Women Of The C-Suite: Kelsey Lyon Of National Environmental Health Association On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive
An Interview with Karen Mangia
Strategic and forward-thinking. I spend my day thinking about where we want to be in 10 years and what we should be doing today to get there. I currently am working on the final draft of a strategic plan. This strategic plan is our roadmap; it is not a list of things that we are doing, but truly a document that lays out a paradigm shift for our organization through a series of goals and objectives.
Asa part of our interview series called “Women Of The C-Suite” we had the pleasure of interviewing Kelsey Lyon.
Kelsey Lyon is the Chief Operating Officer of the National Environmental Health Association, where she leads strategic planning and operational transformation efforts for the organization. With more than 15 years in public and environmental health, her career spans local and national roles, including prior leadership at the Larimer County Department of Health and Environment. Lyon’s approach emphasizes cross-sector collaboration, process improvement, and building organizational capacity to support long-term impact. She holds a Master of Public Health from Emory University and is also a parent to three young children. Her work reflects a commitment to balancing forward-thinking leadership with values-driven decision-making.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I started off my career with a goal to open a health clinic in a small rural town in Guatemala, but as I began to work within the United States, I realized the importance of public health work in my own county and the moral complexities of inviting oneself into another county. I also began to see what job functions came naturally to me and brought me joy versus the functions that were not in my natural skillset.
Through each of my roles, I found myself developing strategic plans, enhancing organizational design, driving leadership conversations to prioritization and efficiency, and operationalizing log term goals into concrete steps. Public health remains my passion, and I have found that I can make the biggest difference within an organization by driving organizational change, focusing on continuous process improvement and leading strategic decision-making.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
My organization is significantly funded by federal grants. With the recent changes in the federal government, our funding has become less predictable. While this has been a challenging time for our organization, requiring us to lay off some amazing professionals from our staff, these changes have also forced our hand to begin thinking about our organization as more like a business — exploring ways to generate more revenue, looking at how we can change our structures and processes to better meet our needs and focusing on finding new opportunities amid the uncertainty. The conversations and decisions have been equally as challenging as they are interesting. In many ways, we are becoming a stronger organization because of this upheaval.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
One morning, I was flying through emails to check items off my list before my meeting with my supervisor. I received a response from Human Resources to a long email discussion asking if I would support promoting one of my staff members. I quickly responded that I would not support it and outlined the reasons why, added my supervisor to the thread, and hit send. Not a second after I hit send, I realized that I had not added my supervisor but had added the staff member we were discussing. Lesson learned: slow down when reading and responding to emails, especially with Human Resources.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I specifically recall my first supervisor that acknowledged and celebrated the knowledge and abilities that I had that were different from her own skillset. She was my first supervisor who allowed me to see that I was not just a less experienced version of her, but also someone with a set of skills and abilities that complemented hers. Many times, I was more successful at a project than she would have been. This way of leading demonstrated trust and humility and, in turn, built my confidence. This supervision laid the foundation for me to be confident in my decision-making and expertise and it provided me with an example of how to supervise staff in a way that makes them feel talented and valued.
Leadership often entails making difficult decisions or hard choices between two apparently good paths. Can you share a story with us about a hard decision or choice you had to make as a leader?
In general, I am not easily insulted or angered, and I often give people the benefit of the doubt. However, there are a few important moments in my career when I have stepped out of my comfort zone for the betterment of the organization.
In a previous role, I raised an important yet controversial question in a meeting. My supervisor and another person in the meeting became very defensive and the meeting ended with everyone feeling uncomfortable. I knew my supervisor wanted an apology from me to both he and the other employee, and the easier route would have been to take 100% responsibility for the tension in the meeting and move on. However, in this situation, I knew I was not completely at fault, so when I went to the meeting with my supervisor, I made the choice to own my part in the situation and to express how his defensiveness undermined my leadership within the team and in the organization. Then, I provided some potential solutions for how I hoped we could handle tense moments in the future.
