Hiring for Good is a podcast presented by Acumen Executive Search exploring the transformative power of leadership and what happens when the right person takes the job. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Hiring For Good Ep 44 with Dr. Tanya L. Stewart – Regional Medical Director at Aledade Inc.
Topics Discussed:
1. Dr. Stewart’s journey from hospice and palliative care to executive leadership—how early patient experiences shaped her mission to humanize medicine and lead with empathy.
2. Building cultures of compassion and innovation—what she learned transforming organizations like UnitedHealth Group and Aledade through values-driven leadership.
3. Mentorship, balance, and hiring for purpose—how to identify passion over ego, nurture diverse teams, and empower future healthcare leaders to lead with heart.
Dr. Tanya L. Stewart’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanyaluglianistewart/
Hiring For Good Website: https://www.hiringforgood.net/
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hiring-for-good-podcast/id1725208602
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/288s2urueV7xjlsFoYW8QN
Acumen Executive Search Website: https://www.acumenexecutivesearch.com/
Suzanne Hanifin: President at Acumen Executive Search Email: su*****@*******************ch.com
Hiring for Good is presented by Acumen Executive Search. Acumen Executive Search is the leading certified woman-owned Executive Search and advisory Firm on the West Coast. Acumen sources, attracts, and qualifies world-class executive and management talent for organizations to support them in achieving their organizational goals. Due to their focus and local network, which is both broad and deep, we are able to leverage best practices across a broad range of industries. We employ an equity lens throughout the recruitment process.
Hiring for Good Transcript
0:00 Good morning and welcome to the Hiring for Good podcast sponsored by Acumen
0:04 Executive Search. I am Tanis Morris and this morning Suzanne is not here. Um, so
0:11 it’s just going to be me and my lovely guest Dr. Tanya Liuliani Stewart, a physician executive whose career bridges
0:20 the worlds of medicine, business, and leadership. With over two decades of experience, Dr. Stewart has held senior
0:26 roles at United Health Group, including chief clinical transformation officer, and senior medical director, where she
0:32 led enterprise-wide innovation, care model design, and strategic leadership
0:37 development across complex health systems. Tanya combines a TUS medical
0:42 degree with an MBA from OHSU and is consistently focused on transforming health care from the inside out, guiding
0:49 large teams, influencing national policy, and aligning business strategy with clinical impact.
0:56 Currently serving as a regional medical director at Aledade and founder of I2 Healthcare Collaboratory, Dr. Stewart
1:02 continues to push the boundaries of how healthcare can be more connected, more human, and more effective. Her journey
1:08 offers powerful lessons on leading change, building culture, and keeping patient care at the center of it all. I
1:15 will also mention that Tanya is a close personal friend who I am truly delighted to have the opportunity to interview
1:21 this morning. Hello Tanya, thanks for being here. Ah, thanks for the invitation and getting us on the books.
1:27 You got it. Welcome to Hiring for Good. Let’s get into it because there’s a lot. So, um, we typically start by asking our
1:34 guests to kind of share with us their journey to where they are today and maybe offering as well a few words about
1:42 exactly what it is you do as a medical director at Aledade. Sure. So, I’ll start with the second part
1:48 first if that’s okay. Of course. I’m a regional medical director at Aledade. All is a company that
1:53 helps um primary care clinicians um make the transition from fee for service to
1:58 fee for value or the the better quality care they provide to their patients, the better reward that they get as well as
2:05 our patients better outcomes. My role in as uh in in this in this space as a regional medical director is really to
2:11 support the physicians. Um and it is a wonderful wonderful company and a
2:15 wonderful um wonderful role. my history has been an interesting one or my journey has been an interesting one. Um
2:23 I’ll start by saying um I had really crisp clarity on wanting to be a physician and go to medical school.
2:33 And so um so that there was no question um for me on uh on that you know crystal crystal clear. Once I became a physician
2:42 it became a little more interesting um and lots of unique things happened on my journey. So, I’ll start by by sharing.
