Inspiring Women with Laurie McGraw

Laurie McGraw
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Advancing women to healthcare leadership–and keeping them there. Women comprise 70% of the healthcare workforce. They hold just 20% of the C-suite. Each week, host Laurie McGraw bridges that gap through conversations with the women rewriting healthcare’s leadership playbook.

  1. 9h ago

    30% Of CDC's Workforce Is GONE! The Doctor Who Resigned Explains it ALL!

    For four months, the CDC's most senior career leader worked out of an empty office. She had cleared it out in April, during a measles outbreak, after she refused to put medications that weren't warranted on an agency toolkit, because she thought each day could be her last. Dr. Debra Houry spent 11 years at the CDC and served as its Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Director for Program and Science. On August 27, 2025, after CDC Director Dr. Susan Monarez was fired, she resigned alongside two center directors and chose to go public. On Inspiring Women, Laurie McGraw talks with her about that decision, the state of the CDC today, and why she is still optimistic about public health. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN - Why she chose to resign publicly instead of leaving quietly - "My job was actually not to protect my job, but to protect the American public and the agency" - The pushes on hepatitis B vaccine advice, measles treatments and the COVID vaccine pages that led her to say "I can't change science" - What it means that 30% of CDC's workforce is gone - Why about 19 political appointees at the CDC is a big change from the usual one to three - How she started national drug overdose, suicide and firearm violence prevention work at the CDC, across administrations - Where to get health information now, from Dr. Google to Dr. ChatGPT - Why she is not sure the agency will still be called CDC - How regional state alliances, universities and medical societies are filling the gap - Her advice for women leaders: be authentic, step up and speak up ABOUT THE GUEST Dr. Debra Houry is a physician executive, emergency medicine doctor and public health leader. She was the Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Director for Program and Science at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and earlier ran its National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Today she works with California's innovation institute on bringing technology and AI into public health, advises the West Coast Health Alliance, teaches part-time at Yale and advises health tech and AI companies. Her book on leading through crisis comes out next year. ABOUT THE SHOW Inspiring Women with Laurie McGraw features conversations with women leaders in health, technology and business. #InspiringWomen #CDC #PublicHealth #WomenInLeadership #Leadership #Measles #Vaccines

  2. Oct 20

    Her Grandmother's Alzheimer's Changed Everything. Now She's Fixing How New Drugs Are Tested!

    Every new medicine has to pass through a clinical trial, and most of those trials are still designed in 200-page Word documents that teams retype by hand. Vivian DeWoskin is working to change that. Vivian is Chief Commercial Officer of Faro AI, the company bringing AI to how clinical trials are designed, backed by a $37.3M Series B in 2026. Her path started at home: watching her grandmother live with Alzheimer's made her ask what makes a person a person. That question took her to neuroscience at Princeton, where she taught herself to code in the lab, then into healthcare consulting, the launch of the first CAR-T therapy for adults with large B-cell lymphoma, and strategy at Komodo Health before joining Faro. In this episode of Inspiring Women, Laurie McGraw asks her where AI can genuinely speed up drug development, where it never will, and how to build a team that succeeds even when you are not in the room. IN THIS EPISODE - Why a grandmother's Alzheimer's led to a career in neuroscience - Teaching yourself to code with no experience - Why she left consulting to operate, and what launching a first-of-its-kind therapy taught her - Why clinical trial protocols run to hundreds of pages, and what that costs patients - Treating protocols as data, and why that unlocks AI - The one thing AI cannot replace: clinical judgment - Setting a company up for scale when the founder isn't in the room - Leading in line with your values CHAPTERS 0:00 Trailer 1:04 Introduction 2:10 Her grandmother, Alzheimer's and what makes a person a person 3:20 Neuroscience at Princeton 6:27 Learning to code in the lab 7:55 From research to healthcare consulting and Komodo Health 10:33 Choosing to operate: business development 12:13 Joining Faro 14:41 What Faro does and why clinical trials need it 15:22 200-page protocols and the data problem 17:41 Studies designed in Microsoft Word 18:11 Treating protocols as data 19:27 Making trials faster 21:50 What AI can't replace 23:12 Leadership at the next stage of growth 25:43 What matters most as an inspiring woman 27:53 Thank you ABOUT THE GUEST Vivian DeWoskin is Chief Commercial Officer of Faro AI (formerly Faro Health), where she was first Chief Strategy Officer. She previously held strategy roles at Komodo Health and worked in life-sciences consulting. She studied neuroscience at Princeton. ABOUT THE SHOW Inspiring Women with Laurie McGraw is a podcast of honest conversations with women leaders in health, technology and business about how they built their careers and what they've learned along the way. #InspiringWomen #ClinicalTrials #AI #HealthTech #Leadership #WomenInLeadership

  3. Oct 13

    The Doctor Who Told The UN The Truth About Ebola!

