Two Rivers: The Power of Collaboration

In the fall of 2018, Shery Roussarie and Kelly Macken-Marble, CEOs of two competing health care companies, met for the first time. The energy generated by their like-mindedness in creating a managed care network sparked a two-year journey of collaboration that took their small community by surprise ... and by storm. While maintaining their separate companies, these two inspirational women purchased a hospital and merged, creating a safe, reliable place people could come to for health care services. Along the way, they encountered significant resistance and trials from the very medical organizations keeping theirs alive. The hospital systems that had instantly minimized the opportunities to jointly collaborate and threatened retribution for collaboration were rocked when the two women's plans for more accessible health care came to fruition. Breaking the norms of gender, competition, and politics in leadership, Shery and Kelly pushed traditions aside and accomplished the impossible through collaboration.