Team Member Spotlight Q&A with JoAnne Ryan

This week we sat down with JoAnne Ryan, Chief Community Engagement Officer, to ask her ten questions about herself and her experience at Continual Care Solutions. JoAnne was a healthcare leader prior to becoming the President and CEO of Volunteers of America Upstate New York where she developed anti-poverty initiatives and created partnerships that expanded access to dental care for inner city children and housing for frail seniors.

1. What is your role at Continual Care Solutions?

My Role is Co-Founder and Chief Community Engagement Officer.  I am one of the original four founders of the company and love the fact that my ground level contributions have been to help to build our brand and introduce the power of our enterprise platform into the world of nonprofit organizations delivering health and human services to those most vulnerable and at risk. My primary role is engaging new customers from each of our three key segments: Stability Services, Health & Human Services, and Networks, specifically focusing on bringing Networks aboard. A good friend and colleague once referred to my role as a “Sherpa”, which was both amusing and flattering. 2. Why did you decide to join the Continual Care Solutions team?

I love mission-driven work. I find tremendous personal and professional gratification in knowing that the work I do will in some way make a difference. I am most proud of how Continual Care Solutions can assist nonprofit agencies that are doing such essential and important life-changing work. Because of their service to the most complex and challenging clients, their impact is profound, and we are helping them to tell their story and prove their impact.

3. What is your favorite thing to work on as part of your job? My most favorite thing to do is interfacing with the community from leadership to front line, I love watching potential customers get excited about what our platform can do. 

4. What is something interesting about yourself?

I am an Ordained Minister through the Ecumenical Church without walls. Becoming a commissioned minister was a requirement of National Volunteers of America. After a period of reflective prayer and discernment, it was my personal decision to become ordained, a decision that I am grateful for every day.  5. What makes Continual Care Solutions special?

Our team sincerely and genuinely cares about the success of our customers. We view our relationship with our customers as a true partnership. This is our business model for our customers today and will be for the ones to come. We have a very professionally diverse group; for some, this is their first opportunity to work in a company that serves non-profits and, for others, this is the first opportunity to work in a for-profit company. The best part is the blend, we utilize the best of both worlds and deliver the very best product and services possible as a result.

6. Before working at Continual Care Solutions, what was the most unusual or interesting job you have ever had?

The most interesting job I ever had was as the President and CEO of a nonprofit. I loved every day, even the hardest ones, because I knew my rock star team gave 150% to each one of the 7,000 clients we served. My greatest personal satisfaction came from knowing that every day, without fail they were working hard to ensure that the children under our care were safe, fed, educated. Individuals and families were off the streets and had shelter, food, basis essentials and for many, finally a path to becoming self- sufficient, and lastly, for individuals in the re-entry program, the opportunity to leave incarceration with skills, support and dignity. This agency, like so many, provided a safe and non-judgmental place to receive a hand up and not a hand- out. It was a true privilege to lead an agency committed to finding the good in everyone, through the layers of broken dreams, bad decisions, and difficult choices. To learn everyday how powerful faith can be, and especially the importance of dying every day in the name of service. 7. What knowledge, skills, or insights have you gained since starting work at Continual Care Solutions?

Coming from a clinical healthcare background, data was finger-tip ready and it came in a plethora of reports or spreadsheets. I would ask for the information that I needed, and it appeared. Since joining Continual Care Solutions, the greatest behind the scenes insight has been understanding how the software platform was built and how the features are continually enhanced. It is remarkable to watch the developers make this kind of magic (at least to me) happen. The true value of these real time changes result in clean, integrated, and harmonized data that strategically, operationally and financially assist our customers to better serve their clients.

8. If you could do another job for just one day, what would it be? 

Be a meteorologist, I am totally fascinated by the power and unpredictability of nature. The weather channel is my favorite thing to watch… no seriously.

9. What are three career lessons you’ve learned thus far?

1. Take your work seriously, but never yourself

2. Move beyond your comfort zone

3. Credit is best when it is given away

10. What is one of your favorite quotes?

"When you find yourself in a difficult or escalating situation that pushes you to respond, pause and ask yourself the following three questions:

1. Does this situation really require a response?

2. Am I the best person to respond?

3. If I am the right person, is this the best time for a response?"

Learn more about why JoAnne joined Continual Care Solutions here.