In healthcare, chaos is a constant, but so is the opportunity for innovation. In this episode of Success in Chaos, hosts Angela and Kandice sit down with Dawn Davison, MPH, FACHE, President of the ACHE Upstate New York Chapter and a nationally recognized leader in healthcare innovation and quality improvement.
From her early days watching her mother care for patients in one of the first AIDS clinics to leading system transformation efforts, Dawn has built a career around making healthcare better. She shares how curiosity, empathy, and relationships can drive measurable improvement — and how trust and distributed leadership fuel innovation from the front lines to the executive suite.
Dawn reflects on lessons learned from her time working in China, where cultural humility reshaped her approach to problem solving and leadership. Her advice for healthcare leaders? Optimize human workflows before automating them, empower teams to make decisions, and don’t fear failure, learn from it.
Whether she’s guiding organizational change or managing a household of five children, Dawn’s leadership philosophy is the same: clarity comes from curiosity, and progress comes from connection. This episode is a masterclass achieveing focus in chaos and in leading innovation with heart, purpose, and resilience.
Episode chapter guide:
02:55 The Importance of Relationships in Healthcare
07:55 Empowering Teams and Leadership Development
12:48 Navigating Technology in Healthcare
19:53 Success Amidst Chaos: Lessons Learned
23:49 Balancing Leadership and Personal Life
29:20 Cultural Insights from International Experience
Dawn’s book recommendations:
- Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life…And Maybe the World by Admiral William H. McRaven
- Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell
- River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler
Full Transcript
AI-generated transcript. Accuracy may vary; please excuse any transcription errors.
Angela Adams, RN (00:09)
Welcome to Success in Chaos. This is a healthcare podcast where each episode is dedicated to unlocking success amid rapid change and uncertainty. I’m Angela Adams, CEO of Inflo Health.
Kandice Garcia Tomkins, RN (00:23)
I’m Kandice Garcia, the Quality Improvement Director for the ACR Learning Network and owner of Tungsten QI Partners. Our guest today is Dawn Davison, a nationally recognized healthcare leader and innovator, and President of the ACHE Upstate New York Chapter, where she champions leadership development and system transformation. From international health work to operational leadership to process improvement, Dawn has always pursued one goal: making healthcare better.
She’s known for helping organizations navigate healthcare chaos, bringing clarity to complexity, and driving meaningful innovation. Welcome, Dawn, and thank you for joining us.
Dawn Davison, MPH, FACHE (01:02)
Thank you—such a nice introduction.
Angela Adams, RN (01:07)
Dawn, it’s amazing to have you. We like to start with something fun for the audience: two truths and a lie. Kandice and I will guess—what’ve you got?
Dawn Davison, MPH, FACHE (01:25)
Okay: I climbed Mount McKinley. I had a child in China. And I worked at an AIDS clinic.
Angela Adams, RN (01:44)
Ooh, that’s tough. I think you did have a child in China. Maybe the first one’s the lie—did you climb Mount McKinley?
Kandice Garcia Tomkins, RN (02:03)
That was my guess too. Which one is it, Dawn?
Dawn Davison, MPH, FACHE (02:11)
You’re right—I didn’t climb any mountain like that. I climbed the Great Wall of China, but not Mount McKinley.
Kandice Garcia Tomkins, RN (02:23)
(laughs)
Angela Adams, RN (02:25)
That’s amazing. I’m excited to hear your journey and your story. Kandice, want to kick us off?
Kandice Garcia Tomkins, RN (02:36)
Yes. Dawn, let’s start at the beginning. What drew you into healthcare, and how has that shaped your approach to leadership and problem-solving? It sounds like solving problems in healthcare is your specialty.
Dawn Davison, MPH, FACHE (02:55)
I grew up with my mom working as a nurse in one of the first AIDS clinics in Rochester. She cared for high-risk populations and modeled volunteerism—right after being a mother came serving the community. I learned that we serve our communities; that’s our responsibility.
In college, I pursued internships in healthcare and followed that path. Today, I try to understand others first. When groups ask for help, I bring everyone to the table and work toward a common understanding of the current state—how we each define the problem—before talking about the past or the future. It takes real effort to put humans first—yourself and those around you—but that’s the foundation of how I serve.
Kandice Garcia Tomkins, RN (04:59)
We hear an underlying theme from many leaders: of course we serve patients, but there’s also a real need to serve one another. Why do strong relationships matter so much in healthcare, and how do you build them so people move in the same direction?
