At Daniels, April Giles reframed how she saw herself as a leader
April Giles
Her resume said she was a leader. Her title said she was a leader. But April Giles didn’t necessarily feel like a leader, even as the president and CEO of the Colorado BioScience Association.
Leaders, she thought were front and center. Boisterous. The people who had everything well defined and were ready to take action immediately.
“And that is not me,” Giles said. “I’m someone who is a processor; I think about things, I digest, I bounce ideas off of people to get feedback.
“I guess it depends on how you look at leadership.”
After graduating from the Daniels College of Business Executive MBA (EMBA) program in March, Giles has a different perspective, complementing a new job she secured during her time as a student.
As the executive director of the nonprofit End Drug Shortages Alliance, she is taking on one of the health care world’s toughest problems—equipped with a new set of skills from her EMBA, and a lifetime of family inspiration.
Advocacy for herself and others
Lessons in hard work, persistence and advocacy started early for Giles. Her mom entered medical school when Giles was in elementary school. Her dad took on a second job to make it possible.
Giles spent her formative years in and around the health care sector, walking the halls of the hospital when her mom was on call. She took unconscious notes of how to care for people, and the things that limited the ability to do so.
“I do remember those conversations,” Giles said. “And as I joined the life sciences industry, those were pivotal for me in thinking about the importance of taking really good research ideas and helping support the companies that are innovating in spaces where there is no access for patients to have a cure or a treatment, and bring hope to them and their families.”
She started her career in social work before taking a turn toward life sciences. In 2006, she began her work at the Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA), an organization dedicated to supporting the advance of biomedical companies, research institutions and more. The group expands access to capital, offers education and networking opportunities, and advocates for life sciences through partnerships with policymakers and business leaders.
Over her 12-year tenure at CBSA, Giles ascended from director of operations, to vice president of administration and operations, to president and CEO. Later, she joined the Fitzsimons Innovation Community as VP of business development.
But after years in leadership roles, Giles felt she needed a refresh.
“I felt like my capacity to deliver [results] would be that much better if I had an opportunity to be part of an academic setting where I could learn better systems, processes [and] ways of evaluating context from many different angles,” she said, “and also be with my [executive-level] peers and have the opportunity to listen, to learn, to understand how they contextualize the information into action for their organization.”
She applied to the Daniels EMBA program and soon sat in the building that would reroute her trajectory.
Trading old habits for new growth
The EMBA changed everything. Over the course of 18 months, the program helped Giles see where she had become entrenched, and pushed her to reframe, rethink and become a more purpose-driven leader.
“It’s so easy to rely on behaviors that are tried and true and have maybe been successful for you in some ways, but maybe also have had limitations that you didn’t spend time acknowledging,” she said.
Other highlights included the EMBA’s infamous sailing trip and her global immersion in Estonia—a country that taught her a lot about risk assessment and seeing the big picture.
Perhaps most of all, Giles is grateful for her cohort of executive expert leaders, the 18 classmates with whom she built relationships that she knows will endure after graduation.
“We’ve had some honest, candid conversations with each other and laid some things out on the line that you wouldn’t do in a traditional work setting,” she said. “I know I can message any one of them and I will have someone who can think with me on whatever the challenge of the day is.”
Improving the health care supply chain
The EMBA program also led Giles to her role with the End Drug Shortages Alliance, a position she might not have considered before enrolling at Daniels. Most of the job description didn’t feel like it fit her. A mentor pushed her to apply.
“As I was interviewing, I grounded myself in what I know that I can deliver for the organization,” she said. “Rather than focusing on the 85% where I [felt I] couldn’t deliver, I focused on the 15% that was such a differentiated value to the organization. Without this program, my mindset would have been around the 85%.”
The shift paid off. She landed the job and got to work, drawing on her passion and her professional strengths to take on one of the country’s most pressing issues.
The number of drug shortages is rising; the duration of existing shortages has only grown. That means cancer patients waiting on treatment and kids with ADHD who lack access to helpful medication.
The solution, Giles said, starts with transparency.
“There is so much lack of trust in the drug supply chain that, honestly, one of my goals is to foster a higher sense of trust between the partners,” she said. “And then it really is: ‘How do we start to build the systems and the structures that allow for more strategic decision-making between the partners and the manufacturers, with government?’”
It’s a job that combines the relationship-building she has always cherished, the learning she has always loved, and the advocacy work she has long admired.
And now, she can add the leadership prowess she has re-discovered.