International Women’s Day – Choose to Challenge: Meggie Soliman
Twelve years ago, when she first moved to South Florida to build a career in healthcare information technology, Meggie Soliman was told she would eventually want to move on. “People felt there simply wasn’t much growth potential for our industry here,” says Soliman. “I looked around and saw plenty of healthcare IT companies. What I didn’t see was a thriving community.”
After joining DSS as a Product Line Manager in 2013, Meggie now serves as Director of Strategic Innovations for application development. A leader in her company and community, last year Meggie was nominated and became a finalist for Palm Beach Chamber North Woman of the Year. This honor was based largely on her efforts to turn South Florida into an impact hub for healthcare IT – building the community she saw lacking all those years ago.
Today marks International Women’s Day, and this year’s theme is “Choose to Challenge.” It is a choice Meggie made when she first came to South Florida, and continues to make daily in her life, her work, and her community.
Meggie serves as Chair of the Healthcare and Life Science Task Force for Tech Hub South Florida, Vice Chair of Strategic Innovations for Palm Beach Chamber North, and as a member of the Health Information Management Systems Society. Meggie also volunteers for a chapter of Operation Underground Railroad, which she helped start, joining the fight against human trafficking.
She has also accepted the challenge from Junior Achievement South Florida to identify and share her “super power” with their Girls Ignite Initiative. This initiative connects hundreds of high school girls with powerful women who have a passion to transform future generations.
Meggie’s superpower? Seeing exciting new opportunities and making them real – a superpower she brings to our Strategic Innovations Department every day. There she works alongside her fellow Director, Michelle Burst, who specializes in Analytics. Together they are uncovering new ways to drive DSS to the leading edge of healthcare IT.
Meggie sees opportunity for DSS to become a leader not only in the local healthcare IT community, but in the industry as a whole, by continuing to promote women, like her, into leadership roles. Today nearly 40% of DSS employees are women, including managers, directors, and C-suite executives. Meggie hopes this number continues to rise, not only to effect change, but because of what this change makes possible.
“When you empower women, change happens,” Meggie says. “When women empower women, magic happens.”