Bringing Together Women Leaders in HTM | Women in Leadership

Oct 7, 2024

SUMMARY KEYWORDS
women in leadership, healthcare technology, mentorship program, networking events, MD Expo,
LinkedIn group, social media presence, leadership actions, supportive community, war stories,
royal blue, ambassador program, patient care, leadership inspiration, mentor matching

SPEAKERS
Adrianna England, Chyrill Sandrini, Amber Sportsman, Kim Rowland

Chyrill Sandrini 00:13
Welcome back to HTM Insider, as you know, I’m Chyrill, your host with MultiMedical Systems,
and I’m very excited about this episode today, we brought together some amazing women that
I’m sure you’ve all met before or had some type of interaction, but we’re going to be discussing
women in leadership, and what that means, and how you can be a part of it, men or women.
You know, if you want to support we’re looking for everyone to support this organization and
really support the youth that are coming in to healthcare technology management. Before I get
started, you know, since it is about leadership, I really wanted to, you know, put it out there
that leadership and these women are showing it. It’s not just a title. It’s not like we’re just
calling ourselves leaders. They’re not calling themselves leaders. It’s actions, it’s words, it’s
affirmation, it’s lifting up. So without further ado, I would like to let the panel introduce
themselves and just tell like, what your title is, maybe where you’re from, your background with
women in leadership a little bit. And then we’ll jump into some questions and answers that I
know I’m curious about and I want to share with the audience. Does that sound good? Ladies,
yes,

Amber Sportsman 01:25
Yes. Sounds good. Perfect,

Chyrill Sandrini 01:27
Perfect. Um, let’s start with Amber, because you’re on my right side of my screen. So go ahead,
Amber.

Amber Sportsman 01:33
Hello. I am Amber Sportsman. I am the Vice President and Quality Manager for MW Imaging. I
have been in ultrasound for over 30 years, always in an administrative role. Yeah, thanks, Adri.
Just always on the backside of things. And April approached us last year. Can’t believe it’s been
almost a year already about starting this amazing group. And I know Adri is going to talk a little
bit about the numbers and the growth that we’ve had in the past year, but it’s just it’s just
phenomenal the way it’s taken off. So I’m really proud to be on this board.

Chyrill Sandrini 02:17
Awesome. Kim, jump in there.

Kim Rowland 02:20
Hi and Cheryl, thank you for putting this together. I know I speak for the whole for the board
that we appreciate you giving us this attention and being able to talk about not just the women
in leadership, but to your point, leadership as a as a rule, and that’s male or female, but I’m
Kim Rowland. I’m the Vice President for the Women in Leadership group I’ve been in HTM for
over 20 years now, and appreciate the opportunity to be able to support and to to be a part of
this group.

Chyrill Sandrini 02:53
Fantastic. Adriana?

Adrianna England 02:55
Hi there. I’m Adri. Um, I have been in the industry. I started in 2008 so about 16 years, and I sit
on the board as a Secretary for WIL. Um, when April collabed and brought us all into one room,
I turned and I saw Amber and Kim and April and myself, and I’m like, yes, the answer was yes,
because I have seen these ladies. You know, they have a little bit more tenure than me, but we
literally have worked side by side, but never conjoined together as a group. So I’m super
excited for the WIL society that we’re building.

Chyrill Sandrini 03:30
I love it, you know, and I feel like the baby in the room with only being eight and a half years in
healthcare. So I love following y’all and and watching what you’re doing, and you’re inspiring to
me as well.

Amber Sportsman 03:40
Thank you.

Chyrill Sandrini 03:41
So I want to jump in there, because if you haven’t heard about WIL, how do you connect? Adri,
if you want to explain, like, how we can connect with will, I know I’m connected, I filled out the
form yesterday.

Adrianna England 03:53
Thank you.

Chyrill Sandrini 03:53
So let everybody know how we connect with

will. Okay, so April’s doing a really good job of just being creative and finding other ways.
Because if you know in HTM, our biggest probably communication is LinkedIn, so that’s where
we started. So we are on LinkedIn. It’s under wheel society. We’re a private group, so send us a
link to join, and either one of us as a board members will approve you. We’re also have a brand
new website, so it’s WILinHTM.com, so that has some of our war stories on there. The LinkedIn
group is private because we’re talking about real life scenarios, and we want to keep that
private within our group to protect their privacy. The website is more of an open forum, so
some of the you know, the people outside of will or even our managers, who may not be a
woman, but are supporting us, they can go through and they can see our stories there as well.
We’re starting a new membership book, so it’s going to be available. That’s something that
Danielle is helping us build with AAMI. So we’re going to be available that way. And we’re even
branching out on social media now, as far as. Facebook. I know Kim is doing a lot of Facebook
interactions and the trade shows, so we’re getting out there face to face. So there’s quite a few
ways to get a hold of us now, if, if you’d like to join will,

Chyrill Sandrini 05:12
Yeah, I agree. You’re everywhere. I see it everywhere. And Kim, Kim, you’re, you’re a social
media rock star. You know, I love following you and watching you. So why don’t you explain
what the mission is about the group? Because I think that’s really important of what you guys
stand for and and what you’re trying to do.

Kim Rowland 05:29
Yeah, I appreciate that. And to your point, you guys, it’s been almost a year. April presented
this to the group to talk about her feelings and ideas around building a supportive community
amongst women, and got to be a part of that meeting, and it’s been almost a year ago, and our
mission is truly to build a supporting community. And I think since that meeting with females,
it’s just it’s snowballed the amount of participation and people jumping in, and the leadership
opportunities amongst the the board and amongst all the people that are joining. We started
out with what there was under 10 people in that meeting. Now we are over 250 that are on the
LinkedIn private group. It our mission. I feel like it keeps expanding, it keeps evolving, but it
always circles back to supporting women and normalizing, whether it’s technical,
administrative, but our roles and our the importance of our roles in this industry.

Chyrill Sandrini 06:38
Yeah, I love that. I know I ordered my will t shirt and sweatshirt yesterday, and I saw some
exciting news that they’re out there. So since you guys are all wearing them, I know we all like
to represent what we believe in. Tell us right now, how do we get our swag? Um,

So we’ve got it posted on in the group. Obviously there’s a link within the Women in Leadership
group on LinkedIn. You can also go to our website. April was successful in creating just a page
for the WIL swag. So I believe there are. We just finalized it. So I apologize I haven’t actually
clicked the link.

Chyrill Sandrini 07:22
It works. I clicked on it yesterday. I bought yesterday while I was driving. I probably, yeah, I
was, I was a passenger, but I got a t shirt and a sweatshirt, because it’s okay, you know, a crew
tag, a sweatshirt. Yeah.

Adrianna England 07:36
Were you excited about all the color options you had?

Chyrill Sandrini 07:40
I did, but I still went with the Royal. I did. I did. I just, I’m a royal blue or a navy blue kind of girl,
but I do think it’s great. I mean, not every color looks good on everybody, but I went with the
traditional and you guys started with royal, and I thought that’d be good to do.

You know the guys behind that shrill, the Risen um, April chose it because blue is traditionally a
male color and pink is traditionally a female color. And so she wanted it to be more on the not
necessarily masculine, but just to say, hey, we can rock the blue too. You know, you don’t have
to be a man to to rock the blue. And so for anybody interested, I guess, can you guys,

Chyrill Sandrini 08:26
if I show them, yeah, can you see the back of it? I love it. Empower her, lead her and inspire
her. Yes, very, very inspirational words.

And then we also have WIL pins that have been put together. These will be available at the MD
Expo. All of the board members will be at MD Expo, and we’ll all have them at our booths. And
then we also have, I don’t know if you can see these. So the smaller ones that were those were
our first pins that were those are cool, yeah, yeah. So we’re working on, we’re working on some
other, some other ideas, but these are the ones that have come to fruition. And I might say too
that April. Did order the pink sweatshirt, right? Ladies, perfect time for October for breast cancer awareness. I got a pink one as well.

Chyrill Sandrini 09:19
Yeah, I might have to get a pink one now.

Adrianna England 09:24
We are a small group. We don’t really have funds right now. And MW Imaging actually
sponsored the new WIL pins, Correct Amber? We did, yes, yes. So we’re so things like that are just priceless for us because we have no money.

Oh, and I forgot to mention in the intro that I’m the treasurer, so if anybody wants to make a
donation, just okay, you know, and we’ll make sure to

Chyrill Sandrini 09:47
And we can put all the links together and maybe, um, what about MD Expo? You know, I’ve
done the mentor buttons, but what if we get a lot of women to wear? Ask me about WIL
buttons? Maybe we’ll sponsor them for MD Expo.

Amber Sportsman 10:02
Yes!

Chyrill Sandrini 10:02
I like that idea. We’ll talk about it. Yeah, we can roll with that. For sure.

Kim Rowland 10:06
I wanted to add that I had somebody reach out to me and just in talking about finances, we are
not making any money off of these T shirts or any of the swag. We want to pass through that
cost so that people can afford it. You go online, you order it yourself, you ship it to yourself. You
know what size that you need. We’ve taken any of the administrative costs out of that so
people can go ahead and order color and things like that. But also not, there’s no upcharge on
that at all. Everything that you pay for is part of the shipping or part of the product line.

Chyrill Sandrini 10:37
That’s awesome. And you know, I know you guys do get togethers, and I know that would grow
in the future if there are funds available, just so you can network, right? Speaking of
networking, you talk about MD Expo. It’s coming up. I’m going to be there, so somebody hit me
on the head if I don’t show up!

That’s why it’s so busy, yeah, that’s why it’s so important that we build this member directory
that we’re helping with, because not everybody’s on LinkedIn all the time. So I’m doing my best
to collect emails and phone numbers so that we can send a quick text message while we’re at
the shows, do a reminder email, set up some calendar invites so that we don’t miss out on
these opportunities. And speaking of MD Expo, we partner with the MD team, and we’re going
to do a photo day one of the booth. So on Wednesday the ninth, we’re going to meet at 3pm
and do a photo with the MD team at the registration booth. So we’ll make sure that we’re
announcing that as well.

Well. And Adri, you don’t even know this yet, but about five minutes. Kim, before we started,
we finalized the details on the networking event, so we will be getting Yes, and once again, my
boss has graciously stepped up to sponsor. April’s company sponsored the one in AAMI, in
conjunction with AAMI, I believe, sadly, it wasn’t that event, but um, so we’ll get the details for
that networking event out. I think it’s um Kim. What is it? Um, mimosas?

Chyrill Sandrini 12:12
Oh mimosas, you’re speaking my language, yeah.

Kim Rowland 12:15
So there’ll be details in a little bit,

Amber Sportsman 12:17
yeah,

Chyrill Sandrini 12:18
Yeah. I like it. I like it. So when you talk about collaborations, we’ve talked about a few things
that I hear amber with MD, MW is doing and and different companies. But who are you looking
to collaborate with in the future? And can you give us some examples, Kim, of what someone
can do to collaborate with WIL?

I think the opportunities are endless. I think this is a this is a group that we want to evolve. I
think we’ve got a common goal and flexible to, you know what that looks like. We have been on
the iHTM, Friday night BYOB, JC and all of Jewel does a great job with that, and then I think you
guys can jump in. I just feel like the opportunities are out there, and we’re open to people
connecting with us. I know we’ve got an ambassador program that we want to really there’s so
many facets that we want to explore. We’ve gotten some great ideas, so many people
interested, but we really need ambassadors. I think that’s a program that we can get a larger
part of the community to participate in and really connect the ideas to to the processes, right?
And the mentorship. AAMI has a mentorship we’re trying to build a directory so we can connect
mentorship ideas. There’s a lot of things that we haven’t fully put in stone, but I don’t know that
that’s a bad thing. We know that there’s a need. We wanted to meet those needs, and we want
to be able to collaborate with people like you. Chyrill with with Jewel Newell, you know, there’s
a lot of great leaders out there that have things already in place. We don’t always have to
recreate the wheel. We’re not here to compete, we’re here to collaborate,