Dawn Davison, MPH, FACHE (05:35)
Everything is connected. If you can’t acknowledge that, that’s the first barrier. I pride myself on building and maintaining relationships and addressing barriers when they arise. I’m always asking: who knows the answer, and who should be at the table? We can’t wait for the next board or committee meeting—half the time the answer is right in front of us, but we don’t know the person who has it.
I worked in China for seven years, where guanxi—relationship-building—is essential. That’s become a core part of who I am as a leader.
Angela Adams, RN (07:03)
As someone who works with health systems daily, one of my frustrations is when multiple groups all agree there’s a patient safety gap, everyone wants the solution, and then at the end it’s, “Who’s going to quarterback this?” Everyone wants it; no one owns it. How have you bridged that gap in your organization—building passion and ownership?
Dawn Davison, MPH, FACHE (07:55)
We recently saw a systemwide pain point with outpatient no-shows. It affects patients and families, physicians’ schedules, staff productivity, and even readmissions when follow-up is missed. It’s a big opportunity, but every executive’s plate is full.
At Rochester Regional Health, our Performance Excellence and Innovation teams traditionally run projects with an executive sponsor to avoid wasting time and to remove barriers. When that’s not possible, we push accountability, autonomy, and authority to managers and team members. Our goal is leadership at all levels, from frontline to executive.
Kandice Garcia Tomkins, RN (09:26)
That trust to make decisions up and down the chain is critical, but it isn’t always addressed. Leaders need skills: how to lead, how to decide, where the decision boundaries are, and how to work autonomously within them. Do you drive that within your team, or does it come from above?
Dawn Davison, MPH, FACHE (10:39)
Both. I feel strongly about it at my level, and I hear it from the CEO/COO level too: let team members make decisions and engage them. You have to start somewhere. Don’t be afraid of failure—breaking the fear of failure is critical to culture change at work and beyond. If something goes wrong, we ask, “What happened? What can we learn?” That mindset alone changes people’s energy.
Kandice Garcia Tomkins, RN (11:33)
We’ve seen organizations where “disseminated leadership” is the water they swim in—from the C-suite to the frontline. They practice trying, failing, learning, and evolving. We don’t have the option not to innovate. Without a learning culture, you won’t get far.
Dawn Davison, MPH, FACHE (12:23)
Exactly. Many of us come from black-and-white procedures. We’re implementing a Just Culture approach that says: yes, there are black-and-white elements, but when something doesn’t seem right, turn on critical thinking and use judgment. Everyone wins when we do that. It can feel unusual, but it’s a crucial skill at work and in the community.
Kandice Garcia Tomkins, RN (13:22)
Healthcare is full of capable people drawn to serve. If you, as a leader, harness that capability and give autonomy, you can move the organization in a meaningful direction—and people get excited about it. They want to feel connected to healthcare’s evolution.
Dawn Davison, MPH, FACHE (14:21)
Mm-hmm.
Kandice Garcia Tomkins, RN (14:23)
You lead in quality and change. We’re deep into a technology era. What shifts are you managing around tech and staffing?
Dawn Davison, MPH, FACHE (14:47)
It’s been a long shift toward reliance on technology. Every workflow is moving that way. That makes this the best time to pause and optimize the human workflows connected to the tech. Optimize now and often. If you adopt tech before refining process, the technology becomes the constraint, and change is harder. Sometimes you need to “turn the technology off,” fix the workflow, then reintroduce the tech.
Kandice Garcia Tomkins, RN (16:09)
People ask, “Why can’t we just integrate the technology?” It’s not that simple. Every workflow must be understood and redesigned so tech fits meaningfully. Many vendors know tech, not healthcare workflows. Integration happens one workflow at a time, across many roles and exams—that’s why decisions can take years. Did I capture that?
Dawn Davison, MPH, FACHE (17:28)
Totally. And engaging vendors as true partners is key. They want success as much as we do. Shared accountability beats the blame game every time.
Angela Adams, RN (18:05)
I agree. In the ACR Learning Network’s ImPower program, building trust early transformed our vendor-partner relationships. Sites now come to us with “This might not be right—can we check it?” It’s iterative and collaborative, instead of blame. I’ve seen big tech come into healthcare thinking it’s easy, then quietly exit because the nuance is real.
The podcast is called Success in Chaos for a reason. If you had to name a couple of things that drove success amid chaos in your career, what would they be?
Dawn Davison, MPH, FACHE (20:07)
During COVID, I stepped into a role with several managers across different operations. I assumed we were one team, but many had never met. We started daily huddles; within a month or two, they became colleagues—backups, brainstorm partners, true teammates. Over two years, that cohesion became normal—but it isn’t normal everywhere; it needs to be fostered.
