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Michelle Figueroa’s humility has almost been her undoing at times. She remembers a supervisor telling her that despite her work ethic and financial acumen, she wasn’t leadership material.
“She told me that I was too shy, and that people needed to connect with me personally if I ever wanted to lead,” Figueroa remembers. “It was so hard to hear, but it’s something I worked on for years. Now, I don’t think my assistant would ever believe I was too much of an introvert.”
Figueroa, now the system-wide CFO at One Brooklyn Health, is putting every ounce of that leadership development to use as she works to stabilize a financially distressed institution that has served its community for more than one hundred years. The financial transformation required for the multiple hospitals, acute facilities, and nursing homes under her purview is extensive. However, since being named CFO in 2023, Figueroa has wasted no time in driving a much-needed evolution at One Brooklyn Health.
When the CFO took on her role in July 2023, she and the finance team only had a few months to prepare a budget proposal for December, including full-scale transformational plans. “We needed to build out rules of engagement and infrastructure for what we were intending to do,” the CFO explains. “We needed to have clear expectations and guidelines we could come back to in the middle of this transformation to ensure that we were aligned. It’s been challenging but incredibly rewarding.”
“I see the struggle of people trying to afford healthcare. I want to be part of the solution.”
Michelle Figueroa
While it’s still early to celebrate, OBH is most certainly on the right path. That journey began with changes in the supply chain that have already saved millions of dollars. New compliance structures resulted in more transparency and allowed the unified health system to use its size to secure cost savings.
“This is a small example that speaks to a larger philosophy,” Figueroa explains. “We were ordering dozens of different types of pens. You standardize those orders, create some cohesion across the system, and incur some savings at the same time. That level of standardization across the health system has been difficult but necessary.”
The CFO recognizes that the standardization and financial restructuring of a health system can take an emotional toll on employees. Long-tenured staff may feel that their years of dedication and hard work are being overlooked or deemed unsatisfactory. Their expertise is needed now more than ever to help the organization adapt and thrive in the evolving healthcare landscape.
“Empathy matters,” Figueroa says. “You can’t just start changing things without recognizing the emotions of people. You need to give them time to process the change, and that’s part of the reason I focus so much on storytelling.”
Figueroa has built a reputation for her ability to “tell the story” of finance. She puts together a mean slide deck, and colleagues have repeatedly asked her to share her presentations.
“You need to be able to work through the story so you can recognize important milestones and understand that you’re on the right path,” the CFO explains. “Some things have worked incredibly well. Some still need tweaking. But we’re starting to see the light.”
Figueroa says there are many CFOs with more impressive resumés, shinier degrees, and more expansive experience. But what enables her to effectively lead the financial evolution of the organization is that she has done almost every job she’s asking her team to do. The CFO has managed grants, forecasted budgets, reconciled reports of expenditure, created financial plans, and worked with reimbursement, revenue cycle, and with teams at all levels of the organization both unionized and non-unionized teams.
Her first promotion came when she was on maternity leave after having her first child. It turns out that in her absence, Figueroa’s boss realized how much they were missing. She may have been quiet back then, but she was incredibly effective. Since then, she has only gotten better. “I’ve been incredibly lucky to have several great mentors along the way, and I hope I can be a role model for other women in healthcare leadership.”
“You can’t just start changing things without recognizing the emotions of people. You need to give them time to process the change, and that’s part of the reason I focus so much on storytelling.”
Michelle Figueroa
Figueroa is the first woman of color of to hold the CFO role at One Brooklyn Health. Born and raised in Brooklyn, she understands the patients she’s serving because she grew up around them. She remembers being eight years old and waiting in one of the campus emergency rooms after an asthma attack. As a child, she thought everyone could see a doctor when they needed one. Having access to quality healthcare impacts individuals, families and communities.
“I see the struggle of people trying to afford healthcare,” the CFO says. “I want to be part of the solution. Though I am not a doctor, I believe that ensuring that the organization becomes financially viable will help ensure that we can serve the community for many generations to come. In this way, I can make a difference for our patients.”
The healthcare supply chain is the cornerstone of Nexera services, which span from service line-based cost reduction to process improvement in the perioperative space. Founded in 2003 by CEOs from the Greater New York Hospital Association, Nexera’s customized service model delivers solutions that are actionable and replicable beyond a consulting engagement to help clients implement meaningful change in their supply. chain. Nexera provides technology-enabled clinical, operational, and financial analytics services as well as supply chain business intelligence.