Chyrill Sandrini 14:04
Right? I agree 100% um, you mentioned a little bit about the mentors. So when I signed up,
ladies and gentlemen, if you’re listening out there, you know it, it came to me yesterday as an
opportunity to sign up that AAMI was sponsoring it, and there was a question on there that said,
Do you need a mentor? And can the other question is, would you like to be a mentor? And I
checked a yes to mentor, because I, I believe in that process wholeheartedly, and I I’m excited
to see who says they need a mentor. You know, who could I help lift up along the way? You
know? And everyone’s story is different, and you’re going to find if you fit with somebody, and
maybe you have to change it up. And as you go through your career, your mentor might
change to fit your needs. But tell us more about that. I don’t know who wants to take it, but
what’s the overarching goal on that? Yeah,

I was going to say, be a. The mentorship, I think is going to address different needs. If you’re
technical, you know, maybe it’s someone helping you through leadership, through a hospital,
you know, the the right questions to ask, and maybe on the administrative role. Maybe it’s
personal. I don’t think we limit what that mentorship means. I know that Adri put a location as
part of the directory. And Danielle has a great story about someone she has mentored. She
happens to live in the same town, so they can meet in person, they can have coffee together.
And I think that helps to to build a more personal mentorship, which some people need, that I
need, that I get that with this leadership team, with the with the board, we get to have face
time on, you know, on Teams meetings and things like that. That helps me tremendously,
whether it’s a business discussion, whether it’s a personal discussion, I think as females, I think
that’s what separates us. Our conversations are different. And I think the mentorship program
is going to address all the the variety of needs and expectations and need and wants and
needs of what our our whole premise and our whole drive is to to build this community.

And on thing Chyrill. I know at the beginning of the of this podcast, you mentioned, you know,
I’m the baby I only have eight years in. However, you’re intimidating to me as far as a road
show queen. So I’m like, I would love to be mentored by you at some point. Like, how do you do
it? How do you get out there? You’re so brave. You’re at every show. I see you across, you
know, California. And I’m like, you’re out there doing everything. And those are things that
we’re looking for in this group to not only mentor some of the younger people, the newer
people coming in, but some of the experts that are good at this but need a little help on this
end. So we’re looking for mentors across the board, like, like Kim said, with with every avenue
of of our experience that we have.

Chyrill Sandrini 16:56
Yeah, I think that’s important and and really impressed ladies that you know, I watch it on
LinkedIn and social media and what you guys are posting, and I look at the comments, and I
love seeing the comments from men, Mm, hmm. They’re supporting and lifting up and rejoicing
in the movement and the efforts in the group, um, leaders in the industry that are saying,
bravo. And I think that is impressive, and I think it is inspiring, and it does show you that
sometimes, when you’re mentored, you know, I have a little bit different history than most
coming into this career field, but when you’re mentored by men and women at the same time, I
think it’s an it brings together a great force, of a person, of a leader, because you get to see all
of the people, right? Because if you’re going to be a leader in this industry, you’re not just
leading women, you’re leading men as well, right, correct?

Yes. Our first mentor and person that we that we collabed with, was Bryant Hawkins, who is out
there for everybody. He just loves people. And I think that’s a perfect example of somebody
that doesn’t care your gender, your race, your title. He is just out spreading love and positivity
to the entire world. And I think that’s what our will mission is. But we’re focusing on women to
help inspire each other.

Chyrill Sandrini 18:20
Yeah. Kim?

