DGTL Voices with Ed Marx - Technology Done For You, Not To You (ft. Leigh Williams)

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

Leigh Thomas Williams is Vice President and CIO at Augusta Health, a 255-bed community health system in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.   She's also President of the HIMSS Virginia Chapter and an Ambassador for the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes' Foundation. Leigh started her career in law, got recruited into healthcare at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and found her calling in technology leadership during an EHR implementation when she realized IT was treating it like a software install and she was treating it like a chance to transform the way people work. Now she's leading Care Reimagined, a multi-year digital transformation built on three promises: meaningfully improve the professional workday, create compassionate patient journeys, and steward resources wisely for the community. When Augusta Health's Dr. Snodgrass told Leigh that their AI physician assistant was the first time technology had been done for her as opposed to to her, it became a watershed moment for the entire organization.   In this episode, Leigh talks about walkup songs for every day (not just keynotes), why she finally started baking brownies for her team, learning German at age 8 with no English-speaking teacher, and why now is not the time to take the foot off the pedal.   https://marxadvisory.com

AI is everywhere. Tell us one thing about like AI. The implementation of our physician AI assistant was the first time that she felt technology had been done for her as opposed to to her. I think we're finally at the point where we're going to have some tools that can really meaningfully improve the practice for not only the physicians but revenue cycle folks and front desk parks. Do you see your niche or something that you're interested in? find your place, find your bliss, and absolutely go for it. Welcome to Digital Voices, where Healthcare and Life Science Leaders explore the real work behind transformation. This podcast is about people, leadership, and the conversations

that move healthcare forward. Now your host, Ed Marks. Welcome to another edition of Digital Voices, that it's your host, Ed Marks, and I'm glad to have my friend Lee Williams with us. Lee, welcome to Digital Voices. Thank you, and thank you for having me today. I'm so glad be here with you. No, it's great because, you know, you're a great leader and you and I connected back in 2016. We were just reminiscing boot camp. It's a great, I love boot camp, a great environment right to learn. I took boot camp and I love teaching it because it just reminded me of all the core leadership principles. And then I got to meet fantastic leaders like yourself. So it's so good to reconnect. So the most important question, though, that we have for the entire episode,

What kind of music do you like to listen to? Yeah. So I really love music like The Eagles, and I saw them earlier this year at the Spear, which was fantastic. But my most recent vibe is Olivia Dean. She is really cool, and she's got this song called Dive,

and it is one of my walk-up songs in the morning as I'm heading into the office because she just has this beautiful voice and kind of a jazzy, cool way of her music. music and I love it. Yeah. I'm going to look that up. That's a new one for me. Yeah. Well, I love what you said, Lee. I think you said it on purpose. You said it was your walk-up music to your job. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody's got to have a little inspiration. And right now, I think that is one of the things that I bring to the team is some daily joy and excitement about what we're

doing in health care these days. It's all really difficult. So I love staying in that positive mental frame to help lead others. I love that. I was totally stealing that because yeah, we save up like this walk-up song for like you're going to go up and, you know, hit a home run or you're going to go on stage and do this amazing keynote. But you're talking about it like every day. Every day. Yeah. Dang, we can stop recording right now because you love that. Yeah. So Olivia Dean for some morning vibe. Yeah, I'm going to the dive, right? D-I-V-E is. Yeah, all right. I just like that groove and then she's got a lot of great music. So I love listening to new stuff.

So old stuff and nude stuff, I would say my list is both. Yeah, and I love that. And I'm also super jealous. I love the Eagles. I did see them in their tour, but, you know, it was maybe 10 years ago now. Yeah. You saw them at the Spear. I mean, that was fantastic.

Yeah, it was great. And they're still amazing musicians. And seeing Joe Walsh do the Hotel California solo. And, I mean, they're like 80 now. and they are awesome musicians and it's fantastic. And Vince Gill sings the Glenn Fry parts and he has such a beautiful voice and it comes together really well. So that was a very magical experience that I enjoyed. Wow.