2:49 Um, I went to undergrad in San Diego, University of San Diego. Um, double majored in religious studies and
2:54 biology. And then, um, went to medical school in Boston at TUS. And it was at TUS, um, that I had a patient experience
3:03 that really, um, I would say planted the seed of who I would become as a physician and, um,
3:10 my eventual area of expertise. So, I want to share his story um because it’s I think it’s a it’s a pretty important
3:18 one. Um he’s an 87-year-old man. He came to the hospital um because he was failing to thrive. He was literally skin and
3:28 bones um when he came to the hospital and many of his organs were failing. His heart was failing, his lungs, he was
3:35 filling up with fluid, his kidneys were shutting down, his liver was shutting down. all things that could go wrong
3:41 were going wrong. And as I started the clinical rotation, my professor said um hey, the last group of uh of student um
3:50 students that came through have just let left left this man to die. We don’t know what’s wrong with him. We don’t know the
3:56 cause of all of this. Who’s willing to take his case? And I raised my hand. So I joined the team um to take on his
4:04 case. And we began pursuing test after test after test on this gentleman with a
4:09 hope of understanding what was wrong so we could cure him. And every test led to a subsequent
4:18 complication. And eventually every complication led this man from a private room which was unheard of in a county
4:26 hospital to the intensive care unit where visitations were restricted. The last um I would say three weeks of this man’s
4:36 life were spent in the ICU without his family at his side. And um I you know I I want to use this word very carefully.
4:45 Um but it’s the word that really really is the truth to it. we tortured um did things to him that that we don’t even
4:53 know that he really would have wanted had he been able to really understand what that would have meant that he would
4:58 have had time away from his family um and not been able to say his goodbyes or his family to say their goodbyes or
5:06 anything like that. And if you ask any doctor really like looking at his case, would they have expected him to live?
5:12 Not one would say yes. So why we did this to him was um really hit me hard. So fast forward to I go into the ICU to
5:22 make rounds on him and his bed is empty. And um I I I remember seeing the empty bed asking the nurse did he go down for
5:31 a test. He had died in the night and they had coded him. So did chest compressions, broke lots of ribs in
5:40 doing that. really just I mean the his last moments of of life were were torture. And I remember running down the hall,
5:47 well quickly briskly walking um down the hall trying to keep my emotions in. And I can still feel um that um the cold
5:56 tiles against my back as I slid down and just started crying, not understanding like why why do we do this? Why do we
6:03 care for people in this way? It’s not care. It’s not good care. And but it’s it was the care. It was the
6:12 norm. And the my resident physician, he’s kind of the person who oversaw all of the work that we did as students and
6:20 and and interns. And he I remember him patting me on the back saying, “You better get used to this because this is
6:25 going to happen a lot. This is what we do here.” And I thought, “This should not be what we do here. This is not good
6:33 care.” So fast forward to residency. I came to Portland for my residency, great institution at Legacy um in
6:41 internal medicine and I was the first ever resident um to do a rotation in hospice.
6:47 I had never heard about hospice when I was in medical school. I’d never heard
6:50 about the concept of palliative care and eventually realized this is what this man, this patient, this amazing
6:57 human needed. His family needed this. This is the closure and the beauty. there’s so much beauty in in our lives
7:07 no matter where we are beginning middle and end especially at the end and so I decided that after that rotation I had
7:14 to become a hospice doctor I knew I wanted to become a hospice doctor but how I was going to get there I did not
7:20 know so graduated from residency got a first my first job at a multi-specialty medical practice classic
7:28 internist job and I met a patient and one of my patients she was retired retired hospice nurse and it was a
7:34 shared love and so I shared with her I’m going to become a hospice doctor
7:37 someday. I don’t know how but I’m going to do it. And she said, “Well, funny you should say that. I volunteer at a
7:43 hospice now and they’re looking for a new medical director.” So I said, “Well, why not? I will put my
7:51 hat in the ring and see if it’s a good fit. I have zero experience, but who knows?” So I did. And that wasn’t
7:59 necessarily true. I was um asked my supervisor at my multi-specialty group if I could round on patients at in their
