This summer, Forbes magazine named Penn Medicine #2 on its list of America’s Best Employers for Women.
This public recognition is proof of a commitment that we honor and celebrate each day: women represent 77 percent of our workforce, including physicians and other clinicians, support staff, and professionals in fields from information services to quality improvement. I’m especially proud that Penn Medicine benefits from the vision and leadership of women at the top: 55 percent of our leadership team are women, including many in our most senior positions.
This picture — a cornerstone of our pursuit of diversity and inclusion across all our missions — is one the non-profit and public sectors and corporate America should all aspire to. Currently, only 24 Fortune 500 companies are led by women. In health care, only 26 percent of hospital CEOs are women.
Our women executive leaders bring diverse perspectives and experiences to their roles. Together, they prove that there’s no single path or background that allows people to succeed in our organization.
Michele Volpe is Penn Presbyterian’s longtime chief executive, and her expertise has led the hospital to become a nationally recognized academic hospital — including as home of our Level 1 trauma center — while maintaining its strength as a community anchor in West Philadelphia. Pennsylvania Hospital is the nation’s oldest hospital, and under the leadership of Theresa Larivee, who has deep experience as a hospital finance leader, it maintains its place at the top of the field. At Lancaster General Health, CEO Jan Bergen keeps the spirit of her training as a social worker at the center of her agenda, propelling her commitment to improve community health and reduce disparities in the community the hospital serves. At Princeton Medical Center, Janet Ready brings nursing experience coupled with dual training in public health and finance.
At the helm of Penn Home Care and Hospice Services is Joan Doyle, and Beth Johnston serves as executive director of the Clinical Practices of the University of Pennsylvania, our practice group that includes most of our 6,000-plus physicians.
At the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Regina Cunningham became CEO last summer following a highly accomplished tenure as a nursing leader and researcher both at Penn and other leading hospitals. She spoke with Forbes about her path to her new role, noting that support she received from her peers and managers — both women and men — was crucial. “People created opportunities for me to be exposed to different parts of the organization and higher levels of leadership,” she said.
They’re each decisive, respected, highly collaborative leaders who serve as engines for the smart and strategic initiatives that are necessary to keep us on the leading edge of American health care.
We’re committed to helping all faculty and staff, regardless of gender, to develop these same types of versatile skills throughout our talent pipeline, by providing opportunities and training high performers and leaders at every level.
We’ve developed both formal and informal mentoring and training programs like the Penn Medicine Pipeline Program that offer young women — even before they’ve finished high school — exposure to careers in health care. They gain knowledge, develop connections with seasoned mentors to guide them as they move forward with their education, and benefit from our tuition assistance programs. For our part- and full-time workforce, we offer a suite of leadership training programs through Penn Medicine Academy that take staff inside different parts of our business and build skills that enhance their service expertise and performance and financial management skills.
Penn Medicine’s 24-year-old FOCUS on Health and Leadership for Women offers a robust array of seminars, workshops, and conferences related to career development and mentoring. The program also administers faculty research grants and awards, as well as medical student fellowships in mentored research projects involving women’s health, that have a ripple effect far beyond our institution.
Diversity — across gender, racial, and ethnic lines — strengthens our effectiveness as an organization. Studies show that organizations with more women are more likely to generate and implement innovative ideas, and diversity of all kinds helps us challenge our assumptions, reduce bias, and sharpen our decision-making skills. Diversity also impacts our finances and allows us to re-invest in employees: New research from McKinsey and Company shows that companies in the top quartile for gender or racial and ethnic diversity are more likely to post financial returns above their national industry medians.
Across the nation, work toward full equality for women in the workplace continues. We aim to lead the way, so that across the nation, in all kinds of organizations, talented professionals and leaders will have a pathway to achieve at the highest levels. Only by including and supporting people from all backgrounds will our organizations continue to rise.