Navigating the Pressures and Successes of Middle Management in Healthcare
Daphnie Pierre serves as moderator for Navigating the Pressures and Successes of Middle Management in Healthcarea at the 2026 ACHE Congress.
This session explores the lived experience of being in the middle and the skills required to thrive in this role, drawing lightly on Barry Oshry’s organizational systems thinking to illuminate the structural dynamics at play. Panelists reflect on the systemic forces that shape middle management, the tensions they experience in aligning competing priorities and advocating for their teams, how they’ve succeeded in the face of these challenges, and the leadership capabilities they’ve developed to be effective in this often-overlooked but crucial space. Panelists reflect on how to manage up and down simultaneously, how to communicate when messages get distorted or lost in translation, and how to expand their networks and voice to increase impact. Drawing from real experiences and interactive audience engagement, this session helps you reframe individual challenges as predictable dynamics in complex systems—and identify new ways to lead from the middle with clarity, resilience and impact. By connecting personal experiences to broader organizational patterns, we explore how influence and authority can be exercised across different levels of the system, even without formal power.
Panelists:
Robert M. Weiss, Brown University Health
Lauren W. Glowienka, Main Line Health
Kerri-Lynne Kellam, Department of Veterans Affairs
