Health Catalyst Director, Client Success Nadine Louis has been awarded the 2023 Modern-Day Technology Leader Award, a part of the BEYA STEM Outstanding Achievement Awards. Louis will be recognized for her achievement at the 2023 BEYA STEM Conference at Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, MD.
As part of the 2023 BEYA STEM Conference, more than 50 training sessions are available to students and professionals that offer insights on leadership, career development, and technical advancements in the digital economy. These sessions are led by experts from top organizations and facilitate interaction in knowledge environments that promote networking, training, and mentoring.
In addition to receiving her award, Louis will also serve as a speaker for the session, Hybrid Teams: Managing Team Performance and Productivity Onsite and Remotely
To celebrate her award, we sat down with Louis to learn more about her journey, goals, and advice for women pursuing a career in STEM.
I’m the Director of Client Success on the Vitalware® side. I have more than 20 years of experience in healthcare doing account management as well as managing and leading team members.
What I love more than anything is client satisfaction. When I am working with a client, and they are happy, and I know I am making their day, it's a very rewarding experience, and I know I am making a difference. Growing my team has also been a very rewarding aspect of my role that I’m passionate about. I’m trying so hard to lead by example with my group of managers. They are new managers, and I want to help them grow in their roles. As they are working with their team members, making sure the clients are happy, I want to be a resource to help them grow to be better leaders.
A quote that I live by is from James 4:17, “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is a sin for them.” This quote guides me whenever I have to make a decision. Doing the right thing drives me. When I am faced with a choice, I ask myself what response is ethical and does it align with what I believe in. At the end of the day, how will my choice help someone? For me, if I have the ability to do the right thing and if I choose not to do it, then I am not living true to myself.
I counsel young couples through my church. I love it and have been counseling for the past 11 years. I don’t have the answers, but what I do have is my experience. I am very passionate about guiding couples through tough times to help them find each other again. When a couple seeks my help and they are on the verge of breaking up, it's often not the love that is the issue but the barriers the couple faces in understanding their person. Each partner comes from a different place with a different experience.
One reminder I like to share when they come to me with a challenge is to remember the best in each other and look for the positive. We need to remember to focus less on the challenge and find the positive in the opportunity that we can focus on instead of the issue. Looking at the problem isn’t the right thing to do. Let’s look for a solution. Let’s go back and elaborate more and find the best way forward. Two years ago, I had a couple who were about to divorce, whom I counseled for about nine months. Listening to them and working on different exercises with them–having them recall what made them fall in love with the other person, having them date each other, talk about and see good in each other at the end of it all, they are still married today, and I am grateful to have been able to help them find each other again.
One accomplishment that I am proud of is getting a couple from point A to point B. Another is that I was able to build a better relationship with a team member on my team who was contemplating leaving the role. After sitting down together and getting to a place where we understand each other better, this person decided to stay, and we are great colleagues.
I look at our CEO Dan Burton, and if I could take a page out of his book, I would have accomplished a lot. He leads by example, and he takes feedback so well. He is kind. He inspires me and my leadership style.
After I earned my degree in teaching, I taught at a high school for one year. In my first year of teaching, I lost a family member and was emotionally drained. I wanted to continue teaching but needed a break. My husband was in computer tech and introduced me to a different path, and I got into technology. I started to teach doctors and nurses how to use applications.
Then I got to a point where I didn’t want only to teach, but I wanted to help solve challenges that clients were experiencing at the hospital. It inspired me to pursue the path I’m on now.
Our applications help healthcare be better and safer, making healthcare providers' jobs easier. I’m inspired by our work, and while I may not be the doctor in the operating room, I have a link to the patient on the table, and I feel like I’m helping to make a difference.
Health Catalyst’s values of respect resonate with me. Being respectful, humble, hard-working, and a continuous learner are meaningful to me. I have the values on the wall in my office if I can see them and know my leaders are operating by this; I, too, as a leader, need to live by this.
Fall three times and get up four times. Don’t stop because you fail, and don’t stop pursuing your dreams because someone said no. Keep going, get up, and do it again. You got this! Don’t limit yourself because of a “no” or because of a failure. It's part of the experience.
I would say the same thing to my younger self. Be confident. Speak up, and don’t stop!
I’m excited for all the energy to network with other professionals and meet other professionals who look like me. I’m looking forward to making connections. Every time you meet someone is like opening up a new book.
I will be a presenter again this year and am very excited to support the conference in this way. I have been a moderator and presenter at the 2021 WOC (Women of Color) Conference at the Micro-learning session, “Steering the Ship Safely, Navigating your organization when you are one of the few”; the 2022 WOC Conference session, “Join the Revolution: Technology is Changing Health Care!,” and the 2022 BEYA Conference Session, “Welcome to the Workplace: The New Gender in the Workplace.”
My current goals are to take my career to the next level and take my education to the next level. I’m a forever student.
