Debra Luling: Collaborating with Business Areas Across Elevance Health to Create Exceptional Client Experiences

Debra Luling, Director of Innovation, Experiences & Engagement

After 17 years with Elevance Health, Debra Luling gets up every morning feeling excited about the opportunities ahead of her. She and her team serve as conduits that connect employer clients with Elevance Health’s Innovation team to co-create solutions focused on improving the health and well-being of their associates.

Debra and her team create customized tours for national and large group employers visiting the Elevance Health experience center in the Indianapolis, Indiana-based headquarters. Developed by master storytellers, these experiences feature immersive video, interactive case studies, and client-specific data to demonstrate the value of partnership with Elevance Health and its affiliated health plans.
 

How does your role advance Elevance Health’s purpose to improve the health of humanity?

My team and I aspire to improve health by embracing an innovative mindset in everything we do. Breaking down silos and building bridges is the only way we have been able to achieve our shared business goals. Delivering a unique and highly personalized experience for each client requires a daily commitment to collaborate with a diverse group of cross-functional stakeholders. Healthcare is complex, so explaining our value proposition in a simple and memorable way requires mutual agreement on what success looks like and a willingness to collaborate and compromise to achieve that goal.
 

Which of our company values is most meaningful to you as an associate?

Integrity is the north star that keeps me focused and fulfilled, but agility is the value that I embrace the most in my daily work.  My team and I often say we are masters at pivoting with poise. As members of the Innovation team, we believe that it’s best not to fall in love with a particular solution or strategy because it will likely change for reasons outside of our control. 
 

What is the most rewarding part of working at Elevance Health?

I spent most of my early career in startup companies, and I have always thrived in environments that embrace a fast-paced, entrepreneurial spirit. As a member of the Innovation team, I feel like I work for a startup company that sits inside a Fortune 25 company. What I love most about my job is knowing that anything is possible if I apply enough passion, curiosity, and sweat equity to a problem. My team and I are always looking for new ways to grow and evolve both personally and professionally. We take an innovative mindset in everything we do. We partner with business areas across the entire organization, and that interdependence is a daily reminder that we truly are one company and one team.
 

What was a fulfilling moment when you knew your work has a positive impact on our members or the health system?

My team and I are fortunate to be in a position where we regularly hear from our front-line associates who are interacting directly with our members.  The stories they share with us and in the experience center as they talk to clients makes me feel enormously proud of how often those teams go above and beyond the call of duty to ensure our members receive the care they need and deserve.  Our customer care and clinical care teams are amazing human beings.
 

Do you have any volunteer or community service roles?

My husband and I volunteer once a month to make and serve dinner for families in crisis who are receiving temporary support through Catholic Social Services. Cooking for 60-plus people can be stressful for me, so I use the opportunity to practice staying calm and mindful in an activity that is very much outside my comfort zone, regardless of the number of times we do it.
 

How do you strive for and maintain your own good health and well-being?

I am very focused on eating clean, and I am growing in my understanding of how food impacts my mind and body. The more I grow in my understanding of how food impacts my mental and physical well-being, the more I discover that I have so much more to learn!
 

How do you like to spend your free time?

I am a high-energy person by nature, so I naturally maintain a fast pace at home and at work. My biggest challenge is reminding myself to slow down and take time to replenish and self-reflect. 

Yoga has been a life changer for me. I also enjoy hand-embroidery and gardening. Most of my hobbies focus on activities that force me to slow down and focus on being present.