Last fall, the Heersink School of Medicine kicked off the Momentum Executive Leadership pilot program on UAB’s campus called Momentum in Medicine at UAB.
The competitive, nine-month program helps leaders who are women identify their unique strengths while helping them grow in leadership traits and skillsets. Momentum connects women leaders across Alabama and offers networking opportunities and tools for ongoing development.
To celebrate, Heersink is spotlighting each of the women selected for this year’s program and hosting one-on-one interviews to learn their stories. In March, the Heersink communications team sat down with Jill Horton, Stephanie McClinton, and Cynthia Ransburg-Brown.
Jill HortonMeet Jill
Jill Horton serves as associate vice president of financial management of UAB Medicine.
Q: What does it mean to you to be a part of Momentum in Medicine at UAB?
I am so honored to be part of Momentum in Medicine at UAB. Being able to network with women from so many diverse backgrounds has been an amazing experience. Momentum focuses on identifying your strengths and I plan to channel those strengths in my role at UAB Medicine.
Q: How do you stay motivated to continue personal and professional growth?
Throughout my career, I have always focused on learning and gaining new and valuable knowledge. Seeing how the leadership and staff at UAB Medicine have stepped up to the challenges of the last two years has been inspiring. Most recently, being able to participate in the Helping Hands effort and work in areas that are largely unseen but so important to the mission of our organization has been an invaluable experience.
Q: Momentum trains extraordinary women leaders. Who has been an extraordinary woman leader in your life?
I have been fortunate in both my personal and professional life to have been favorably impacted by so many outstanding women, notably my grandmother and mother. They were both teachers with long-standing careers in public education. My grandmother began her career in the early 1920s and ended it in the field of special education, at a time when education was just becoming accessible to children with disabilities. Their love of learning and dedication to making a difference in the lives of their communities set a high standard for me.
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give women who want to become leaders in their field?
Take every opportunity you can to learn and grow. Develop a strong network of women in your personal and professional life because you are going to need their support. Equally, provide that support to the women in your life.
Stephanie McClintonMeet Stephanie
Stephanie McClinton serves as controller for University of Alabama Health Services Foundation.
Q: What does it mean to you to be a part of Momentum in Medicine at UAB?
The opportunity to participate in the inaugural class of Momentum in Medicine at UAB has been a tremendous honor and a blessing. I am inspired and grateful to be among some of our most outstanding female leaders. Our class has an amazing mixture of Physicians, PhDs, APPs, RNs, Executive Administrators, and Finance/Operations leaders, and it has been wonderful for us to interact and learn from each other about our respective roles and responsibilities. I will treasure my involvement for years to come!
Q: Momentum trains extraordinary women leaders. Who has been an extraordinary woman leader in your life?
I am so thankful for a long list of women leaders and influencers in my life. From a personal standpoint, my mom is my #1 role model (and my #1 advocate). During my childhood, she was an RN who worked in the ER and later at our local health department. When I graduated from Auburn with my undergraduate degree, she returned to Emory University to pursue her MSN and became a Nurse Practitioner. She encouraged me to then obtain my MBA, and I’m grateful every day for her firm and faithful support. She worked so hard to serve her patients and her community, while at the same time she (along with my amazing father) managed to raise me and my two younger brothers in a loving and fun household. My mom has 4 sisters, so I’ve also had the privilege of being surrounded by four strong and independent aunts!
Within UAB Medicine, I have worked with many wonderful female leaders, but three of my personal favorites are Patricia Pritchett, Dawn Bulgarella, and Marty Box – they are amazing and inspiring, and I’m grateful for their support!
Q: What is your biggest takeaway so far?
The cohesiveness of our group has been so inspiring – to see how we all serve a vital role to ensure success within UAB Medicine, and how we must all rely upon each other for our collective strengths and skills. In addition, I’ve tremendously enjoyed learning more about myself – how to leverage my strengths and work with others with varying or opposing strengths. The ability to “claim your strengths and talents” for female leaders is so important, and our Momentum sessions have been extremely helpful, inspiring, and gratifying in this regard.
Q: How do you hope to be empowered by Momentum?
I want to be viewed as a strong, effective, and well-respected leader, and Momentum has granted me additional confidence and reassurance that I’m on the right path! The connections within this group have been invaluable, and I’m excited to maintain these relationships and friendships on an ongoing basis. I also want to help “pay it forward” and encourage other female leaders to find their path and help make a difference within our wonderful UAB Medicine community.
Cynthia Ransburg-BrownMeet Cynthia
Cynthia Ransburg-Brown serves as university counsel with the Office of Counsel at UAB Health System.
Q: What does it mean to you to be a part of Momentum in Medicine at UAB?
It has been such a privilege to participate in the inaugural class of Momentum in Medicine at UAB. Each month Momentum creates a wonderful learning environment with well-developed programs focused on empowering and encouraging women leaders
Q: How do you stay motivated to continue personal and professional growth?
I try to be mindful that not all of life’s challenges are insurmountable. Some challenges lead you to where you want to go, and those places can be wonderful. However, other challenges lead you to where you should have been all along and that is where you flourish.
Q: Momentum trains extraordinary women leaders. Who has been an extraordinary woman leader in your life?
There have been several wonderful, intelligent, and dynamic women who provided guidance and encouragement in my life. Friends, co-workers, and former law firm partners top the list. But, one woman, in particular, outshines all the others – my mother. I was young, not even in middle school, when my mother went back to school to get her GED, and from there, she went on to complete nursing school and work as a nurse for 30 years. My mother went back to school with five children – five! I have memories of sitting at the kitchen table doing homework with her and my siblings – all of us helping each other. (My father would check everyone’s math!) My mother showed me that no matter the circumstances, how long it takes, or how old you are, you can achieve your dreams through hard work and dedication. I treasure those memories, and each day, I rely on the lessons learned from my mother’s example. She is extraordinary.
Q: How do you hope to be empowered by Momentum?
It is empowering just knowing that UAB Medicine (and, in particular, Jean Ann Larson) is committed to recognizing the potential contribution of women leaders and then taking that commitment a step further by intentionally developing a program aimed at identifying, encouraging, and training women to be effective leaders. I am empowered because Momentum in Medicine at UAB has helped me see past the limitations placed upon me by society at large and, to some extent, by myself.
Q: What is your biggest takeaway so far?
Assessment just for the sake of assessment is useless unless the participant can capitalize on the assessment and use it as a tool or resource for self-improvement. Momentum provides not only the assessment tools, but projects to ensure that we understand what is measured and how to use those results to make us empowered, resourceful, thoughtful, and purposeful leaders.
Q: What is one piece of advice you would give women who want to become leaders in their field?
Never stop learning – about yourself, about others, about your field of expertise. The health care industry is extremely complex and requires a working knowledge of local, state, and federal laws and regulations. The COVID-19 public health emergency has taught us that a certain flexibility and nimbleness within that regulatory framework is absolutely necessary to meet the daily challenges of health care delivery. Constant learning, active listening, critical thinking, and encouraging connections in the industry is imperative.