PBN BUSINESS WOMEN AWARDS 2020 OUTSTANDING MENTOR: Ann M. Kashmanian | Brown Medicine
ANN M. KASHMANIAN, CEO of Brown Medicine, has played a vital role in professional lives of the people that she’s mentored, helping them to navigate the maze-like structure of modern health care.
Maintaining organizational order and flow among the numerous physicians and offices that comprise Brown Medicine has been one of Kashmanian’s chief concerns since she arrived in 2016, originally as the East Providence-based nonprofit’s chief financial officer. Her improvements include hiring a new chief information officer, retooling senior management for better synergy with division directors and helping those directors up their revenue.
“You have to continually look to where you’re moving as an organization,” Kashmanian said in regard to her approach.
Now as CEO, Kashmanian has crafted a strategic plan for Brown Medicine. The organization is focusing on two points: Supporting physicians and expanding patient services.
“We really looked at streamlining operations and making sure they were supportive of the physicians,” she said. The aim, Kashmanian said, is to ensure “physicians give everyone the support they need but at a reasonable cost to physician groups.”
“She’s probably the most diplomatic person I’ve ever met, and she truly leads by example,” said Felicia Catallozzi, administrator at Brown Neurology, one of Brown Medicine’s partner organizations.
‘I would say ... [Ann Kashmanian is] like the sphinx. She knows all.’
Felicia Catallozzi, Brown Neurology administrator
At the same time, Kashmanian said Brown Medicine has been “very cognizant of improving [the] patient experience.” One means of doing this is “[pivoting] the organization to a new way of delivering care,” she said, such as introducing a robust patient portal and telemedicine options.
Rolling out sweeping systematic changes such as these requires not only vision but an understanding of specificity. The detail-heavy complexity of health care finance was appealing to Kashmanian when she was obtaining her master’s degree at Northeastern University.
“There’s a lot of intricacies in the finance itself,” she said. “There’s a lot of strategy [involved].”
An inclination toward nonprofits further honed her talents for intellectually demanding accounting. Brown Medicine, as a nonprofit multispeciality medical group, is a fusion of both fields.
Kashmanian’s strategic acumen was forged in the decades prior to Brown. She spent 16 years with Lifespan Corp., where she held executive finance positions at three different hospitals. Her final role was senior vice president of financial operations and care management for all of Lifespan.
As that job history might suggest, Kashmanian is sagacious when it comes to the financial and managerial scaffolding of Rhode Island health care. Or, as Catallozzi said: “She truly embodies every kind of qualification for a mentor. She comes with a lot of knowledge and she’s willing to share.”
Catallozzi worked in skilled nursing care before her move to Brown Neurology – a “much different background,” she said. Kashmanian’s expertise and guidance were invaluable as Catallozzi learned the ropes of contracting and operations.
Kashmanian entered the health care industry in an era when even fewer women occupied leadership positions. She’s since seen the growth of woman-to-woman support in the workplace, and she believes opportunities such as the Women’s Summit at Bryant University and The United Way’s Women United group are valuable for young professional women.
Kashmanian said her early career lacked women role models, but this hardly means she was without direction. “I was fortunate to have a number of mentors who helped guide me in my career, both male and female,” she said. Arthur Sampson, president of The Miriam Hospital, was one of those mentors and a major influence, Kashmanian said.
For Kashmanian, mentoring is a form of “giving back,” and it involves actively promoting and recognizing people’s contributions.
“When people know you’re interested in their career, they work harder for your organization,” she said. “To be able to identify talent and nurture talent … strengthens your organization. In the long term, it’s good for everybody.”
As Catallozzi sees it, Kashmanian has a vastness of knowledge to share. “I would say she’s like the sphinx. She knows all. I can’t think of one thing that she doesn’t know,” Catallozzi said. ”