manatee

I am so excited to share that Melissa Reilly, my absolute girl crush ?? has joined manatee's Advisory Board as a commercial advisor. For anyone who doesn't know Melissa (which would be weird...), she has 20ish years of experience at Health Plans. She was previously the Strategy and Growth Lead, at Evernorth Health Services, a VP at UnitedHealth Group supporting the portfolio companies of Optum Ventures, spent time at Optum as their Behavioral Health lead, managed compliance Aetna, a CVS Health Company, you name it! But even more important than all the experience, I love working with people who bring you joy and energy. Building a company is hard AF ?? but doing it with the right people makes it a journey of a lifetime. Anyway, I am so grateful and excited to work together with her in deepening our strategic relationships with payors and building manatee. If you are a US Health plan ?? we're coming for you!

We're hiring Child and Family therapists in CA, PA and NJ (licensed and associates)! Apply here https://lnkd.in/ex4Q-EZa Or just drop me a DM :)

I am beyond excited to share our new hires in leadership at manatee. Change management isn't always easy, but that is a story for another time ?? Alicia Eggen, LMFT is joining us as our new VP of Clinical Care. She is a digital mental health OG, coming from Lantern (golantern.com) (remember them?!), Two Chairs and Mantra Health. She brings almost a decade of experience in clinical leadership at high growth startups, has a infectious passion for scaling high quality mental health and is an all around great human ?? . Scott G Ellsworth is joining our Advisory Board to drive our commercial efforts. As the previous west region CEO at Centene Corporation, UnitedHealth Group leader and CEO Excellus BCBS I couldn't imagine a better person to scale our health plan partnerships. Ayo Gathing M.D. is joining our Advisory Board to optimize our clinical model, scale effective, accessible care and integrate equity into everything we do. She is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and currently the Chief Medical Officer at Humana, with previous roles at Molina Healthcare and a background in MediCaid and the juvenile justice system - I am so grateful she's joining the team and for her thought leadership. ? BEYOND EXCITED ? for the next phase of manatee and couldn't dream of a better team to do it with. #digitalhealth #startup #newhires

Anna Barber was the first who backed me and wrote manatee a check ?? Women supporting other women is so powerful. But honestly... I haven't always been supportive of other women. Competitiveness is so ingrained in our culture and social norms. And we should talk about it. Because there is a lot of virtue signaling around 'supporting women' but not so much progress to back it up (https://lnkd.in/gRJpvq5m) In my career, there have actually been 3 things that have held me back in supporting other women. 1. My own ego and insecurity Everything is good and dandy when you're supporting women who have the same (or less) 'power and self-esteem' as you have. But when a woman rises above the pack, a subconscious process kicks in and we can start belittling or critiquing her. I've done it too. Why? The natural law of power balance gets disrupted (the "power dead-even rule," coined by Pat Heim). Seeing other women be successful, made me feel less successful. Now, I don't really care anymore, I just want women to win. 2. Scarcity/Zero sum mindset Then there is this subconscious fear that there are only so many leadership positions, promotions, funds available for females. Therefore, you must win at the expense of other women. Sometimes this fear still creeps in... Also, data on this is inconclusive, but what I do know is that we are stronger together -- besides, having an abundance mindset is the way to live. Anything else is kinda miserable. 3. I wanted to appear more "like the guys" Research shows that women at higher leadership levels tend to display more male-specific EQ competencies (e.g. assertiveness and confidence) and less female-specific EQ competencies (e.g empathy). I notice this especially in male-oriented environments (think VC, finance, sports). I personally have done this ?? and often did this to seem tough, ruthless and fit in and... to convince my male counterparts I was like them... not like other women. This one is the hardest for me to write out... because it feels so... yuck... Understanding my own biases is so important to catching them, changing them and growing. Because lets face, women HAVE to support women if we want to make progress. Anyway, this is a note of appreciation to Anna Barber and all the other women who've helped along the way. Thank you for showing the way ??