The Quiet Work of Leadership - Jennie Kung ’04

What does it look like to build a career by running toward something — not away from it?Jennie Kung ’04 has spent her career crossing sectors that most people never imagine connecting: capital markets, Deloitte Consulting, Disney Imagineers, Johnson & Johnson, UCLAHealth, and now the Mayo Clinic, where she leads one of the most distinctive healthcare innovation platforms in the world.In this episode, Natalie Chen ’26 sits down with Jennie to explore how a CMC Gov and Legal Studies pivot became the foundation for a career reimagining what healthcare can feellike, and why the skills that matter most right now have nothing to do with what you majored in.They discuss the aha moment that sent Jennie from Disney to hospital administration, what serve-first leadership actually looks like in practice, how AI is reshaping who gets to lead, and why the best advice she has for graduating CMCers is simply: just chill out.This is a special episode of CMC Conversations in partnership with CMC Leads. The conversation continues at The Summit, April 24–25 on the CMC campus.https://www.cmc.edu/cmc-leads