My supervisor was surprised and frustrated with my response in that moment, but as the weeks went on, he began to circle back to that conversation to seek clarity and explore with is coach how to handle confrontation within the team in the future. He circled back to his Leadership Team and owned his part of the disfunction, shared what he had discussed with his coach, and provided some recommendation of how to handle disagreements in the future.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a CEO or executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what an executive does that is different from the responsibilities of the other leaders?
Executives look five, 10 and 20 years into the future to determine where they want the organization to be and what it needs to do to get there. Then, they clearly communicate these goals and strategies to motivate their leaders and staff in working alongside them to drive towards these goals. Recently, we made the difficult decisions to go thought a reduction in force and outsource our marketing and communications to an outside firm. This was in part to move the organization towards our five to 10-year vision of growing our national and international thought leadership footprint through targeted PR campaigns and innovative promotion. Although the decision was difficult, and we are still going through the change management process, we did see dramatic movement toward our 10-year vision almost immediately after this restructure.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive? Can you explain what you mean?
I think there is a myth about executives wanting to do more with less so that they look good. The reality is that we are frequently focused on what we can do to keep staff employed and avoid functional extinction. It is our role as leaders to consistently face the reality that a series of wrong decisions, or even a lack of decisions, can lead to our organization to failure. It’s never fun to communicate the hard-hitting realities of some of the choices we are making or goals we are setting, but the decisions we make and the guidance we give are always for the benefit of the organization.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
Children. For women, if they have children, people wonder if being a mother will impact their ability to do their job. But if they do not have children, people wonder why they do not have children and what that means about their personalities.
I can only speak as a C-suite executive with children preschool and under. However, whether it be subtle external pressures or internalized social constructs, I continuously feel the obligation to prove myself as an executive because I also have kids — to be more available, to turn things around faster, to assert myself more, etc.
When I started my current position, I lied about the number and ages of my children because I felt, whether justified or not, that people would doubt my commitment and leadership if they knew that I had a baby on the way, a six-month-old and a two-year-old. This was not because anyone said or did anything specifically, but because there are certain societal norms and pressures that make women think they cannot be a successful professional and parent. Now, I intentionally talk about being a parent, I am honest when I am calling in sick because of sick children, and I try to set boundaries to prioritize my family as well as my career. I do this now to exemplify to other staff members and professionals in my network that you can be a successful C-suite executive and a present parent.
What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?
I am the first COO at my organization. When I first began, I expected that everyone would understand what my role entailed. However, because there was not a COO before me, no one in the organization knew what my role way nor did they realize what decisions rested on my plate instead of the CEO. For many months, staff continued to go to the CEO with questions that were meant for me and, when I made decisions, staff did not realize that I had the authority to make those decisions.
I have seen situations like this happen frequently with new leadership or when a new position is created in an organization. It emphasizes the importance of acknowledging and planning a change management process, but more tactically and specifically, it emphasizes the importance of communicating clearly about the roles and responsibilities of new positions, including decision making authority, before the person arrives, to decouple the role from the personality. It is also important as leaders to lean into those roles, responsibilities, and decision-making authorities from the beginning to foster the change management needed for staff buy-in to new voices and perspectives. Adhering to the lines of decision-making early on can foster more agile change.
Is everyone cut out to be an executive? In your opinion, what specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful executive and what type of person should avoid aspiring to be an executive? Can you explain what you mean?
At the executive level, you are held accountable for the performance of the organization, but you are also not doing the things on which the performance is measured. Because of this conflict, you need to be able to sit comfortably with being a mile wide and an inch deep in most parts of the organization. We are usually not the experts in any part of the organization, but we have to be comfortable not knowing everything and being confident that our leaders and staff are doing their best to move the organization forward.
What are your “5 Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive” and why?
1. Strategic and forward-thinking. I spend my day thinking about where we want to be in 10 years and what we should be doing today to get there. I currently am working on the final draft of a strategic plan. This strategic plan is our roadmap; it is not a list of things that we are doing, but truly a document that lays out a paradigm shift for our organization through a series of goals and objectives.
