Christine Nicodemus’s path to becoming CEO of Wayhaven is a powerful narrative of resilience and purpose. Her story begins with a profoundly personal experience that would ultimately shape her professional mission. During her college years, Christine faced significant mental health challenges.
The Seeds of Innovation
Christine transformed her struggle into a driving force for positive change. Her entrepreneurial journey began with her first company in the K-12 space, where she focused on measuring students’ social and emotional skills. Drawing from resilience theory, she understood that social and emotional skills serve as protective factors for mental health and wellness.
Wayhaven: A Mission-Driven Solution
Driven by her personal experiences, Christine founded Wayhaven – an innovative AI-powered mental wellness platform designed specifically for college students. The company takes a unique approach by collaborating closely with clinical psychologists to create a specialized AI that provides support through evidence-based tools and techniques derived from cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, and mindfulness practices.
What sets Wayhaven apart is its hyper-localized approach. The AI is meticulously tailored to specific campuses, integrating knowledge about local resources, clubs, and events to provide truly personalized support. A student chatting with the AI on Wake Forest’s campus, for example, will receive responses contextualized to that specific campus ecosystem.
Navigating Uncertainty
Perseverance wasn’t just an abstract concept for Christine – it was a daily reality that tested her resolve. She candidly shares a critical moment in her entrepreneurial journey when her first startup was on the brink of financial collapse. With only a few months of runway remaining, she faced the daunting task of asking her team to take voluntary pay cuts.
“I had raised a couple hundred thousand dollars to hire a small team around me, and we were getting to the end of our funds…I was feeling immense doubt.”
The emotional weight was significant. Yet, in an unexpected twist of fate, the pandemic became a turning point. As students transitioned to remote learning, demand for Ascend Goals services surged, and investor interest was renewed.
Beyond Professional Success
Christine’s approach to perseverance extends far beyond professional achievements. She emphasizes the critical importance of not defining oneself exclusively through work. Her personal philosophy centers on creating a balanced life and maintaining perspective.
“I’m all about flexibility between the two domains,” she explains, discussing her approach to work-life balance. Some days might involve working late into the evening, while others include midday activities like a [CN2] run to rejuvenate herself.
Inspiration and Personal Growth
Her commitment to personal development is evident in her diverse interests. Christine is a competitive flag football quarterback with ambitious goals. She even challenged herself to perform stand-up comedy, demonstrating her willingness to step outside her comfort zone and embrace vulnerability.
When asked what she would tell her younger self, Christine’s wisdom shines through. Her message is clear: embrace humility, don’t take yourself too seriously, and recognize that success often involves a combination of hard work and occasional lucky breaks.
A Role Model’s Perspective
Christine finds inspiration in leaders like Amanda Lannert, CEO of Jellyvision, whom she admires for mentoring underrepresented founders and giving back to the entrepreneurial community. This reflects her own approach to leadership – one that values creating a supportive workplace where team members can flourish both professionally and personally.
The Most Rewarding Aspect
For Christine, the most fulfilling part of her work isn’t just the technological innovation – it’s the human impact. She finds profound motivation in student feedback, particularly stories of individuals who found crucial support during challenging times.
“I get this a lot when I get to read student reviews of our AI…reading success stories of students who mention, ‘Hey, I was really going down a spiral here, and this helped me a lot’ – that goes a long way.”
A Message of Hope and Resilience
Christine Nicodemus embodies the true spirit of perseverance – transforming personal challenges into a mission that supports and empowers others. Her work with Wayhaven is more than a business venture; it’s a testament to the power of resilience, innovation, and compassionate leadership in healthcare.
Her journey reminds us that our most significant challenges can become the catalysts for our most meaningful contributions.
When personal experience meets professional expertise, transformative healthcare solutions are born. This is exactly what happened with Supriya Laknidhi, CEO and co-founder of Cerula Care, a pioneering virtual behavioral health platform supporting cancer patients through their treatment journey.
Building Bridges in Healthcare
With two decades of experience in healthcare, including leadership roles at United and Aetna/CVS Health, Supriya identified a critical gap in cancer care. Her company, Cerula Care, provides comprehensive virtual behavioral health support as an extension of oncology teams, addressing a need that affects over 85% of cancer patients.
“We provide a care team with virtual visits, inclusive of counseling, holistic health coaching, and psychiatry, very specific to people who are going through the cancer journey,” Supriya explains. The team receives referrals directly from oncologists and spends approximately an hour and a half with each patient monthly, focusing on understanding their emotional state and building trust.
