We’re continuing our employee spotlights for Women’s History Month with Patrish Ikekhide, a key member of our small but mighty Sales team with a fascinating background in foreign languages and literature. In April, Patrish will celebrate her one-year work anniversary with ScriptDrop. It’s hard to believe it’s only been that long! Keep reading to hear from Patrish herself about her role models and her perspective on working in the health tech space.
Chase: What's your title? Describe your role as if I'm brand new to ScriptDrop.
Patrish: I’m a Sales Executive here at ScriptDrop. I’m responsible for strategic relationship building of our consumer demographic in the healthcare system, independent pharmacy and pharmacy chain space. My day-to-day calls for ongoing interaction with prospective clients, educating and discovering with them how best ScriptDrop can provide solutions to their patients’ needs as it relates to prescription access. I enjoy taking our products to market and introducing the world to ScriptDrop’s vast capabilities that ultimately close costly healthcare gaps.
Chase: Women have been the backbone of healthcare as long as there has been healthcare. What does it mean to you to work in the healthcare space?
Patrish: Being a female in the healthcare space is exciting, particularly because healthcare is an age-old field and women have always been essential in delivering solutions to patients. Occupying a seat in such an important field brings me pride and makes me feel a part of a larger continuum and focus on care for humanity.
Chase: What impact do you hope to have being a woman in the technology space – a space that is often over-represented by men?
Patrish: One of my favorite women and biggest tech influencers is a lovely Ghanaian lady named Bozoma Saint-John. She’s huge in the marketing world, having worked for some of the biggest tech brands like Uber, Apple and Netflix. She once spoke about her family moving to the USA from Ghana and their moving to a small city where there were few Africans, but over time other Ghanaians arrived and a sense of community formed. That’s exactly the effect one hopes to have when they are one of few! If other women see me occupying space in tech/tech sales, they’ll see themselves in me and decide to pursue a career in tech as well. Like Bozoma, I believe where there is representation, community follows.
Chase: What would you say to girls and women who want to work in Healthcare IT? What advice would you give them?
Patrish: I’d tell other women who are looking to move into Healthcare IT to always invest time and effort in self-education as a first measure. Second, find other women they look up to, both in close proximity and at a distance as mentors will offer knowledge that would have otherwise taken them years to acquire. I’d tell them that the tech world is vast and moves quickly, but is not impossible to conquer. Everything from cloud computing to generative pretrained transformer models can easily sound and/or become intimidating, but remain intellectually curious, educate yourself, be brave, and success will follow.
Chase: What does Women's History Month mean to you? What do you hope others take from it?
Patrish: This month always gives me a chance to reflect on all of the amazing women who have influenced my career and/or personal journey. Anyone who has shared the details of their journey, spoke encouraging words, wrote books, has given speeches, sympathized with me as a working mother, and/or who offered a helping hand along the way, it's always a great time to pause and express one’s gratitude. I hope this month gives everyone moments of pause to praise the women in their lives as women are often the backbones of both homes and workspaces. Women are essential and we owe much of our lives to them!
Chase: What makes ScriptDrop a great place to work for women? How can we improve?
Patrish: ScriptDrop is a great place to work as a woman because it gives me the chance to see other women thriving in leadership roles I hope to one day occupy. ScriptDrop is a place that welcomes and accommodates thought leadership beyond other normative factors, and that alone speaks to the organization’s intentional goal to offer a space of diversity and inclusivity. Often this movement is a secondary effort within organizations, but here at ScriptDrop, it's woven into the fabric of our work, and we thank our predominantly female leadership team for taking this deliberate path.
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We’re so happy to have you on the team, Patrish. Your positive energy and ambition are an inspiration!