Charged: Stories from the Women Leading Health Care

Childhood obesity is on the rise among low-income racial and ethnic minorities. Elsie Taveras, MD, MPH, chief of Mass General's Division of General Pediatrics, is focused on preventing and treating childhood obesity along with reducing healthcare disparities that contribute to its rise. She discusses the importance of supporting underserved families and making them aware of ways to establish healthy habits for children.

Ann L. Prestipino, MPH, has spent her entire career at Mass General, starting as the assistant to the director of operations 38 years ago. Today, Ann serves as one of Mass General’s 15 senior vice presidents. In this role, she manages the administrative aspects of all four parts of the hospital’s mission (patient care, education, research and community) across a large portfolio of centers and departments. She also leads emergency preparedness and served as the incident commander for both the Boston Marathon bombing and the Rhode Island Station Nightclub fire. Hear how she’s built a long, successful career with continued growth, all within the same institution.

Sue Slaugenhaupt, PhD, is the inaugural scientific director of Mass General’s Research Institute. She began at Mass General in the early 1990s and has spent her whole career focused on understanding two rare diseases: familial dysautonomia or FD and mucolipidosis type IV or ML4. She tackled the challenges of building a thriving scientific career at the same time she was building her family, and in this episode she discusses how she is now working to pay it forward and change the culture of scientific research for the better.

Former banker Cathy E. Minehan, MBA, is the chair of Mass General’s Board of Trustees. Cathy’s long career in the Federal Reserve Bank system included many firsts: she was the first woman to become the first vice president of any reserve bank, the first woman to become president of the Boston bank and only the second female president in the whole federal bank system. She discusses the importance of being your own advocate, how she repeatedly broke gender barriers and how her success in banking has led to a fulfilling second career guiding some of the region’s and the nation’s top organizations as a board member.

Allison Bryant, MD, MPH, spends her days caring for women with high-risk pregnancies and advocating for not just safety and quality of care, but also the equity of care. Dr. Bryant explains how we might go about improving equity in health care and why it’s important for us all to examine our own biases.

Before becoming a neurosurgeon, Dr. Pamela Jones trained as a writer, and spent her free time in ballet. You might be surprised by how training as a journalist and a ballerina has helped her become a better surgeon.

Aswita Tan-McGrory, MBA, MSPH, is the deputy director of the Disparities Solutions Center at Mass General. Beginning with the Peace Corps after college, Aswita has devoted her career to lifting disenfranchised groups. Hear how she’s also charted her own path to success and leadership along the way.

Misty Hathaway, MIA, is Mass General’s chief marketing officer and senior director for international and specialized services and moved to Boston after 17 years at Mayo Clinic. Major transitions can be hard, but you'll hear her advice on bridging the gap between your past and your future.

Dr. Marcela del Carmen is the chief medical officer at Mass General. She is now a leader in gynecologic oncology, but she started in a very different place when she fled Nicaragua with her family at age 10. Hear how experience inspired her to dedicate her career to reducing disparities in cancer care and promoting diversity in medicine.

Cardiologist Dr. Malissa Wood is committed to improving women’s heart health. She helped found the hospital's Corrigan Women’s Heart Health Program and has devoted her career to make sure women get the care they need, all while balancing the demands that come with being the mom of four.