Since LaShonda first joined the industry, healthcare organizations and technology companies have come to realize how tech can improve the quality of the patient experience while reducing cost across the care lifecycle. This supports better clinical decisions and introduces innovative therapies faster. 

“At Salesforce we are creating a way for our platform to be transformative in the healthcare space. Today’s healthcare consumers are far better educated than they were even a decade ago. Our expectations are different in terms of what we’re willing to accept from clinical professionals. The engagement model is outcome-based. Salesforce wants to use its platform to democratize the ability for all of us to have better outcomes.”

So what’s the next big task to tackle? LaShonda believes the biggest healthcare challenge facing us today — domestically and abroad — is increasing the proportion of those vaccinated against COVID to those unvaccinated. And the challenge is twofold: vaccine supply chain optimization and vaccine education. 

“I'll speak for many African-American communities. There’s hesitancy. ‘Am I going to take the vaccine? Do I know what's in it?’ And we're trying to help our customers confront this challenge.”

Of course, LaShonda acknowledges there are plenty of challenges in healthcare writ large, but response to the pandemic encapsulates many with an added sense of urgency.

“We need to understand how our platform can help accelerate manufacturing and streamline supply chains. We need to create awareness and education systems, organize medical affairs teams to engage with communities, and distribute vaccines. Then there’s vaccine tracking, and, with vaccine mandates, that conversation becomes even more complex.”

Often emphasized by CEO Marc Benioff, “Business is a platform for change.” In HLS that means talking with physicians, healthcare payers and providers, regulators, medical equipment manufacturers, and pharmaceutical companies, who turn research into life-saving vaccines. “Salesforce plays a role in every one of those spaces,” notes LaShonda.

Moderna, a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA therapeutics and vaccines – including a COVID-19 vaccine – recently became a Salesforce customer. LaShonda comments, “We want to help them create the future of vaccine development and distribution. This is a cloud-first company that’s a pioneer in modern medicine.

In addition to Salesforce’s notable presence in the healthcare industry, the company’s core value of equality and commitment to drive diversity and inclusion in the workplace largely resonate with LaShonda.

“It's not just what we do; it's who we are. We’re committed to equality. Now, do we have it right yet? Nope. But guess what? No one else does either.”

She believes there’s a tenacity and commitment to getting it right and notes Salesforce’s recruiting efforts to build a more diverse workforce.

“I have an internal recruiter, I have an external recruiter, and I have an equality recruiter. Never in my career have I had a recruiter focused just on equality. One of the biggest challenges tech companies face is when a person like me has an informational interview, they look across the table, and don’t see anyone who looks like them.”

Furthermore, Salesforce has 12 Equality Groups focused on underrepresented groups and issues that matter to them. As a new employee, LaShonda sat back and observed, “Wow, we're talking about these issues. It's not taboo. We’re having those difficult conversations. We're actually putting some meat on the bone.”