Everyone needs a reason to get out of bed each morning. For Hayley Hovious, the exciting prospects and challenges facing Nashville’s largest industry are the best alarm clock around.

“It has often been said that all healthcare is local, but more and more, it is individual and always personal. I am passionate about working with our member companies to positively impact people nationally on such a personal and important level,” she said.

While keeping her eye on the big picture, Hovious said the intimate aspect of healthcare cannot be lost in the midst of change. Growing up with a brother who has special needs, Hovious has firsthand knowledge of how healthcare decisions translate from boardrooms to households across the country.

Working with an equally impassioned staff and board, Hovious said the group is defining their vision for the next chapter for the Nashville Health Care Council. “The situation is healthcare is materially changing … and quickly,” she said. “How do we take the 20 years history we have with the Council and all of our experience and really utilize that to meet the future needs of Nashville and the industry?”

Hovious continued, “It’s energizing to create that vision. I’m a fan of the big, hairy, audacious goal and the power of collaboration to make that happen.”

Her natural desire to dream big but always have a plan is an inherited trait from her parents. “My mother has always been a role model for me,” Hovious said. “My mom worked my entire life and took great joy in being both a businesswoman and a mom. She taught me there was nothing I couldn’t do if I put my mind to it.”

Growing up in Nashville, Hovious followed in her mother’s footsteps by attending prestigious Smith College. While considering her next moves after graduation, Hovious’ father offered some sage advice. “I’m the daughter of a strategic planner so I always have to have a strategic plan for my life. My dad said, ‘You need to put in there that you should have fun in your 20s,’” she recalled with a laugh. “So I went out to Park City, Utah for awhile and worked as a ski instructor for two seasons.”

Although she considered a career in hospitality, ultimately Hovious was captivated by marketing and brand management. She opted to attend graduate school at Vanderbilt like her mother, who had earned an MBA at a time when not many women were making that choice. “In fact,” Hovious said, “I believe that we are the only mother-daughter pair to ever have graduated from Owen.”

Hovious spent the next few years working in brand management for E.J. Gallo Winery in California. “It’s great training for running a business,” she said of the myriad decisions, forecasting and brand awareness efforts that come with the field.

She returned to Nashville to be part of a start-up before accepting the position of trade director with the Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development where she developed and managed the state’s export program. It was during that time period that Hovious had the opportunity to interview to be executive director of the Fellows program, which had recently launched as a new initiative of the Health Care Council.

“I had worked with the Council to take several small businesses on an international trade mission and was very interested in expanding Nashville’s healthcare footprint beyond U.S. borders,” Hovious noted. “The opportunity to work in the city’s largest and fastest-growing industry with such a strong team was very appealing, though the true draw was the chance to have a positive impact on the way that healthcare is delivered in this country through my work with the Council Fellows.”

Last summer, Hovious was tapped to lead the larger organization as president of the Council, bringing the full spectrum of her work and educational experience to bear on a rapidly changing industry.

As for her ‘big, hairy, audacious’ goals for the future, Hovious reflected, “In the next decade, I would like to say that I was a guiding part of a movement that made healthcare in our country more affordable, more effective and more accessible for all.”