Anne Lin, Pharm.D.

Dean & Professor, School of Pharmacy Notre
Dame of Maryland University

The past year has added a level of stress to the daily lives of business leaders that was unimaginable until last March. As someone who has sustained achievement what advice can you give to the Top 100 Women on how they take care of themselves while trying to help so many others (home, work, community? We all know self care if critical but also very hard in stressful times.

I found it helpful if I can even just get 15 minutes to myself each day, whether it is going for a walk or just being away from everyone else in the house. At the same time, it helped to focus on what is now possible; my two daughters came home to live for a while. It was wonderful to be able to have dinner together and just enjoy each other’s company.

How do you and your other Circle of Excellence honorees use your influence and achievement to help the women who want to grow to your level of success?

I think it is important to encourage and support other women and help them to find opportunities. Use our network to help them connect with others. It is also important for us to be open and share our successes and our failures so that they will not be afraid to fail because that is how we grow.

What do you see as the greatest issue impacting professional women today and how do you and other leaders lead change around this issue?

Society still expects professional woman to be superwoman and we may even impose that on ourselves. Finding an appropriate way to manage work and all that we do is important. We need to advocate for workplace policies that support the success of women rather than penalize them for the various responsibilities that they may have.