Rising Stars of the Profession: Brooke Seffren

After receiving her MPH from Columbia University, Brooke Seffren started her career at HCSC working with their internal consulting group. She engaged on various strategy and process improvement engagements across all lines of business on behalf of the executive leadership team. During her time at FQA, Brooke has helped lead various Digital Health engagements and industry studies. Brooke lives in Northern California with her husband and rescue dog, Flo, and enjoys skiing any time she can at Heavenly, winery hopping in Napa, trying any and all food, and watching/talking about movies.

What do you consider your greatest personal or professional achievement?

My greatest personal achievement is a tie between marrying a terrific life partner, my husband Chris, and making the decision to adopt our rescue dog, Florence! Both bring me such joy and support on a daily basis. As for professional achievements, a few years ago I worked with a client on assessing the process that nurses and social workers follow to conduct health risk assessments and individualized plans of care for Medicaid members. When my team and I synthesized pain points and recommendations in a slide deck, one of the issues that surfaced was the waste of time and money spent traveling, specifically when a member is paired with a nurse or social worker that lives far away. And so, I decided to teach myself how to use Tableau and create an interactive map of the targeted Medicaid population, to better illustrate in a graphical format with associated hard data just how significant the issue was and what the projected savings could be if travel assignments were optimized. This was eye-opening for the client, who decided to continue using a similar map dashboard approach to manage assignments after our engagement.

What advice would you give a professional just beginning a career in consulting?

Find trusted mentors who are willing to take you under their wing and do everything you can to learn from them, whether it is core consulting skills, people management skills, subject matter expertise in the type(s) consulting you are passionate about, etc. Additionally, never lose your humility and desire to learn and grow from those around you.

What have you loved most about your consulting career?

First, I hit the jackpot when it comes to coworkers. I look forward to going to work every day because of the people I work with. Not only are they smart and incredibly talented, but they bring their authentic selves to work and make mundane tasks fun. Additionally, I have loved the opportunity to work with such a diverse set of clients and have access to long-tenured, seasoned executives, especially so early in my career.

What's the best advice—personal or professional—you've ever received?

To lead with kindness, always, and remember what a strength it can be.

What does being honored as a Rising Star mean to you?

It is a testament to the leaders in my life and what an enormous impact they have had on me in the first few years of my career. It is empowering to be recognized via this award amongst other rising stars that are beyond impressive.