Yeah, I'm so jealous. And you're right. Sometimes, you know, these super groups are still around that we listen to back, you know, when we were in elementary school. Yes. And a lot of them are still really good. I've run into a couple that probably should retire, but. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Eagles, yeah, they still got.

It was perfect music and they've done a nice job of bringing other musicians in and it was just, it was delicious. The whole sphere experience was amazing. That is cool. So what about life message and mantra? Are there words or a quote that you kind of live by? Yeah. So I have a few, but one of them is stay curious. So I think curiosity is one of my superpowers and one of the superpowers of people that are able to innovate and lead other. forward is just this insatiable curiosity around what's going on. And if you're going to be in health IT, there's constant change. So remaining curious about what's going on. And then another one is better together. I am all about the team and my role on the team. And I'd love to be the leader of the team. But I do consider that just a role on the team. And I understand what it means. But it's also doesn't make me any better than anyone. It's just a different part of the team. So I constantly am

thinking about how we can be better together. And then in my personal life, be kind. Yeah. Yeah. That one, I just, you know, I try to remember and lead with kindness, whether I'm talking to my dog or I'm at work, it's all part of it. You're, yours is a good human. Thanks. I try. Tell us about yourself. So like, who are you? What's your story? Maybe talk about where were you born? Yeah. So I was born in Ithaca, New York, when my dad was at Cornell. So my first toy was a little Cornell Red Bear. And I've lived in Minnesota, Massachusetts, Maine, Mississippi, Montana. No, I'm just kidding. Not all the M's. California,

Arizona. I'm currently in Virginia. And I also spent time living in England and in Germany. So my dad was a professor and we got to travel all over. And I love that because it's taught me to really understand how to connect with various cultures and different types of people and be able to learn about the curiosity about the place that I'm in and be able to deeply understand that community and what is working there. So I've enjoyed all the travels, but I sure love living in Virginia now. Yeah. Do you have a football? Do you follow football? And if you do, like, what's your team? Because you live in a place. Oh, God. Yeah. So I grew up in New England. So I'm a Patriots fan. And we had a really, really good run while it lasted, although I think we might have flown too close to the sun

come crashing back down. And then I went to both the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Ole Miss, so two SEC college teams that, so that the Patriots are from my time in New England where we watch professional sports NFL and then UT and Ole Miss from my time in the South in the collegiate sports arena. So those are those are the teams. Wow. All right. I now got a pretty good understanding, I think, about who you are. Let's talk about how you sort of got into health care. Like, how'd you get into health care? How'd you get into tech? How that'll happen? Yeah, so I actually went to Wellesley College and went for thinking I was going to go into the legal field. And I did work in law for a short time, my early part of my career. But I realized that

I did not enjoy putting as much as myself into my work. I mean, I work pretty hard and I'm putting in a solid, you know, 40 plus every single week. And I felt like I was working that hard to help other people make money. And it wasn't very rewarding. And I had a good colleague whom I knew from the legal arena, who was an HR leader and recruited me over to the University of Mississippi Medical Center and basically had a role that was similar to what I had been doing in the legal field, but that was in health care. and I fell in love because every day is rewarding and you can see the impact of your work on the community. And it was so much more than being

and what felt to me like a job that was to serve individuals. And healthcare feels like we've all got to lean in and help to fix it. So it was really great to be recruited into that with, hey, I think you're really going to like this and I did instantly love it. And did you already have sort of this tech bent? Like where did the tech been?

Oh, actually. So I have always been capable in the technology arena. I mean, we had like an Apple 2E when I was growing up. And my dad, the professor had all these things at the house. But then when I got my first job at actually at the MIT Center for Information Systems Research at Sloan School, I was doing, it was like the 1996. And there were websites to be developed. And PowerPoint was a thing. And I was the young kid that.

