As you probably know and have seen across social media, March is Women’s History Month, and Tuesday, March 8th was International Women’s Day. We wanted to put the spotlight on a few of our influential women. These women are people managers and/or they are making an impact on their local community. Learn more about these marvelous women!
Anna Haas is a member of the engineering department at Softheon as the Technical Manager where she manages a team of engineers. Anna was drawn to engineering because she has always enjoyed hands-on problem-solving activities. She is a big fan of jigsaw puzzles. Anna describes herself as a “doer” striving to give herself the tools necessary to build and create the desired outcome. She has always loved math, and engineering, in her opinion, is the best job out there that allows you to apply what math teaches. Her love for math has taught her that it is not about knowing how to get from A to Z immediately, which is often a daunting task. Rather it is about taking a step back and breaking the problem down into smaller, digestible chunks so that you can successfully get from A to H and then H to P and then P to Z. Being an engineer is just that.
Anna’s favorite part about Softheon will always be the people. At our company, she is surrounded by intelligent, kind, and funny people who constantly challenge and encourage one another. Anna is a firm believer that success and happiness in a role are strongly about your teammates who are next to you day in and day out. She could not feel more blessed to have her teammates and for her, it is an honor to work with them at Softheon.
Anna’s dad has three sisters, all of whom inspire her both professionally and personally. All three of Anna’s aunts went into STEM fields and have a master’s degree, if not a Ph.D. Her aunts have gone on to have extremely successful careers and beautiful families. They speak confidently and lead with compassion. They have thrived in male-dominated environments by forging their own paths and style of leadership. Their constant influence and presence in Anna’s life have led her to where she is today.
Anne Taylor is a part of our Client Services organization as the Manager of the E^3 team. Previously, Anne worked in clinics, hospitals, and health systems, leading process improvement initiatives. She wanted to experience the growing technology side of healthcare and knew it would be a strategic and important part of her professional growth to do so. Her role now gets to marry the power of Softheon’s technology to her background in improving patient knowledge and access to improve their health. Best of both worlds! She loves empowering her client teams to better understand their membership and show the impact they can have in their own roles on their members’ health.
When Anne thinks about defining success, she shares that she is not often satisfied with the status quo, probably why she can be a bit of a chaotic project manager (ha!) but she is trying to change and improve the process all the time! Constantly working to improve is a success for Anne. She explains, “nothing feels better than getting to the other side of what felt like an impossible problem or question and seeing that you absolutely can do it – even if getting there sometimes feels very sink or swim. I need to know I’ve learned something new every day and put my critical thinking to the test. If I don’t try to answer my questions on my own first, I’ve failed myself.” Anne’s mantra for success is ‘figure out how to do it, then figure out how to do it better!’
Outside of Softheon, Anne enjoys keeping up with all of her long-distance friendships, spending time with her family, always reading five books at a time, printing recipes that she will never make, watching full filmographies of actresses, ranking every Bloody Mary she has ever had, competing with herself on Peloton, and spoiling her dogs!
Aria MartinWard is our Senior Vice President of Client Services or, as she describes it, the “Servant Leader to those that make an impact.” Aria’s favorite part about Softheon is bringing a solution forward that drives improvements in costs and outcomes for healthcare. She loves being part of a group that is making a difference in the community and the lives of those in it. Though she knows it sounds cliché, it really is what gets her out of bed in the morning.
As a leader at Softheon, Aria knows she must define success for herself so she can support the rest of the organization. Aria establishes structures and sets up teams empowered to be their most brilliant selves to accomplish this. Aria is grateful for a team of highly engaged, collaborative, inspired people, which she sees as professional success. As Aria mentors younger female colleagues, her favorite piece of advice is to ‘sit at the table and be heard.’
Outside of her role at Softheon, Aria is extremely passionate about her sons, spiritual center, and community. Aria loves to support her community and the woman in pursuit of breaking free from what was and living into what is possible. We think (and Aria agrees) that Glenn Close would be perfect for playing Aria in a movie about her life.
At Softheon, Cynthia Diaz is a Healthcare Research Analyst who is the storyteller using healthcare data analytics for our clients and internal teams. She believes data can help make access to healthcare more equitable by making business decisions based on science.
Cynthia’s favorite part of working at Softheon is the team. Over the past few months, she has had the opportunity to shadow team members as they work to onboard new clients and serve current ones. Cynthia witnessed first-hand how they each exemplified the role of Trusted Advisor. The Softheon team builds strong relationships with their clients while delivering our product and telling the stories that help healthcare leaders make key decisions.
Cynthia is grateful for her college professor and mentor, Dr. Elisa Facio, who inspired her to reach for success through a career that makes society better. In her career, Dr. Facio helped guide youth into roles in academia and many became leaders in their respective fields. Cynthia’s choice of working in healthcare allows her to follow in Dr. Facio’s footsteps because making a change in this industry is an act of service that can directly change people’s lives. Cynthia believes that healthcare can become more effective and equitable by using data-driven solutions.
When Cynthia is not utilizing data to tell a story, she owns a small business called Tonantzin Casa de Café. It’s a small coffee shop that aims to build a space where guests can experience the essence of home with a cup of coffee and a warm environment. At the coffee shop, they celebrate Indigenous and Latin American culture through their drink and food options. They create jobs that help youth while they build their dreams in school or other ventures. Cynthia believes that business can move beyond the focus of profits toward a commitment to social change. Recently Denver’s 9News, Cynthia’s coffee shop was highlighted explaining Cynthia’s passion for her culture while lifting up her culture.
Megan Gettle runs People Operations and manages the wide variety of things that go into Human Resources, office management, and organizational administration as our Director of Human Resources.
A University of Iowa Alum, Megan was fortunate to have a strong female mentor in college, who just so happened to be in Human Resources at a small but thriving arcade game company. Spending just one day shadowing her mentor opened Megan’s eyes to the idea of centering a career directly around the people at work. At this same time, Megan learned about herself and how rich personal relationships were the true backbone of her well-being journey. The idea that you can marry this into a corporate career and, through Human Resources, really impact the human experience and culture at a company immediately became Megan’s sole interest after graduating college.
Megan’s favorite part of Softheon is how together, the Softheon team has cultivated the most incredibly talented, intelligent, and compassionate community. The people, the team is genuinely her biggest motivator, and serving back what she receives from the people around her is really what gets her excited to start each day.
In her career, Megan has been inspired by Brene Brown because she has been at the forefront of human psychology and EQ intricacies in the workplace. Humans cannot separate their work selves from their personal selves and the idea of emotional response at work. Brene is a modern leader removing “traditional” taboo from this concept. Her work fascinates Megan and shines a light on what Megan believes are core human elements in our day-to-day work life.
Outside of work, Megan loved home design and doing home DIY projects with HGTV on the background. Megan enjoys music very much, especially live. She has seen her favorite band over 100 times, and the most fun of facts is that she met her husband at one of those concerts. When her brain is switched into “off” mode, she is usually in her happy place (Northern Michigan), soaking in a good book from a hammock in the sun or taking a boat ride with her family.
At Softheon, we are grateful for these dynamic women who leave their imprint on our business. We thank them for their hard work and for taking the time to share their stories with us. We celebrate them not only this month but every month.
