Every Role, Every Voice: SNHU’s 9th Annual Thought Leaders Conference

For nine years, Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU)’s Thought Leaders Conference has brought professionals across healthcare disciplines together for meaningful learning and collaboration. Since its inception, many elements of the event have remained the same: it’s free, it’s virtual and nearly anyone interested in healthcare is welcome to attend.

Dr. Lyndsay Goss, DNP, RN, CNE, NPD-BC, director of nursing continuing professional development at SNHU, is one of the organizers of Thought Leaders. She emphasized that the intention behind the event remains the same year over year, too.

“Thought Leaders is focused on emerging research and evidence-based practices that support interprofessional decision-making,” she said.

This year, in particular, Goss noted that the conference also explored:

• The role of advocacy in improving clinical and community outcomes
• Principles of shared leadership that strengthen collaboration, team effectiveness and equitable care

Historically, the conference's audience has included members of the SNHU community — students, faculty and staff. But also always welcome are healthcare professionals beyond SNHU, including nurses, allied health professionals, public and community health professionals, healthcare educators, healthcare administrators and clinical leaders, among others.

“The sessions are led by a diverse group of experts in the field, from health clinicians to researchers to advocates,” said Dr. Josh Garrin, associate dean of social science programs at SNHU, who also helped organize the event. “Each conference session offers a nice blend of information sharing and practical application.

Those looking for contact hours to support certification or licensure requirements can earn them by attending — an additional element of the event, which tends to draw interest.

And while much about Thought Leaders remains the same year over year, one thing that does change is its theme.

A Call for Inclusive Leadership

The focus of this year’s conference was "Every Role, Every Voice: Leadership and the Human Experience." Dr. Peggy Moriarty-Litz, EdD, MS, RN, CNE, chief nursing administrator at SNHU and one of this year’s Thought Leaders organizers, said the theme was chosen with current industry trends — and challenges — in mind.

“Healthcare is experiencing major shifts in organizational delivery, technology utilization, populations served and financial reimbursements,” she said. “During these monumental challenges to provide quality care and address patient and community outcomes, the one common need is holistic leadership skills to guide the sea of change.”

Goss agreed, emphasizing that any healthcare professional can choose to be a leader, regardless of their title.

“At a time when healthcare teams are facing increasing complexity, change and strain, recognizing the human experience and empowering individuals at all levels to speak up, advocate and contribute is more important than ever,” she said.

Dr. Pam Varhol, EdD, RHIA, a senior associate dean at SNHU overseeing public health and community health education and one of the organizers of Thought Leaders, added that this year’s theme also felt true to SNHU, specifically.

“It reflects our core values by emphasizing shared learning, inclusivity and a commitment to elevating the human experience in healthcare,” she said.

Over the course of two days, a wide variety of speakers presented on topics that aligned closely with the chosen theme. Here’s what some of this year’s sessions explored.

Economic Literacy for Better Care

Nursing professional development leader Briana Posanka, MSN, RN, CNE, knows knowledge is power.

She’s passionate about translating complex topics and making them more accessible, so she used her Thought Leaders session to do just that. In it, she explored the importance of equipping every healthcare professional with economic literacy — a skill she considers to be essential.

“My session explored the intersection of nursing, economics and advocacy through the lens of my professional practice project, ‘Unbundled: Nursing, Value and the Cost of Care,’” she said. “Specifically, I discussed how economic structures in healthcare shape workforce conditions, influence care delivery and often obscure the measurable value nurses contribute to patient outcomes and system performance.”

An RN since 1997 with clinical experience in pediatric ICU, emergency and perioperative environments, Posanka knows firsthand the challenges nurses face in their work — and she believes many of them are due to structural and economic issues rather than operational ones.

The topic of her presentation, she said, reflected this year’s Thought Leaders theme because it was rooted in equipping healthcare professionals at every level with the knowledge they need to influence — and even lead — key decision-making.

“In a field as human-centered as healthcare, honoring the voices of frontline professionals is essential to creating systems that are sustainable, innovative and responsive to the needs of both patients and the workforce,” she said. “If nurses understand how healthcare is financed and how value is measured, they are better equipped to advocate for themselves, their profession and the patients they serve.”

Maternal Health Reflects the System

To Christiana Jenkins, MSW, LMSW, conversations centered on women’s health aren’t just interesting. They’re critical.

“Maternal health is one of the clearest reflections of how well a healthcare system functions,” she said.

Jenkins is the founder of The Mending Peace, a nonprofit organization addressing violence against women in Sierra Leone and other Sub-Saharan African nations by providing access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene services. As a social worker, she’s supported patients and interdisciplinary teams across labor and delivery, women’s services, oncology and more.

At this year’s Thought Leaders conference, Jenkins led a session titled, “From Data to Dignity: Shared Leadership and Systems Accountability in Maternal Health.” Her goal was to shed light on the perspective that maternal outcomes are shaped by systems — not just individual clinical decisions.

“My talk explored how breakdowns in communication, fragmented continuity of care and gaps in accountability contribute to preventable harm,” she said. “I’m passionate about this topic because I’ve seen firsthand, both professionally and personally, how these systems impact women’s lives.”

She said she hoped her session — and this year’s Thought Leaders theme — would help participants move from knowledge to action.

“Advancing healthcare, particularly in areas like maternal health, requires both accountability and collaboration,” she said. “No single discipline can address these challenges alone. If we are serious about improving outcomes, we have to be willing to listen differently, lead differently and design systems that center both evidence and human dignity.