Across boards, committees, work teams, or at home, there’s always a lot to do. Assigning tasks top-down rarely matches skills. I prefer to put all the work on the wall: pick what you hate (don’t do that), pick what you don’t mind (own that), and we’ll divvy up the rest. It’s more productive over time and more engaging. I use that approach at work and at home.
Kandice Garcia Tomkins, RN (22:28)
You’ve got a big role at work—and at home. And Dawn has five kids! For many women leaders listening, how do you keep it straight? How do your roles mirror and differ?
Dawn Davison, MPH, FACHE (23:21)
I align what matters to me as a person, community member, and leader—at work and at home. If I had to change who I am in each setting, balance would be harder. Using the same core skills across contexts makes me more valuable.
Every space has different personalities. I can be the pessimist in a room full of optimists or vice versa. At home, my five kids all have different personalities—just like any team.
Kandice Garcia Tomkins, RN (24:24)
Your own little team at home. (laughs)
Dawn Davison, MPH, FACHE (24:28)
And I have an identical twin I get to work with now. We look and sound the same, but we’re very different—people point that out all the time.
Kandice Garcia Tomkins, RN (24:45)
Oh my gosh, I want to meet her—two of you! I’d love to work with that team. (laughs)
Angela Adams, RN (24:54)
I have a sister too. We’re not twins, but people confuse us. We sound identical on the phone until we laugh. In high school, she was shy and would ask me to break up with her boyfriend for her. We’d switch on the phone.
Kandice Garcia Tomkins, RN (25:09)
(laughs) Use the resources you have.
Dawn Davison, MPH, FACHE (25:19)
Exactly. And lean into different skills. My brother once said during a family transition, “Everyone has a role, and you know yours.” When people recognize that, we work more as a team.
In health systems, everyone ultimately wants what’s best for the patient. We need to say that out loud and remind each other—we doubt ourselves and each other less when we return to that shared purpose.
Kandice Garcia Tomkins, RN (26:34)
You’re echoing what we hear from many leaders: a shared goal and vision—the patient. It’s “simple” to state but hard to maintain alignment. Showing up as your authentic self is core to good leadership. When leaders do that, others can too, and the team becomes a real toolbox moving the organization forward. Watching you do this in your organization, community, home, and nationally through ACHE gives me hope.
Angela Adams, RN (28:05)
We’re all in this together, and that’s a good thing.
Dawn Davison, MPH, FACHE (28:16)
You’re very kind. I feel lucky to have worked with you—even before we started this conversation. You’ve been a great resource for me and my organization, and easy to reach for answers or direction. People need to feel comfortable asking.
Kandice Garcia Tomkins, RN (28:39)
That’s what it’s all about—relationships.
Angela Adams, RN (28:40)
Kandice is such a light. She’ll find a way to help, even if it’s not her specialty. Dawn, you mentioned your time in China—what else did you bring back from that experience?
Dawn Davison, MPH, FACHE (29:20)
I was the “type A” one in my family—on time, organized, bothered by disorder. Living abroad put me in an unpredictable space. I couldn’t control or predict things. It became a massive lesson to relax, be agile, learn, and stay curious.
My sister jokes that I came back always running late. (laughs) What I really learned is that culture and perspective differ. Two truths can exist at once depending on your vantage point. At an international hospital, we worked with physicians and communities from around the world and built relationships with embassies and schools to make care easier. Here in Rochester, our refugee clinic serves a similar purpose—language access and cultural navigation. I won’t know everything, but I remain deeply curious.
Kandice Garcia Tomkins, RN (32:00)
Curiosity and letting go of rigid expectations are incredible life skills—especially in transitions: new jobs, travel, or uncertainty. They matter for leaders and patients because every community is different. Dawn, we always close with book recommendations. What’s on your list?
Dawn Davison, MPH, FACHE (33:25)
Make Your Bed by Admiral William H. McRaven; Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell; and River Town by Peter Hessler—a memoir about navigating cultural differences in rural China. I return to it often.
Kandice Garcia Tomkins, RN (34:00)
Timely and important—especially as we navigate differences and remember we’re all people with different experiences. We can choose to learn with curiosity. Thank you for those. This has been lovely. I keep telling Dawn we need another Learning Network project—I miss working together.
Dawn Davison, MPH, FACHE (34:56)
(laughs)
Kandice Garcia Tomkins, RN (34:59)
Thank you so much for joining us. And thanks to our audience for listening to Success in Chaos. Please like, follow, and share on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Special thanks to the Inflo Health team for production support.
Angela Adams, RN (35:00)
Thank you so much, Dawn.
Dawn Davison, MPH, FACHE (35:02)
Thank you both for having me. I appreciate it.
