What drew you to healthcare originally?
For as long as I can remember I’ve been interested in teeth. I didn’t play house as a child, I played dentist. Growing up I knew a woman who was a Dental Hygienist and she worked 3 days a week and had a family. I liked that flexibility as I also wanted to eventually have a family.
She spent more than fourteen years at WellMed Medical Group/ Optum in progressive medical director roles, where she founded the Office of Clinician Excellence, launched a peer coaching program, and co-founded the Clinical Health and Safety team. Those years in system leadership shaped how she thinks about medical practice, clinician workforce, and organizational design.
She received her MD from McGovern Medical School in Houston, completed her family medicine residency at Christus Spohn Memorial in Corpus Christi, and earned her MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas. She holds the Professional Certified Coach (PCC) credential from the International Coaching Federation.
Outside of her consulting work, Dr. Suttin serves as Chair of the South Central Texas Regional Board of Trustees for Blood Cancer United, an organization for which she has volunteered since 2020. She lives in San Antonio with her husband and their four children, and she’ll take any excuse to travel somewhere new. When she’s not on the road, she’s training for her next half marathon or camping with her husband and rescue dog in their travel trailer.
There is a particular kind of loneliness that doesn’t look like loneliness from the outside.
It looks like competence.
It looks like being prepared, responsive, calm, and available. It looks like being the person others trust when the room gets tense or the plan starts to wobble. It looks like knowing how to keep things moving, how to steady the conversation, and how to listen without making the moment about yourself.
From the outside, it can look like success. But inside, many women who lead know there is something else happening too.
I was drawn to healthcare because of a very personal experience growing up. I suffered from chronic sinusitis, and by high school it was significantly affecting my daily life. I remember feeling constantly unwell and frustrated. I couldn’t sleep because my nose was blocked most of the time, and I often had difficulty breathing. It may sound like a small thing, but when you live with it every day, it affects your concentration, your energy, and your overall sense of well-being.
When I was finally referred to an ENT specialist, the treatment he prescribed brought remarkable relief. For the first time in a long while, I could breathe comfortably and sleep through the night. That experience stayed with me. It made me realize how transformative healthcare can be — not just in treating disease, but in restoring quality of life.
Boundaries aren’t selfish…they’re brave.
When you create boundaries, you’re not shutting others out… you are saying YES to yourself.
And yet, many women find themselves struggling with this simple but powerful act. Why? Because we’re taught that everything is a priority. Everyone’s needs matter. Every opportunity should be seized.
But when everything is urgent, nothing can truly be important.
If you want more structure, more balance and more clarity in your life and leadership, you have to start with boundaries. And not just in theory…but in action.
This year’s “Bro IPO Summer” headlines tell us something we can’t ignore…despite decades of progress, when companies prepare to go public, women are still being left out of the most visible leadership seats.
A recent study of tech IPOs revealed that 88% had only zero or one woman on their boards and 93% had similar gps in their executive teams. That’s not just a disappointing statistic…it’s a flashing red signal.
Let’s get one thing straight: Your reputation is not what people say about you.
It’s what people believe about you…when you’re not in the room.
And whether your realize it or not, you’re building it every single day.
In a world that constantly tries to put women in boxes…”too much”, “not enough”, “too ambitious”, “not read”…you have a choice. You can let others write the narrative…or you can own the pen.
Being the CEO of your own reputation means getting crystal clear on what you want to be known for…and backing that up with how you show up, communicate and lead. It’s not about polishing a brand. It’s about embodying your values. Consistently.
I’ve coached hundreds of brilliant women who tell me they’ll speak up after the next meeting, go for the promotion next quarter, invest in themselves next year. And when we dig deeper, the waiting isn’t about strategy. It’s about fear. About permission. About the myth that one day, confidence will just arrive.
That’s the scenario too many women in leadership find themselves in. The title is shiny. The stakes are high. And the situation? Often a mess. Welcome to the Glass Cliff…a term coined to describe the unsettling reality that women are more likely to be placed in leadership roles during times of turbulence, decline or flat-out failure. It’s a promotion yes…but one perched on shaky ground.
It happens quietly. Maybe you’ve always been great at simplifying chaos into clear action…but you call it “just being organized.” Maybe people always come to you for advice…but you brush it off as “being a good listener.” Maybe you lead with empathy, but you label it “just being nice.”
Let’s face it: in today’s fast-paced, hyperconnected world, it’s easy to feel like we’re always falling behind. Someone else seems to have it all together—the perfect career, the perfect life, the perfect everything. And as leaders, especially as executive women, the weight of comparison and expectations can feel even heavier.
When you work for yourself, you go from wearing one hat to wearing many hats. You need to know at least a little about a lot in order to succeed. You are now responsible for marketing, branding, sales, accounting, maintenance, and everything in between.