Spring_2018_Newsletter_Pages_WEB

OZARKS REGIONAL YMCA • SPRING 2018 • 5
Congratulations to Charity Elmer, Senior Vice
President and General Counsel at CoxHealth for
appearing on the cover of this month’s Biz 417
issue! She is a wise and successful leader, and we
are fortunate to have her serve on our Board of
Directors.
Courtesy of 417 Biz
Written by Lillian Stone
As CoxHealth’s first in-house legal counsel,
Charity Elmer has built the health system’s legal
presence from the ground up. Now, Elmer
leads a stellar woman-dominated team with
equal parts candor and compassion.
Charity Elmer will be the first to admit that she
is not a numbers person. “That’s why I went
to law school,” she jokes. “Because I’m not
good with blood or numbers.” That humility is
part of what makes Elmer’s leadership style
so refreshing. Her candor is reflected in the
way she deals with her all-star legal team; it’s
also apparent in her approach to mentoring
young women in and out of the office. Elmer is
passionate about owning her weaknesses and
prioritizing transparency—an approach she
cultivated after years of fighting her way to
the top in a highly competitive legal setting.
Elmer’s law career began at Price Fry & Robb,
where she started as an intern for local legal
powerhouse Virginia Fry and then was hired
as an associate attorney. When Fry transitioned
to a role at Blackwell Sanders, Elmer
joined her. Elmer quickly found that, in the legal
world, competition was king. “You may bill
the most hours, and you may provide excellent
service, but everybody’s trying to become
partner,” she says. “That means you’re trying
to work better and faster than everyone else.”
For Elmer, the environment was challenging
but manageable thanks to coaching from
Fry, who quickly became Elmer’s mentor in
the male-dominated law firm. “At that time in
the legal profession, there just weren’t many
[women],” Elmer says. “Virginia was a total
trailblazer.” Fry’s mentorship had a major impact
on Elmer’s compassionate approach to
leadership. Elmer recalls one instance early
in her career when she missed an important
deadline for a client. Instead of chastising her,
Fry was supportive, coaching Elmer in finding
a solution to correct the problem. “Telling her
[about my mistake] was the most terrifying
thing I’ve ever done,” Elmer says. “But her reaction
was the most reassuring and powerful
thing ever.”
While Elmer was at Blackwell Sanders, she
SHE MEANS
BUSINESS
The key to managing top-notch employees
when the going gets tough? According to Elmer,
it’s essential to make your team feel valued
and accepted, even when you might not
understand their perspective. “Make people
feel safe when expressing their opinion,” Elmer
says. “Don’t belittle them or make them feel
stupid, even if [their opinion] doesn’t make
sense to you.” Elmer has an inherently transparent
communication style, working to tie
radical honesty into her daily dealings at the
office and with the multiple young women she
mentors through community programs. “The
best advice I can give is to own your strengths
and weaknesses,” she says. “I’ll tell you all day
long the things I think I could do better.” Furthermore,
she’s committed to learning from
her mistakes and bettering herself in challenging
situations. Whether it’s crunching numbers
or riding out a challenging legal situation, one
thing is certain: Elmer’s compassionate nature
has taken her straight to the top.
had the opportunity to work on a malpractice
case involving a CoxHealth physician, who
mentioned the health system was hiring its
first-ever in-house legal counsel and encouraged
Elmer to apply. She couldn’t resist. “There
aren’t many in-house positions in Springfield,”
Elmer says. “But an in-house position at Cox-
Health was the most desirable place I could
have ever imagined working.” After her first
interview, she was so certain she wouldn’t get
the job that she ended up shredding the information
she was given so no one would know
she applied. About a month after her first interview,
however, she was asked back for a
second interview—and got the job. “Getting a
position like this for a billion-dollar health firm
at the age of 31—as a female, no less—is exceedingly
rare,” Elmer says, who considers the
feat her biggest accomplishment to date.
When she started in the role, she didn’t have
an office or a secretary—instead, she used
vacant offices left by
co-workers who were
on vacation. Today,
she’s built up a staff of
five full- and part-time
legal experts, four of
whom are women. She
describes herself as a
“traffic cop,” overseeing
her team’s approach to a
variety of company-wide
legal matters and other
issues such as compliance,
risk management,
workers’ compensation
and insurance. Needless
to say, the stakes are
high. “Health care is one
of the most heavily regulated
industries,” Elmer
says. “You screw things
up, there are mandatory
fines and penalties.
Worst-case scenario,
people can go to jail.”
Outside of the traditional
legal issues, Elmer’s
team deals with a plethora
of emotionally tough
patient care situations.
“Not a day goes by when
we’re not helping someone
make a life-changing
decision,” Elmer says.
Photo Credit: Brandon Alms for 417 Biz