Sylvie Leotin
Founder and CEO, Equify Health
Sylvie Leotin, the founder of Equify Health, is a cancer survivor and woman of color with a unique background in art, science, technology, anthropology, and human-centered design. After experiencing poor care during her cancer journey, she drew from her extensive experience to re-appraise the patient experience through a humanistic lens. During this process, she discovered healthcare providers were not fully aware of the barriers to inclusive, quality care. Drawing on her multicultural and multidisciplinary expertise, she was able to identify these barriers and develop solutions to address them.
Sylvie believes that to successfully reverse healthcare disparities, we need to see them as a human experience problem instead of a data problem. Equify Health combines community-based research, multidisciplinary design practices, and provider education to deliver transformative systemic solutions to healthcare inequities.
As a cancer survivor, woman of color, and ethnography veteran, Sylvie possesses unparalleled insight into the problems faced by marginalized patients in healthcare. She uses her platform to amplify unseen stories and inspire others to join the quest to build a more inclusive future. Pulling from her inspirational personal journey, multidisciplinary skillset, and innovation expertise, Sylvie brings a mix of passion, illumination, and vision to every stage. She is a sought-after speaker whose experience ranges from delivering keynote speeches at Fortune 500 companies and national medical conferences to lecturing at some of the nation’s leading medical schools.
Sylvie has written academic, editorial, and creative work for numerous publications. She penned an incisive op-ed on the patient experience of healthcare disparities which was published in STAT News and reprinted in Emory Medicine Magazine. Her article in the Journal of Patient Experience documenting her journey through radiation therapy through the eyes of a human-centered designer has been downloaded over 2,000 times.
The biotechnology leader Genentech recognized Sylvie’s significant promise to advance health equity by awarding her a $750,000 innovation grant to pilot an innovative solution to cancer disparities with the Emory School of Medicine. The pilot was successful, and Genentech awarded her a subsequent $1 Million grant to expand her solution to other specialties and healthcare institutions.
Before founding Equify Health, Sylvie was the CEO of Tech Atelier, a multidisciplinary consultancy that advised venture-backed startup companies on product and marketing strategy. In that role, she served as interim Vice President of Marketing for several startup companies and led innovation workshops to help entrepreneurs design products that elevate customer experiences. Sylvie has also worked with innovation giants like NASA, Oracle, and Google.
Sylvie’s distinguished polymathic career crosses industries, disciplines, continents, and cultures. She is a gold-medal-winning ballerina and was the first woman researcher at Stanford Robotics Laboratory. Sylvie earned an MS in Engineering-Economic Systems from Stanford University, an MS in Computer Science from INSIEE, and undergraduate degrees in mathematics, dance, and music. She currently serves on a Planning Committee with the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM.)
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Health Innovation
Health Equity
Activism & Advocacy
Race
Social Determinants of Health
Patient-Centered Care
The Patient Perspective
Health Policy
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