Modern Healthcare

‘Being a good leader requires authentici­ty’

Dr. Mandy Cohen Secretary North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services

- —Janaya Greene

Toachieve a healthier world, Dr. Mandy Cohen realized work had to be done beyond hospital walls. North Carolina’s health secretary secured $90 million in funding for her state’s opioid prevention plan, worked with stakeholde­rs on Medicaid transforma­tion and Early Childhood Action plans and led efforts to integrate behavioral and physical health in North Carolina’s Medicaid program.

“When I worked on Capitol Hill as a student I became interested in health policy issues. There weren’t many doctors shaping policy at the time, so I began to see a career path that would allow me to bridge the world of clinical medicine and health policy,” she said.

Her efforts to transform the system extend to her department itself. Under Cohen’s leadership, it has enacted a mentoring program to help place women employees in positions where they can grow; women make up 42% of her leadership team.

“Women leaders can be underestim­ated, overlooked or misunderst­ood, but women often have more of the skills needed to excel in the complex, ever-changing, highly matrixed, relationsh­ip-driven world of healthcare. Being a good leader requires authentici­ty. You need to know yourself and your strengths, and then you need to build a team around you that complement­s those strengths and weaknesses,” she said.

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