Episodios

  • Dr. Andrea Austin, Emergency Medicine Residency Program Director at Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital: How to Create Changemakers in Healthcare
    Mar 25 2026
    What characteristics do changemakers in healthcare have and how can the system cultivate more transformational leaders? As provider organizations grapple with a growing number of complex problems -- including physician burnout and increased demand for care -- there’s a growing sense of urgency to find answers to those questions. Our guest today, Dr. Andrea Austin, has been focused on that task, and on this enlightening episode of WorkforceRx, she shares the results of her research on changemaking and her insider’s perspective on how to encourage it based on her work as an emergency medicine specialist and medical educator. As she explains to Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, many physicians possess the creativity, persistence, sense of purpose and appetite for learning that define changemakers, but lack the environment in which to put those qualities to use. “Culture influences all of this. Organizations have to make sure that the work environment is one in which people can share their opinions and take risks. It is fundamental to changemaking.” This episode also explores key themes in Dr. Austin’s book, Revitalized: A Guidebook to Following Your Healing Heartline, which provides practical steps to overcoming burnout and creating a values-aligned medical career.
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    29 m
  • Dr. Pam Eddinger, President of Bunker Hill Community College: Blurring Traditional Education Boundaries
    Mar 11 2026
    Offering only one degree; developing a cloud computing program in collaboration with Amazon Web Services; working with high schools so students can earn an associate degree before graduation: these are examples of the kind of innovation community colleges must pursue to stay relevant to students and employers alike, according to our guest today, Dr. Pam Eddinger, president of Bunker Hill Community College. “This is where the next iteration of community college must be. We can’t just stay in a classroom. It doesn’t work that way anymore.” Those examples and others are included in the new book Dr. Eddinger is co-editing, Beyond the College Walls: Partnerships and the Future of Community College Reform, which is due out from Harvard Education Press in September, 2026. As she explains to Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, who contributed a chapter to the book, community colleges must work to blur the boundaries between high school, college, and careers and make it easier for students -- especially adult learners -- to gain the skills they need in ways that fit their lives. Join us for a forward-looking WorkforceRx conversation on how community colleges are reimagining pathways to economic mobility and building partnerships that connect students more directly to opportunity.
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    32 m
  • David Zuckerman, President & CEO of Healthcare Anchor Network: Boosting the Local Economic Impact of Hospitals
    Feb 25 2026
    “How do we leverage what we have more intentionally to have greater impact in our communities?” That purposeful question is posed and answered in this thought-provoking episode of WorkforceRx by David Zuckerman, president and CEO of the Healthcare Anchor Network (HAN), whose seventy health systems and 1,000 hospitals are committed to improving economic equity, vitality and community health through their hiring, purchasing and investment decisions. The approach is built on the acknowledgement that healthcare organizations, as well as institutions of higher education, are “anchors” of local economies due to the scale of their economic activity, and it is fueled by the appealing alignment of mission with good business practices. Join Futuro Health CEO Van Ton- Quinlivan as she explores the accompanying workforce development strategies, how to make the business case for this approach, and the importance of having internal champions at the executive level. And stay tuned to hear about innovative examples of HAN members in St. Louis, Chicago, New Orleans and elsewhere that are reimagining the role health systems play in economic development.
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    42 m
  • Teresa Chapman, Chief People Officer with Santa Clara Family Health Plan: Helping Employees Adjust to AI Disruption
    Feb 11 2026
    Even though use of artificial intelligence in the workplace has nearly doubled for US employees in the past two years, a recent Gallup poll found that only 22 % of companies have a clear, communicated strategy for integrating AI. On today's episode of WorkforceRx, we’re going to explore how organizations can help their employees adjust to AI disruptions and redefine their value in an AI context with Teresa Chapman, Chief People Officer with Santa Clara Family Health Plan, which serves over 300,000 members across California’s Santa Clara County. “We want to make sure to equip our employees to be expert users of a multitude of AI tools so that they have the confidence to evolve with the surrounding environment,” she shares. As Chapman tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, the company is also working to develop a “co-architecture” with employees and AI to achieve a symbiotic relationship that draws on the strengths of each and keeps the special attributes of humans in focus. “The future of work is going to really be more around problem solving and creativity and emotional intelligence and relationship building. It's going to be about understanding where the human fits in.” Don’t miss this timely look at how forward-thinking employers can maintain, and even strengthen, the human touch in healthcare and other sectors.