Valid point. Chyrill and Adri and I know Amber would agree with all of this. We all have amazing
women that have supported us. We have each other as a support. But there’s plenty of males
that I can I probably not. I couldn’t even name them all, all the ones that have been so
supportive and influential in my career. So I appreciate you bringing up the fact we’re not trying
to separate male from female, but we do, to my earlier point, we do have different
conversations. And being able to have this private group where we can sit around, be females,
talk about, you know, what are our common opportunities, let’s call them the things that tha
we’ve got to improve on, you know, the things that we can support each other. And I think that
that’s important to keep it separate. But at some level, it all comes down to a human a human
element, and it can all coexist.

Chyrill Sandrini 19:16
I agree. I agree. Amber, do you have anything to add?

I do. One of the things that I think is super inspiring to all of the women in the group is our WAR
Story Wednesdays. And WAR is for Women Are Remarkable. And today we’ve had 3030,
women, I believe, share their stories. So if you find a moment, go on our website and read
through all of the different stories. And it’s, it’s just really, it gives me goosebumps when I read
through, through, through everybody’s stories and where they started and where they are
today. So it is Kim,

Kim RowlandYeah.

Chyrill Sandrini 19:56
I’ve read them and and I enjoy it, because you don’t always get that. Interaction when you’re at
I’ve read them and and I enjoy it, because you don’t always get that. Interaction when you’re at
a conference or you’re meeting, you know, doing some B-to-B business, we don’t get to know
all that backstory. And so it’s really inspiring to know that I’m not the only one who just fell into
this industry accidentally, right, literally, right? And know, like the challenges, you know, I
remember days when I was trying to learn every surgical instrument out there, and sitting on
the floor with flashcards pretty much in tears, which I don’t cry too often. And my husband’s
like, you could do this. You could do this. Yeah. So I love hearing all the stories out there. Now I
know that we have something come up at MD Expo, and you have the the membership drive
going on. But what does 2025 look like, ladies? Like, what’s you guys see planning out further?
Tell me about it.

So I think overall, the big picture, the big picture is, AAMI is our Super Bowl. I think we put a lot
of effort, Danielle, we get a lot of support from the AAMI community that is our Super Bowl. But
our intent is for every every chapter, meeting, every symposium, Expo, anything we really want
to get the word out, be that that source of comfort or or familiarity, if you’re a new person in
the industry, or you’re a female in the industry, there’s always a luncheon, you know, I want to
normalize that. We’re the group that can help introduce you around, even if you’re not a
woman in leadership member, you know, on the LinkedIn page, we want to be synonymous
with, I call it save saving you a seat. So if you see me and I’m in a trade show, I’d be happy to
introduce you around. I know these ladies are awesome. They know so many people. I think the
networking part of that is key. So to answer your question, I would love to see us all wearing
our blue shirts, being that that familiarity and your pins yet, so that we can can be the example
of collaboration. And in the coop-etition, I’m not here to we’re not we’re here to hear to help
each other and to help each other is to help this industry be stronger. And ultimately, I think it
all comes down to patient care, because if we’re all working in working together to support
each other, then it then it only helps for a stronger HTM industry and third party industry.

Chyrill Sandrini 22:33
That’s great. You know, I was in a male dominated industry for a very long time, and it wasn’t
about keeping you down. It’s about lifting somebody up, right? It’s when they fall. Is when
you’re there to support them, and when they’re new. How do you interact with them, and how
do you mentor them? Right? It leadership is not you don’t have to be a president, you don’t
have to be a vice president, you don’t have to be a manager. You just have to be that person
that has that heart to give your time and your effort and your kindness to another human
being, right? That’s leadership, Yep, absolutely, yeah. So I think that this has so much more
conversation behind it. I’m excited to see everyone in Connecticut, right? Going Connecticut,
you know, I’m going to make this event. I’m going to make it this time. I made a photo one
time, but I’ve gotta make this event. So if you want information out there how you can join this
event, MD Expo. You want to get in on the picture. You want to order some swag, some shirts,
some pins. We’re going to give you all the links on this podcast. You can go to LinkedIn on my
page, or any of the ladies pages, and we’re going to post it. Multimedical Systems will will have
it available, and all you have to do is direct message. Anybody that you see here, anybody in
the group, and I know that they’re going to get you connected and LinkedIn with, with WIL so
ladies at the end of every podcast. So we end it with Wow, words or word of wisdom.

