Hi there,

Welcome to Issue #129!

⬇️ This week’s highlights! ⬇️

• Your Brain is Already Shaping Your Career—Here’s How to Use it on Purpose-Neuroscience offers practical insights into reflection, decision-making, and building a career with intention.

• Upcoming Event-This month features a community networking event and how to plan your 2026 goals and achieve them.

• Women’s Health Jobs- Your next role might be here: 100+ new women’s health openings.!

Thanks for being here.  Let’s keep building the future of health- together.  

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Designing Your 2026: The Neuroscience of Goal-Setting in Women’s Health Careers

If you work in women’s health—or are trying to break into the field—you’re likely carrying more than career ambition. You’re carrying purpose, personal experience, and often a sense that the stakes feel higher here than in other industries.

Many people in this space are deeply mission-driven, but few are taught how to translate that motivation into intentional, sustainable career growth. What’s often missing isn’t effort or values—it’s an understanding of how goal-setting actually works in the brain.

In a recent community session, we explored how reflection, dreaming, and goal-setting function neurologically and why these processes matter as we head into 2026.

What followed was part neuroscience lesson, part career strategy, and part invitation to think more expansively about what’s possible.

Why Goal-Setting Works (According to Your Brain)

Goal-setting isn’t just motivational language. When done well, it activates systems in the brain that directly influence focus, behavior, and follow-through.

The prefrontal cortex—responsible for planning and decision-making—allows us to imagine future scenarios and map backward from where we want to be. When you picture your career one year from now—your role, your impact, your day-to-day life—you’re engaging this system to begin constructing a path forward.

The brain’s dopamine system reinforces progress. Each achieved goal, even a small one, releases dopamine, which fuels motivation. This is why breaking big goals into smaller milestones works: momentum is biological, not just psychological.

Emotion matters too. When goals are emotionally meaningful—when you can feel what success would be like—you’re far more likely to stay committed. This is why connecting your career to a deeper “why” is so powerful, especially in women’s health.

Visualization strengthens these processes. Mentally rehearsing success activates many of the same neural pathways as real-world practice, preparing your brain and behavior to move in that direction.

The Reticular Activating System: Your Career Filter

One of the most overlooked systems in goal-setting is the reticular activating system (RAS), which filters what information reaches conscious awareness.

Your brain takes in enormous amounts of data every second. The RAS decides what gets through. Once you set a clear goal, your brain starts flagging anything related to it as relevant.

This is why, after deciding you want to work in women’s health, you suddenly notice job postings, conferences, founders, and conversations that always existed—but were previously invisible.

Clear goals don’t just guide action; they retrain attention. Vague goals produce vague results. Clarity is one of the most powerful career tools you can build.

The Power of Dreaming Without Constraints

Before goals come dreaming—and dreaming requires temporarily removing constraints.

Mortgages, caregiving responsibilities, geography, and financial pressure are real. But when they dominate the dreaming phase, they narrow possibility before it has a chance to form. For high-achievers, this step can feel uncomfortable or impractical—but skipping it often leads to misaligned goals later.

Unconstrained dreaming activates the brain’s default mode network, where creativity and long-term visioning live. This phase isn’t about logistics. It’s about identity.

Who do you want to become? What kind of work energizes you? What does a meaningful Saturday morning look like when no one is setting expectations?

The answers often reveal core values—health, autonomy, creativity, service—that can guide more aligned career decisions.

Why Reflection Is Non-Negotiable

Reflection isn’t indulgent. It’s neurological training.

When you reflect on the past year, you re-engage the prefrontal cortex to analyze what worked, what didn’t, and why. Revisiting accomplishments and challenges turns experience into durable learning.

Reflection also activates gratitude, which releases dopamine. Many professionals underestimate themselves simply because they’ve never paused to inventory the full scope of what they’ve done.

Looking back clearly is what allows you to move forward strategically.

A Practical Reflection Exercise

One effective way to reflect is to imagine the past year as a scrapbook.