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    38 m
  • Kaitlin Lemoine and Julian Alssid, Partners At Work Forces: Moving Workforce Development to the Center of Education
    Jan 28 2026
    “There are persistent and critical gaps between education and industry that hinder economic advancement and we share a belief that those gaps need to be bridged,” says Julian Alssid, summing up why he and his business partner, Kaitlin Lemoine, created Work Forces, a consulting company that serves stakeholders in those sectors and beyond. On this episode of WorkforceRx, they join Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan for an informative dialogue on how to create and sustain effective workforce development partnerships based on insights gained during their decades of work in the space. They also discuss trends they’re learning about in their client work and as co-hosts of the Work Forces podcast. “One thing that stands out is that workforce development for a long time felt kind of peripheral to education, and I think it’s more now than ever the center of things,” shares Kaitlin Lemoine. In this thoughtful conversation you’ll also learn about: • The biggest changes in preparing learners for work • Trends in skills-based learning • A promising shift toward regional initiatives • How AI is forcing clarity about the durable skills workers need. As you’ll hear from these nationally recognized experts, the pressure to get these relationships and programs right is growing as the pace of change in the workplace accelerates on a daily basis.
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    25 m
  • Professor Mitchell Stevens, Stanford University: Linking the Conversations About AI, Learning and Longevity
    Jan 14 2026
    We start the new year by bringing you a fresh perspective on key sources of concern for American society at large and the workforce development sector in particular: AI disruption in the workplace and education, and the many challenges presented by our rapidly aging population. For Professor Mitchell Stevens of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University, a shift from anxiety to optimism about these changes is urgently needed. “I’m not trying to say that the future will be all good, but that the future can only be good if everyday people, politicians and corporate leaders sort of ambitiously anticipate a positive future and then imagine ways to build it,” says Stevens, who helps lead Stanford’s Center for Longevity and its Learning Society Initiative. Thinking about aging as longevity instead, and working to extend the functional part of our lives through better health and educational opportunities is a prime example of this mindset. Other recommendations he offers include: • Recognize that schooling and learning are not the same and reward learning wherever it occurs; • Link conversations about AI, aging and the future of work; • Draw on lessons learned from previous responses to mass economic disruption caused by technological advancement. Join Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan for a deeply-informed and encouraging contemplation of how to leverage this current moment of consequential change.
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    25 m
  • Lisa Larson, CEO of Education Design Lab: How Micro-Pathways Can Boost Workforce Development Success
    Dec 17 2025
    According to recent studies, micro-credentials are experiencing a surge in interest and acceptance by learners and employers, which is creating both a challenge and an opportunity for educators trying to meet the demand for them. One of the major players helping educators in this task is the Education Design Lab, which is working with more than 100 community colleges and state community college systems to implement “micro-pathways” that map to 100 different job roles. “What colleges need to be concerned about is the relevancy of these programs to high demand jobs and careers, and that people need short-term options to move towards their larger goals,” says CEO Lisa Larson. Key criteria for the pathways include being affordable, stackable, less than one year in duration and validated by employers. As Larson explains, animating this work is EDL’s interest in meeting the needs of what it calls the “new majority learner” – mainly working adults who require additional access points and flexible options for earning credentials. Join Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan as she explores how community colleges are developing deeper employer partnerships and shared curricula to help learners leverage the power of micro-pathways in building their economic futures.
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    31 m
  • How to Unleash Your Inner Innovator: Dr. Tessa Forshaw and Richard Braden, Co-Authors of Innovation-ish
    Dec 3 2025
    “There are so many myths that we’re left brain, we’re right brain, we’re creative, we’re analytical, but none of that’s true. We’re all whole-brain humans and we all have the ability to be creative,” says cognitive scientist Dr. Tessa Forshaw, co-author, with design strategist and CEO Richard Braden, of the new book, Innovation-ish, which aims to demystify creativity and make it accessible to everyone in the workforce. But while we may all have creative potential, studies show that less than 50% of people see themselves as being creative, largely due to socialization that discourages embarrassment and risk-taking, and misconceptions about innovators. Overcoming that “innovation hesitation” and providing practical steps that give people the confidence they need to be creative is the mission of the book, which is built upon the system the authors use in their classes at Harvard and Stanford universities. Their message is timely: in a fast-changing economy, as Braden notes, “the ability to be creative and solve problems and adapt as you go is becoming less optional and more necessary all the time.” Join Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan for an insightful look at the mindsets that are needed to tap creativity, the role of leaders in cultivating innovation, and real world examples of out-of-the-box solutions that emerged from an inclusive problem-solving process.
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    36 m