I grew up with a love for science and endless curiosity about the medical field. How do you find a cure cancer? How do physicians save lives? When my mother returned home each evening from her work at the hospital, she would tell me stories of the life-saving feats she witnessed. It’s no surprise that I chose to pursue a career in healthcare. I dove deeper into the puzzle of oncology after graduating from Pharmacy school and heading the Hematology/Oncology Residency Program at Walter Reed Medical Centre. Once in pharma, as an MSL, I loved collaborating with world experts for the benefit of patients. We were changing lives together! Since then, it has been an honor to lead teams as Manager, Director and finally Head of Global Medical Excellence. I learned my people-first values as an officer in the United States Army. In one particular training, I was assigned to lead a team on a complex mission. We had 30 minutes to prepare as the trainers observed. The pressure was on. Then, right before we were to start the mission, the instructor announced that I had just been ‘killed’. I had to step aside and let the team perform. That lesson never left me. You have to prepare and trust your people. The experience helped to form my core values: 1. Humans not numbers - It’s about people. Numbers help guide strategies, but people make it happen! 2. Collaborate - We’re all in this together. It doesn’t matter where the idea originates, everyone needs to work together to create the best outcomes. 3. Give first – What gets me up in the morning is thinking about how to help our people reach their goals. I want to hire the most talented and diverse people, provide them with direction andresources, then get out of the way, and finally reward and recognize them. 4. Check your ego at the door - We can’t be so arrogant to think patients don’t have a better idea than us or team members don’t have a better idea than team leaders. We can learn from patients and they can learn from us. 5. Listen – Be more accessible, listen, feed it to our collaborators and act on it. Don’t be afraid to fail! Unfortunately, we haven’t yet figured out how to cure all forms cancer or many other diseases. That is why I jump out of bed in the morning—to work with teams who strive every day to find solutions that change lives.