“We’re really getting a sense of what their barriers are for optimal care,” she says, “and then we’ll work with them partly on the counseling and psychiatry as needed, but spend a lot of our time giving them the tools and skills to help alleviate the barriers.” The impact of their work resonates deeply with patients, as one member shared: “We helped her feel like a real person at a time in her life where she didn’t even have a sense of self.”
Personal Journey Shapes Professional Mission
Supriya’s path to healthcare innovation was influenced by both professional experience and deeply personal circumstances. As the mother of a child with autism and a daughter to aging parents, she witnessed firsthand how physical health challenges often intersect with mental health needs.
Early Foundations of Leadership
Supriya’s leadership journey began in a supportive household that fostered confidence and ambition. “I grew up in a house where my parents gave me all of the confidence that I ever needed in order to just go pursue whatever I wanted to pursue,” she reflects. As an only child, she was raised in an environment where excellence was expected and success was the only option. This foundation, combined with a strong emphasis on education, helped shape her future approach to leadership and innovation.
Navigating Career Challenges with Resilience
Like many leaders, Supriya’s career hasn’t been a straight upward trajectory. She describes careers as “jungle gyms” rather than ladders, acknowledging that not every situation will be the perfect fit. She recalls a particularly challenging time when a supportive executive left, leaving her innovative project without crucial backing.
The experience taught her valuable lessons about resilience and perspective. “When you’re facing a challenging part of your career, think about it as a point in time, and don’t make it a very personal thing,” she advises.
Balance and Well-being: A Leader’s Perspective
As a mother of two children, ages 10 and 8, Supriya emphasizes the importance of self-care in leadership. “If I’m not there for myself in the way that I need, it’s really hard for me to be amazing for others,” she shares. She maintains balance through running, which serves as her form of meditation, and setting boundaries between work and family time.
“Dinner time and bedtime, I still have young kids. I’m not checking email (but of course my team can reach me if absolutely needed). My team knows that. Weekends for the most part, same thing,” she explains. “Some of this is just being pretty strict about taking the time that you need for yourself and for your family.”
Breaking Stigmas and Creating Change
At Cerula Care, Supriya’s team is tackling the stigma around mental health through an innovative approach. By integrating behavioral health support into cancer treatment, they’re making mental health care more accessible and acceptable. “When someone is diagnosed with cancer… all of a sudden the stigma of having a mental health person in your team by your side decreases,” she explains.
This approach often serves as an entry point for broader mental health support: “What we’re finding is a lot of people do come in and then we know and they know that they probably should have had mental health services before. There’s probably underlying anxiety or depression that’s been there for a while and it’s almost like sometimes we’re their first door in and that’s okay.”
The Power of Mentorship
Early in her career, Supriya found inspiration in a female mentor who significantly shaped her professional journey. Working in banking in New York City, she encountered a remarkable woman leader who stood out in a male-dominated environment. “She was instrumental for me in my career going forward,” Supriya recalls.
“There were many times where she was able to be pretty honest with me if maybe a promotion didn’t happen because there’s inherent bias and how we can work through that and what we should do.”
This mentor not only provided professional guidance but also demonstrated how to balance a successful career with family life, serving as a powerful role model for Supriya’s own journey.
Inspiring the Next Generation
Drawing inspiration from her early career mentor, Supriya is passionate about supporting the next generation of women in healthcare. “Inspiring the next generation of women is one of the reasons I wake up every single day and come to work,” she shares. She emphasizes the importance of personal connections and leading by example, demonstrating that it’s possible to balance a successful career with family life.
Wisdom for the Journey
When asked what message she’d send to her younger self, Supriya offers wisdom that resonates with all healthcare leaders: “The career is long. Not every part of it is going to be amazing, but lots of it is going to be fantastic.”
She emphasizes that she’s still learning and growing, noting that as a first-time founder, “I am my younger self all over again, doing something for the first time and learning every single day.”
Her final piece of advice encapsulates her leadership philosophy: “Handle everyone that you work for with grace and respect and be true to who you are and connected with them. That makes a career wonderful even through the jungle gyms of a career.”
Through her leadership at Cerula Care and her commitment to breaking down barriers in healthcare, Supriya Laknidhi exemplifies the perseverance and innovation that drive positive change in the healthcare industry.
Healthcare innovation is marked by leaders who not only achieve great milestones but also have a profound commitment to creating meaningful change. Jenna Hartter’s story is a powerful testament to perseverance, operational excellence, and a deep-rooted passion for improving lives.
