EP. 95 Forget the side hustle. This millennial only pursues side passions.

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Smriti Kirubanandan, a Senior Healthcare Consultant at Tata Consultancy Services where she focuses on strategic planning.  Smriti has many passions which for her is a perfect venn diagram that includes technology, healthcare and food equity.  The area of food equity is receiving new attention with the Biden administration holding its first nutrition and food insecurity conference.  Smriti also segments food insecurity, impacting ~40M Americans, from nutrition insecurity, which impacts greater numbers who can not access nutritious food within a certain budget.  Tech such as AI with vertical farms, as well as her work with the World Food Bank shows promise.  Scalable solutions start with educating farmers and encouraging service within their own communities.   Smriti’s career path has not been a straight line at this juncture but she is pleased to have pursued such a variety of interests, such as being a raw vegan chef; developing a food product line; teaching cooking and nutrition classes; corporate pursuits advising clients in the payer and provider space.  She also gets a lot of satisfaction from her volunteering efforts.  Did I mention the long distance running and her new podcast HLTH Forward? Her advice for other women is to learn the skill of negotiation early as you will need it!!! She also is convinced that you need to follow your calling and believe in yourself.   Driven by Passion. Focused on Impact. Smriti is an experienced healthcare strategist, business development, sales, and marketing executive with 12 years of experience at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and innovation. Expertise in building new businesses and revenue streams focused on market research, analysis, and evaluation of growth strategies. Adept at strategic thinking, networking, sourcing and structuring fruitful partnerships, building and managing cross-functional teams, and delivering top-line growth. Expertise: Business development, strategy development + strategic partnerships, client relationship management, market research and analysis, project management, public health, building community health programs, healthcare thought leadership   You can follow Smriti on LinkedIn.