Master Your Healthcare Career
Master Your Healthcare Career
Understanding Your "Why" with Denise Brooks-Williams
Curious about the secrets to successful healthcare leadership? Join us for an inspiring conversation with Denise Brooks-Williams, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Henry Ford Health, where she leads operations across a 13-hospital health system. With a distinguished career shaped by expertise and passion, Denise brings invaluable wisdom to this session.
From her first steps in a summer enrichment program to earning her degree from the prestigious CAHME-accredited Master’s program at the University of Michigan, Denise’s journey offers rich lessons for aspiring leaders. She’ll share her experiences with fellowships, discuss the essential leadership skills needed in today’s ever-evolving healthcare industry, and provide strategies for overcoming challenges.
At the heart of her story is a commitment to service, empathy, and discovering your ‘why’—a cornerstone for building a purposeful and impactful career in healthcare leadership.
Melissa, thank you very much for that introduction and a really warm welcome today to Denise Brooks-Williams. Denise and I kind of go back a little bit further back when you were doing a lot with the National Association of Health Services Executives and I was with Aramark and it was one of the organizations that we sponsored from Aramark and I think we got a little familiar with each other then. We got a little familiar with each other then. But I really feel like I'm going to the well a lot to you recently with both your role at Henry Ford and where I want to start with is you're a University of Michigan grad and I know that the CAMI educational session that you did with us kind of talked about some of the things that you saw at Michigan, some of the experiences that you had, the Summer Enrichment Program and the strong foundation that the University of Michigan gave you to start your career. So, denise, welcome, and I'll ask you to kind of talk about that experience first.
Speaker 2:Thank you, anthony, and I do agree.
Speaker 2:We have the benefit of having known each other for a number of years and Cammie, as you said, really has come to the University of Michigan and I've been privileged because I've sat not only as the chair of our alumni board but I now serve on the Griffith Leadership Institute.
Speaker 2:So I've been able to participate in those conversations and share my story of being a summer enrichment program student and, quite honestly, as I shared then, it really did shape my career in that it gave me the exposure to a leader. I worked at that time with Larry Warren, who's now retired but still someone that I stay in touch with. He was at Michigan Medicine at the time and spending that summer with him really codified for me what healthcare administration was, because, even though people said the words and I kind of understood it at that time, I'll be honest, I had no idea who ran a hospital or exactly what that role might look like. But SCP, quite honestly, as it was designed, gave you that internship opportunity, that summer experience which led me to apply to the university for the master's program. I was accepted, you know, went through the program and really have stayed connected all these years, I think in large part because of that pipeline experience that I had.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, university of Michigan is probably one of the granddaddies of the health care management approach, I think, if not the first, one of the first universities to offer health care management, and was also intimately involved with the founding of CAMI back in 1968. You know, there are universities and there are great universities and I think what Michigan has done in healthcare management and the things like the Summer Enrichment Program has really kind of solidified its role in that area and has continued to kind of grow in that area. Denise, so you went to Michigan, you became a grad. So, denise, you went. So you went to Michigan, you became a grad. Then you got out and I'm assuming you did a fellowship or a residency. You know, I think back in the day we were just calling them residencies. But tell me about that experience how did you look for your residency? You know, what did that do for you, kind of moving forward?
Speaker 2:Yes, so definitely. So I went from. I was an undergraduate student at the university of Michigan. I've worked like in the department of epidemiology, done some things in psychology, so a little bit of sense of healthcare, but definitely not enough to have confidence upon graduation to go into a job. So it was actually a fellowship back then. Upon graduation to go into a job. So it was actually a fellowship back then. And I was fortunate because we had on-job kind of mentoring opportunities where both professionals would come of course to talk to us about the profession, but in addition to that they would sometimes talk about their organizations and the fellowships that they offered. So Dave Spivey was one of those leaders that came and Dave worked at the time with Mercy Health Services and he kind of mentioned hey, we have a fellowship, Is that something you might be interested in?
Speaker 2:I knew a few things right that I wanted to be in the Detroit area that's where I'm from. I don't know that I really had the words equity back then, but I definitely grew up on the east side of the city, which had a lot of health, you know, challenges, and so I wanted to be able to serve and be in a community that I thought I could give back. So Mercy fit that criteria. You know, in the sense that they at that time were situated in the city of Detroit. They were headquartered in a suburb not too far away. So that's where I applied and fortunately Mercy was at the early end. You know now the process of fellowships have been kind of normalized, like the interviews are really early and everybody's really finding out in the fall. That wasn't the case back then. It kind of could spread all the way to graduation. But needless to say Mercy was early. So I found out that January and I really didn't pursue any other fellowships. So thank goodness it worked out.
