There’s no doubt about it – women lead the pack in healthcare.

Women make up 67% of the global health and social care workforce. Annually, they provide health services to 5 billion people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

Given the female stronghold in the healthcare industry, we interviewed two local heavy hitters: Dr. Audrey Gregory and Denyse Bales-Chubb, both of AdventHealth.

Here’s a look at how they leveled up and why they lead the way they do.

Audrey Gregory, Ph.D., RN

Executive Vice President and CEO at AdventHealth East Florida Division

Audrey Gregory, Ph.D., RN is a leader to 11,000 team members daily.

As a top leader in AdventHealth’s East Florida Division, she knows she has a lot of eyes on her.

Being a female director, she takes pride in how much AdventHealth honors and accepts female leadership.

“As you go into higher levels of leadership, women are not necessarily the ones leading the charge,” she said. “AdventHealth is unique in that probably in the past five years or so, women representation at the executive level is about 45%, which is extremely good,” she said.

She credits CEO Terry Shaw for intentionally focusing on recruiting top-notch talent, many of whom are women.

“He recognizes and leans into putting the best talent to do the work,” she said.

Dr. Gregory began her career as an emergency and trauma nurse, a role that she calls “my love,” and eventually gravitated to leadership roles in nursing. In 2022, Gregory was named to Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Women Leaders.[1] 

Her advice to other women looking to “shatter glass ceilings” is “the importance of making sure not only you’re driving results but also that you’re maintaining those important relationships.”

She believes it’s essential to lean into mentors and good sponsors. The difference between the two is huge, she said.

“The mentor is going to guide you; then the sponsor is going to speak on your behalf when you’re not in the room,” she said.

She advises all women to find a sponsor – someone with clout – as a leader who will stick their neck out for them in a professional setting.

Too often, Dr. Gregory said, women fall into the trap of doubting themselves. Women are “never ready” and always waiting for life to align for the perfect moment to jump in.

“It’s important for women to recognize they aren’t always 100% ready for the next step, she advised, but that it’s important to jump in and take it anyway.

It’s what she tells her team: “Fail fast.”

Doing so, she said, builds resilience and fortitude. “It allows you to learn quickly,” she said.

She urges women across all industries to recognize their power. She believes AdventHealth has done this well because CEO Terry Shaw won’t “shy away” from different voices.

“We have a lot to offer,” she said. “Women have the ability to be balanced with strategic thinking and nurturing. Women should not shy away from how they can lean into the things that make them different.”

Denyse Bales-Chubb

President & CEO at AdventHealth Palm Coast/Flagler/St. Johns Market

Denyse Bales-Chubb has always had a passion for healthcare.

Being surrounded by inspiring women, like her grandmother and great-grandmother who were both nurses, influenced her perspective on women’s roles.

“They were such good role models for me,” she said. “My mother went back to college when I was in high school and became a clinical laboratory scientist because she knew she had four kids to put through college.”

Bales-Chubb has a little more than 30 years of healthcare experience under her belt.

After high school, she worked as a certified nursing assistant and realized it wasn’t for her.

“I couldn’t do it. If the patients were throwing up, I started joining them,” she joked.

After that, she became a clinical lab scientist–just like her mother–and worked her way up after earning a bachelor’s degree from Fort Hays State University, and a master’s degree in health care administration from Wichita State University.

Regarding her role as the CEO of a major hospital, she said, “It’s something I never really sought out; it just happened. That’s what I try to tell people: my motto is ‘life is an adventure.’ When a door opens, you might as well step through and see what’s on the other side.”

Whether doing marketing or working in a vice president role, Bales-Chubb said her can-do attitude got her through. That, and her family’s willingness to make sacrifices – both she and her husband worked high-pressure jobs while raising a family – for a great career and life.

“I just came to work to do my best every single day,” she said of getting into executive hospital roles. She remembers being the only female in her first executive council meeting.

“I never really spent a lot of time dwelling on female CEOs; I just show up to a job I love every single day and do the best that I can,” she said.

One thing she loves about AdventHealth in particular is the C-suite’s focus on the qualifications of women executives and leaning into respecting and honoring their work.

It’s the intentionality that she loves so much. An example: AdventHealth shared statistics with its physicians to show how doctors may treat men and women differently for the same condition. The goal was to share they may have unconscious biases, and sharing such reports “raises that intentionality among everybody,” she said.

Ensuring that leaders are only hiring the best is another part of her role she loves.

“They [the community] deserve the best, and you know that’s my job to make sure that I’m delivering on that promise back to the community,” she said.

Both women agree that AdventHealth is a place where women are taken seriously because of the intentional, professional way the organization grows.

AdventHealth’s mission also holds dear to their hearts as they do their daily work duties to uphold it each day:

“We believe health should be measured in terms of the whole person – body, mind and spirit,” the AdventHealth website states. “And it’s our mission and promise to you to help you feel whole through compassionate care and world-class expertise.”

After more than 150 years in business, it’s clear AdventHealth is here for the long haul for both the community and its leaders.