February 03, 2014

TriHealth has been named to the NAFE Top Companies for Executive Women by the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) for the sixth consecutive year. TriHealth finished number one among non-profit applicants in the country.

The list recognizes organizations whose policies and practices encourage women's advancement and whose numbers at the highest levels of leadership demonstrate that commitment.

"The success of our health system is due in part to the direction provided by our diverse leadership team. It is a privilege to work with such talented female executives, and I thank them for their contributions," said John Prout, TriHealth president and CEO.

Part of the recognition was based on having significant female representation in senior management roles. There are also a number of women holding director, manager and supervisor positions throughout TriHealth. About 83 percent of TriHealth team members are women.

NAFE, founded in 1972, is one of the nation's largest businesswomen's associations and is part of Working Mother Media, publisher of Working Mother magazine. The NAFE Top Companies survey evaluates companies on every aspect of women's advancement, including succession planning, profit and loss, roles, gender pay parity, support programs and work life balance programs.  

TriHealth will be featured in NAFE magazine's spring 2014 issue, which is distributed to NAFE members around the country and on NAFE.com.

Career Advice from a TriHealth Female Executive

"Always be willing to take risks."

That's just one piece of career advice Pam Shannon, vice president of Population Health Management for TriHealth, wants to share with team members.

In her current role, Pam leads a new approach to improving health care use behavior of defined populations - both inside and out of TriHealth. She believes that her past experiences at TriHealth prepared her for her current role.

"Because of TriHealth, I've had a variety of professional experiences. I've been a nurse and nurse manager. I've been involved in physician services, home care, senior health, and sales development and was vice president of TriHealth Corporate Health," Pam said. "This variety of experiences gave me the chance to learn about many areas of the organization and interact with a number of different people." 

In all of these positions, Pam said she's had supportive bosses who helped propel her forward in her career.

"I've been very lucky in having bosses and mentors in my 40 years at TriHealth who supported my career aspirations and encouraged me to take risks and try new things."

What other career advice does Pam have?

• Get involved. "I joined every committee I could," she said "It allowed me to meet a lot people and collaborate with them on a variety of projects."
• Take risks. "Never be afraid to try new things and stretch yourself."
• Ask questions. "If you don't know, ask. Saves a lot of time and energy and can open other possibilities you didn't consider."
• Make your interests known.  "Many of the positions I've held, I only moved to them because I told someone I had an interest. I was always supported when I was ready to try something different."
• Find a mentor and be a mentor. "Having people I could trust and turn to was very valuable to me. I've tried to return the favor to others over the years. It's very rewarding when you see those people succeed."