8:05 homes. I wouldn’t charge just I wanted the experience. I started shadowing some hospice doctors that were at that
8:11 multi-specialty group who were board certified and all that. So I was lightly prepared and they
8:18 offered me the job and um my first day on that job at this was at Adventist um um home health and hospice wonderful
8:26 wonderful organization. They took a chance on me. Um, they probably didn’t know this, but my first day on the job,
8:33 I literally giggled to myself, twiddling my thumb, saying, “What am I doing here? Why did they hire me? I don’t know what
8:40 I’m doing.” And um, so that kind of led me I made it to my space and then that led me to
8:47 really the journey part of of my story. And that’s when I got in got there, I’m like, I got to figure out how to do
8:55 this. So I started reaching out, reaching out to the Oregon Hospice Association, reaching out to any
9:01 physician organizations both national and local, finding mentors, asking
9:06 people if they would mentor me. And as a mentee, I then of course began to learn
9:11 and grow. And then created um a a hospice doctor’s um breakfast, monthly breakfast. We would meet at the Cadillac
9:21 Cafe every month. Then my intention was to build relationships, but it was also to learn and to really go over difficult
9:28 cases, but also to grow. Um, and from being a mentee, I eventually became a
9:34 mentor to other doctors who wanted to do what I did and really go through the experience route to become um a hospice
9:42 doctor. And then eventually um from there being doing hospice work, I did that um for
9:48 many years with Adventist and many other hospice organizations in the area in
9:52 Southwest Washington. Um and then a group approached me, a leader approached
9:56 me that I happened to meet at Adventist and she ended up moving to an organization called EverCare. She
10:02 remembered me and she asked me if I would be willing to to to take a leap and join her group um which is really
10:09 palliative care in the nursing home setting. Um as I mentioned the company is called EverCare but it was event it
10:16 was a it was a a division under United Health Group and eventually would be fall under Optum Complex Care
10:23 Management. So from there I just kept saying why not why not let me try. Um
10:30 and um people kept taking chances on me and I kept saying I’m going to give it a
10:35 try. and um and I grew in my career at at United. Um and that um it was funny
10:44 um because during the time you’d mentioned I got my MBA here at OHSU, I
10:49 was actually a partnership with PSU as well. And um I remember um being in in
10:56 in class and thinking I really am an a hands-on learner and I need to understand how really how money flows in
11:03 our healthcare system. we were not taught that in medical school. And um so
11:08 I was looking for a new position under the United Health Group umbrella and I
11:13 reached out to uh one of my colleagues I had built a relationship with over the
11:17 years in my EverCare role and I said hey you know you don’t happen to have a open
11:22 position on your team and she said you know what happens Tanya that I do but we
11:26 are literally just about to make an offer and I said to her okay no problem I don’t want to ruin you know the offer
11:33 if you love this person and you think that They’re the cats and meow and they’re perfect for the role. Awesome.
11:38 If not, if there’s even an inkling of doubt, I would love for you. I would love the opportunity to interview. And
11:44 she gave me that opportunity and this team gave me that chance and I joined that side and learned so so much
11:52 um on that team. And then eventually there’s there’s more around that um leaving UHG
11:58 um doing taking a sabbatical. My last day at UHD was the first day of the the the shutdown of our country. Yep. March 13th.
12:07 Um and um and I took a year and a half off and did a lot of fun things like joined a venture investment group and
12:14 actually joined a startup as a salesperson in transportation for six weeks. That was really amazing. Um and um and yeah,
12:23 got my nutrition degree and did all different things until um I eventually landed after consulting landed at
12:29 Aledade and um wanting to be back um supporting docs um and really supporting
12:35 docs so that they can survive um in this very crazy time of change in healthcare.
12:42 Wow. Well, my goodness, I mean that is a incredible journey. um much of that I think I’ve kind of been your friend like
12:53 the entire it’s fun to actually hear about it from more professional angle. Um I’m I’m
13:00 curious to know along that path you’ve already shared one really transformative
13:06 experience like something that really um kind of solidified who you are how you think about the work that you do
13:14 with regard to leadership. What experiences have you had that have really been formative
13:22 that help shape who you are as a leader or how you approach leadership? Mhm.