knew how to do some of that stuff because we had done it in college. But I didn't really get into technology leadership until after I had spent several years and helped care on the revenue cycle side. And then we went to do this thing called an EHR implementation. And I wound up leading a lot of the technology efforts simply because I found I had a knack for being able to talk with operational partners and clinicians about how the technology was going to aid us in our operational work. And put frankly, I got a little frustrated with our IT colleagues because they were treating it like it was a software install. And I was treating it more like, hey, this is an opportunity to really transform the way that we do our work. So I wound up doing more and more what was

considered IT work and finally decided that I really felt like that was my calling to be able to help and be a servant to all of the other operational areas as a technology leader. And it's been a very good choice for me. Oh, that's awesome. What were a couple skills that maybe you probably still use them today, but what were a couple of skills that helped you on your journey? Because you're CIO now today. So for listeners who aspire to be a CIO like yourself, what are a couple of things that they should be thinking about that helped you? Yeah. So I would say the first one is the ability to listen. And I know that that's a soft skill. and that is something that may seem like, yeah, everybody recommends that. But when you are going to be an effective technology leader, your ability to understand, so seek first to understand and then to be understood, right? So really being able to hear your nursing colleagues, your physician colleagues, your revenue cycle colleagues, whatever teen you are working with in order to support their areas, your ability to have empathy for what they're doing and understand from their,

perspective what it is you're trying to accomplish can make your solutions and the teams that you lead so much more in tune with what really needs to be done. And so I find that skill of listening and curiosity to be able to understand what we really need to accomplish and be that trusted advisor to those partners so that you can say, I understand the issue. I think we could approach it this way or what about that way and just being able to really get at the heart of what they're trying to solve and not be a ticket taker where you're sort of, you know, passive and standing back to have salute, you know, put in this software for us. It's more of that active rule. And you get there by earning that trust. And I think the first step on that trust journey

is listening. Yeah, I love that. That's a great skill. And you also mentioned empathy, back to curiosity. And again, earning that trust. I think that CIO role is, continues to evolve towards that trusted advisor and you have to know enough about each of the disciplines that reports up to you but it's not I'm not called on to

I really value my team I have wonderful like hire well your ability to hire a team is important and get the right people in and demonstrating respect for them and then they you are as powerful as every one of the members of your team

who is willing to step up and answer that question or help that implementation go well So I do enough to be able to demonstrate my understanding and my fine level of expertise, but then rely on my team members and really hold them up as you're the real expert here. And I'm your partner and we'll pull you in. So enough tech knowledge and staying up to date on what's possible in order to be able to continue to lead in that space. Yeah, that's the sage advice. So your CIO, you're, we know.

that in healthcare and in tech, it's more difficult, more challenging, can be for women. You obviously achieved CIO. Did you run into a glass ceiling? And if so, how did you break it? I think that all of us have had times of running into barriers that feel like you're being held back from potential. And that can happen to everyone regardless of what you look like. I know, my friends who are introverts and don't have that extroverted personality to go out and make all those relationships and put the energy in. Sometimes it can feel like that can be more holding people back. But in my own experience, I grew up in this fantastic place called Amherst, Massachusetts, and we were very open to, it's an academic town, it's a college town. There are five colleges

there. And it was this environment of everyone was. studying and learning and you could just excel based on your ability to learn and lead. And I very early on just was able to get some good confidence around that. And then I went to Wellesley College, which is a women's college. And we, Wellesley's motto is women who will, women who will lead. And so I was very much given the opportunity to practice that leadership skill. And then I would say that one of the things that actually you helped me with back in 2016 was, was that I feel like I was putting some pressure on my own self to be very conformist to the way that the boardroom looked

and the way that the medical executive committee looked and the health care leadership team looked. I remember at like 30, 32 years old, I'm a 5'4 blonde chick and going into the boardroom and being with all of these physicians and other leaders. And I quickly learned how to talk about, about SEC sports because you had to be able to walk in and say, oh, the gators were terrible this weekend. And how about, you know, Peyton Manning had just gotten into the NFL. How about,

how about Peyton, how he's doing? And being able to hang that way. And I did put some pressure on myself to fit in with those crowds. And then in, I would say the last 10 years, really relaxing a little bit and bringing more of my way of doing things and not caring so much. maybe that comes with the confidence of being in a position. But the question I asked you at the at the CHCIO boot camp back in 2016 was that I love to bake and I love to cook and I love to share. That is a way that I am creative in my personal life. And that is a way that I show love and caring for others is to bake wonderful foods and to serve these wonderful meals. And I said, I've always wanted to share that with my team.

but I feel like that is somewhat stereotypical that I would be baking brownies and sharing that with the team. And I feel like that's a thing that I shouldn't do as a woman is bake. And you were all in on you should be you. Go and bake the cookies and do the brownies and make the like lead with love and lead with your heart and put that energy in there. And don't. So that was a good lesson for me of not boxing myself in. And I think as time goes by, wait, there are more, there's representation more often. And I just am enjoying these last few years.

