The 2020 Women Leaders in Technology: Laura Kreofsky

"I was working in operations for a health plan and helping design a health record database; my boss/mentor told me 'Laura, healthcare IT is really the way to go,'" she says. "I trusted her and thought IT was pretty interesting so I took the leap. I was an early entrant to the field (especially for a woman) and it's been a great ride so far."

Over her career, she has led advanced IT initiatives for clients in the private and public sectors at organizations including Kaiser Permanente, Stanford Healthcare, the Wisconsin Department of Health and MediClinic, South Africa. Her clients praise her expertise and exceptional delivery skills and trust her acumen, integrity and leadership.

"The intellectual challenge of translating and aligning business strategy, technology evolution, and increasingly complex regulations—in ever-changing client environments," Kreofsky says. Focusing her expertise on the regulatory issues facing the Healthcare IT industry is what excites her over the next 12 months, she says. "The data privacy and interoperability rules are complex and will require deep understanding and expertise."

Kreofsky also serves on the Oregon HIMSS Board, promoting inclusive events and encouraging the participation of female professionals. Additionally, she leads a women in health IT networking group in Portland, Oregon.

"I wish, early in my education/career, I'd had the confidence to delve deeper into computer programming and IT, but I lacked the confidence," she says. "Over the last 25-plus years I've made up for that with a lot of self-learning, and more importantly, a lot of great smarter-than-me colleagues who've shared their technical expertise to help me learn on the fly."

To that end, she says she received some great advice early in her career from a female colleague at a Big 5 consulting firm: "Never surprise your boss—the client and / or the one that signs your paycheck."  

A second great piece of advice from her mother (a widow with eight kids and an entrepreneur) was 'we'll figure it out.' "This is one of my life mantras—I can work through the messy stuff," she says. 

As far as winning Consulting's Women Leaders in Technology award, Kreofsky says that it's an honor. "I see it as a hallmark of my tenure in consulting, my passion for healthcare and technology, and my commitment to and pleasure I receive in opening doors and sustaining relationships with other women in this field." 

What would you consider your greatest personal or professional achievement?

Kreofsky: "Personally: For many years I was an endurance athlete—I loved the challenge, comradery and feeling of success from triathlons, 24-hour mountain bike races, and long trail runs. Professionally, well, this award is pretty cool…"