Audrey Parks
Chief Information Officer
Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System
Audrey Parks is the Chief Information Officer for Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System (SVMHS) - which has over 2,300 employees serving the Monterey County healthcare community of over 430,000 individuals and families. She has been with SVMHS since 1992.
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Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.
After graduating from the University of California, Riverside, she joined SVMHS in data processing and several other roles before being promoted to CIO in 2017. During her time with SVMHS, she continues to drive innovative advantages and enable exceptional patient experiences for the community.
What is one of your guiding leadership principles?
With integrity, compassion, alignment and trust, we can succeed.
With disruption being a key theme of the past year, where do you see your role as a CIO going in the next 1-2 years?
Information technology (IT) needs to be comfortable with disruption because this field is dynamic and plays an important role in empowering organizations to achieve their goals. With intense focus on patient experience and a digital health office, I envision CIOs having a strong voice at the table and in a position to make valuable contributions towards these goals.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out in the role as a CIO?
Lean into the skills that got you promoted, but also know that a new journey has just begun. Stepping up your relationship building skills will be essential to leading, learning and gaining trust. Appreciate the value of technology and remember that ultimately, people create value with the technology they use.
Tell us 3 fun facts about yourself.
- English is my second language, but this is hard to detect.
- International travel is important and I have made time to travel to over 20 countries in the past seven years which includes two years during a pandemic.
- I love baking and running so I consider this to be balanced.
What is the value of joining an Evanta community?
My hope is to sharpen my skills by learning from others but also to give back by sharing my own experiences that others may find helpful.
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