The Power of Proximity

When asked why he presented at this year’s Thought Leaders conference, Tom Calabro, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, CCRN-K, said the chosen theme felt deeply aligned with his work.

“‘Every Role, Every Voice: Leadership and the Human Experience’ feels especially urgent in healthcare right now because so much of what is broken is not technical,” he said. “The message is timely and speaks to what is so often missing in how we approach healthcare. As leaders, we are entrusted with something sacred: the responsibility to care not only for patients, but for the teams who serve them.”

Calabro is a nurse leader with over two decades of experience working in pediatric and adult critical care, emergency medicine, cardiothoracic ICU and nursing education. Now, he’s a senior director of surgery and musculoskeletal services.

He chose to focus his Thought Leaders session on proximity: the idea that, in order for healthcare systems to be their best, senior leaders, frontline workers and patients need to spend intentional time learning from one another.

“For healthcare to reach its highest potential, trust must exist between patients and providers, and dignity must be intentionally upheld for both patients and those who deliver care,” he said. “Staff are not the most important people in the room, and patients are not the most important people in the room. It is only when the two are brought together in a caring, respectful and supportive environment that true synergy emerges and healing begins.”

Calabro called on healthcare leaders to remember that real, effective leadership is multifaceted.

“Leadership is expressed not only through decisions and policies, but through presence, listening and the way we show up for one another each day: sitting with teams, listening without defensiveness and understanding how policies, decisions and pressures are actually experienced at the bedside,” he said. “It centered the belief that healing occurs only when a supported clinician meets a vulnerable human being in a system that allows that meeting to matter.”

Inclusive Leadership in AI Decisions

Laura Kathryn Neal, DM, MPH, MBA, FACHE, has spent over 25 years in healthcare administration leadership and used her operational expertise to found The Neal Institute, a healthcare AI strategy and leadership development consultancy serving C-suite executives and emerging healthcare leaders. She's also an adjunct instructor at SNHU.

If Neal is passionate about one thing, it’s getting the right people in the right rooms — especially when it comes to decision-making around technology. So when presented with the opportunity to share her perspective on “Every Role, Every Voice,” she said the idea resonated with her immediately.

“The theme aligned directly with the work I care about most, which is helping healthcare leaders build governance structures that include the voices usually left out of technology decisions,” she said.

The idea for her talk came from years of seeing decision-making happen at the highest level, often resulting in out-of-touch or ineffective non-solutions to healthcare challenges. These decisions, she said, must be inclusive of those closest to the work.

“My session, ‘Shared Leadership for Responsible Healthcare AI Governance,’ examined how AI adoption decisions in healthcare frequently bypass the clinicians, frontline staff and patients whose insights determine whether these tools improve care or disrupt it,” she said. “I walked attendees through a three-phase governance framework covering evaluation, implementation and ongoing monitoring, with practical guidance on who needs to be at the table at each phase.”

As organizations continue building their AI strategies, Neal cautions leaders to ensure they’re including the right voices in those conversations.

“I've sat in the CFO seat and the COO seat, and I've seen technology rollouts fail because nobody asked the unit clerk or the coder what they needed,” she said. “AI amplifies that risk. We cannot afford to repeat the old mistakes with tools this powerful.”

Impact Begins with Advocacy

Lisa Jacovsky’s work is centered on making space for others to build self-expression, resilience and confidence.

She’s an adjunct instructor at SNHU, an award-winning author and the founder of Unstoppable Voices, a platform dedicated to empowering children and families through storytelling, social skills training and consulting. Her Thought Leaders presentation emphasized that amplifying even just one voice — let alone every voice — can create positive change.

“My session focused on the power of advocacy in psychology and how it shapes both clinical outcomes and community impact,” she said. “I explored how professionals can move beyond their defined roles to become advocates for their clients, students, families and systems.”

In her decades spent in applied behavior analysis and early intervention, Jacovsky said she’s seen the myriad of ways advocacy directly impacts progress.

“Progress often happens when someone is willing to speak up, ask questions and push for better support. Advocacy turns knowledge into action,” she said.

She emphasized, too, the resounding theme of this year’s conference: that anyone, anywhere, is capable of using their voice for good.

“Impact doesn’t come from a single role or title,” she said. “It comes from how we show up in the roles we already have.”

Final Thoughts

According to Goss, this year’s conference had a strong turnout: 300 attendees on day 1 and 245 attendees on day 2. She said that as the conference has continued to grow year over year, she’s noticed an increase in active participation, too.

“We saw higher levels of engagement with a very active chat, thoughtful questions and meaningful dialogue throughout the sessions,” she said.

Garrin encouraged anyone who might be thinking about attending next year’s conference to take the leap, and highlighted that the takeaways are often concrete and practical — not just theoretical.

“The conference has a collaborative 'think tank' energy about it that makes it truly special,” he said. “Attendees gain exposure to emerging research and practical strategies that they can apply directly in their own work settings. They leave with a burning question: How can I bring these ideas back to my organization or community and enact real change?”

Abigail (Abby) Syversen-Mark ’23G is a copywriter, contributing content writer and adjunct faculty member at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). A passionate storyteller, Abby hopes her writing will help prospective students and employees alike see just how transformative SNHU could be for them (as it’s been pretty transformative for her). You can connect with her on LinkedIn.