Roots of Ambition: A Family-Inspired Foundation
Jenna’s journey begins with a unique family background that shaped her worldview. As the second of four daughters, she was raised by parents who deeply valued education. Her father, in particular, instilled a belief that there were no limits to what she could achieve. This foundational support would become the bedrock of her future professional pursuits.
Growing up, family vacations were spent visiting museums and educational sites rather than other tourist destinations. This approach to learning fostered a curiosity and openness that would later define her career trajectory. Her parents didn’t just teach education; they taught the art of continuous learning and exploration.
From Corporate Foundations to Startup Innovation
Jenna’s professional journey began in the structured world of a Fortune 500 company, where she spent half a decade developing her skills. However, she wasn’t content to remain within the familiar corporate boundaries. Her transition to the startup sector was far from easy – she faced doubts about her ability to pivot from a large corporate environment to the high-risk, fast-paced world of innovative startups.
This skepticism could have been a deterrent, but for Jenna, it was a challenge to overcome, and one she approached systematically and with intention. Her move from consumer products to medical technology was another significant leap, entering an industry where she had no prior experience. While each transition represented a career move, it was also a deliberate choice to expand her impact and challenge existing limitations.
Pioneering Operations at Cubby Beds
At Cubby Beds, Jenna has become a transformative force in scaling insurance-covered safety beds for children with special needs. She had a hand in building the company’s operational infrastructure from scratch – both physical product operations and company-wide strategic & operating cadences. At Cubby, a medical device product with a mission to help families better access the care they need, she’s faced with some difficult and unique challenges never before been tackled by the industry. To meet these, she’s able to bring expertise from her background in CPG, omnichannel, and direct-to-consumer startups to build new & creative solutions.
The company’s growth is a testament to her skills: from the team of seven she was hired into to over 40 full time employees, now selling tens of millions of dollars in products within just three years. Each strategic decision and additional bed sold represents not just a business milestone, but a step towards improving more lives of families with children who have special needs.
A Personal Connection to Healthcare Transformation
Jenna’s commitment to healthcare innovation is deeply personal. As a foster parent to three young children, she has experienced firsthand the complexities of accessing healthcare services. “I have a much closer view of what it’s like to try to get healthcare services,” she explains. “It’s very complex and much harder than it should be… It shouldn’t take an advanced degree and it shouldn’t take a whole ton of time [to access the services we need] .”
The Philosophy of Incremental Progress
One of Jenna’s most powerful strategies is breaking down challenges into manageable actions. “I am a very operational person in all aspects of my life, and use similar frameworks to approach a new challenge at work or a new challenge at home,” she explains. When facing obstacles, she focuses on “breaking things down into small and doable next steps .”
Jenna maintains a file of her past accomplishments – a personal reminder of challenges she’s already overcome. This practice isn’t about ego, but about recognizing her own capacity for growth and adaptation. Each past achievement becomes a building block of confidence for future endeavors.
Balancing Professional Ambition and Family Life
For Jenna and her husband, managing a two-career household with three children under four is an exercise in strategic planning. They’ve developed sophisticated systems for managing household logistics, including weekly family meetings to coordinate responsibilities. This approach allows them to pursue their professional goals while maintaining a supportive, efficient home environment.
Inspiration from a Global Perspective
Influenced by Muhammad Yunus – a Bangladeshi economist, entrepreneur, politician, civil society leader, and Nobel Peace Prize winner – Jenna embraces the idea that transformative innovations can emerge from unexpected places. Her internship in Bangladesh was a pivotal moment, teaching her that committed individuals can create systemic change by focusing on solving real-world problems.
A Message to Emerging Leaders
To young professionals, Jenna offers a powerful message: “You don’t need to be a visionary to have a big impact. Meaningful work can be found in implementing grand ideas well”. She finds this challenge & satisfaction in operations, in bringing others’ visions to life with well-constructed and well-executed systems. She encourages focusing on doing meaningful work rather than seeking spotlight & attention “When you focus on doing good work, you’ll look up after months, years, and decades and see the impact you’ve had on people’s lives – more than you could have ever dreamed.”
The Multifaceted Nature of Perseverance
Jenna Hartter embodies perseverance not through dramatic resistance, but through consistent, strategic action. Her journey illustrates that success is about breaking complex challenges into manageable steps, maintaining a commitment to personal growth, and never losing sight of the broader impact one can make.
