Spotlight on Women in Healthcare Leadership: Amber Shah

In this edition of Everly’s Women in Healthcare Leadership Spotlight Series, we sit down with Amber Shah, CEO of the Emma L. Bowen Community Center. Spend a few minutes with Amber and two things become clear right away: she is endlessly curious, and she genuinely cares about people. Her career has taken her from medical school in Pakistan to hospital floors, classrooms, community-based organizations, national healthcare policy work, and a fast-growing for-profit company - and she has met every new chapter with the same energy, warmth, and appetite for learning.

What ties it all together is a leadership philosophy built on authenticity, faith, humility, and a firm belief that people - not titles - are what make an organization work.

A Blueprint Drawn Early

Amber was born to immigrant parents from Pakistan and spent part of her early childhood there before her family returned to the United States. Although Amber spoke several languages, she had not learned much English. A very special first grade teacher stayed after school to teach her the language one on one - a kindness Amber still remembers. Her mother made sure education came first.

“She really wanted us educated,” Amber says. Her father reinforced that lesson in his own way, having Amber read dictionaries and encyclopedias regularly. He was firm about it, but that routine helped develop the consistency, discipline, and constant desire to learn that have defined her ever since.

When Amber was ten years old, her mother asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. Amber's answer was remarkably specific:

“I wish I could have a place where I could care for kids with no parents,” Amber remembers answering. “Have school there. A doctor there. Everything in one place.”

In hindsight, it reads less like a child's daydream and more like a blueprint for what became Amber’s calling and career.

Finding Her Purpose

Amber went on to medical school in Pakistan. Not long after, she experienced the tragic death of a close family member - a turning point that tested her resilience and sharpened her focus on what she would build next.

Amber had practiced medicine outside the United States, but here, medicine would have meant choosing a single specialty - and Amber wanted to do everything. So she started wherever she could, working as a Certified Nursing Assistant on the evening shift at a large Ivy-affiliated hospital and applying for new roles several times a week. One day, another employee took notice of her diligence and dedication and offered Amber a job as a counselor. Amber took on that role with gratitude, all while earning a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree at the same time.

One of her big breaks came when the hospital system began rolling out the Epic electronic health record. Amber was part of the Epic go-live training at the hospital, where she learned about EHR development and implementation. By her own account and everyone else’s, she was a very quick study - and she kept on learning.

The next phase of Amber’s career took her to a tri-state career institution, where she first taught and then led the department for medical assistants and health claims, billing, and coding. Many of the staff she supervised were older than she was, and not all of them were accepting of her new position. She won them over the way she still leads today: by sitting down with people, talking with them rather than at them, and treating them as peers and colleagues. No one knows it all, and Amber makes sure her employees know she learns from them every single day.

“I get help from people,” Amber says — and she has made a point of lifting up the women around her. “Why can't we let each other shine?”

Saying Yes to the Hard Stuff

Amber’s next career opportunity came at a large community-based organization, where she joined as Director of Managed Care. There was just one small catch: she had no idea what managed care was.

True to form, she figured it out fast and got right to work, helping lead a full transformation - moving from fee-for-service to managed care, implementing a new electronic health record, overhauling IT, and writing new standard operating procedures for new service models.

“When people put stuff on you that no one wants to do, that's an opportunity,” Amber says.

Over more than six years with the organization, she launched new programs, including a foster care program, and ultimately rose to Senior Vice President.

From there, she went on to become Chief Strategy Officer at a state-based healthcare association, leading strategic planning in support of community health centers. It was her first time doing legislative advocacy and working with federal grants at that level, and it showed her just how wide the world of healthcare leadership can be. She happily calls herself a dreamer and a visionary rather than someone who ever followed a rigid career plan.

A New World — and 160% Growth

Amber then tried something completely different, joining a national ABA company serving children with autism as Executive Director. KPIs, productivity targets, commercial insurance, and business development were all new territory - and she thrived. Together, her team expanded the New Jersey region and achieved 160% growth. Along the way, she learned to lead within more corporate structures without losing the blunt, authentic style that makes her who she is.

That same curiosity and willingness to take on something new have brought Amber to where she is today: serving as CEO of the Emma L. Bowen Community Center, a role she is deeply grateful for. For the girl who once imagined having “everything in one place,” it feels like a fitting next chapter - and one she doesn’t take for granted.

Leading with People

“People are everything,” Amber says. “It's how you treat people that makes you who you are - you have to reflect back and learn from your mistakes.”

She describes her leadership style as collaborative and decisive, and she sees no contradiction between the two. On the collaborative side, she wants everyone on her team to have a real chance to bring ideas and solutions to the table, to think outside the box, and to feel inspired and motivated rather than simply directed. She respects people’s experience and genuinely values their feedback. What she prizes most is institutional knowledge paired with vision.

On the decisive side, Amber is clear that collaboration doesn't mean waiting forever. Once she has heard her team out, she makes the call, knowing not every decision will be the right one. When something doesn't work, the job is to be resilient: fix course, maneuver, and adapt quickly. She's honest that criticism can be hard to take, but a leader has to learn to let it roll off and keep moving.

Looking Ahead

Asked what every healthcare leader needs right now, Amber names two skills:

• Authenticity

• Adaptability

Change is constant, she says, and leaders who cling to how things used to be will hold their teams back. She's especially focused on the workforce - how to attract and retain high performers as more seniors need care - and on how nonprofits can use AI responsibly.

Gratitude

Amber is quick to share the credit, especially with her husband, whom she calls her best friend. He has been a steady partner from the start and a big part of the foundation that let her keep climbing.

She credits her success to three things: her faith in God, the people around her, and staying grounded and thankful.

Final Thoughts

Amber Shah’s story is, in many ways, the story of a ten-year-old girl who imagined a place where people could find school, a doctor, and care all under one roof. Through curiosity, hard work, and a remarkable willingness to say yes to new challenges, she built a career devoted to exactly that kind of work.

Her advice to women coming up in healthcare leadership is refreshingly simple:

• Stay authentic

• Stay humble

• Don't be afraid to try something new

• Never stop learning

And above all

• Treat people well

Because for Amber, that has always been both the starting point and the goal.