Rising the ranks together

Left to right: Shelisa Lehmann and Raven Steward.

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Raven Steward mentors Shelisa Lehmann to success

In the year or so leading up to her promotion to Baylor Scott & White’s systemwide laboratory quality director in April 2019, Raven Steward, MBA, MLS (ASCP), identified the perfect successor to her role as manager of lab quality in Shelisa Lehmann, MSHA, BSCLS, MLS (ASCP). In turn, Shelisa gravitated toward Raven as a mentor and her model of leadership.

“People click with her. She walks into a room, and you gravitate toward her and want to have a conversation with her,” Shelisa said of Raven, adding that she considers herself an introvert. 

“Raven has kind of helped me break through a little bit, to be the one who, when you walk into the room, someone wants to talk to you about this or get your opinion on that. It’s something I continuously work on every single day.”

The lab quality team, composed of three dedicated teammates, is responsible for compliance of all system facilities with regulatory requirements, using standardized policies and procedures at multiple system facility labs with different complexities, sizes and patient groups.

Under Raven’s guidance, multiple facilities have steadfastly met the standards and requirements of the College of American Pathologists (CAP), The Joint Commission, the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) and the FDA and passed rigorous external inspections.

A big piece of that success is putting together teams of laboratorians who conduct internal inspections. Each time Raven asked for volunteers, Shelisa’s hand went up.

“You start to get to know people in that setting, and when she asked questions, they were very intelligent questions,” Raven said. “I saw we think about things similarly. This girl was asking the right stuff.”

That includes how to quickly climb the career ladder the way Shelisa had. They’d both joined Baylor Scott & White as medical technologists, Raven in July 2007 and Shelisa in March 2012. 

Raven served as lab supervisor and then lab manager at Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospital – Plano from 2009 to 2011 and 2011 to 2013, respectively, and then as a lab director before becoming the system’s lab quality program manager in 2015—a role she held until accepting her current role in April 2019.

Shelisa accepted her first management position, pathology lab supervisor, in August 2014 at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Round Rock. She became the regional lab manager in August 2016, then the lab manager at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Taylor in March 2018, before moving into her current role in October 2019.

“That was one of my goals, to keep moving up and keep progressing,” Shelisa said. “My obstacle was getting myself in front of people and getting myself in front of the right  and making myself known to the leadership group. I want to be known not only in Central Texas. I want to be known in North Texas. I want to be known as someone who’s a resource for the whole system.”

Raven made it a priority to foster confidence in Shelisa.

“Shelisa knows what she’s talking about. She knows a lot of this stuff as well, or better, than I do,” Raven said.

When Shelisa forwarded Raven emails for advice, Raven pored over the chains and beamed with pride.

“She is the subject matter expert as much as I am now, and people go straight to her,” Raven said. “Shelisa could move right into my role, and to me, that’s my most important job as a leader to make sure there’s somebody ready to fill that role.”

Raven’s mother, Rebecca, was her greatest mentor. Her father passed away when she was 10.

“As an adult, I look at my mother and what she did, and I’m blown away by the fact that she became a single mother with a 10- and 12-year-old, and she never missed a beat,” she said. “She still worked outside the home, and she never missed a ballgame. She was the best role model I could have had. She showed what it means to be a strong, working woman. I want to be that for my two daughters.”

Shelisa is the proud mother of five sons.

“I think that’s part of what makes our relationship work so well,” Raven said. “There are going to be times when our kids pull us into something, so work gets put to the side. Shelisa is going to get her work done, no matter what, but we both try to encourage other to have a really good work-life balance.”