As a member of Women Who Lead Healthcare 2024, Jenna represents the innovative spirit driving positive change in healthcare – proving that with determination, strategic thinking, and a genuine desire to help others, one can transform industries and improve lives.
For too long, women’s health has been overlooked and understudied, but Dr. Brittany Barreto is breaking barriers and driving change. As the founder of FemHealth Insights, she’s redefining leadership in women’s healthcare by driving innovation and fostering meaningful transformation.
From Lab Coat to Leadership
Dr. Barreto’s journey began in genetics, where she earned her PhD. But she quickly realized her impact could extend beyond the laboratory. “I felt like I had too much personality to work in a lab my whole life,” she recalls. This realization led her to entrepreneurship, where she found her true calling.
Her first venture was groundbreaking: the world’s first DNA-based dating app. Though the company eventually closed due to policy changes, this setback became a stepping stone to her current mission. “I use that opportunity to kind of jump into my next career,” she explains, demonstrating the resilience that would become her trademark.
Breaking New Ground in Venture Capital
The transition to venture capital proved transformative. Dr. Barreto began mentoring and investing in women’s health companies, introducing her to the world of FemTech. This industry, named by Ida Tin, encompasses solutions for conditions that solely, disproportionately, or differently affect females, women, and girls.
What started as mentorship quickly revealed a stark reality about women’s healthcare. “I started to mentor these founders, and of the things I realized was that they were working on things that I couldn’t believe were still problems,” Dr. Barreto shares. The innovations weren’t just addressing minor improvements – they were creating first-ever solutions or updating technologies that hadn’t been improved in centuries.
Building Infrastructure from Scratch
Recognizing the lack of resources in the field, Dr. Barreto took action. “Our industry had a name, but no infrastructure,” she explains. Starting with a podcast during lockdown in March 2020, she began building that infrastructure. The podcast quickly gained thousands of listeners across dozens of countries, demonstrating the global hunger for information about women’s health innovation.
The Power of Market Intelligence
One of Dr. Barreto’s most significant contributions has been quantifying the women’s health market. “People thought women’s health is niche, which is another word for no one’s quantified it,” she explains. Her research revealed a market worth at least $1.2 trillion, challenging the “niche” narrative and providing crucial data for investors and entrepreneurs.
What sets FemTech apart is its founder demographics. “80% of FemTech founders are female, which is a higher percentage than any other tech industry in the world,” Dr. Barreto notes. These founders often bring personal experience to their innovations, creating solutions born from a firsthand understanding of the problems they’re solving.
Inspiration and Mentorship
When asked about her role models, Dr. Barreto cites Cindy Eckert, founder of Sprout Pharmaceuticals, as a primary inspiration. “She would go on CNBC and be like, ‘There are 13 approved drugs for erectile dysfunction and zero for female sexual dysfunction,'” she recalls, admiring how Eckert maintained her personality while achieving tremendous business success.
The Future of Women’s Health
The landscape of women’s healthcare is changing rapidly. Dr. Barreto points to recent developments, including the Biden administration’s approval of $100 million for women’s health research and the first-ever study of menstruation in zero gravity. These advances signal growing recognition of the importance of women’s health research.
Through her consulting firm, podcast, and book “Unlocking Women’s Health: FemTech in the Quest for Gender Equity,” Dr. Barreto continues to build bridges between innovation and women’s health. Her work demonstrates that with persistence, vision, and collaborative spirit, transformative change is possible.
“We’re not just hoping the men take action. We are taking action,” she declares, embodying the spirit of leadership that’s helping to reshape the future of healthcare. Through her continued advocacy and innovation, Dr. Barreto is ensuring that women’s health moves from the margins to the mainstream of medical innovation.
The Impact of Education and Awareness
Dr. Barreto’s commitment to education extends beyond her business ventures. Her podcast, “FemTech Focus” is available on major streaming platforms. It takes a deep-dive approach to specific topics within women’s health, making complex medical concepts accessible to listeners worldwide. “We have listeners in 142 countries,” she notes proudly, demonstrating the global appetite for accurate, accessible information about women’s health.
Her recently published book serves as a comprehensive guide to the FemTech industry, combining scholarly research with practical insights from over 100 podcast episodes. This work represents another step in her mission to build the infrastructure necessary for sustained growth and innovation in women’s healthcare.
Through these various channels, Dr. Barreto continues to challenge assumptions, break down barriers, and create pathways for future generations of healthcare innovators. Her story is about more than just personal success – it’s about creating systemic change that benefits women worldwide.