As you flip through the pages, ask:

• Where do I feel pride?

• Where did I grow?

• What challenged me?

• Who or what shaped my path?

Another option is a simple timeline. Draw a line from January to December. Mark accomplishments above the line and challenges below it. Patterns emerge quickly—and often reveal more than memory alone.

From there, ask:

• What am I celebrating?

• What risk did I take?

• What am I leaving behind?

• What do I want to carry forward?

Writing Your 2026 Vision (The Way That Works)

The most impactful exercise isn’t a vision board—it’s a letter.

Write a note to yourself dated December 2026, describing everything you’ve accomplished as if it has already happened. Include professional goals, personal milestones, financial wins, relationships, health, and emotional states.

Be specific. Numbers matter. Feelings matter more.

Writing in the “already done” tense engages both planning and emotional centers in the brain. You aren’t just wishing—you’re rehearsing. Your brain begins treating the vision as real and attainable.

Bringing It Back to Women’s Health

In women’s health, career motivation is often deeply personal—fertility journeys, caregiving experiences, inequities witnessed firsthand.

When you emotionally connect your work to impact—advocacy, patient care, innovation—you strengthen clarity and resilience. That clarity shows up in interviews, networking, and leadership.

Once your goals are clear, your brain begins doing quiet background work: spotting connections and helping you recognize opportunities when they appear.

The Takeaway

Your brain is already wired to help you succeed—but only if you give it direction.

Reflect intentionally.
Dream without limits.
Write the future as if it’s already real.
Celebrate progress.
Build community.

If 2026 is the year you step more fully into women’s health or into leadership within it this work isn’t optional. It’s foundational.

Resource Exercise: Reflect and Dream — Charting Your Path from 2025 to 2026

If this resonated, and you missed our last session, our upcoming Plan Your 2026 session, January 30th at 1pm ET, builds directly on these ideas. We’ll go deeper into guided reflection and practical planning, creating space to clarify priorities, articulate a compelling 2026 vision, and leave with concrete next steps you can actually follow through on.

The session is designed for women working in, or looking to enter, women’s health who want to be more intentional, aligned, and strategic about what comes next.

• Resource Exercise: Reflect and Dream: Charting Your Path from 2025 to 2026

Check out these JP Morgan Healthcare Conference recaps from the community!

What the IWH Community Noticed at JPM — And Why It Matters for Your Career

Editor’s note:
The signals coming out of JPM reflect where the system is heading. The Plan Your 2026 reflection exercise is about deciding where you fit within that shift, and how intentionally you want to design your role in it.

JPM Health Conference headlines tend to focus on deals, valuations, and product launches. Inside the IWH community, the conversation was more grounded, and more useful for anyone building a career in women’s health.

Across member reflections, a few clear signals emerged.

Women’s Health Is Generating Real Returns, Not Just Attention

(shared by Rachel Braun Scherl)

Data presented at JPM showed that women’s health has generated more than $100B in realized exit value since 2000, led by diagnostics, biopharma, and medical devices. Maternal health ranked among the highest-performing clinical areas, alongside oncology, fertility, and menopause.

The presence of investors, founders, strategists, and policymakers in the same rooms signaled a meaningful shift: women’s health is no longer fighting for legitimacy — it’s entering a scaling phase focused on care delivery and outcomes.

Career signal:
This is a sector with a proven track record. Roles that sit at the intersection of clinical credibility, business models, and scale execution are becoming more valuable — not less.

Momentum Is Real, But Reimbursement Is Still the Constraint

(shared by Lori Evans Bernstein)

A common refrain across women’s health conversations at JPM was simple: “The math doesn’t math.”

Despite growing demand and clinical importance, women’s health services are routinely reimbursed 25–75% less than comparable procedures. That gap continues to drive negative margins, limit access, and deprioritize care, even as capital and research investment increase.

Progress is being made on two sides of the healthcare “iron triangle”, research and investment, but the third side, payment, remains the hardest and most consequential unlock.