So thank you for advising I bake the brownies. I really did and they loved them. And I still do. I love it. I'm definitely coming to visit. And I expect to bake goods. So I will eat them. I don't care if I'm on a sports diet or whatever.

Yeah. You can go for a jog in the morning or run in the morning and then we'll have them up brownies. Yeah. That's awesome. Hey, tell us about Augusta Health. So, like, where are you located, a little bit about the mission and vision? Yeah, so Augusta Health is a 255-bed community health system, hospital. We have 50 clinics in the central Shenandoah Valley, so right smack in the middle of Virginia.

And we are surrounded by beautiful mountains and national parks. It is a fantastic place to be. On our hospital, just celebrated its 30th anniversary. We were founded by the communities that brought together to existing hospitals that were in two of the urban centers within our county and decided to create one system in between both of those to serve the larger county. And we still do have a very close tie to the county and to this area. We have a community board that oversees our organization and we do a tremendous amount of work for the people of our communities. And it's been wonderful for me because it falls right in line with my desire to see some good change in the world. And I feel very impactful here.

And I can see us working on really hard and tractable problems around chronic health conditions and others that we're facing some headwinds out of Washington with some of the funding and how are we going to help folks that are losing their insurance. And it just is a really mission-driven organization that focuses on bringing care to this community. I love that. And I can just visualize. Like, I just see these beautiful valleys and lots of trees and hills. It sounds like a beautiful spot. I'm definitely going to have to check. Yeah, it is. Especially if you like to hike. It is amazing around here. We have so many good trails and some good breweries and wineries to boot. So something for everyone. Yeah. Did you say wineries? Yes. Yeah, that's great. That's great. Tell us about some of the initiatives that you've all been working on for the last couple of years. The most exciting thing that we've embarked on is our care reimagined journey. And so we have formed up a program where the current phase is replacing our EHR. We've been actually preparing for this for about two years. And our tagline is imagine if.

Imagine if your ability to schedule with your provider was as easy as ordering a pizza. imagine if you were able to get your prescriptions filled without a headache. Imagine if you understood which providers would take your insurance and you could get in to see them easily. We've done a million imaginets in health care around how it could be better. And we framed it up with three promises. And the first is to our team that we will meaningfully improve the professional workday for our team members. And the second is we promise our patients that we will create compassionate, high-quality patient journeys designed around their needs. And the third is we promise our community, we will steward

our resources wisely to build a stronger future for our organization and the communities we serve. So everything that we're doing is focusing around those promises. So leading this EHR implementation has been absolutely fantastic. We are looking at every workflow that we have. We are even setting up metrics like how many pounds of paper can we get rid of per month? And, you know, how can can we make more clothes. I call it Make My Digital Day, right? Like a challenge of Make My Digital Day. And as the CIO, I feel like I owe it to

everyone to try very hard to make sure that everyone's day is transformed through this. So we look, it's been part of our plan and we're looking forward to five more years of staying focused on the promises and really driving transformation and innovation using technology tools,

but focusing on human center design, innovation techniques to get very well design technology and that's effective for our community and our team. Dang, you make me want to move there now. It's wonderful. No, it's so clear. You know, a lot of times health systems and hospitals is very complex.