Speaker 1:But that's where I did it. You know it's interesting, denise. You know you kind of mentioned that I remember when I was going for my fellowship. It was the same thing it was. They were offered across the year and I think I got offered my role in May, which began in July.
Speaker 2:So yeah, oh, definitely it was a rolling, yeah, rolling calendar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what are one of the what are a couple of the things from your fellowship? This podcast is really kind of focused on students and students looking to kind of advance in their careers. What are a couple of the things that really kind of stick out from your fellowship experience?
Speaker 2:I mean, the beautiful thing is, honestly, just on Sunday I was at dinner with some first years at the University of Michigan and, as you know, they're going into their first summer. You know kind of experience for many of them, and we talked about fellowships as well and what I said to them honestly all these years is still true that it is a chance of a lifetime. I was almost promoting it right and encouraging that they consider doing it Because, as you know, as a student and even if you're coming back with some healthcare experience, the profession changes so fast. So the thing I remember about my fellowship was just the change and transition that the organization was going through and how fun it was, but at the same time a little bit scary, because I was like, oh wow, you know, this was the era of physician hospital organizations kind of being conceptualized. There was discussion around Medicaid being managed and, having managed care, come into the Medicaid space. So you were still, of course, a student right of the profession, but you were working, you know.
Speaker 2:So one of the things I just kind of remember was the excitement of all the different things that you were able to see and be exposed to, and that's part of why I try to encourage students today to consider that, you know, as a part of their career journey, because it allowed me to be exposed to many, many aspects of the profession that have helped to this day with my ability to have an understanding. The second big thing for my fellowship that I actually shared with them on Sunday was the empathy and this perspective that it takes everyone in the organization to actually take care of patients, and I was privileged that the team that I worked with really expressed that right. So, from the frontline team members, those that were in the support services, of course, our physicians and our nurses they're all important and I think you can go into the fellowship sometimes with the hierarchical mindset You're going in to be an executive and you can the foundation of really how we deliver care. So I definitely remember that messaging coming from my mentors and honestly, it's something that I carry today that I'm very intentional about knowing all of the team and speaking to all of the people that are taking care of our patients and families.
Speaker 1:Got it so true. You brought back some memories for me of my own experience and that same part which was you'd be at board meetings and you'd get to really kind of rub elbows let's not say rub elbows, come close to rubbing elbows with some of the leaders of the community and then, on the other hand, you would then go out and you'd be interviewing floor people about how to kind of make some of the changes and what was going on in the organization. So it really does require that sense of getting everyone's voice and understanding what the impact of a decision would be. Talk about what your typical day would look like at this point.
Speaker 2:So my typical day today is Soho use. Today it's a very cold day in Michigan, so I woke up early to an incident command to confirm that we would have the heat that we need to be able to operate in our sites, that we have the staff, most importantly because of course, when you have schools out, it affects families, and those families are families that are trying to take care of our patients.
Speaker 2:So really, you know, trying to understand, do we have the right staffing to be able to have our operations go on as they need to? So it really is a situational awareness. Typically, it's how the day starts. Then I have a lot of meetings and those meetings can be around our strategy. We are a system that's forming. As you know, we've had this great joint venture that became a reality for us in October of 24. So still a lot of integration work is going on. So I spend a lot of my time with our new colleagues from Ascension looking at how we integrate and become one Henry Ford Health. So lots of work going on in that space and a lot of it is really around culture right. So right now I'm in the field as it would be, so going to a lot of the new sites that we have, meeting teams, meeting our physicians, understanding the communities that we're serving. So it's a lot of external focus as well, as, you know, being focused on running the business.
Speaker 1:It's funny you reminded me of. You know, the role of the CEO is to make sure you turn the lights on in the morning, and that's if you miss that.
Speaker 2:That's right, I mean yeah, it's like the critical orientation. I still receive kind of the huddle reports, of course, from each of the sites. So, understanding again, what are they dealing with, right? So do we have some vulnerabilities that we're dealing with? We know, this winter, as an example, the respiratory conditions are, you know, kind of causing a lot of constraints in our emergency departments, and so I'm always, you know, having that situational awareness so that I can be supportive of the teams that I'm supporting.
