Greetings, my Gurus!

I’ve been meaning to reach out, but then somewhere… just out of nowhere… I didn't.

I want to thank those who inquired about my radio silence. It means a lot to me that you look forward to my emails, which reaffirms the time and effort I put into them every month!

The truth is: I could not find the inspiration because the last 15 months finally caught up with me.

As some of you may remember, I started writing weekly back in March 2023, shortly after Angelica, my former company’s Co-Founder, and I semi-unexpectedly departed our last stop, which we had given up our company to join. While my time spent there was certainly not all for nothing, I found myself spending most of the 12 months after we left recovering from extreme burnout, extrospecting on leadership styles and workplace culture, introspecting on self-growth and awareness, and most notably, navigating what felt like a sudden lack of identity and belonging after closing a chapter we had sacrificed a lot for, both personally and professionally.

The year following March 2023 was filled with many ups and downs behind the scenes. Writing my Health Data Guru articles each week was a welcome outlet for me. I started consulting almost immediately because my network reached out the minute they heard I was available to help them with their health data and analytics strategy projects! This afforded me the freedom to explore new types of projects while I thought about my next steps. I am so grateful for my loved ones who supported me and never pushed me too hard to make a decision. I’m particularly grateful for my husband and the privileges and blessings we have built together in life, which made it even possible to take this much “downtime.” Still, it was a period of a comparative flatline. Thankfully, this is not my baseline (or at least, not typically for that long).

However, the period of lull was still important.

During this time, I was able to do some really deep thinking about what I wanted to focus on in the next chapter of my career and personal life—in fact, it felt like that was all I spent my time doing. For the hell of it, I decided to apply for a Ph.D. program—a lifelong goal of mine—while I tried out a few different pursuits to see what might ignite me again.

And energy did start to return in the New Year as some stars aligned and some new efforts started making more sense to pursue. This energy led to a renewed commitment to my work in healthcare and even posting health data content on TikTok. But most excitingly, I announced the Health Equity Innovation Hub that I’m launching with Angelica. You saw these announcements around January/February 2024, which is also when I reduced my writing to monthly because of the additional time these new efforts required.

But then I quite literally immediately fell off the radar in March 2024 (rather anticlimactically, now that I think about it). Aside from seemingly taking on what some may consider "too much too soon" (as per usual), some personal events also happened that month, which led to my mysterious disappearance.

On March 7th, I found out I was accepted into UNM’s Health Equity Sciences Ph.D. program. Wahooo… and also, “oh $#!t”

But then, on March 12th…

My sweet and very healthy "dog"hter died VERY unexpectedly from a major stroke after what we now know was an out-of-the-blue mini-stroke, leading to a steep decline and her gasping for her last breath, in my arms, a short 2 days later. I realized I had never experienced a loss or grief of any kind; the entire ordeal was intense, dramatic, and traumatic. My husband and I don’t have any children (and are "those kinds" of dog people), so the shock and extreme suck of the experience hit us pretty hard. I have no idea how people cope with the loss of a human loved one.

Interestingly, some people who I never expected to show up and hold space for me did so in a major way, and some who I had expected to, didn’t. So on top of everything else I’d been thinking about for this impending “new chapter,” this also forced me to start thinking about building new—and rebuilding old—relationships with friends, family, and colleagues, and what I wanted my relationships to look like going forward.

I suppose some of this is to be expected, but the loss starkly reminded me that I wasn’t quite as ready as I’d thought, and I fell into another malaise.

All of this to say: over the last 3 months, I lost motivation to do anything requiring extra brain or heart power.

On the bittersweet side, my husband and I have traveled more in the last three months than we have in the last couple of years and have grown much closer with some new and old friends alike, which has breathed some unexpected life back into us. But mostly, I unceremoniously continued my consulting work while navigating through a loss of motivation yet again.

But then I got a nudge from… fate?

In late May, I flew to Miami to attend the Young Health Leader’s 2024 Summit, a conference I had registered for well before this all happened and my first foray back into conference attendance in literal years. As you can imagine, for those reasons alone plus all the stuff above, I wasn’t exactly skipping down the jetway to board—but I went anyway.

Holy hell, was it transformative.

The energy and vibe of being around early careerists and executives alike, meeting and hanging out with some of my LinkedIn heroes in person, feeling that sense of belonging with what felt like old friends, absorbing all of the energy, ideas, and optimism for the future of healthcare was… indescribable. I was invited to join a panel about AI/Data in Healthcare, and I think this picture speaks for itself.

