the last decade. Moving through change in the current environment is hard, but the vision and potential of what could be is exciting and compelling, and the need is obvious.
What advice do you have for leaders looking to develop themselves to make an impact on the health care industry?
While it is tough to be the leader of today and simultaneously the leader of tomorrow, that is what is being asked of our health systems. It is unrealistic to expect success will come by trying to go it alone, or by employing the thinking and models of the present or the past. We need new ideas and new models to evolve a care system for the future. Embracing the mindset of a steward, one who thinks beyond their own aspirations and organizational demands to that of shared responsibility with others for enabling people to thrive, can foster role clarity, clearer decision and investment criteria, new partnerships, and greater impact on health outcomes.
Further, we know changing mindsets doesn’t just happen or come easily. Exposing yourself to new people, new ideas, new models, provocative engagements, and emerging trends both in and outside of health can sharpen thinking and build new networks. Building real and trusting relationships directly with members of your community and sector leaders can shape shared strategies that address community needs to keep people healthy and assure access to quality care when needed.
Finally, creatively engaging new donors, especially the group now emerging who see a new role for health systems with populations, can also create new partnerships and incentives that drive creativity and support transitions.
What is your leadership motto? Why?
I don’t really think of myself as having a motto, but if I were to craft one it might be: Each day, ask yourself, "What can I do today to advance our mission and goals?" By staying on focus, change happens little by little. One day you turn around and say, "Look where we are... and what a journey it’s been."
How do you enjoy spending your time out of work?
With two young grandchildren and a house we have been fully renovating for the last two years (which is almost done!), free time becomes a relative term. I like to read novels, bike, and walk on the beach. Like many others, we have been binge-watching series on TV. Our current marathon is The Sopranos - which I never saw and highly recommend.
Laura Landy
Laura Landy is President and CEO of the Rippel Foundation and the Founder and Chair of ReThink Health, the Foundation’s flagship initiative. ReThink Health focuses on strategically investing resources to seed innovation, catalyze action, and create model processes that will lead to improvements in population health across the United States.
Laura has nearly four decades of experience addressing changing dynamics in health, higher education, finance, social services and culture. Her professional career includes executive roles with Pfizer, the State of New Jersey, AT&T and various urban health systems. Laura has served in leadership roles in many academic institutions including the Institute for Nonprofit Entrepreneurship at NYU’s Stern School of Business, and adjunct faculty positions at Columbia University, Carnegie Mellon, the New School and Fairleigh Dickinson. She currently serves on the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health Board of Trustees. Laura received her undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis. She received her MBA from New York University, and is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine.