Dr. Anne Stephen Caring for kids and leading colleagues

by Connie Wirta

Asa young pediatrician, Dr. Anne Stephen became the fifth woman physician to join the Duluth Clinic. Twenty-eight years later, she’s caring for the grandchildren of some of her first patients and serving as a physician leader.

As a regional chief medical officer for Essentia Health, Dr. Stephen leads more than 1,400 physicians and advanced practitioners in clinics and hospitals across northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin. She provides medical oversight as part of a team that manages and develops staff, programs and services. She helps set protocols for medical care and works to ensure quality and safety. She also continues to see patients.

In 1989, Dr. Stephen was finishing her pediatric residency at the Mayo Clinic when she decided to visit the Duluth Clinic. She discovered a team of supportive physicians and a community that both she and her husband, David, felt was a good fit.

“I joined with Dr. Lori DeFrance, another pediatrician, and that was such a huge gift because we were able to support each other,” Dr. Stephen recalls.

Now 58, Dr. Stephen began growing her leadership skills as a section chair in pediatrics. She took on greater responsibilities as associate chief of the medical specialties division and chair of the Division of Women and Children. She also enrolled in the Physician Leadership College at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

“At first, I didn’t feel like I belonged in the program because I wasn’t a decisive command-and-control person, and I didn’t have all the answers,” Dr. Stephen recalls. Eighteen months later, she knew she belonged. She learned her strengths as a leader and the value of her own leadership style.

“Helping other people succeed at a job is my role,” Dr. Stephen says. “I look for transparency, clarity and collaboration. Everyone’s voice needs to be heard.”

In 2016, Dr. Stephen was asked by Dr. Daniel A. Nikcevich to apply for the regional chief medical officer position. She hadn’t anticipated the opportunity.

“Dr. Stephen is highly regarded as an excellent physician who is patient-centered and humble,” says Dr.

Nikcevich, a hematologist/oncologist who serves as a regional president. “Dr. Stephen is thoughtful, curious and approaches complex matters with the spirit of appreciative inquiry. She truly embodies the professionalism and servant leadership necessary for a physician leader at Essentia Health.”

Dr. Stephen recalls her deliberations: “As a woman leader, how could I not take a position that had never been held by a woman at Essentia Health? I’d be letting everybody down. I was honored to be offered this responsibility and I knew I had the potential to do it. Not to take the opportunity to continue to improve would be counterintuitive to what I had done.”

Dr. Stephen says her leadership style and work ethic reflect her late parents, who were Quakers and active liberal Democrats. Serving others and seeking justice were key lessons. Her father, Harvey Hinshaw, was a pianist and music professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her mother,

Marcelline Hinshaw, was a junior high teacher who had volunteered with the American Friends Service Committee in Europe after World War II.

“My mother had high expectations for behavior,” Dr. Stephen says. “I grew up thinking that women can do whatever they want to do.”

While earning her medical degree at the University of NebraskaLincoln, Dr. Stephen found her calling in pediatrics. “I realized interacting with young children would be a daybrightener for me and get me through the hard work of being a physician,” she says. “I also wanted to work with women — to listen to their concerns and believe what they say.”

Becoming a mother helped her become a better pediatrician. During her first pregnancy, she was like other women, worrying her baby would have a birth defect or that anything she did would harm her baby. “Until I had my own child, I didn’t really understand,” says the mother of two. “We as mothers feel guilty about everything. I never want to make a parent feel guilty again.

“I had a perfect baby at age 31,” Dr. Stephen recalls of her daughter’s birth.

“I knew how a mother feels — that this person could die if you don’t do it right. That flipped a switch for me. I’d say 85 percent of my work as a pediatrician is to listen well, do a thorough evaluation of the child and then reassure the parent.” D

Connie Wirta is an editor for Essentia Health marketing. She wrote this for The Woman Today.