I’ve been a writer for a long time.
I wrote bad poetry as a little girl, fell under the spell of an amazing English teacher in high school (thanks, Mr. Entrekin), majored in creative writing in college, and have written countless articles, columns, speeches, white papers, position statements, marketing copy, and the like. But my writing background is probably not why you are here – you’re more interested in what qualifies me to write about urgent care and leadership.
Urgent Care: I was CEO of the Urgent Care Association for six years in the early 2000’s and for six more years in the early 2020’s, so I got to experience the early days and more recent evolutions. In between I worked in urgent care for an independent group and a health system doing operational support and professional development, so I’ve had eyes on and some hands-on for everything in that book. I’ve also been blessed by amazing colleagues who taught me along the way – I miss you guys.
Leadership: I’ve been called “bossy” since I was young, and eventually that led to formal leadership roles. My first one at 15 (photo). I’m passionate about being a great one, and have witnessed and studied and made many mistakes as I worked toward that goal. I’ve had the privilege of leading and learning from (and learning on…sorry, guys) wonderful teams. I think I’ve figured some things out and enough people have said “you should write a book” that I am going to. Wrong Tool, Right Tool (working title) was born because, despite thousands of books on leadership, we are all still making it up every day. Leadership is ultimately a DIY activity. But many of those books are about enormous, well-known organizations. They have great concepts but most of the examples are from Fortune 500 companies – not the average organization – so the lessons are less-accessible. Hopefully that means there’s still room for a book like mine. Shooting for a 2028 release date. Get on the notification list?
If you want the full resume, you can find it on LinkedIn.