Evolving in Healthcare

Plenty of capable people learn to lead by copying whoever's already in charge. It works for a while, right up until it leaves you running on someone else's fuel and still not quite yourself. Ruth Andermatt is a Canadian self-leadership coach who has spent more than two decades working with executives and emerging leaders, most of them introverts. She was often the only woman in the room, and she h...

Bree Murray has never seen a patient. She'll still put "dietitian" on every form she fills in. She's spent 15 years in professional associations, food industry, health profession regulation, and a job-shared CEO role and has never once questioned whether that makes her a real dietitian. This conversation is for anyone who has. We Explore Building a dietitian career entirely outside clinical practi...

You're halfway through a degree or deep into a career you're not sure you'll stay in and the loudest fear isn't about what's next. It's that everything you've already invested might be wasted. Keagen Hadley finished an entire OT doctorate he wasn't sure he'd use and it was the very thing that gave him room to build a completely different career. Keagen Hadley is a regulatory medical writer for a l...

Most health professionals spend years building toward a role they're told is the destination. What happens when you get there and realise you're still evolving? Kristen Hicks-Roof is a registered dietitian and PhD researcher who built a full academic career - tenure, grants, research agendas, and chose to leave it to lead human nutrition at the US National Pork Board, a role that didn't exist befo...

Emily Kelly chose physical therapy because a torn ACL at 14 showed her what one-on-one care could do. She found her dream clinic, treated patients for an hour each, and loved the work. Then a new grad started questioning what she believed about pain, and the clinical identity she had spent years building started to come apart. Emily is now a product manager at Prompt, a health tech company buildin...

The boxes we're handed in healthcare are well-meaning. Your title, your scope, your place in the hierarchy - they exist for good reasons. But they can also become the edges of what you think is possible. Melissa Gunstone is a Canadian Registered Kinesiologist who graduated, hit the wall most new grads hit, and built her way out of it - not by leaving healthcare, but by refusing to stay inside the...

When someone says "you need to network," what's your gut reaction? If it's dread mixed with a side of ick, Kaylee Johnson gets it. She's an occupational therapist who's worked across clinical care, health tech, and leadership roles in the US, and we sat down to unpack what networking actually looks like when you're an introvert who'd rather do anything else. We also had some fun comparing Australi...

What becomes possible when you stop waiting to feel ready enough? Dr Anum Ali's undergraduate transcript didn't predict where she'd land. After six years as a crisis counsellor, she doubted graduate schools would take a chance on her, until a mentor told her that her GPA didn't tell her whole story . An adult ADHD diagnosis during her master's reframed years of academic struggle as a brain that wo...

Dr Kat Sylvester has built her whole career on a refusal: she won't accept that nothing more can be done. A physical therapist working across neurological rehabilitation and women's health, Kat founded Operation Mist, a maternal health monitoring program that puts data directly in women's hands, and a mentorship program that has supported over 170 PT students. This is for any health professional w...

A physical therapist now shapes Medicare policy for one of the biggest healthcare companies in America. Dana Strauss will be the first to tell you she didn't plan it. Dana started in acute care physiotherapy and now leads value-based care and Medicare policy strategy at a Fortune 6 company, a role usually filled by lawyers and public policy experts. This is for any health professional who can't st...

Colleen Sloan finished her nutrition degree pumping breast milk in campus bathrooms. That refusal to wait for a convenient moment runs through everything she's built since. A registered dietitian(RD) and physician assistant(PA) in paediatric practice, Colleen hosts the Exam Room Nutrition Podcast and trains clinicians in obesity medicine. This is for any health professional who keeps noticing a pr...

Katie Blackburn loved clinical work. She also kept thinking there had to be a better way, and that thought wouldn't leave her alone. A physical therapist specialising in spinal cord injury rehabilitation, Katie moved into quality management, a step she'd once sworn she'd never take. This is for any health professional who senses there's more they could be doing but isn't sure it's allowed. Katie i...

Tesiah Coleman went into nursing to change a system. The system spent years trying to change her instead. A Women's Health Nurse Practitioner turned founder, she's now CEO of T o gather, her health justice platform. This is for any health professional whose work has cost more than the noble version admits. Tesiah is honest about racism in training, impossible caseloads, and the choice between call...

Ever felt torn between staying loyal to communities that desperately need you and taking opportunities that serve your own growth? Venus Kalami, a board-certified paediatric dietitian, knows this struggle intimately. Venus shares her journey from community clinic work to academic medical centres, wrestling with the guilt of leaving under-resourced patients behind. She reveals what cultural humilit...

How do you know when it's time to make a career move in healthcare? Olumide Ajulo has navigated this question multiple times. A qualified psychotherapist and clinical psychology master's graduate, Olumide transitioned from finance management to become a team manager in university counselling services. His story demonstrates how to thoughtfully evaluate career decisions while building skills that c...

Nikki Campbell's CV doesn't go in a straight line, and that's the point. She moved from ICU nursing to palliative care to endometriosis coordination by following what mattered to her rather than the ladder she was handed. An Australian endometriosis nurse coordinator now training as a nurse practitioner, Nikki has built care models from scratch across three very different areas of nursing. This is...

Lina Briek kept getting passed over for the promotions she wanted. The thing holding her back inside the system turned out to be the same thing that built her a business outside it. A dietitian and PhD researcher, Lina founded Tube Dietitian, a Melbourne business supporting adults living with feeding tubes at home, after fourteen years across rural and metropolitan hospitals. This one is for any h...

Most practitioners get warned early that certain clients, or certain populations, will be the hard ones. Chris Bradshaw built his career finding close to the opposite. A psychotherapist with a PhD in clinical psychology, Chris set out to become a civil rights lawyer before his path turned sharply toward therapy. This conversation is for any health professional who has felt the pressure to always h...

What You'll Learn From This Episode Professional Identity & Purpose "Am I still a PT if I'm not practicing clinically?" - How Raji separates credentials from identity Redefining what impact looks like beyond direct patient care Why your clinical background is actually your competitive advantage in health tech The Real Work of Career Transition Why your clinical resume won't work for non-clinic...

Feeling stuck in clinical practice but not sure if academia is for you? Think you missed your chance because you didn't do honours? Caroline Mills shows why your clinical frustrations might actually be pointing you toward your next career evolution. Dr Caroline Mills is a senior lecturer in occupational therapy at Western Sydney University, Australia whose research is dedicated to improving the li...

Content note: This episode includes brief discussion of childhood trauma in a therapeutic context. You can listen from time 13:45 to avoid this part. Episode Summary What happens when a social work student breaks all the rules and trusts her instincts with a traumatised four-year-old? Dr Sophie Archibald's career-defining moment came not from textbooks, but from an imaginary crown and the courage...

What happens when a physical therapist tells their spouse, "I just have this itch—I need to share what I know with somebody else"? For Cody Thompson, that dining table moment sparked a 15-year journey from home health practice to remote PhD faculty. Cody's evolution challenges every assumption about linear healthcare careers. From driving two hours each way to teach as a lab assistant, to strategi...