    In September 2014, Ebola was killing people at the gates of her treatment centres every morning, and Dr. Joanne Liu went to the United Nations to tell member states the truth: the world was losing. A year later, on 3 October 2015, a US airstrike destroyed the Médecins Sans Frontières trauma hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing 42 people, 14 of them her colleagues. Dr. Liu led Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders as International President from 2013 to 2019, through Ebola in West Africa, the bombing of hospitals in Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen, and the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean. In this episode of Inspiring Women, Laurie McGraw asks her what those years taught her, how ready we are for the next pandemic after COVID-19, and why she wrote her new book, Ebola, Bombs, and Migrants: Humanitarian Crises in a Security-Obsessed World (House of Anansi Press, out 13 October 2026). WHAT YOU'LL LEARN - The line from Camus's The Plague that sent a teenager into medicine: never trivialize death - What leading the Ebola response in 2014 was really like, and why the world waited - Why TIME named the Ebola fighters Person of the Year - What happened in Kunduz, and why a hospital must never be a target - Why the 2025 WHO Pandemic Agreement still leaves one big question open - How fear and the "security agenda" shape who gets help, and who doesn't - Why she tells every young ER patient: you have agency - How Louise Arbour, now Governor General of Canada, became her sounding board for every hard decision - Her advice to women: never apologise for being right CHAPTERS 0:00 Trailer 0:50 Introduction 2:20 The book that sent her into medicine 3:40 Becoming a humanitarian doctor 5:15 Ebola, 2014 8:35 Kunduz: the hospital that was bombed 11:20 COVID-19 and the next pandemic 13:15 The pandemic agreement 15:20 A security-obsessed world 17:55 You have agency 18:50 Where are the leaders? 21:15 "Call me Louise": Louise Arbour 23:15 Why we need more women leaders 24:00 Advice to women ABOUT THE GUEST Dr. Joanne Liu is a paediatric emergency physician, a professor at McGill University's School of Population and Global Health, and director of its Pandemics and Emergency Readiness Lab. She was International President of Médecins Sans Frontières from 2013 to 2019, and TIME named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. ABOUT THE SHOW Inspiring Women is hosted by Laurie McGraw. Each episode features women leaders in health, science and business sharing how they built their careers and what they learned along the way. #InspiringWomen #Leadership #GlobalHealth #DoctorsWithoutBorders #Ebola #WomenInLeadership

  4. Oct 6

    It's Lonely at the Top: How 5-Time Biotech CEO Jodie Morrison Built a Network

    Jodie Morrison never planned to run a company. Her career goal was VP of Clinical, and when the board at Tokai Pharmaceuticals first offered her the CEO role, she said no. She eventually took it on one condition: her board chair would meet with her every week until she felt ready. Six months later, he asked her to take the company public. Today Jodie is CEO of Q32 Bio, a public biotech that went through a painful restructuring in 2025 and came out the other side. In 2026, Q32 reported positive Phase 2 data for bempikibart in severe alopecia areata and completed a $200 million public offering to fund its registration-directed program. In this episode of Inspiring Women, Laurie McGraw talks with Jodie about what it takes to lead through the hard years, why asking for help is a CEO skill, and how she built one of biotech's most trusted CEO networks. In this episode - Why she moved from bench science to clinical research, and the stroke patient who made her stay - Turning down the CEO role, then taking Tokai Pharmaceuticals public in 2014 - The weekly board chair meetings that helped her learn the job - Why first-time CEOs get into trouble when they "fake it till they make it" - Q32 Bio's turnaround: choosing alopecia areata, selling the kidney asset, and holding the team together - Explaining tough strategic calls to a board and to public investors - Starting The CEO Forum in March 2020, growing from 10 CEOs to more than 100 in weeks - Bringing COVID testing to Cambridge biotech employees - Using CEO survey data to push back on boards about return-to-office - How Q32 Bio is setting AI governance and training employees - Learning that the Tokai IPO had set records for women in leadership - Why women's college networks produce so many executives and board members - Her advice for early-career women: do the work, and find people who tell you it's possible About Jodie Morrison - CEO, Q32 Bio (Nasdaq: QTTB) - Former CEO, Cadent Therapeutics (acquired by Novartis) - Former President & CEO, Tokai Pharmaceuticals (led 2014 IPO) - Former interim CEO, Keryx Biopharmaceuticals; former COO, Syntimmune - Earlier clinical roles at Dyax, Curis and Diacrin - Founder, The CEO Forum - Board of Managers, Life Science Cares - B.A. Neuroscience, Mount Holyoke College About Inspiring Women Inspiring Women is hosted by Laurie McGraw. Each episode features women leaders in health, science and business sharing how they built their careers and what they learned along the way. #InspiringWomen #Biotech #WomenInLeadership #CEO #LifeSciences #AlopeciaAreata #Leadership

