Healthcare & Wellness

Building New Healthcare Partnerships: A Q&A with Durward Rackleff, EMBA/MS ’23

Career Corner: Healthcare expert Durward Rackleff pivoted from leading large quality improvement programs to promoting healthcare transformation.

August 12, 2024 By: Janice Endresen

a young man wearing a Cornell sweatshirt and sunglasses standing in front of Sage Hall and smiling.

Durward Rackleff, EMBA/MS ’23, leader of partnerships growth and operations at Rula Health, at Sage Hall on Cornell’s Ithaca campus (provided)

Durward Rackleff, EMBA/MS ’23, is a graduate of the Cornell Executive MBA/MS in Healthcare Leadership program offered by the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management and the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. He made a successful career pivot with the help and guidance of the Career Management Center at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.

Durward Rackleff (photo by Jon Reis)

A professional with deep roots in the healthcare industry who holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing, Rackleff leads partnerships growth and operations at Rula Health, a national, technology-enabled behavioral health provider he joined in November 2023. “I help grow Rula’s business by cultivating clinical and strategic partnerships and by building the systems and processes that enable Rula to establish new partnerships at scale across the country,” he says.

Rackleff was formerly the assistant vice president of quality and patient safety at the Greater New York Hospital Association, a prominent healthcare trade association, where he led large-scale population health and quality improvement programs under contract with the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

What inspired you to switch to a new career track?

A man standin next to a poster filled with information. — Durward Rackleff presenting a poster on behalf of the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center at the National Patient Safety Foundation’s 2016 Patient Safety Conference (provided)

Rackleff: As a nurse and a quality management professional, I was always motivated to enable better patient outcomes by improving care systems. Living in New York City since 2016, I noticed an incredible ecosystem of startups that were driving healthcare transformation faster and more nimbly than the traditional healthcare system was able to do on its own. I became inspired by the idea of commercializing transformative healthcare ideas to create more impactful, sustainable change for patients. After researching the startup world and talking with many people in my network, I determined that an MBA with a healthcare focus would help me develop the business acumen to credibly make that transition.

In what ways did the SC Johnson College of Business Career Development staff help to guide you in your career pivot? What strategies recommended by your career coach proved particularly effective, and how so?

Rackleff: The Career Development staff were instrumental in my pivot. My career coach, Nicole Woodard [senior associate director, Executive MBA career development], helped me with everything from my “big picture” goals to the day-to-day steps needed to achieve them. I consulted her before any big, important meeting or event to craft the talking points and strategy for each conversation. She helped me develop internal and external networking plans not only to advance to the next level, but to cement relationships for long-term mutual benefit.

Did you select course work or extracurricular activities to prepare yourself or gain relevant experience for your career pivot?

Rackleff: The strategy and finance coursework was instrumental in helping me transition to the commercial side of a healthcare startup. Meanwhile, the advanced topics in health policy and economics allowed me to maintain and grow my credibility as a healthcare expert with both internal and external audiences.

Did you build a new network of contacts that has been important to your career pivot? If so, what role did the SC Johnson College play in helping to build that network?

Networking has been essential to my pivot. Since the day I started the EMBA/MS program, I have grown my network and enriched it with much more diverse segments of the healthcare landscape, including financial services, technology, consulting, pharmaceuticals, and life sciences. I even stay involved with future cohorts, because our connection is essential to realizing the value of this investment in our education.

What advice do you have for other students or alumni of the SC Johnson College who are interested in making a career pivot?

Career pivots are not for the faint of heart. Sometimes you have to take a step down in seniority or pay while you develop your skills in a new field or discipline. I took huge risks that ultimately paid off, but only because of my persistence and determination to ensure a successful transition. The Cornell Johnson Career Development Office helped me identify smart risks and develop a strategy to capitalize on them for maximum impact.