Gabriella’s Bio
Gabriella Rosen Kellerman, MD, is the Chief Product Officer at BetterUp. As CPO for BetterUp’s evidence-based global development platform, Kellerman leads strategic efforts to develop the next generation of offerings in behavior change technology. BetterUp’s virtual coaching platform supports the personal and professional growth of employees of the Fortune 1000 at scale on every continent. Kellerman is the founding CEO of the healthcare technology company LifeLink, former Director of Health and Quality Products at Castlight Health, and a serial executive at, and advisor to, healthcare, coaching, and behavior change technology companies. Kellerman began her career in psychiatry and fMRI research, and has worked on global mental health policy and interventions for the World Health Organization.
Gabriella holds an MD with honors from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and a BA summa cum laude from Harvard University. She completed her internship in psychiatry at UCSD, and holds a California physician's license. She was awarded Harvard's Captain Jonathan Fay Prize; Hoopes Prize; Rothschild Prize; and Joseph Garrison Parker Prizes for her research. She received both the Eben-Fiske Harvard-Cambridge Fellowship and Frank Knox Memorial Fellowships for post-graduate studies. At Mount Sinai she was honored with a Tylenol scholarship and the Gold Humanism award. She has published widely for both popular and technical audiences in The Atlantic, Scientific American Mind, JAMA, and the Harvard Business Review. She has been profiled in Inc Magazine, and her work has been featured on CNBC, Entrepreneur, and Forbes.
WITH GROUPS CREATING PROGRAMS TO ENCOURAGE FEMALES TO CONSIDER STEM, WHAT IS THE BIGGEST BARRIER TO ENTRY THAT IS STILL PREVALENT TODAY?
These programs are a great start to provide community and nurture interest! A career in STEM requires many years of education, with challenges at every stage; this can be intimidating. Close friends going through the same process, and mentors who have been there, can help young women stay the course, with the confidence that they can overcome those challenges and many more in their way. Both men and women can serve these roles of supportive colleagues and mentors, checking in and providing support and advice when the going gets tough.
WHAT OR WHO INSPIRES YOU?
I am inspired by the female software engineers that I get to work with. They are so talented, and so creative, and so centered. They give me great hope for what our next generation of engineers can be.
WHAT IS YOUR PROUDEST MOMENT/ACCOMPLISHMENT?
I had a professor in medical school who advised, "Every day, do something that scares you." I'm proud to have had a career that has been full of taking risks, doing things that scared me, and learning about my own resilience. Sometimes you fall down; picking yourself right back up is one of the most important skills you can learn if you are going to embrace a challenging career.