Our Lead(H)er series features impressive women leaders in the tech industry. In this Q&A, we are featuring Michelle Ford, VP of Strategic Accounts at Cohere Health.
What is your role, and what are some high-level responsibilities that come with it?
I have a two-fold mission as the VP of Strategic Accounts. First, I am responsible for building a strong relationship with my clients, partnering closely with them on overall management of the account, executing on growth and value opportunities, and ensuring they accomplish their strategic objectives. Second, I work on several internal initiatives to build structure, efficiency, and process for our client facing teams.
What does a typical day in the life look like? Details on the Team and examples of things the team gets to work on.
As a person who plays both external and internal facing roles, I have the privilege of wearing multiple hats. Part of my day is spent on client calls, understanding their challenges and how we are uniquely positioned to solve them. I also think about how we continue to deliver value through our solutions, roadmaps, and client results. Internally, I work on standardizing repeatable processes which may include creating new deck templates, presenting initiatives for steering committee approval, or bringing a group of cross-functional leaders together to address team feedback.
Where did you grow up? What did your parents do for work?
My dad is Nigerian and my mom was born in Panama to parents who served in the US military. My father is an Accountant and works in government. My mother is a retired Foreign Service Officer, who brought me and my little sister all over the world with her – we lived in Mexico, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and South Africa to name a few places. I loved this life of learning new cultures, foods, languages, and meeting new friends. I ended up going to boarding school for my junior and senior year of high school in Massachusetts, and I never left.
Where did you go to college? What did you study and what were some of your initial jobs out of school?
I went to Northeastern University in Boston, MA (GO HUSKIES!). I studied Healthcare Administration and the first 12 years after college were spent working for health plans where I got in-depth exposure to the healthcare system from the payer lens. I worked as a project manager implementing utilization management, disease management, and care management programs. After that, I moved into a role managing several clinical vendors on behalf of a managed care organization. During my time with payers, I learned a lot about Commercial, Medicaid, Medicare, and Dual (Medicaid/Medicare) lines of business. I’ve spent the remainder of my career in client-facing roles in digital health.
What has attributed to your success thus far and has helped propel you to the position you have now?
I had great mentors who helped me think strategically about my career and how to navigate both challenges and opportunities. In addition, I had safe spaces to fail, reflect, and learn from my mistakes. I also believe deeply in building relationships, coming into work conversations with positive intent, and helping others. I believe in paying in forward and coaching/mentoring others.
What attracted you to Cohere Health?
I am passionate about mission driven organizations. Cohere’s mission to simplify healthcare by enabling patients, physicians, and health plans to efficiently collaborate spoke to me as a mom of 3 children, two of whom have complex health conditions. A few years ago, I was stuck in a difficult position where one of my children was denied a prior authorization that would have given him access to a very important treatment. We had been on a waiting list for this treatment for two years (and during that waiting period the approval had expired). I was excited about the cutting edge work that Cohere was doing to both simplify and enhance access to care, and looked forward to championing our cause.
Any advice for someone looking to join Cohere Health?
Be passionate, be curious, and dive in. For those looking to join Cohere you must be passionate about healthcare as it will take time and people to fix our healthcare system. Be curious and ask questions, it helps us to rethink the status quo and become more efficient. Working at Cohere is not a spectator sport, it is important to jump in and get involved – your colleagues and leaders will appreciate it.
Any tips for someone considering a career in your field?
You must care about making a difference in the lives of others, want to make a change in healthcare, be a relationship builder, a problem solver, and have patience. If this is you – we need your help!