Chyrill, there was one thing I wanted to touch on really quick for our 2025 I need to throw it out
there so we can start spreading the word. We are going to be looking for ambassadors very,
very, very soon. So that’s why I’m collecting locations. People like yourself. You’re a pure
example of an ambassador that we’re looking for. So you might not necessarily sit on the WIL
board, but you would be an ambassador for WIL. So whatever territory you’re in, you would
represent WIL and go to those chapter meetings and go to those events. And there’s a there’s
so many trade shows that we can all be to get to. So we’re looking for WIL ambassadors. So
look for that soon. So I want to make sure that was on the radar for 2025 as well.

Chyrill Sandrini 24:59
Sign me up!
25:01
We already have you down Chyrill!

Chyrill Sandrini 25:05
So let’s go around the room. Because I think that we all when we impart our words of wisdom to
others, whether it’s a quote or, you know, something that you just truly believe in, I think that
lets people know you and I think it can be inspiring at the same time. So I don’t know who
would like to start, but I’d like to go around the screen here.

Amber Sportsman 25:26
Let’s start. Okay, never underestimate your abilities

Kim Rowland 25:30
My piggybacks on Amber’s, and it really kind of reinforces that things aren’t hard. It’s just
you’ve never done them before. You just gotta change your perspective, to know that you can

For me. You guys know I’m always a lot, so I have two, the first one, and I do this in my day to
day life, um, I think the very thing that comes to my mind is leading by example. We did not
know what we were doing, but we’re out here. We’re leading and we’re encouraging other
people, but we have to make sure we’re honest with ourself, and we have to lead by example,
and the best way to do that is I feel in my heart we rise by lifting others. So like you said, when
they’re on the ground, I will pick them up, because I’ve been on the ground myself, personally,
and we’re going to continue to rise together. But we need to lead by example, and we need to
partner with women like you that are just as inspired as us.

Chyrill Sandrini 26:21
You know it’s about being the person that you believe that you are capable and being
comfortable with being uncomfortable. It’s okay. So when you’re uncomfortable, you have a
group of people here already being assembled. They’re going to help get you comfortable and
help you believe in yourself that you are capable and not only today, but tomorrow, and a five
year plan,

Yep, and just to highlight that, we were very nervous about this. These are always a little nerve
wracking, because we’re all in different locations. We all have different formats, different
setups, different meetings. And I reached out to April, our president, and I’m like, where are
you? You’re my security blanket. You have to be on this call. And immediately after she didn’t
tell Kim or Amber that I made that call, she emailed all three of us and just gave us this
paragraph of, you’re amazing, you’re the best. You’re on this call for a reason, and we all just
smiled because this is exactly what we do. We support each other behind the scenes, front
lines, and April is just a pure example of why she’s in the role, why she started the group, why
she’s the president, but she’s also giving us the strength that we need to sit on this past
podcast without her, right?

Chyrill Sandrini 27:33
Yeah, 100%, and ladies, I’ll, I’ll share with everybody really quick and it show you how you can
be that person that April is, I reached out to some friends, because when I started HTM Insider,
there was no podcast, and when I did the very first three episode, my bottom lip quivered, and
I’m highly confident, but there was still about seeing myself and being on this podcast that
quivered. But I turned to other people that were my my mentors, and I got that message. Adri, I
got that message. So April, good job. You inspired these ladies. And I want to thank everybody
for tuning in to another episode of HTM Insider, there’s going to be more conversation about
WIL. Um hope to have them back in 2025 and see you all at MD Expo in Connecticut here pretty
soon. And you know, if you have any questions, we’re all here to help. We’re all here to grow
the community and lift you up. So until next time, we’ll see you later. Ladies, see you at MD
Expo!