There’s a particular kind of leadership that doesn’t photograph well. It doesn’t announce itself with grand gestures or viral moments. It shows up in the unglamorous work of changing systems, challenging assumptions, and staying in uncomfortable conversations long after everyone else has moved on. This is the leadership that actually transforms healthcare—not by declaring victory, but by refusing to accept the status quo.
This edition of Power Women in Healthcare, 2025 exists because we believe that kind of leadership deserves attention. Not celebration for its own sake, but examination. What drives someone to take on work that’s easier to ignore? What does it cost? What does it change?
Our cover story features Dr. Eboni Dotson, whose insistence on equity as infrastructure—not aspiration—challenges the healthcare sector to look beyond performative initiatives. She argues that without trust, every policy is just paperwork. Her shift from hospital leadership to data science wasn’t a retreat; it was a repositioning. She understood that data determines everything in healthcare, and if the people handling it don’t understand whose voices are missing from the datasets, the disparities only calcify. Now, through her work with HBCUs, she’s ensuring the next generation enters the field with both technical skill and ethical clarity. Her story asks an uncomfortable question: are we building systems that work for everyone, or just optimizing ones that already decide who matters?
Across these pages, you’ll find leaders who’ve rewritten expectations in their own ways. Dame Emma Walmsley, who brought consumer instincts to pharmaceutical strategy and turned GSK’s focus toward blockbuster results. Karen Lynch, who led CVS Health through a pandemic while attempting to integrate insurance, pharmacy, and care delivery into something resembling a coherent system. They’re accounts of what happens when capable people inherit complicated institutions and decide the work is worth doing anyway.
We’ve also examined how women in regulatory roles have shaped the invisible architecture of drug safety—the policies and standards that protect millions without fanfare. Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey’s refusal to approve thalidomide didn’t make headlines until tragedy was averted. That’s often how protection works: the disasters that don’t happen rarely get acknowledged.
Leadership in healthcare isn’t about being the loudest voice in the room. It’s about asking the questions others find inconvenient. It’s about understanding that transformation isn’t a project with a launch date—it’s the accumulation of decisions made when nobody’s watching.
The women in this edition understand that. Their work continues, whether we’re paying attention or not. This edition simply argues: we should be.