Speaker 1:You mentioned and I won't get into a lot of details with it, but you mentioned the arrangement with Ascension and I know you're speaking just as a little plug here for the American College of Healthcare Executives, their annual Congress, which will be in Houston this year in March. You are speaking at a session on that. Do you want to talk a little bit about what that session is going to preview?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so we're going to. We're very early in the joint venture, of course, and so what we want to talk about in the session is really just culture and how we are approaching integration. There's a bit of uniqueness, I guess, about this relationship in that the assets that were originally a part of Ascension Health will remain Catholic, and so we'll talk a little bit about that as well. Right, how do you have this kind of faith-based and secular system come together, you know, under one umbrella and really have a common value set that you're going to lead by, and that's how it starts, right? So we felt we're so early in this. It'll be myself and our chief strategy officer and we're going to talk really about that. How are we forming strategy? How are we coming together? What are some of the early, you know, signs of success that we're experiencing, and what are the things that we're very optimistic that will come in the future?
Speaker 1:Well, and you have, like you said, you have the experience of going through mergers and relationships like that in the past that you had early in your career. That still help you at this point. So absolutely. The focus on culture is interesting. I'm reminded of some of the mergers that I went through and the comment that the CEO is culture. Each strategy for lunch and breakfast and dinner.
Speaker 2:Exactly and just keeps eating. It just keeps eating.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you, denise. On your LinkedIn profile today and we're recording this the day after Martin Luther King Day you, you put a quote that I just thought was so touching, and it was a service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on earth. Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on earth, and that, that quote, I think, is mostly attributed to, uh, shirley Chisholm uh was the the first woman to run for president, uh, on a major political party, uh back.
Speaker 1:I don't remember when, but it was certainly like 20, 25 years ago or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, definitely yeah, probably. You're right About 25 years ago.
Speaker 1:But your, your, your life and your career and what you do is all kind of related to that. This wasn't just oh, it's a nice quote Let me kind of put on here, but I think this really kind of drives you, and you you've done it with the national association of service executives really kind of drives you, and you've done it with the National Association of Service Executives, you've done it with NCHL Tell me why, why do you spend so much of your time and energy kind of in that service mentality that is broader than your role at a hospital?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I appreciate you lifting that yesterday a very profound day right In terms of the MLK celebration, and I chose the quote because, quite honestly, our focus at the health system was just on that right service and service beyond right.
Speaker 2:Many of us are, you know, see ourselves as servant leaders because we're in a service industry, but I have always taken very seriously this fact. You know we're here for a limited period of time, you know, doing what I hope right, we've been kind of ordained or placed here to do, and for me that has really been about serving others and making an impact, so really having a legacy that's broader than just the job maybe that you did, but that you sought to really make things better and close the gap. So a lot of my work outside of my role is in that space. Right, I have a particular interest in youth in urban areas and really having access for everyone, be, you know, as equal and available as possible. So with the time I have, which isn't as much as it used to be, I do try to be intentional about really connecting with organizations and even individuals that see things bigger than themselves.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you've done that through some really kind of neat approaches. I mean Michigan Governor's Task Force on Racial Disparities and your participation in there, nchl, your participation at ACHA, even the stuff you do with CAMI and again I'm very thankful for you allowing me to go to the well so many different times with you. But I think all of those things are ways to give back and kind of talk to the people about the importance of serving your community and where you kind of move from here. So I think there's two parts with here. One of them is your leadership colors, the approach that you take with those organizations. But your background is such a significant part, where you grew up, what you did, and that also kind of influences the impact that you seek to make.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So, again, a lot of people are listening to this podcast, tend to be students who are either contemplating going into healthcare management or are currently in a graduate program and trying to figure out where their next steps are, or even people who are in healthcare trying to figure out how do I grow and where do I kind of move up on there.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, what advice would you give a student or a young careerist if you would is probably a better way to say it a young careerist who wants to kind of make an impact, what advice would you give them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm privileged to have those conversations a lot, and I really do start with right know your why. You know why, why. Why health care you know typically these are bright, brilliant, early careers, as you said, that have a lot of choices and options, right. And so I think when you know your why kind of anchors you and how you're going to grow, where you're going to go, you know who you want to serve, because there might be a lot of options. Today there's consulting, there's, you know, there's pharma, there's insurance, there's the delivery side of healthcare.
Speaker 2:So I think the first thing is kind of your, why, why were you drawn to this and what do you really want your imprint to be is one of the things I try to explore and just have them like. You don't have to share it. It's not a homework assignment that I have to see, but you yourself, right, should know kind of what you're doing and why you're doing it. And I think, once you know that, it does help you to me to some degree to be a bit calm about what roles you take, the pace at which you may progress in your career, because when you don't, and you're just, I want to be right, fill in the blank I want to be the CEO, I want to be the vice president.
