Az Business and AZRE magazines announced the publications’ lists of the Most Influential Women in Arizona for 2020, including Cara Christ, MD, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services. Each day, azbigmedia.com is profiling one of the Most Influential Women of 2020.

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The Most Influential Women for 2020 will be honored at a dinner and reception that begins at 5:30 p.m. on September 15, 2020, at Chateau Luxe. For tickets or for sponsorship information, click here or email Aseret.Arroyo@azbigmedia.com or call (602) 277-6045.

To buy copies of the Most Influential Women in Arizona issue, click here.

Today’s spotlight: Cara Christ, MD

Director

Arizona Department of Health Services

Background:  Dr. Christ became Director for the Arizona Department of Health Services in May 2015 and has served the agency for more than nine years. Among her many accomplishments at ADHS, Dr. Christ collaborated with health partners and stakeholders to develop strategic plans for infectious disease prevention and control including the Governor’s Council on Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response.

Professional advice: “To be an effective leader, you must be able daily decisions that take the positive and negative outcomes into account. To do this, you need to have all the facts and listen to the advice from your key staff. Develop your team with people who are smarter than you and bring different strengths than you have to the team.”

Lesson learned in 2020: “At the start of 2020, nobody could have ever predicted that in less than a month we would be responding to a global pandemic. You need to be prepared to be flexible and change course quickly. Even when you have the best plans, you can’t plan for everything.”

Surprising fact: “I am an avid Disney fan and every year I run a half marathon through Walt Disney World dressed as a princess.”