13:26 I would say there’s um there’s two that stand out. One I didn’t actually realize it until I was thinking about um
13:33 thinking about this interview. The first was when I was a hospice doctor again
13:37 building my relationships trying to figure things out. I was invited to be the chairperson um for uh a Oregon’s
13:47 hospice and palliative care um uh gathering and it was I mean I’d never been placed in in that position before
13:58 being given that opportunity and I didn’t really understand why why they offered me this this role. Um and and as
14:07 I reflect on that from a you know that leadership perspective, I think it was because I had a level of enthusiasm
14:16 that um was rare, was unique, and I didn’t see it. I didn’t recognize it. Fast forward to then a recognition of
14:25 that level of enthusiasm at United Health Group. I was given a very very rare opportunity to volunteer
14:33 as um the culture ambassador co-chairperson and it was at a time in our organization when
14:43 we were going through um really some soul-searching and um and I solidifying the values that
14:51 UHG stands for the mission the vision the purpose and all of that and getting um really the soul of the organization
14:58 um intertwined with our own personal souls and it was very very unique and um as a culture ambassador
15:06 co-chairperson um I was given the opportunity to travel the country um host you know like I just called them
15:13 our radio shows and and this is before podcasts were anything so I’ll just say
15:18 make that comment um but we had these radio shows and we would highlight the
15:22 amazing work that um culture ambassadors were doing across um across United
15:30 and from the the time that my colleague and I, his name is Paul Calmmyer, he and
15:35 I um co-chaired this together. When we started, there were about 500 ambassadors. And at the end of two
15:40 years, we had over 5,000 Wow. ambassadors. And I really believe it was because we decentralized everything and
15:48 we elevated everyone else. We did we elevated the good work that everyone was
15:54 doing and really working hard to transform the soul of their teams and themselves and share their stories. And
16:02 that made such a huge difference. By the time I left United Health Group, there were over 30,000
16:09 culture ambassadors and that was just within about um four years from the time that I left the role of culture
16:15 ambassador. So, it was a pretty um remarkable exponential growth um of that
16:22 group and it just taught me a lot. It taught me a lot about the importance of it’s not about you. It’s not about your
16:29 um being placed on the stage and the limelight. It’s about others. It’s about elevating others and helping them to
16:37 become the best people and humans they can be. H that’s a really um beautiful sentiment and I think it’s one that
16:45 great leaders share. There’s a lot that you’ve mentioned that is meaningful to
16:50 you and that you’ve been able to um you know uplift and empower others through
16:57 your work. When you think about the closely held values that are really yours alone, you know, not necessarily
17:06 those that belong to the organizations that you work for, even if they happen to align. Yeah.
17:11 How as a leader do you operationalize, you know, kind of your personal mission? Yeah.
17:18 So, it’s funny. So, um, I never thought about my own personal values until I went through the culture ambassador
17:25 program or the culture program, the culture training. um that was done at UHG
17:30 through a group called Sund Delaney. I’d never really thought the importance of
17:33 having my own values. So important. So I want to show you something if I can. Please. So um so what I
17:40 this this is something that has stood the test of time. I this is a a page that I bring with me.
17:47 It would bring with me in every single meeting I went to. So I can rip it out
17:51 and change my my different folders. But whenever I went to a meeting at UHJ, I
17:56 would bring this with me because on this page, it had my values on it. So I would
18:00 never forget what mattered to me. I love this. And whenever I saw the Ven diagram become separated,
18:09 the organizational values or what was being discussed in the room from what
18:12 mattered to me, what was important to me as as a my soul. um that helped me pause and and
18:21 ask the question is this is this the right decision? Is this the right fit? Like you know at a high level but also
18:28 at a micro level are we making the right decision that’s based on our company values but
18:34 also that’s keeping me true to to me. Yeah. And so I mean operationalizing it it’s it’s a very very personal
18:42 Well, I’m dying to know what’s on the page. Well, do you want to hear what my values
18:45 are? Okay. So, um I have five. You don’t want too many, but you don’t want too few, right? So, here are the five. And
18:52 there’s there’s a little sentence for each one. So, um courage. Uh never give up on your dreams, no matter what
18:58 barriers you face or what others may say. Compassion. Walk in the shoes of others.
19:03 Seek to understand their viewpoint and embrace the common thread. We are really 19:08
failing at this today on so many levels.
19:11 Family. Um love, care, embrace those who give us strength. And family is beyond the blood, right? It’s friends and your
19:18 co-workers. Innovation. Think differently. Um, be open to making the impossible possible.
19:25 And then inspiration. Recognize the importance of meaning and purpose. That’s beautiful, Tanya. I love that.
19:32 And knowing you, I I I really see the ways that those values like show up in your life um outside of work. So that’s
19:41 very impressive. So when it comes to building teams, do you hire based on those values or do
19:50 you you know how how do you build teams? How do you go about adding to the teams that you lead?