You know, if you ask about, you focus on priorities, but your three are very well stated and make a lot of sense and sort of drive the direction of organization. Tell us, tell us, you know, AI is everywhere. Tell us one thing about like AI. How does Augusta Health kind of think about AI? So we are rather forward-thinking and want to use the AI tools that are safe, but also a little bit of emerging technology in order to be able to drive some of that transformation. So it feels like with some of the restrictions coming around reimbursement for health care,

and our payer mix is largely, we've got lots of Medicaid and Medicare patients that we take care of. We're looking for ways to optimize our workforce and be able to also prepare for workforce shortages, especially in clinical roles. So we're doing a lot around AI, agentic AI tools that are able to help us speed up our digital day, promising our team meaningful improvement. A lot of that comes through automating some of those non-value ad tasks, looking for ways to be more efficient. to take away the tedious and allow our people to focus more on the human interactions and focusing on care in a way and more personal way. So rather than having to fill out spreadsheets, get agents to do that, and then you can focus on the phone calls that you need to make of the people that you identified in that data set. We are doing a lot around ambient listening with

AI for especially our physician assistant. And my favorite thing that anyone has probably said to me in my professional career is we have a wonderful primary care physician named Dr. Snodgrass and she said to me that the implementation of our physician AI assistant was the first time that she felt technology had been done for her as opposed to to her and that was a watershed moment for me. I think we're finally at the point where we're going to have some tools that can really meaningfully improve the practice for not only the physicians, but revenue cycle folks and front desk clerks and the nursing teams as well. So we are looking for those right solutions that we feel will move us forward on our priorities. Yeah, I love that.

And that's a great quote. I would definitely like, I get a picture of her and like blow it up and put the, we're working on it because it is, it's not often that as a technologist, we get to implement tools that are so rapidly impactful. Yeah. And even when people think that there is a learning curve or I need to figure this out, it's not intuitive to me and sometimes it is, but there can be those barriers. This has been amazing to watch the rapid adoption and people who want to bust through the barriers. Maybe they don't understand it the first day, but they are so invested in figuring out what these types of technologies can do that they keep coming

back and trying and working and taking it and making it their own. So that feels incredibly rewarding as someone who spends their life promoting an adoption of technology tools and trying to get the right solutions in place and approaching it with innovation to actually see things that are so well-liked and impactful at the same time right out of the gate. And our physicians are amazingly well-engaged and looking forward to bringing them some more. advances. I think it's going to be an interesting few years to come. Yeah, I agree with you. So exciting. And that's great stuff that you're doing. And that's why I want to kind of head into a different topic. And that's around leadership, because I think it's pretty easy to tell for our

listeners after the first five minutes speaking with you. You're a pretty great leader. When was the first time you understood that you were a leader? Was there an aha moment when you were young or when that kind of happened? Like, oh, I think I'm a leader. Yeah. Yeah. So actually, I was reminiscing on this recently because we asked some of our emerging leaders at a Hems conference about it. And for myself, it was, I think I was in the first grade and I was elected to our student council. And I hadn't run. I was like a write-in candidate and people voted for me. And I got to represent Ms. Mish's class. I mean, this is, you know, a big deal, right? In the world is a high position. And I remember being a little confused like why me and then I realized that one of my skills is speaking in front of groups and I'm

really comfortable with people. I feel like I could connect with them. So that was the first time that I was like I didn't necessarily campaign or try to do it for myself, but others wanted me in that role. And I just continued to do that to this day. And I think early on, my first director role was early 30s, director in health care, late 20s, early 30s, and really enjoying the aspect of tending the flock and making sure other people were getting good opportunities, it really felt natural for me. So, yeah, that first grade, Ms. Mish classroom taught me that even if I didn't want to feel self-important or putting myself out there, that others felt comfortable with me as that role within the class, within the team.

Yeah, no, I love that. And I'm glad you had that early recollection. And I just wondered, too, you know, when you were speaking earlier about your university, I'm sure they've done studies. I'd be kind of curious how, you know, if it's above average of the graduates compared to graduates from a more traditional school, like who occupies the C-suite, you know, people like yourself. Wow, yeah, yeah.

It'd be interesting, right? Yeah. We are, one of the things I would say, and this is maybe some recommendations, for anyone who is trying to have the confidence and not feel, what do we call it, imposter syndrome is to just be brave and get out there and serve the community and do your best. And we need a lot of people doing really good work right now. The world is not going to figure itself out because we all sit home and let someone else take care of it.