In the dynamic world of healthcare technology, Christine Emery stands as a testament to the power of perseverance and adaptability. As a nurse turned healthcare technology leader, her journey exemplifies the spirit of innovation and resilience that defines the Women Who Lead Healthcare initiative.
From Bedside to Business
Christine’s path in healthcare began in 2010 when she graduated nursing school and dove straight into critical care. “I really enjoyed caring for those high acuity patients,” she reflects. “The more drips and infusions, the more fun and challenging the work.” Her natural aptitude for mathematics and science, coupled with her father’s encouragement, led her to pursue nursing – a decision that would shape her future in unexpected ways.
During her time in the ICU, Christine quickly distinguished herself as a leader. “After being a nurse in the unit for about a year, I became a preceptor helping new unit nurses onboard to our high acuity patient population,” she explains. She found particular fulfillment in mentoring new nurses, teaching them critical thinking skills, and helping them navigate complex patient care scenarios.
Transitioning to Healthcare Technology
After seven years of intensive care experience, Christine made a pivotal career shift when an opportunity in the healthcare technology industry presented itself. Now at Monarch Medical Technologies for over four years, she has carved out a unique role that combines clinical expertise with business acumen.
“My role is a blend of clinical, business, and sales, which is fun and challenging,” she shares.
As a Customer Success Manager and Team Lead, Christine’s responsibilities are multifaceted.
“My primary objective in my role is to partner with my client base by helping them understand the functionality of our solutions, evaluating their glycemic metrics, and being able to focus on opportunities for learning and growth while still fostering continued success,” she explains. In July 2023, she took on additional leadership responsibilities as the team lead for her department.
Overcoming Career Setbacks with Grace
Christine’s journey hasn’t been without its challenges. Early in her transition to the medical device industry, she faced a significant setback when company restructuring led to widespread layoffs.
“That was very hard to absorb because I’ve always been an overachiever and a hard worker,” she shares. Rather than letting this derail her ambitions, she used the experience as a catalyst for growth.
During this period, she dedicated herself to applying for other medical device positions, using each interview as a learning opportunity. “I actually learned a lot from several of those clinicians I interviewed with, even though I did not get the job. I learned a lot about developing client rapport and portraying confidence,” she reflects. These skills would prove invaluable in her future roles.
Breaking Through Personal Barriers
Perhaps one of the most striking aspects of Christine’s journey is her transformation from a reserved student to a confident healthcare leader. “If you had told me in high school that I would be presenting on a regular basis in front of important hospital system stakeholders, I would not have believed it,” she admits. “I was the timid student who would gladly have done all the work if someone else would present the content.”
Today, she has worked hard to develop her professional presentation skills, regularly conducting presentations and handling complex clinical questions in real time. This growth mindset extends to all aspects of her work: “You can always learn new skills and work hard to become an expert.”
The Impact of Education and Mentorship
Christine’s educational background at Bob Jones University provided her with more than just clinical knowledge. “Having that liberal arts education really did allow me to have a wide variety of vast knowledge of different topics,” she notes. One particularly impactful lesson from her education continues to guide her work:
“You never want to put yourself in a position where people will question if you did something right or wrong. Always put yourself in a position where you showed that you did right and you did it to the best of your ability.”
Cultural Heritage and Professional Identity
Beyond her professional achievements, Christine maintains a deep connection to her heritage, speaking Spanish daily with her 90-year-old grandmother, who immigrated from Cuba in the 1970s. “She’s my hero and I am in awe of her sacrifice that allowed me to pursue a career where I can help others,” Christine shares.
This bilingual ability has enhanced her capacity to serve diverse patient populations throughout her career, particularly during her bedside nursing days when she was often assigned Spanish-speaking patients.
Contributing to Healthcare’s Future
In her current role, Christine continues to drive positive change in healthcare by leveraging her bedside nursing experience to improve clinician workflows and reduce nursing workload burdens. “When you think about how nursing staffs the majority of the hospital, the experience that I have working at the bedside, bringing that into healthcare will help shed some light for a lot of other departments,” she explains.
Words of Wisdom
Christine’s commitment to transparency and integrity remains unwavering: “In a world where deception is pervasive, honesty and integrity will always stand the test of time as desirable qualities.”
She encourages others facing career challenges to remember that “experience is a hard but good teacher and every situation is a learning one. You don’t know until you try.”
Christine Emery’s journey demonstrates the transformative power of perseverance in healthcare leadership. Her story inspires the next generation of healthcare leaders to embrace challenges, pursue growth, and maintain authenticity in their professional journey.