  5. Oct 6

    $2.2B CEO: 11,000 Americans Turn 85 Every Day And Healthcare Isn't Ready!

    Bryony Winn graduated from Oxford just after the banks crashed, applied for 102 jobs and got one offer. Today she is CEO of BAYADA Home Health Care, a $2.2 billion organization with 44,000 employees, and the first leader from outside the founding family in its 50-year history. In this episode of Inspiring Women, Laurie McGraw talks with Bryony about growing up in Zimbabwe, becoming a partner at McKinsey, running health plan operations at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina and Carelon Health, and why the founder of BAYADA asked her for a 50-year plan. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN - How growing up in Zimbabwe shaped the way she sees healthcare - The McKinsey value she still leads by: the obligation to dissent - Why she felt she had to know the data better than anyone else - What consulting doesn't teach you about leading 11,000 people - How she helped fix a claims mess after the pandemic - Why partners matter as much as mentors - The questions she asked before taking the BAYADA job - Why 11,000 people a day turning 85 changes home care - Her goal: serving one million clients a year CHAPTERS 0:00 Introduction 0:49 Moving house with three kids 1:55 Growing up in Zimbabwe 3:47 102 job applications, one offer 5:09 The obligation to dissent 6:44 Why she over-prepared 8:00 From consulting to running operations 9:13 It takes a village: leading 11,000 people 10:11 Learning what she didn't know 12:03 Fixing claims after the pandemic 13:31 Partners, not just mentors 15:16 BAYADA's first CEO from outside the family 16:42 The 50-year plan 17:48 BAYADA today: 250,000 clients a year 20:54 11,000 people a day are turning 85 22:20 From individual care to population health 24:39 The vision: one million clients a year 25:43 What she expects of herself ABOUT THE GUEST Bryony Winn is the Chief Executive Officer of BAYADA Home Health Care. She was previously President of Carelon Health at Elevance Health, held senior roles at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, and was a partner at McKinsey. She grew up in Zimbabwe and is a Rhodes Scholar. ABOUT THE SHOW Inspiring Women is hosted by Laurie McGraw. Each episode features women leaders in health, science and business sharing how they built their careers and what they learned along the way.

  6. Sep 22

    The Scientist who helped bring back Direwolves! - Dr. Beth Shapiro

    Dr. Beth Shapiro, Chief Science Officer at Colossal Biosciences, explains how her team brought back the dire wolf, what they've learned since, and how de-extinction tools are already helping endangered species like the red wolf. Hosted by Laurie McGraw on Inspiring Women. Beth Shapiro is a world-leading ancient DNA scientist, MacArthur Fellow, Rhodes Scholar, member of the National Academy of Sciences, and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Santa Cruz. She is the author of How to Clone a Mammoth (2015) and Life as We Made It (2021). IN THIS EPISODE - How Colossal de-extincts a species: ancient DNA, genome editing, cloning - Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi: life on a secure ecological preserve - Why the dire wolves will not be released into the wild - Red wolf clones and the Ghost Wolves Project with Bridgett vonHoldt - Bringing back the dodo to Mauritius, and the woolly mammoth and thylacine - New ancient DNA findings on cattle ancestry in North American bison - From broadcast journalism to Oxford and the new field of ancient DNA - Being a public face of science and changing your mind with new data KEY QUESTIONS ANSWERED What is de-extinction? Using DNA from fossils and remains to edit the genomes of living relatives so extinct traits return in living animals. Did Colossal bring back the dire wolf? Colossal announced three dire wolves in April 2025: Romulus and Remus (born October 1, 2024) and Khaleesi (born January 30, 2025). Will the dire wolves be released into the wild? No. Beth Shapiro says they will stay on a secure preserve because they would compete with struggling gray wolf populations. How does de-extinction help living species? The same cloning tools produced red wolf clones (Hope, Blaze, Cinder and Ash) to add genetic diversity to the most endangered wolf in North America. Why bring back the dodo? To restore ecosystems in Mauritius, remove invasive species, support ecotourism and protect endangered native species. Can dinosaurs be brought back? No. Ancient DNA does not survive that long. Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton was inspired by early ancient DNA research from Allan Wilson's lab at UC Berkeley. PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS MENTIONED Colossal Biosciences · UC Santa Cruz · University of Oxford · University of Georgia · Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute · Princeton University · Alan Cooper · Allan Wilson · Bridgett vonHoldt · Michael Crichton ABOUT INSPIRING WOMEN Inspiring Women with Laurie McGraw features conversations with women leading in science, health, business and technology. #BethShapiro #ColossalBiosciences #DireWolf #DeExtinction #AncientDNA #Dodo #WoollyMammoth #RedWolf #InspiringWomen #LaurieMcGraw #WomenInScience