Career signal:
Talent that understands reimbursement, pricing, benefits design, and policy translation is increasingly critical. This is where many of the hardest, and most impactful, problems still live.

This Year Felt Different — And Timing Matters

(shared by Tom Hale)

Several members noted that JPM felt like an inflection point for healthcare more broadly.

Three forces finally appear to be aligning:

• Technology readiness, particularly AI paired with high-quality personal health data

• Capital that has moved beyond experimentation

• Consumer demand shifting toward prevention and earlier intervention

Prevention is no longer being framed as a side project. It’s becoming a core business lever, changing how chronic disease is addressed upstream through sleep, movement, stress, and daily behavior.

Regulators are beginning to take notice as well, with growing recognition that technologies like wearables can responsibly support wellbeing — provided trust, thresholds, and claims are clearly defined.

Career signal:
Hybrid skill sets matter more than ever — clinical + data, product + regulatory, consumer + healthcare fluency. The era of single-lane career paths is giving way to more integrated roles.

Bringing This Back to Career Planning

Taken together, the JPM signal wasn’t that healthcare has been solved. It was that the conditions for meaningful change are finally aligning, and women’s health is central to that shift.

For individuals, this reinforces why intentional career planning matters now:

• The field is maturing

• The problems are more complex

• The opportunities require clarity, not just passion

This is exactly why reflection, unconstrained dreaming, and clear goal-setting — the work explored earlier — are not abstract exercises. They are how you decide where to place your energy in a moment of real momentum.

Your brain can’t spot the right opportunities if you haven’t defined what “right” means.

Final note:
JPM offered a clear view of where healthcare — and women’s health in particular — is headed. What you do with that information is a personal decision. The reflection and planning work that follows is designed to help you translate these macro signals into intentional next steps, grounded in your values, skills, and ambitions.

Collab‑a‑Palooza 2026

Collab-a-Palooza 2026 is a vibrant virtual gathering hosted by the Perinatal Resource Collaborative (PRC), bringing together perinatal professionals from across the field to connect, collaborate, and sharpen skills that drive real impact in maternal and perinatal care. The event features immersive workshops, intentional networking, hands-on learning experiences, collaborative think tanks, continuing education opportunities, and interactive exhibits—all designed to support both professional growth and community building.

We’re especially excited that our founder, Jodi Neuhauser, will be speaking at this year’s event, sharing insights on innovation, collaboration, and creating meaningful impact in the perinatal space.

🎟 Register here: https://prc.vfairs.com
💡 50% off code: SPONS100  (Makes the Ticket $99)

If you’re looking to expand your network, gain practical, evidence-based strategies, and walk away with tools you can use immediately, Collab-a-Palooza 2026 is an event you won’t want to miss.

Why HERS: The Health Executive & Research Summit

Women’s health has been historically underfunded and under-researched—creating urgent gaps and enormous opportunities for impact. HERS brings together the leaders working to change that.

At HERS, you’ll explore breakthrough research and real-world solutions—from AI-driven diagnostics and next-gen therapies to patient-centric technologies—while connecting with investors, founders, scientists, clinicians, and advocates shaping the future of women’s health. You’ll also gain candid insights into funding, commercialization, and scaling innovations in a rapidly evolving market.

Walk away with actionable strategies, meaningful connections, and a clearer path to driving progress across the women’s health ecosystem.

See the full agenda and register here. You may use my code “SPK150” for a $150 discount.

📆 Upcoming In Women’s Health Events

✨ Now … let’s make your career magic happen

Feature Roles:

International:

• Senior Research Scientist - Clinical and Regulatory Expertise (contract), Flo Health (Menstruation, Series B), London, UK.

• Localization Project Manager, Flo Health (Menstruation, Series B), London, UK.

Business (Ops/Strategy/Legal/Quality & Regulatory & HR

• International Care Advocate (Japanese Fluency) - Australia, New Zealand, or Singapore, Maven Clinic (Digital Health, Series E), Remote.