19:55 Yeah, I would say the probably the most important thing I think of when I’m like pulling a team together is is our
20:04 team really balanced. Mhm. So just like you don’t want to have too many Tanya, you don’t want to have too
20:11 many Tanis, right? You don’t want like like all that high energy, all the energy will be sucked out.
20:16 Um you’ll get nothing done. All those great ideas, right? We need operators. We need That’s right. That’s right.
20:21 Operators, analysts, like there’s different styles that that will complement and potentially conflict, but
20:27 complement if you can find that. So one is is there balance in that? Um, and are those styles there? When I’m
20:34 looking for the right person, it’s passion. I always want to know like and I want to
20:40 see no matter what their style is, do they care deeply about about the work that they want to to do? And that the
20:47 mission or the vision, not my mission and vision, but the mission and vision of what we’re after, like we’re trying
20:52 to accomplish. And what I’ve learned is you’ve got to be really careful because I’ve not
20:57 always done a good job at this. You have to be really careful about not confusing
21:01 passion with greed because there can be some overlap with that and um and and
21:10 and making sure that you know watching carefully for that. Interesting. Yeah, I could see that. I
21:17 guess as you’re developing leaders, as you’re helping them come up, you know,
21:21 you mentioned already that you’ve sat in a mentorship role a number of times. Um,
21:26 and I I would imagine that probably even for folks who work, you know, under you,
21:32 they would see you as a mentor just knowing you. Um, when you give advice to
21:38 those kind of up and coming leaders or maybe to, you know, your own children as they as they enter adulthood
21:48 and or maybe even to your younger self, you know, what would be the most fundamental pieces of advice or piece of
21:55 advice that you would offer? Like we say to your 20-year-old self, what would what piece of advice would you give?
22:01 Yeah. Um, so you know, I used to believe that when you’re looking for a role, you look at it like a marriage.
22:12 Mhm. Like it should be forever. And um and and I would say that that the advice I
22:19 give is don’t have that point of view. Um be open be open to the possibilities of what’s out there. It’s a journey.
22:29 Your first job does not have to be your perfect job. Yeah. And um and it doesn’t need to be a
22:35 forever job. Um so just be open to the possibility and don’t don’t sell yourself short. Even if you think you’re
22:43 underqualified, you’re not. If you’ve got belief in yourself, if you’ve got a passion to learn, if you’ve got a
22:51 desire, you know, to to to to, you know, make the world a better place, whatever
22:57 whatever it is that really makes you wake up in the morning, um then go all in and fake it till you make it, right?
23:06 I mean, um yeah, that’s great. That’s wonderful. Well, the final question that we always like
23:12 to ask our guests is, you know, what does hiring for good mean to you? We chose that title because it is
23:19 iterative. And I I look forward to hearing your interpretation. Well, I think I I may have already um
23:24 hinted at this. Um hiring for good is not forever. So, I would start with that. Um that uh if you find if you found a
23:34 amazing organization, fantastic. Stick with it, you know, and you can grow there. Great. Um, but that’s that’s one.
23:42 It’s it’s it’s it’s not um does not have to be a perfect thing. And then hiring for good. Um, I’m just going to always
23:50 say like passion. Like find find folks who really believe um believe in what you’re after. Believe in what you uh you
23:59 as an organization you’re trying to accomplish um and um that have good character and
24:05 that they can bring them their best selves um to the workplace. So that’s what I would say.
24:11 Well, that’s wonderful. I um I’m so excited to share this conversation with
24:16 our audience and appreciate you coming and thank you very much for being part of Hiring for Good.
24:22 Absolutely. And I’m going to make a quick plug. Yes, please. for you to be on this side of the table
24:28 and Suzanne to be on the other. So, I want to watch that episode. All right. I think it’ll probably
24:32 happen. All right. Thank you. Thanks for joining us today at Hiring for Good. If you
24:38 were inspired by our conversation, don’t forget to like, follow, and subscribe
24:42 wherever you get your podcasts. And if you want to learn more about our
24:46 executive search services, check us out at www.hiringforgood.net or our company website, Acumen Executive
24:54 Search. Thanks so much and don’t forget to join us next time for another in-depth conversation about
25:00 transformational leadership. Til then, have fun!