• Left: watch the short video here

• Right: Me when I talk about health data and health equity

This event was a light switch moment for me, like night and day—in only 2 days’ time, I was reminded of all the things that first attracted me to healthcare and all of the things I’d been missing so much: making a difference, being around others who shared a mission, and belonging to a community. Despite the extreme humidity, which seems somehow criminal, my husband and I also had the best time and I was so inspired by the diversity, health, and creativity that is the Miami scene. I was beyond energized.

Then something even more unexpected (and totally unheard of) happened.

I knew I was invigorated, but I didn’t really realize how much until traveling home. For the first time in my life (and I’ve traveled a lot), as we approached ABQ, I found myself actually looking forward to returning to New Mexico after a vacation and—more suspiciously—felt a deep sense of pride in New Mexico and readiness to get to work making a difference.

I had no way to know that the last 15 months would culminate like this.

Looking back now, I wonder if it was some kind of Universal bookend—after all, those of you who know me know that I don’t respond (or really even notice) subtle suggestions, or even repeated suggestions. Or suggestions in general, if we’re being honest. I typically only deal in extreme absolutes and absurd abruptness.

And while I certainly wish that I could have been better prepared, I am honestly not sure what else could have snapped me out of a 15-month-long pattern other than an emotional kick-in-the-pants reminder that really crappy things happen, but the future can still hold a lot of promise.

So while it has only been a couple of weeks since returning home, dare I say that I am slowly starting to feel more like “my old self”—not 100%, and certainly with some new battle scars and personality quirks to show for everything that has happened over the last few years, but a little lighter and a little more optimistic. A little more open and a little more creative.

I’ve been intentionally focused on meeting inspiring new people every day, spreading the word about the innovation work we’re doing to improve the health/wealth/wellbeing of our region, forging and strengthening better relationships of old and new, traveling, enjoying the weather, and mentally preparing for my program to begin in August. All of this has also had a positive reinforcement compounding effect, which has been a bit of an optimism multiplier for me.

And while I haven’t been writing, I suppose I haven’t been as idle as I’d thought.

Things have been up and down, but I’m still proud of things I have done over the last 15 months, even if it was probably my least productive professional season in terms of output and accomplishment (which, despite my logical brain, remains a deep-rooted driver of my identity and self-appraisal).

Below, I’ve included some highlights of what I’ve been up as a reminder to myself that I still made forward progress, but also because I’m excited to share them with you (as always).

For now, I guess I’m sorta kinda back, baby!!!

Wait… am I?

It may take me a minute to get back into the swing of monthly writing, but for now, I wanted to let you all know what’s been going on and what’s next. I am so grateful for everyone and so lucky that I can give back to the world through my passions and musings, esoteric as they may be.

How lucky are we to love the field so much that when we’re working, it doesn’t feel like work?

Going forward, you’ll see more about our Health Equity Innovation Hub and efforts we’re spearheading there, which will also align with my Ph.D. work as that picks up. I’m really excited to continue working on the causes that are important to me and in areas where I can add to a growing body of knowledge for future generations while advocating for what I always have: collaboration, community, conversation, and solving problems. And of course, better using data and technology to help us get there.

This was really the longest way to say:

More to come.

Talk soon,

Highlights of the last 15 months…

From recent to not-so-recent because, why the heck not?

June 2024

Albuquerque Community Foundation’s nonprofit tour

I got to visit some of ACF’s Grantees (CBOs/nonprofits) that are in one of the most vulnerable neighborhoods of Albuquerque (the International District) to see their incredible work. The commitment and passion these organizations and their teams have—especially for those in absolute direst of need—was… well, there are really no words to describe. It was a moving experience and reaffirmed my commitment to intentionally get much closer to the actual work being done within communities as I start my Ph.D. program.

Watch the video and read the full post here.

May 2024

Young Health Leader’s Summit/Miami

Had the most inspiring time at the Advancement League’s YHLS 2024. I spoke on a panel about about AI/data innovation, meeting some of my LinkedIn buddies “IRL” (and made some new ones). Miami was awesome and many city representatives came to talk about health equity challenges they’re facing (and solutions they’re implementing). My husband and I enjoyed the city’s diversity and creativity between sporadic bouts of heat exhaustion.