2. Risk tolerance: There are choices every day that cannot be undone (1-way door) and decisions that can be undone (2-way door). A successful leader allows for staff to make 2-way door decisions, regardless of whether they agree with the decision. Being able to let staff try something new, and potentially fail, is an important part of being a strong leader.
During COVID, I worked at a local health department. My epidemiologist came to me with a series of data dashboards to show risk, outbreak numbers, etc. While I knew we needed a dashboard, I thought some of it was too complex to put online. However, I let him proceed. The next week at a county meeting, our commissioners were raving about the dashboard and using the data in their decision-making process. His dashboard went onto be a model for other counties and states nationwide.
3. Confidence in uncertainty: In a leadership role, decisions are often educated guesses in disguise. Currently, I do not know for certain that our federal dollars are going to decrease significantly but I am using my critical thinking skills and experience to assess that there is a good chance of that happening and confidently making decisions based on my instincts. In uncertain times, we cannot freeze and wait. As leaders, we must choose a path and make decisions that continue to move us forward.
4. Humility: Humility is essential in two different ways. First, it is essential to know that you do not have all the answers and to be open to conferring with staff when making decisions. Second, it is important to admit when you make a mistake.
Recently, I asked staff members to present to a board committee about increasing our membership dues. The proposal represented a dramatic shift, and the committee was defensive about the idea. Amid the disagreement, I realized I had not run the idea past the chair and he felt blind-sided. I also did not attend the meeting, leaving my staff member in an uncomfortable situation to defend my decision when she did not have all of the background information or the authority to hold strong on our position.
I spent the next day apologizing to the CEO, the chair and my staff for not taking the time to understand the process and the history before moving ahead with my idea. Now, I make those meetings a priority and plan for them well in advance so that everyone is set up for success.
5. Kindness: Being a C-suite leader is a great privilege. You get to make a lot of the decisions and drive exciting organizational changes. You also get to see that most people want to be successful in their role or profession. With these two things in mind, it is essential to lead with kindness. I always seek to understand others’ perspectives, assume positive intent, and to be clear with expectations and feedback. It’s always best for the organization when its staff feel seen, heard and valued.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Treating other the way you want to be treated is something we learn in grade school, but as problems become more complex and ideologies and life experiences diversify, we forget this simple rule. If more people spent the time to truly think about how they would want to be treated if they were in a different place or circumstance, we would probably land on more common ground.
A 24-karat Golden Rule Movement, as I would call it, would push people to move past the through barrier of “I would never be in that situation” or” I am not like that” and instead encourage them to really seek to understand within themselves how they would like to be treated if they were that other person and then make decisions based on that intense introspection.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them
I was first inspired to go into medicine and public health in 2006 when I read “Mountains Beyond Mountains,” which is about Dr. Paul Farmer and the nonprofit Partners in Health (PIH).
I continue to follow the work of Dr. Farmer and of PIH as their work continues to inspire me and remind me of why I am in the public health field. Sadly, Dr. Farmer passed away in 2022, but his great work of Partners in Health lives on. Because of my leadership role in a nonprofit organization, I would love to meet with their current Chief Executive Officer Dr. Sheila Davis to learn from her as we navigate the complex world of public health nonprofits — a field that is wrought with opportunity and complexity.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Kelsey Lyon is a visionary leader with over 15 years of experience transforming environmental health organizations. As Chief Operating Officer of the National Environmental Health Association, she architected strategic initiatives that elevated the organization’s impact while fostering a culture of innovation and excellence.
Previously, as an Executive Leadership Team member at Larimer County Department of Health and Environment, Kelsey led collaborative initiatives connecting public health policy with community needs. Her leadership approach focuses on building high-performing teams and developing cross-organizational partnerships that drive mission-based outcomes.
With experience spanning national associations and local government, Kelsey brings valuable perspective on leading health organizations through change. She holds a Master of Public Health from Emory University and is the mother of three young children, ages 1, 2, and 4.
Thank you for sharing your insights and predictions. We appreciate the gift of your time and wish you continued success and wellness.
Women Of The C-Suite: Kelsey Lyon Of National Environmental Health Association On The Five Things… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.