Emerging Leaders in Healthcare: Kevonne Holloway of Elsevier

We are thrilled to present this year’s list of 12 emerging leaders in healthcare. Managed Healthcare Executive editors picked the emerging leaders from a list of almost 40 nominees. They come from the full gamut of U.S. healthcare, including companies harnessing the ever-increasing amount of healthcare data, community health worker organizations addressing social determinants of health, and enterprises devoted to improving Medicaid program access and quality. These leaders are tackling the challenges of the 21st century with creativity, dedication and insight. They give us confidence in the future of healthcare.

Holloway

Growing up, my family moved frequently, and I had the privilege of living in several different states. Like most children, my earliest influences were my parents. My mom instilled in me a curiosity and appreciation of other cultures, and my dad taught me the value of hard work and principles of leadership. I earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from North Carolina Central University and an MBA from Maryville University in St. Louis.

I have worked in publishing for more than a decade, and in my current role I manage a team responsible for creating content at one of the world’s most renowned producers of healthcare and research information.

A highlight of my career journey has been my ability to pivot from finance and follow my passion of working in healthcare. My role at Elsevier is the best of both worlds because my team’s work in creating and publishing inclusive educational, medical and research content to prepare tomorrow’s healthcare professionals and researchers has a ripple effect on health equity and patient outcomes.

Career turning point: My one piece of advice is to become comfortable with the uncomfortable to grow. You may have uncomfortable moments when you’re doubting yourself or need to operate outside of your comfort zone to achieve your goals, but you must lean in, which will help you continue to develop your skills and flourish, both personally and professionally.

Biggest challenge of the job: The enormous responsibility and influence my team have on the future generations of healthcare professionals are not lost to me. Elsevier’s content and products reach a wide spectrum of healthcare professionals and researchers around the world every day, guiding them on the latest information and best practices to improve learning and patient outcomes.

I come to work every day with the goal of ensuring the content being produced is inclusive, aligns with the latest guidelines and will help change the healthcare and research industries as a whole and create more diversity across disciplines.

Long-lasting COVID-19 effect: As a company, Elsevier created resources during the pandemic, such as the COVID-19 Healthcare Hub, to aid frontline healthcare workers as they managed the pandemic. The Hub provides free access to toolkits, expert insights, research resources and COVID-19 guidelines, along with evidence-based clinical overviews, drug monographs, care plans, order sets and procedure videos for clinicians delivering care and information to patients. As the pandemic continued, Elsevier added more resources, such as the mental health toolkit and COVID-19 vaccine toolkit.

What I would change about U.S. healthcare: It would be to make the industry more diverse and inclusive overall, from the classroom to the clinic. Our healthcare system should be more representative. Training healthcare professionals who are culturally competent would create a more well-rounded and affirming healthcare environment, empower more diverse people to work in the healthcare industry and improve patient health outcomes overall.

Book everyone in healthcare should read: Everyone should read Michelle Obama’s “The Light We Carry,” in which she describes how everyone has a light inside of them that illuminates the way for others. If more people working in healthcare practiced kindness and empathy, people would have better healthcare experiences. This is especially true for underserved communities that often neglect their health due to fear and distrust of our current health system.

Guilty pleasure: Although I wouldn’t consider this a guilty pleasure, I love spending time with my friends and family. It’s my form of self-care and something I try to do as often as possible. As the saying goes, “You can’t pour from an empty cup,” and both as a person and a leader, doing things to refill your tank and take care of yourself first is essential to ensuring that you can pour into others’ cups and lead effectively.