March 2024

Said goodbye to our sweet girl

Dottie (aka the Newt, Doots, Noots, Doodles, Noodles, Noodler, Nookies, Noodler, Nookie Butt, and many more) was around 3 when we adopted her, by our best guess. Her previous “owners” had dumped her at the shelter with an 11 pound fatty lipoma hanging off her left haunch, which the shelter vets removed, but they were still having a hard time adopting her out because of her breed. My husband fell in love with her at first sight, and she came home with us the very same day. Since that day, she had a mile+ walk every day, zoomies until the day she was admitted, the shiniest coat you’d ever seen, and in great health (other than always running a bit lopsided, presumably from dat Lipoma-on-the-Left Life). She traveled all over the West with us, camping, exploring, and snoring. And all of our memories, save for our last 2 days with her, will be of a happy healthy girl who loved to be anywhere “we” (aka my husband) went, was obsessed with beef, and hated Halloween costumes.

• Left: the day we brought her home from the shelter in April 2015

• Right: the week before she was admitted March 2024 (begging for food of course—likely beef)

February 2024

Words I never thought would come out of my mouth: I’m on TikTok

Follow me @healthdataguru

Honestly this has been a lot of fun, and only a few weird people sliding into my DMs. I’m mostly known for trying to capitalize on social trends 8 months after they’ve passed, casually using hip terms like “slapped so hard,” and laughing at my own jokes—so not unlike me, in real life, in literally all other settings.

And unlike LinkedIn, where my pontificating posts are long and resonate with more senior or mid-level healthcare professional (and typically in administration of some sort), this is reaching a lot of early to mid-level healthcare analysts and existing healthcare professionals interested in transitioning into informatics/data or health administration.

January 2024

Announced our health equity innovation hub work and started a quarterly healthcare meetup group called HealthInno NM

Our Health Equity Innovation Hub is getting great traction, interest, and partnership from a number of major stakeholders across the region. By serving as a centralized health innovation hub for New Mexico and the Borderplex Region, we’re bringing all the key stakeholders together to collaborate on improving the health and well-being of our most vulnerable communities, to foster tech-readiness among the health workforce, and to create more economic opportunity/innovation in the health tech sector within our region.

We are actively seek collaborators who want to be part of this movement. Whether you're an organization ready to host pilots or co-develop new solutions, an innovator/researcher with groundbreaking ideas or technology, or a funder/policymaker eager to support mission-driven work—I’d love to talk shop with you.

We will continue to build this model out as we purse grant funding to support the work and our time spent on it. And we’re excited to announce more as details unfold.

Meanwhile, inspired by the vibrant healthcare scenes in other cities (and with some nudging from our colleagues), we also started HealthInno NM as the community-building arm of our innovation hub work. It is a quarterly education + networking group with curated topics and guests each month, led by Angelica and I plus some other very passionate volunteers who we are very grateful for!!!

Sign up for our event mailing list to hear about new events here and/or follow us on LinkedIn here.

October 2023

Ran a 4-week health tech accelerator

We taught a handful of health and wellness tech startup Founders a bit about our world, with the help of some seasoned and knowledegable Guest Lecturers.

While we won’t be doing another of these, I love teaching people what I know about healthcare and I also learned a ton. My presentations can be viewed on YouTube if any of the topics speak to you.

• Understanding the Healthcare Ecosystem

• Using Data to Craft a Healthcare Pitch + Developing an Outcomes-First Model

July 2023

Helped Angelica kick off her podcast, “She’s Ambitious AF”

In the inaugural episode of "She's Ambitious AF," we reflected on the most unexpected aspects of our entrepreneurial journey. With candid conversations and reflection, we revealed the realities beyond the glamorous façade of entrepreneurship.

At least, that is how the description explained it. Mostly we just laugh at how silly we, and others, were/are—and I spill her secrets on air.

Since the kick off, she has recorded weekly episodes with so many amazing women (and a few men!), with the goal of amplifying and empowering women. I’ve been known to make a Co-Host reoccurrence and relive our best of times and our worst of times. Still, every time has (for the most part) been a good time!

• Listen to the inaugural episode here

• Follow her weekly podcast here

That’s all for now.

I thought that the last 15 months didn’t have a lot to speak of, but looking back now (and especially compiling the highlights), it was actually a darn good year+ and I’m certainly looking forward to the next.

Until next time, my Gurus!