Department of Pediatrics Leadership Conference

People-Centered Leadership: Skills for Creating Thriving Teams

9:05-11:50 a.m. I HSLC ILC

Speaker: Lauren Peccoralo, MD, MPH – Dean & Director, Office for Professional Engagement and Development, Professor of Medicine and Medical Education, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Bio: Lauren Peccoralo, MD, MPH, is Dean and Director of the Office of Professional Engagement and Development and a Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her work focuses on faculty development, well-being, leadership, and creating environments where learners and faculty can thrive professionally and personally. She has developed leadership training, coaching, and well-being programs at Mount Sinai and has a national reputation for her scholarship and education in these areas. Dr. Peccoralo will lead a workshop on People-Centered Leadership, bringing extensive experience in communication, support, and leadership practices that strengthen both individuals and teams.

Session Overview: Participants will learn and practice approaches for creating psychologically safe environments where team members feel comfortable speaking up, sharing ideas, and contributing to create stronger teamwork, innovation, learning, and continuous improvement. They will build practical coaching skills, including asking curious questions, active listening, fostering a growth mindset and goal setting behaviors, to help team members identify their strengths and passions, develop their skills, and advance their careers. Finally, participants will develop strategies for initiating and navigating difficult conversations, particularly during conflict or when perspectives differ, in ways that strengthen relationships, clarify expectations, and support collaborative problem-solving.

Both/And” Thinking: How Understanding Polarities Can Help You Foster More Effective Teams

Speaker: Ben Williams – Internal Consultant, Office of Strategic Consulting, University of Wisconsin Madison

Speaker Bio: Ben Williams has more than 15 years of professional experience developing strategic plans, designing business models, and facilitating initiatives. In his previous work, Ben supported organizational change for diverse clients, including startup groups, nonprofit organizations, large-scale businesses, and multi-sector collaboratives. Ben holds a bachelor’s degree from UW–Madison and a Master of Public Affairs degree from the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW–Madison.

Session Overview:How do you build an inclusive, welcoming team culture while simultaneously holding individuals accountable? This session introduces “both/and” thinking to help participants identify, manage, and leverage core organizational polarities, interdependent tensions such as structure versus flexibility or individual versus team needs. Participants will acquire practical tools to navigate team dynamics, emotions, and power structures, exploring how managing these ongoing paradoxes directly strengthens collaboration, communication, creativity, and problem-solving across their units.

Leading Brave Spaces through Collaborative Communication

Speaker: Sarita Field, MA – Consultant for Social Impact and Belonging, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

Speaker Bio: Sarita Field is a consultant in our Department of Social Impact and Belonging where she works with teams, unit, and departments across UW Health and SMPH to develop and provide Social Impact and Belonging-centered Learning and Professional Development. She has been with UW Health and SMPH for almost two years, and has been working in education, social impact, and belonging for over 15 years, most recently for 7 years at Madison College where she supported students entering fields where their gender is underrepresented.

Session Overview: This leadership session explores how leaders can create the conditions for collaborative communication across their teams, especially during moments of conflict, complexity, uncertainty, or change. Participants will examine how leadership communication, expectations, and responses shape team members’ ability to participate meaningfully, navigate discomfort, seek support, and contribute to shared problem-solving.

Power Without Position: Leading When You’re Not in Charge

Speaker: Caitlin Quillen – Associate Director of Engagement and Community Outreach, Wisconsin Athletics, UW Madison

Speaker Bio: Caitlin Quillen serves as the Associate Director of Engagement & Community Outreach for Wisconsin Athletics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she leads community engagement initiatives connecting student-athletes, campus partners, and organizations throughout Wisconsin. With more than a decade of experience in higher education, leadership development, and community engagement, Caitlin is passionate about creating opportunities for individuals to recognize their leadership potential, build meaningful relationships, and make an impact regardless of their title or position. Her work focuses on collaboration, relationship building, and using leadership as a tool to strengthen teams and communities.

Session Overview: In many workplaces – especially fast-paced, high-pressure environments like collegiate athletics – you’re expected to lead, make decisions, and deliver results without always being the one “in charge.” Priorities shift, timelines move, and somehow you’re still expected to figure it out and bring people with you. This session breaks down how to build credibility, navigate power dynamics, and actually get things done across teams – without relying on a title to do the work for you. Drawing from real experiences managing large-scale initiatives, cross-functional teams, and ever-changing priorities, we’ll focus on practical strategies to manage up, down, and across with clarity and confidence. Through a mix of real wins, honest missteps, and lessons learned along the way, participants will gain practical tools they can immediately apply in their own work.