• Senior Marketing Manager - Remote, Cayaba Care (Maternal Health, Series A), Remote, $130K-$140K. 

• Executive and Personal Assistant to the CEO, Frida (Parenthood, Private Equity), Miami, FL.

• Manager, Corporate Communications, Hims & Hers (Digital Health, Public), United States · Remote, $130K – $150K.

• Director, Clinical Engineering, Hims & Hers (Digital Health, Public), United States · Remote, $240K – $260K.

• Sr. Manager, Healthcare Industry & Research Communications, Hims & Hers (Digital Health, Public), United States · Remote, $165K – $185K.

• Medical Director (Full-Time), Diana Health, Beaumont, TX.

• Member Services Senior Associate, Maven Clinic (Digital Health, Series E), Remote, $68K - $80K.

• Director, Software Engineering - Product Integration, Natera (Lab Testing, Public), San Carlos, CA, $171,400—$214,300. 

• Manager, Clinical Project Management, Natera (Lab Testing, Public), United States · Remote, $119,000—$148,700. 

• Sr Clinical Trial Coordinator, Natera (Lab Testing, Public), United States · Remote.

• Director, Planning Operations, Babylist (Parenting, Series C), United States, $158,945 - $190,692.

• Senior Manager, Merchandising Strategy & Operations, Babylist (Parenting, Series C), United States, $131,347 - $157,700.

• Billing Ops & Systems Senior Manager (Temp), Chief, New York, NY, $62.50/hr.

• Compounding Lab Manager (nights), Hims & Hers (Digital Health, Public), Gilbert, AZ.

Product/Engineering/Data & Analytics

• CQV Engineer, Natera (Lab Testing, Public), San Carlos, CA, $88,300—$110,350.

• Senior Software Development Engineer, DevOps, Equip (Speciality Care, Series B), United States · Remote, $127K – $159K.

Senior and C-Level Roles

• VP, Consultant Relations, Sword Health, United States. 

• VP, U.S. Regulatory Affairs, Hims & Hers (Digital Health, Public), United States · Remote, $300K – $360K.

• Vice President, Head of Technology, Chief, New York, NY, $285K.

Marketing/Growth/Sales

• Labor & Trust Account Executive, Pomelo Care (Maternal Health, Series A), United States, $340K-$400K.

Clinical Roles & In-Clinic Business Roles

• CA- Nurse Practitioner Manager, Midi (Menopause, Seed), San Francisco, CA, $156K.

• CA- Physician (MD), Curology, San Diego, CA, $115/hr.

• CA- Nurse Practitioner (NP), Curology, San Diego, CA, $65/hr.

• NY- Pharmacist (Syracuse, NY), NURX (Digital Health, Series C), Syracuse, NY, $60/hr. 

• NY- Pharmacist (Syracuse, NY), Thirty Madison, Syracuse, NY, $60/hr.

• TN- Mental Health Therapist (LCSW/LPC) (Full-Time Remote), Diana Health, Smyrna, TN.

• TN- Licensed Practical Nurse (Full-Time), Diana Health, Smyrna, TN.

• TN- Medical Assistant (Full-time), Diana Health, Smyrna, TN.

• NV- Sr Phlebotomist - Las Vegas, NV, Natera (Lab Testing, Public), Las Vegas, NV. 

• Nurse Practitioner - Asynchronous Care, Midi (Menopause, Seed), Remote, $100K–$115K.

• Physician (MD): Part-time, Weekends Only, Curology, United States,  $115/hr.

• Nurse Practitioner (NP): Part-time, Weekends Only, Curology, United States, $65/hr.

Other Category

• Contract Senior Graphic Designer, Frida (Parenthood, Private Equity), Miami, FL.

Note: This newsletter is for informational purposes only. For any legal questions or issues, please consult outside legal counsel. Any opinions expressed in this newsletter are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer. I cannot guarantee the credibility of the sources or job listings I share. It's advisable to do your own research before engaging with them.

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