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Health Care Leaders

Gratia Pitcher, MD

Chief Medical Officer | Essentia Health

Influence: Health care is a journey of unique and impactful experiences that shape you over time. Some are good and some are hard, but they all have influenced my career. I’ve had the privilege to work alongside compassionate caregivers and talented leaders, including Anne Stephen, MD, David Herman, MD, Rhonda Kazik, MD, and Jodi Mansfield. They, along with many other colleagues, have inspired me.

Leadership: A leader should be curious and have genuine interest in the things and people around them. Leadership involves reflective listening. I want my colleagues to know that I hear them and I understand them, so that we are in the same place and can move forward together. Good leaders can empower others not only to succeed, but to thrive.

Megan M. Remark, MHA, MBA

Executive Vice President Chief Operating Officer | HealthPartners 

Influence: I worked with a health care professional 15 years my senior. She saw potential in me and was a mentor until she retired. She listened, challenged me and provided direct, constructive feedback. It gave me confidence that I could lead well and integrate work and life in a sustainable way. She openly shared her knowledge, and I hope to do the same for others.

Leadership: It requires accountability to set the tone and culture. Important elements include vision and clear direction; creating an environment that inspires others to lead; and being open to new ideas. Leaders coach and support team members with positive, trust-building, constructive feedback. They prioritize creating a sense of connection and belonging that comes from focus on the work, providing clear communication and open two-way dialogue.

Kris Rhodes, MPH

Director | MDH Office of American Indian Health

Influence: Many Native leaders guided my career. From early on they expected and trusted me to do great things. As a first-generation college graduate, I was provided support by the UMD center for American Indian and Minority Health to be successful in higher education. Bunny Jaakola and Mike Snesrud at Fond du Lac Health and Human Services demonstrated how to lead while keeping the community at the center of my work.

Leadership: It begins with knowing your own values. Always make sure you are leading with those personal values. For me those are love, respect and authenticity. I lead by building authentic partnerships across government, Tribal, academic and philanthropic sectors. I work strategically to elevate and advance the health and well-being of Indigenous communities.

Ruth Richardson

President and CEO | Planned Parenthood North Central States

Influence: My ancestors and elders were sharecroppers, traditional midwives and domestics who navigated the inhumane brutality of Jim Crow. I was blessed to grow up with their powerful stories and learn how they lived with abundant love for community, unflappable calm, beautiful grace, joy and hope of a better future. Their stories instilled a passion in me to leave the world a better place than I entered.

Leadership: In the words of the late great author, poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou, courage is one of the most important elements. Her legacy is steeped in the wisdom of what it takes to be bold, to persevere and to have the courage to lead. Without courage you can’t consistently practice kindness, truth, generosity, mercy, justice or any other virtue. 

Chris Rubesch, RN, BSN, PHN 

President | Minnesota Nurses Association

Influence: One of my mentors was Steve Strand, an advocate for nursing practice and an unwavering advocate for safe patient care. When I shared ideas with Steve he encouraged me to pursue them. He never made me feel like I needed to earn a place in our union’s leadership team. This welcoming attitude helped me grow as a nurse and understand our collective power as a union. 

Leadership: It means you are able to listen and to be a uniter. Listen to those around you and take input, even sometimes criticism. This means listening to co-workers about the issues that affect them and their patients and then bringing everyone together around the shared goal to protect safe patient care.

Diane Rydrych, MA

Director | Health Policy Division, Minnesota Department of Health

Influence: I’ll never miss an opportunity to call out the great Jan Malcolm. My educational background is not in public health — my public policy degree focused on labor policy. But I came to MDH early in my career, and I’ve become a passionate public health/health policy advocate because I’ve been fortunate to be at an organization that’s filled with incredibly smart, thoughtful mission-driven people. 

Leadership: Trust and humility. I’ve seen leaders with a strong vision and impeccable credentials fail to achieve their goals because they either can’t trust the people who work with/for them, or their team doesn’t trust them. You have to have the humility to know that you’re going to make mistakes, and to own it when you do.

Victor Sandler, MD

Chair | MN Network of Hospice and Palliative Care Clinicians 

Influence: My maternal grandmother had a direct impact on me that shaped my life and career. We had a very close, warm and loving relationship, which gave me a strong connection to older people. She died when I was17 years old, and I remember leaving the cemetery in tears yet somehow knowing I would follow a path that lead to medicine, geriatric care and hospice. 

Leadership: It means identifying the most important values in the work you do and to exemplify those values. Be it with other clinicians, patients and their families or staff members, it is important to model kindness and respect in your interactions. Living those values so that people can observe them and learn how to treat each other are the things a leader should hold highest. 

Mark Sannes, MD, MS, FIDSA, FACP

Co-Executive Medical Director | HealthPartners

Influence: Dr. David Williams, one of my mentors at HCMC. David was (and is) someone I aspire to be like with colleagues discussing challenging cases and with patients at the bedside. As I embarked on leadership roles I found myself trying to emulate his service-oriented style, working hard to foster relationships with colleagues, peers and my patients.

Leadership: Having clarity of purpose – understanding “what” we’re setting out to accomplish – is an important element. So is being able to explain “why is this important?” in succinct terms. Finally, “how” we do the work is often what we’re remembered for most. Humility, vulnerability and transparency earn trust and engage our teams to be part of the solution. Mentoring, developing and thanking those teams further that success.

Trevor Sawallish

President and CEO | North Memorial Health

Influence: My parents. We lived in a town of 1,500 where my mother was a schoolteacher and my father the administrator of the nursing home and retirement community. They both worked incredibly hard, and I learned my work ethic from them. They believed their work was more than a job and in the impact it had on others.

Leadership: Important attributes are humility and listening with curiosity. Humility helps you value others’ perspectives as equal to your own. You must listen in a way that allows curiosity about how another person sees a topic. When you have different perspectives, understanding another point of view can be difficult; it takes effort not to miss ideas and to listen for the inconvenient. These two elements help stretch your thinking. 

Jim Scheibel, MPA

President | AARP of Minnesota

Influence: Harry Boyte, at the Institute for Public Life and Work, has been a major influence in my career. Harry organized whites in the South working with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and understood that we must organize all, crossing lines that divide. He taught me to “do politics” by building citizen muscle. He encouraged democracy through building relationships, researching who has power, and taking strategic action.

Leadership: It is not about “me,” it is about “we,” Sen. Paul Wellstone said, “We all do better when we all do better.” Leaders organize and develop leaders. Eli Segal, the first executive director of the Corporation for National Service, insisted AmeriCorps needed to “get things done” and demonstrate this with measurable results. Leaders groom and develop new leaders.