MEET TODAY’S GUEST
Kelly Elmore, MD
Dr. Kelly Elmore, MD, MBA is a physician, former Navy Captain, and healthcare executive who began her career as an OBGYN and has transitioned into leadership in the C‑Suite. She brings clinical experience, military discipline, and business acumen to help physicians amplify their impact, move into leadership roles, and build careers that match both their values and ambitions.
Hola!
You’re reading The Recalibrated Vision Newsletter, a resource for purpose‑driven physicians and healthcare visionaries transforming from career to calling. In this issue we explore how Dr. Kelly Elmore turned her clinical practice into a leadership role and demonstrates how physicians can broaden their scope, influence, and professional purpose.
- The Recalibrated Vision Team
Introduction & Background
In my conversation with Dr. Kelly Elmore, I got to hear how she moved from practicing OBGYN to leading in the C‑Suite as a Navy Captain and healthcare executive. Her transition illustrates how physicians can scale their impact by aligning their clinical roots with leadership, strategy, and business. Her story is especially valuable for physicians looking to step into new chapters of influence and leadership.
Why She Made the Shift
Dr. Elmore shared that while she loved patient care, she felt drawn to a broader mission‑driven role where she could influence systems, policy, and access to care at a higher level. The clinical work had deep meaning but she wanted to affect change at scale. This realization motivated her shift from bedside medicine to executive leadership.
What Her Model Looks Like
Her model centers on leadership, strategy, and systems thinking. She supports physicians in recognizing their potential beyond direct patient care, and in developing the skills to lead teams, drive innovation, and impact health outcomes at scale. For physicians seeking purpose‑driven careers this model shows how to move from doing medicine to designing systems, leading change, and shaping healthcare.
Building the Vision
Dr. Elmore described how she built this vision by defining her value in the intersection of medicine, leadership, and business. She developed expertise in healthcare operations, pursued executive education, and built a leadership brand. She emphasised surrounding yourself with mentors, learning leadership skills, and treating your leadership role as a professional service not just a job. She also highlighted the importance of starting small – leading a project, managing a team, then expanding responsibility.
Impact and Experience
The outcomes she described are significant. Physicians and other clinicians who worked with her or followed her model reported greater clarity, more leadership opportunities, and higher job satisfaction. Dr. Elmore explained that stepping into leadership brought renewed purpose, broader influence, and the ability to shape care delivery in meaningful ways. Her journey reminds us that when physicians align their career with leadership and systems change they can move from career to calling.
Advice for Physicians Redesigning Their Work
Dr. Elmore encourages physicians to begin by clarifying what kind of leadership they want, what change they wish to create, and how their clinical experience supports it. She recommends developing leadership skills, building a network of mentors, and pursuing opportunities that stretch you. She highlights the importance of thinking beyond one‑patient‑one‑visit and imagining how your work could impact many more lives through systems, teams, and innovation. She also stresses being patient, persistent, and open to growth in new roles.
Key Takeaways
Physicians can broaden their career and impact by moving into leadership roles and systems‑level influence.
Aligning your clinical foundation with leadership strategy and business acumen creates powerful opportunities for purpose‑driven change.
Building a leadership career requires clarity of mission, development of new skills, and willingness to step into new roles.
When you turn your clinical expertise into leadership influence you serve more people, shape the future of care, and fulfil a calling.
TODAY’S WORKSPACE | NOMADIC FOUNDER
Live from Houston, Texas
I am in Houston, Texas filming a podcast with another client. I decided to take a dopamine break from social media and build out a resourceful extension to this podcast in newsletter form. Whenever and wherever you’re reading this enjoy!
- Bianca Ariel, MBA
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