Elizabeth Battaglino – Registered Nurse & NWHRC's Executive Director

She’s dedicated her career to making sure you stay healthy.

By Taylor Mallory

Got questions about your health? The National Women’s Health Resource Center (NWHRC) is there to answer all your health questions with a robust website and a toll-free number with a live person to field your inquiries. And if they don’t already know the answer, they’ll find it and call you back within a week – at no charge.

All that’s thanks to Elizabeth Battaglino, a registered nurse and the NWHRC’s executive director – and savior. Straight out of college, she started working with the organization, then part of Columbia Hospital for Women. Six years later in 1997, the hospital shut the doors on the project. So Battaglino and two colleagues met with the board and got permission to restart the organization from their homes. “What we were doing was just too important to let it die,” she remembers. “We were willing to do whatever it took.”

In 1998, they received a $350,000 grant from Johnson & Johnson with the stipulation that they open their corporate headquarters in New Jersey. “It seemed like millions to us,” Battaglino says. The only single woman in the group at the time, she packed up and moved to Jersey to start a new business and a new life.

Here, she talks to PINK about how she successfully runs both.

PINK: How is the NWHRC weathering the recession?
Elizabeth Battaglino: We’re continuing to grow despite the economy. In fact, the last two years have been our best yet. Women need health information now more than ever, so we’re getting a little more creative about how we get funding. For instance, we do most of our work through educational grants. It’s getting harder to get them, so we’re collaborating more with other nonprofits and professional women’s groups on programs, materials and campaigns. It’s not about branding our organization; it’s about women’s health – and whatever it takes for us to continue providing our services. And we’re working with companies to get our message out. For instance, Bed, Bath and Beyond is one of our greatest supporters. They now put our name and website on every coupon they send out.

PINK: What is the biggest health concern for women that no one is talking about?
E.B.: Sexual health – among women of all ages. For instance, we’re seeing more of a lack of libido among women, even at younger ages. It could always be stress. But often a low libido and other symptoms (like pain) during sex can be a sign of something serious. Sex should not hurt, especially for younger women, so if you’re experiencing things that are out of the ordinary, contact your doctor.

PINK: What is the biggest challenge you’re facing at work right now, and how are you resolving it?
E.B.: We have 10 employees, seven of whom work remotely from all over the country. Managing a live staff and a virtual staff can be challenging. It’s about setting up parameters – all communicated verbally and in the employee handbook. Starting in the interview process, we set expectations that they’ll need to be at their desks during office hours so they can communicate with the rest of the team. If they can’t do that, it won’t work. I also encourage them to pick up the telephone. E-mail is great, but hearing voices and having conversations is really important too. I touch base with each of them by phone a few times a week, and we do a weekly team meeting to keep everyone in the loop about who’s working on what. Ironically, one of the greatest challenges with good virtual workers is making sure they don’t spend too much time at their desks. They often work more hours than those in the office. Their e-mail is open all the time. They can start their days at 6:30, while others are commuting. So they often work longer hours, and I have to remind them not to overdo it.

PINK: How’s your Life/Work balance?
E.B.: I have implemented better processes in the last two years. I’ve learned to schedule time for myself – like an afternoon workout during my lunch hour. My sister-in-law taught me that it’s OK to schedule conference calls during your commute. That way I can be home by 7:30. I set goals for myself. I just ran a half-marathon. And I’ve learned to go with the rhythm of my business. I know which are the busy times and which are the down times, when I schedule time off. My husband and I are big sailors, so we schedule trips in August. I also make time for friends. I have a group of eight girlfriends I’ve known since kindergarten. We do a girls’ week twice a year, so I’ll be seeing all my peeps this month. And I don’t work all the time. It took me a couple of years to realize I don’t have to leave the office at 7:30 every night, that I don’t have to check my computer every weekend or carry a BlackBerry everywhere I go. I need to live life. I’m a nurse, so I’ve seen the other side of it. Life is too short.

PINK: How do you define “success”?
E.B.: Knowing I’ve made a difference – that I was able to take time to let an employee know she did a great job, or pull together a great program that will benefit women, or make a positive change or difference in a friend or family member’s life. That’s part of being a healthcare provider. That’s why most of us go into it. My touchstone is still practicing nursing at a community hospital one weekend per month in maternal fetal medicine. It’s awesome working with newborn babies and new families. For the most part, it’s a happy place to be.

PINK: What do you want to accomplish in your career and life that you haven’t yet?
E.B.: I would really like to bring better medical care to women and children in underserved areas. And I don’t have to go to Africa to do it. There are so many places right here in the U.S. that need support. For example, I’d like to go to West Virginia and use my business knowledge and nursing background to help grow an existing clinic so it can serve more people.

PINK: What’s the best business advice you’ve ever received?
E.B.: One of my close girlfriends, who started her own successful company in her 20s, told me that as a leader, you’re not going to make everyone happy all the time. All you can do is your best. Only the mediocre are always able to please everyone. In order to be better, you have to accept challenges. If I always wanted to just be OK, I would have stayed in the middle. But I’ve accepted the challenge of leadership and try to do my best, rule with gut instincts and draw on my experiences. I might not always make everyone happy, but in the long run, I can say that I’ve always tried to do the right thing.

PINK: What’s your best advice for our readers?
E.B.: One of the things that has helped me most with heading up a company is that I grew up in a big family and was an athlete (we all were). If you have children, get them in sports and keep them there. It’s the best background you can give them for business and working with other people.