So if you see your niche or something that you're interested in, find your place, find your bliss, and absolutely go for it. And I think my upbringing, the college environment, all of it was never were we thinking that we couldn't. I never thought I can't because of something about me. It was more based on if I get out there and I put in the effort, I'm going to push forward and I just keep doing that. Sounds like you have pretty fantastic appearance as well.

Oh, yeah. They are great. Is there something that they forced you to do when you were young and at the time you probably did a high role, if not physically, maybe inside your mind. But now that you look back, you're glad they kind of made you do it. Yeah. So I went to third grade in Germany. And my parents was eight years old. It was 1981. And I was not, I didn't speak German. And they were just, of course you're going to go to school. And I went to the school had one teacher who spoke English, but she wouldn't speak English to me.

So I learned how to speak German, but it was a big, at the time, it was incredibly stressful. And I just didn't know anyone. And you change everything. I mean, we were living in a foreign country and all the food was different and the language is different

and the customs are different. And I look back on that now and it was one of the very best things because I got pushed way outside of my comfort zone and learned that I could learn the language. by the time we left, I was third grader, fluent. I don't know if I could have discussed politics, but I certainly could get around town.

And that whole experience pushed me out of the comfort zone and gave me also that appreciation for other cultures and other people and how curious I was about that whole experience. So now I treasure it, but eight-year-old me was ready to tell some parents that they were a little ridiculous. Yeah, that felt scary. That's intense. That even would shake me to the bone.

Yeah, it was not fun at the house, good at the time, but it was also a lot of anxiety. And now I'm just really grateful for the opportunity. Yeah, this has been amazing catching up with you and I'm copiously taking notes. But we talk about anything from Olivia Dean and dive and the concept of the walk-up for your every day. Oh, my gosh, it's so good. I wrote down actually four different life mantras, but, you know, bring inspiration every day, stay curious, better together. And then, of course, be kind. And then, yeah, learning about your life and some of the foundations that made you who you are and all the travel, but, you know, understanding and appreciating different cultures.

We talked a lot about your career and how you came up and, like, kind of the constant themes that you kept reinforcing as being a good listener, having empathy, staying curious. We talked about four or five times, becoming that trusted environment, hiring well and giving people respect. And then we talk about Augusta Health, which sounds like utopic. You know, a lot of organizations have, you know, a hundred year history, which is good, right? Right, because I'm all about, yeah, that's cool because you have this legacy. But in some ways, having a younger health system kind of has its pros as well. And so I really am going to try and visit you and get some big cookies out of you. That's excellent.

And then we talked about the different things that you're doing and the appreciation that came from Dr. Snodgrass, if I got the name. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, she's amazing. Yeah, she sounds cool already. And then we talked a lot about leadership, again, reinforcing all the previous things I already said. but you also added, you know, find your place. And you touched on the word or the concept of imposter syndrome. You're like, hey, you just got to lead.

Whatever's on your heart, go and do, find your place. And that's cool. What did we miss or is there anything you want to double down on? I'll give you the last word. The challenge that we face as technology leaders in healthcare in the United States in this time era season that we're going through is really important for us to band together and get it right. And it feels some days like the challenges are insurmountable that we've got all the complexities

and there's so much scrutiny from outside about why can't you just fix it? Health care is terrible and there's all this negativity and it feels sometimes like we're just pushing like Atlas pushing up the hill. I would double down on we can do this. There's a better way and we can find it. And I love all of the work that people have done for decades to bring AI tools to us. I think it's going to be transformative. And we need to stay in the game.

This is not the time to take the foot off the pedal. We've got to figure out how to make some efficiencies happen so we can continue to provide good care for our communities and maintain the health of our society and our communities all across the nation and hopefully the world with America leading. and it is important for us to stay curious, move forward, don't give up. It is a big challenge and it feels difficult, but I think we're in a great place for it with new tools that we've never had before and impact that is really needed in our society right now. Lee Williams, you're an amazing guest of Digital Voices. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for listening to Digital Voices. We help today's conversation sparked ideas, reflection, and conversation. connection. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify Podcasts so you don't miss an episode.