Allison Flood, 28

Allison Flood says she’s the type of person who likes to know how things work.

That’s a big reason why working at LeeSar is a perfect fit. A nonprofit cooperative that distributes medical devices and surgical equipment, Lee Memorial Health System and Sarasota Memorial Health System founded LeeSar in 1998. The organization, which also prepares food and repairs surgical instruments for area hospitals and other health care organizations, is run out of a 205,000-square-foot facility in Fort Myers.

Flood, a Cape Coral native and the daughter of a registered nurse and an accountant, got a job at LeeSar in 2013, three years she after graduated from North Carolina State. (She met her husband, fellow 40 under 40 winner Adam Flood, in college.) With degrees in statistics and business management, Flood says she never saw herself working in health care — at least not in patient care. But she’s grown to appreciate the complexities in an organization that prepares health care workers to succeed. 

Flood started at LeeSar as a data analyst but rose through the organization quickly, with multiple promotions. In her current role Flood oversees a group of employees who process sterile surgical equipment. “I’m one of those people who if something needs to be done, then I get it done,” Flood says.

She’s taken several courses on Six Sigma and lean manufacturing, and has helped implement several lean process systems at LeeSar. Says Flood: “I like to find the fastest way to get from point A to point B.”

— Mark Gordon

Q&A

Name: Allison Flood

Age: 28

City of residence: Cape Coral

Twitter handle: Don’t have twitter --- Instagram is allie_d14

Employer: LeeSar

Title: Director of Operations, Sterile Processing

Birthplace: Cape Coral, FL

Years on the Gulf Coast: 18 years, left for 5 years for college, back now for 3 years

Marital status/children: Married, husband Adam; 2 children, Jax and Lexi (coming 10/2016!)

College: North Carolina State University; (2) Bachelor’s in Statistics and Business Management

Best place to network: In my 3.5 years at LeeSar, I have attended the Censitrac conference 4 times which has been immensely useful in creating contacts at other hospitals both for Censitrac user information as well as general hospital policies and finding new and better products. I also actively use LinkedIn to stay connected with individuals both in and outside of my field to draw on different, unexpected techniques for problem solving and other opportunities.

Coolest business experience: About a year ago, our health system hosted a cross-departmental change management seminar that include senior leadership.  It was priceless having the opportunity to interact with the leaders that developed LeeSar and our health system into the amazing organizations they are today.  We shared learning experiences and worked directly with front-line leadership to define priorities and potential improvement strategies.  It was an incredible opportunity!

Messy desk or clean workspace: Clean workspace, to an extent.  Everything has its own place.  Just because no one else can find it doesn’t make it messy, right?

Best business lesson ever learned: “Slowing down to go fast.”  As a “doer,” sometimes it is easy to get carried away with wanting to create positive change without first stopping to evaluate all of the repercussions that come with change.  We must also ensure that we have the proper change management communications in place before moving forward.

A website that makes your job easier: Sharepoint.  It’s an online repository for documents we use to share pertinent information with all of the right individuals across our hospital system that eliminates that messy string of emails.  Also, Google.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  Our department processes millions of instruments a year, so sometimes a picture is the best way to communicate a need or changes in inventory!

Community group you’re most involved with: USA South Volleyball, coaching 12-18 year old girls.

Favorite off-hours activity: Spending time with my family.  With a two year old boy, it’s a fun challenge to find new and stimulating things to help burn off some of that energy!

Two people, dead or alive, you’d like to have dinner with: Henry Ford for so many reasons! First, he’s most famous for using the assembly line to produce a quality automobile at an affordable price, which is our motto here at LeeSar. Second, there are so many incredible quotes attributed to him, that I feel like a lifetime’s worth of insights could be found in one simple dinner with him. “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”

My Grandfather, Robert Scherb, who passed away from lung cancer when I was twelve.  He was an engineer that created several technological pieces that were patented by the company he worked for.  He also built massive sailboats from the ground up. I think that I got a lot of my personality traits from him, so it would be such an interesting dinner to get his perspective on processes and life.

What you would be doing if you could pick another career: While I wouldn’t change careers right now, even if I had the choice…I would probably pursue coaching volleyball at the collegiate level.  Collegiate coaching is a cutthroat business that requires a coach to get the best out of their players at all times.  As a former college athlete, I always have loved the opportunity to give back to other girls pursuing scholarships and their dreams of playing volleyball at that level.

Top item on your bucket list: To actually take a honeymoon with my husband. We postponed our honeymoon to pursue our careers, education, and start our family, so the first thing I would like to do on my personal wish list is to take a time-out from life with him!  

Skill you’d like to learn: The skill I would most like to learn and continue to grow in is inspiring and empowering the people around me. As I continue to grow in my roles with LeeSar, we will need a strong team of empowered individuals to continue all of the improvements and growth that our team has worked so hard to accomplish.   

Who would play you in a movie about your life: Famke Janssen, primarily because she is 6 feet tall and I loved her role in X-Men, soft spoken but not afraid to take action 

If I had a magic wand I’d: Eliminate childhood cancer.  With a healthy 2 year old boy and a little girl on the way, I can only imagine how hard it would be to watch my child struggle through such a terrible disease.