At this year’s Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) Annual Conference, one message resonated across every room: no one can tackle systemic inequities alone. And this conference provides tools to work together for success.
From leadership labs to women’s health breakout sessions to phenomenal keynote speakers – publisher/author Arianna Huffington and Julie Kim from Takeda – this annual conference provided insights and opportunity for motivated attendees to advance leadership capabilities from college classrooms to the C-suite. I was honored to lead one of the sessions, and I brought back several lessons to share.
Three key takeaways from the 2025 HBA conference:
- Build empathy into the infrastructure
Listening, trust, and inclusion are not soft skills; they’re strategic ones. The emphasis on empathy resonated throughout the conference. Across the sessions, attendees discussed creating systems that make listening actionable, ensuring every woman’s voice informs leadership, care, research, and policy. The key is creating an environment where women’s voices are heard, valued, and acted upon.
- Base decisions on authentic experiences
In the session I moderated, “Creating the Infrastructure to Support Closing the Women’s Health Gap,” an incredible panel of leaders: Marina Hong Mealin (Bayer), Kimberly Jones (Butler/Till), and Carmen White (Pfizer) discussed a number of factors that can make progress sustainable and scalable, including the importance of basing decisions on authentic, real-world data. Progress starts when research, care models, and communication are built around real, lived experiences rather than assumptions or algorithms.
- Be the ally you need, for others
When people with influence open doors for others, the entire healthcare ecosystem benefits. It’s collaboration in action, and a reminder that allyship and advocacy are as essential to progress as innovation and funding. From any level or position, we can all play this role for others in our organizations and communities.
A Shared Future
The spirit of HBA 2025 was clear: empathetic, experience-based collaboration isn’t just a value. It’s a competitive advantage.
At Reverba, that’s the ecosystem we’re building, one where voices connect, insights converge, and every stakeholder has a seat at the table. By turning authentic voices and scientific engagement into actionable insight, we help bridge the gap between research and real-world outcomes.