  7. Sep 15

    CTO at U.S. Department of Health and Human Services talks about DEATH! - Susannah Fox!

    Susannah Fox spent 14 years at Pew Research mapping how Americans actually behave online, then became the third Chief Technology Officer of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Somewhere between anthropology fieldwork and the federal government, she found the through line that has driven her entire career: wherever there is an imbalance of access to information, there is unnecessary suffering, and closing that gap is where health begins. In this episode of Inspiring Women, host Laurie McGraw talks with Susannah, author of Rebel Health, A Field Guide to the Patient Led Revolution in Medical Care, about what happens when patients stop waiting for permission. She tells the story of John Costik, a father who jailbroke his four year old son's continuous glucose monitor so he could check his son's blood sugar from an Apple Watch instead of stumbling down the hallway every few hours, then shared exactly how he did it online. What started as one dad's hack became a global, patient built movement, and eventually an open source artificial pancreas system the FDA never saw coming. The conversation moves into caregiving, a role nearly 40 percent of Americans quietly carry without ever calling it work, and then into the subject most people avoid entirely: dying. Susannah is a certified death doula, and she and Laurie share deeply personal stories about caring for their own parents at the end of life, what it means to die with dignity, and why so few families ever get the chance to plan for it. Susannah explains why she believes the missing piece isn't more medicine, but better data and better stories about how people actually want to leave this world. Guest: Susannah Fox, health and technology strategist, former U.S. HHS Chief Technology Officer, and author of Rebel Health Host: Laurie McGraw Subscribe to Inspiring Women for more conversations with the women rewriting healthcare's leadership playbook. #InspiringWomen #SusannahFox #Caregiving #Healthcare #DigitalHealth

  8. Sep 8

    CEO Ending the 5-Year Diagnostic Odyssey for Kids With Genetic Disease!

    Katherine Stueland is President and CEO of GeneDx (Nasdaq: WGS), a $3 billion public company that diagnoses more children with genetic disease than any lab in the world. Since taking over in 2021, she has brought the company to profitability and launched new tests that are changing how rare disease is diagnosed. On the day of this recording, she was named a 2026 Fierce 50 honoree for Health Equity. In this episode of Inspiring Women, Katherine talks with host Laurie McGraw about: - Why it takes an average of 5 years to diagnose a child with a genetic disease, and how GeneDx now delivers a fully interpreted genome in 48 hours - GeneDx's origin story at the NIH under founder Dr. Sherri Bale, whose Gaithersburg, Maryland lab took the hardest-to-diagnose cases - How the 2013 Supreme Court ruling on gene patents opened the genomics industry - Making exome and genome testing easier for non-geneticists to order and understand, including pediatricians, cardiologists, and parents - Why "rare disease" is a misnomer when it affects 1 in 10 Americans, half of them children - Why 95% of genetic diagnoses have no FDA-approved therapy, and how more data can change that - Careful listening as a CEO skill, and balancing quick decisions with contemplation - Using gut and lived experience alongside data and AI to make big decisions Katherine previously served as Chief Commercial Officer at Invitae before joining GeneDx. Inspiring Women is hosted by Laurie McGraw. #InspiringWomen #KatherineStueland #GeneDx #RareDisease #GenomicMedicine #WomenInLeadership #HealthEquity #Fierce50

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Advancing women to healthcare leadership–and keeping them there. Women comprise 70% of the healthcare workforce. They hold just 20% of the C-suite. Each week, host Laurie McGraw bridges that gap through conversations with the women rewriting healthcare’s leadership playbook.

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