We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dr. Aaron Johnson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Dr. Johnson thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I think the biggest risk I have taken has been with my career. I graduated highest honors with my Doctor of Pharmacy degree. Typically the next move is to either find a role in whichever pharmacy specialty you want to pursue, or get into a residency or fellowship program. I chose neither, and many people, inside and outside of my field, warned me to take a more traditional approach. Most of the feedback alluded to the fact that what I want to do is not a “real” career. I am a true believer that we are all here to serve a specific purpose and I will always tell others to follow their passion, and that’s exactly what I did. I took an unorthodox approach and decided to carve out a career in health equity and DEI, which are my two main areas of interest. I have always had an affinity for philanthropy and giving underrepresented and marginalized communities access to resources they otherwise could not obtain. In light of this, I decided to use my training as a pharmacist to be a vehicle for me to create sustainable change for these underrepresented communities. I have now been able to create sustainable health equity programs for these communities by addressing each of the social determinants of health. I have done this while working in collaboration with many large companies, health systems, centers of academia, and non profit organizations. The DEI side of my work goes hand in hand with the health equity work I conduct because it’s not enough to create the change, but to create an inclusive environment for everyone to be able to thrive in. The DEI education as well as understanding the value proposition of why it’s important for all stakeholders involved is a key piece in the work that I do. It took much effort to carve out a career in this space but it’s a risk I would take again if given the opportunity. Everyday I get to enjoy the work that I am doing and I feel very fulfilled, so far I would say the risk has turned out successful because you can’t put a price on happiness and fulfillment and I am blessed to have both currently.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a pharmacist that works in the health equity and DEI space as a consultant through my advisory services. Health equity is the ability of all people to reach their highest level of health. DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; each one of those play a role in creating engaged and happy employees and helps build a more just culture for organizations. As a health equity consultant, I spearhead initiatives that allow historically marginalized communities to receive more access to care. To accomplish this, I create strategic plans using logic models mainly. Logic models are essentially a picture of how a program is intended to work by illustrating the resources (inputs) required to implement a program, the activities and outputs within the program, and the desired outcome. I also conduct research and obtain data, stratify the collected data; meaning I sort the data into distinct groups which allows me to look at the population as various subgroups. An example of this is I may look at the demographics of a county and realize that there is a disparity in African Americans who, in this case, have a 3x chance of dying in the emergency department from cardiac or respiratory issues. My job would be to understand the disease states and ailments that could be causing this, why is this community in particular being disproportionately affected versus other communities, what societal and political factors are playing a role (social and political determinants of health), identify key stakeholders in the community to partner with, and most important learn from the residents of the community themselves to fully understand the issues. From here, I develop a longitudinal program to curb the desired health inequity. On the DEI side of what I do I work with organizations to create more inclusive and equitable environments that have altruistic as well as fiscal implications for long term goals and viability. I conduct theoretical and skill based trainings around different aspects of being culturally competent. I also work with organizations on their long term DEI strategy as it pertains to ratings and returns. For example, many hospitals and entities are shifting from the fee-for-service model of healthcare to the value based care model. In a value based care model healthcare provider’s payments are linked to the quality of care each patient receives determined by many different measures. The most common denominator in the grand scheme of this is people; people provide services to other people and the quality of the service provided ultimately comes down to that relationship. Knowing this, I work with organizations to create strategic plans to make sure their staff feels welcomed, heard, has individuals that looks like them, has support systems, and the staff is indicative of the community they serve. This ultimately leads to better quality of care and in turn better fiscal returns and ratings for the health system.

The healthcare industry has a vast amount of obstacles for people to navigate, ranging from health insurance, what is covered versus what is not, out of pocket cost, access to high quality resources and providers, scheduling issues, transportation to appointments, access to quality food, access to medications, health literacy gaps, geriatric care, and the list goes on. I am blessed to be in a position to help individuals navigate the healthcare journey and create more access to care for everyone. Not everyone is afforded the same opportunities and access to resources, but that doesn’t mean everyone’s quality of care should differ; I am happy to try and bridge that gap and hopefully allow individuals to reach their highest health status.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

I have stated this in many interviews previously and I will say it again, I truly believe the best way to grow any business or practice, outside of having the necessary skills and understanding your market, is relationship building. I can almost sketch a map of all of my current and previous clients showcasing how each relationship lead to the next one. Everyone knows someone, and that someone may very well be your next client. My point is treat everyone well and with respect, your ability to connect more effectively comes with time and interactions but it doesn’t cost anything to be pleasant. I run a scholarship that is 100% student run and I always tell my staff when we discuss professional development “Always be nice and try to connect with people. Best case scenario is that it leads to a new opportunity for you, worst case scenario you just made a new friend.” Do not discount connecting with someone because they may not have a title that you find valuable, this goes back to my original point, you don’t know who knows who.

Another strategy for me that has been effective in growing my clientele is staying connected to my field of practice through board appointments, serving on committees, publishing articles, and attending functions with like minded individuals. People want to see that you’re actively involved in the work you conduct, it adds a level of credibility to what you do so I would highly advise others to try and do the same. The return on investment is exponential. Lastly, I think working with people who know much more than me has helped me grow my clientele. It is very important to never lose that thirst for knowledge, I make sure to always have mentors and colleagues that are at the highest level so that I can learn all I can from them. It pushes both of us to be better which allows me to provide high quality services.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

In our society there is a belief that if you work hard enough then you will undoubtedly become successful throughout your career. That is something I had to face and unlearn at a very young age because that isn’t reality. Let me make something very clear, if that was the case then half of the work I conduct would not be needed and wealth inequalities and significant wage gaps would not exist. There would not be a need to have equitable systems in place to curb the return on investments from “working hard.” Hard work has been romanticized by corporations since their inception. I understand the importance of hard work and how it correlates to success but I think sometimes we are a bit misguided; hard work does in fact correlate to success, but correlation does not mean causation. This notion also completely dismisses the social inequalities that exist by covering it with a band aid by saying “you just need to work harder.” The reality is having access to resources, people, and opportunities are some of the biggest factors that separate “successful” people from others. Hard work is subjective in itself, I personally believe many manual labor employees work significantly harder everyday than certain CEO’s but yet they are not being compensated the same. Society told them though that they would be successful with that hard work and effort and it’s not true. Having unlearned that has allowed me to be able to face the realities of the real world with more tact and efficiency. A large portion of my work has a direct impact in debunking this antiquated narrative and I am blessed to be able to shed light on such an important topic.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everyonelovesaaron/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-johnson-pharmd-59329b193/