Speaker 2:Not rooted in really why you're doing it and the joy that you seek from doing it can make that really more a chase than a journey. I think it becomes a journey when you kind of say, hey, I want to serve or I want to partner, I want to eliminate health disparities, I want to make it easier for people to access care, I want to lower the cost of care. You know, whatever that, why is? It really creates your own personal true north and I think it then makes the opportunities that you seek more clear. It helps you to understand when something's not fulfilling that, why. So maybe the you know the impetus for you to maybe move and seek something else. So that to me, really is the foundational piece that I try to have in the conversation.
Speaker 1:It's really something I know when I interview people and you ask that question and you go. So what do you want to do? And they'll go, I'll do anything. And it's like, well, that's not the right person to have in the organization. What's your mission? What kind of drives you, what kind of motivates you kind of moving forward? Are there, you know again, a lot of changes in healthcare and technology right now. Are there skills that you would say to a student or a young career, some certain skills that you think might be more important to attain at this level?
Speaker 2:I mean, and I really separate them right. So I use the old adage everything we learned in kindergarten is going to like carry us for the rest of our days, right. So be polite, share. Got to play well in the sandbox with others. We know that that evolves to be can you work in a matrix organization.
Speaker 2:So if you remember that adage that you got to honor and play with everyone, well, I think that basic skill set, honestly, I say, if you have those then you are going to probably do well in management and institutions like the University of Michigan and those that can be accredited, they give that to us right, so you're getting the technical piece, but we know a lot of times the leadership decision. Quite honestly, we know that you're technically competent, you know, you know the ins and outs of the profession. The differentiators are how well do you connect? You know with people, how well do you understand? Having that you know kind of emotional intelligence to understand when to act and when not to act, listening more than talking. So it really is that basic skill set that I really emphasize people being connected with.
Speaker 1:Denise. So true, and you know it's a really good point is? You know? There's a lot of changes going on in the tech market right now, and I think you need to be technically savvy in them to understand what it means to run an organization, take advantage of it, but to say, oh, I want to become an expert in AI and that will help me. You know, if that kind of fits within your why, that's true. Now, one of the things let me kind of talk about this what did you learn in kindergarten? I'll kind of share something with you. One of them was I couldn't tie my shoes in kindergarten that big big thing but the person next to me was really good at tying shoes. On the other hand, I was pretty good at printing at that point. I don't know why, but so I remember I helped him print his name on his card and he helped me tie my shoes so I can. And it's that collaboration that really is still important in health care right now too.
Speaker 2:I mean they get new names. You know, you think about it when we're kids. You know we don't know collaboration. But that was collaboration. That was knowing the strengths that you had and the weaknesses and being able to partner with someone you know.
Speaker 2:So it is funny and honestly, it came up in our dinner conversation on Sunday and another very seasoned healthcare leader said the same. Right, it was like everyone wants to say what do I need to know? Well, I can say, someone who's had a career that spanned over 30 years, right, if I technically had to learn it all back then when I was at the university, I wouldn't be adaptable to be in the seat that I'm in today and I clearly do not know it all. Right, so I absolutely rely on my colleagues. You know who. Some are very technically competent and focused. Some are more global and generalized in their skill sets. So you definitely want to be a lifelong learner. You know which? Ache Kami?
Speaker 2:Many of our you know academic institutions help us, you know, with that. So you're constantly going to be picking up skills. But I don't think there's a magic skill set, right, it's like you're choosing to be a leader, so it's those leadership traits which, fortunately, don't dramatically change. Yeah, so I just I just try to help them to see that, because otherwise it becomes overwhelming. Right, because it's AI today. It'll be some other advanced component of technology, probably five years from now. As I was mentioning, I went through the era of, you know, medicaid, managed care. We're dealing now in accountable care organizations and moving to value. So the industry is going to change and you will adapt and you will continue to pick up technical skills.
Speaker 1:How will you adapt is really an important part of what it means to be human, almost.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And Denise. With that, I really you know. Again, my thanks for you coming onto our show and kind of sharing. You know your pathway, your journey through healthcare management. You know your leadership at Henry Ford to me, one of the great health systems in our country right now and it's just something very admirable to see where you're going with that organization and what you're doing. Thank you very much for your time. Appreciate everything you do for CAMI, everything you do for students that are out there and everything you do for the community in Detroit.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, Anthony. A privilege to be here with you today.