2014: Ilyssa Levins

The Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) awarded Ilyssa Levins the 2014 Strategic Transformation Achievement Recognition (STAR) award. The HBA annually honors one STAR who stands apart as a truly engaging volunteer who has demonstrated a long-term commitment to furthering the advancement and impact of women in healthcare worldwide.

“HBA volunteerism is my jet fuel for innovative thinking, inspiration and the ability to have an exponential impact on the association’s mission,” states Ilyssa. “Working with like-minded leaders in a trusting environment unleashes vast creativity, purposeful passion and an abundant mindset, all of which is at the heart of industry breakthroughs and transformation.”

HBA’s 2013 STAR, Eve Dryer, sees Ilyssa as a “north star” for countless HBA members and initiatives. “I have known Ilyssa as an industry colleague, fellow HBA volunteer and friend for well over ten years. She has spearheaded several transformative HBA growth strategies, and throughout the association is recognized for her boundless energy, strategic mind and breakthrough creativity.  She has impacted HBA equally at both the global and local level, and along the way has inspired many of us to reach higher and achieve more than we dreamed we could. This makes her the ideal choice for the STAR award for the 35-year anniversary celebration of the association and Woman of the Year event’s silver celebration.” 

Over the last decade, Ilyssa has held multiple HBA board positions including director of marketing, director of strategic alliances and business development, and director of HBA awards - Advancement, Commitment, Engagement (ACE) and Rising Star. She is one of the founders of the DIA-HBA Leadership Project, a strategic partnership between the HBA and the Drug Information Association (DIA).

Ilyssa’s volunteer contributions have made her a strategic partner at the corporate level and the creator and executor of groundbreaking core initiatives that make it easier for chapters to achieve their goals. Ilyssa then rolls up her sleeves to help chapter boards leverage these core programs to enhance efficiencies and cement productive relationships with regional corporate partners.

As a strategist and futurist, Ilyssa has galvanized large and disparate volunteer teams to conceive and launch a list of industry “firsts,” They include the aforementioned DIA-HBA Leadership Project, the first initiative to focus on advancing the careers of women in the regulatory, legal, compliance and medical functions. 

From the first custom-fit leadership skill building series, to the invention of a Business Acumen Tool, to the publication of over one dozen articles in 18 months, the DIA-HBA Leadership Project is helping to help these women hone a leadership mindset, and underscore their value to the business. 

To that end, Ilyssa also conceived, launched and moderated the first Myth Busters Series, which is part of a larger working initiative focused multi-disciplinary collaboration solutions from development through commercialization.

In addition to DIA, Ilyssa helped HBA enter into a partnership with Dress for Success (DFS) to launch the first community project for Rising Stars who can give back to their community while networking and exercising leadership skills.  The American Heart Association is another relationship she helped to forge with HBA.

Ilyssa spearheaded the repositioning of the HBA’s prestigious ACE award to underscore that internal women’s initiatives are not just “nice to have” but rather a “must have” to drive business results.  The repositioning included a new logo, look and feel, new website copy, new brochures and a new approach to the ACE award celebration.

As president of the Center for Communication Compliance (CCC), which Ilyssa founded a decade ago to counsel leading drug and device companies on commercial and compliance effectiveness and enduring cultural change. Ilyssa intimately understands the industry’s challenges and opportunities having achieved success in two distinct disciplines over her two decades navigating the global healthcare environment.

As a marketer, Ilyssa ran a global communications practice for Grey Global Group, a top-ten communications agency. Her tenure there, from the mid-1980s through 2004, included strategy and campaign management for integrated global campaigns utilizing ad/promo, promo education; public relations; and digital and patient relationship marketing tools.

As a regulatory compliance specialist, she consults with drug and device companies and their promotional agencies to help them manage risk, increase efficiencies and nurture a value-based culture. CCC is the only single source for regulatory compliance testing, training and consulting with a focus on end-to-end quality control and efficiency for promotional materials and campaigns. Ultimately, this leads to a more rapid transfer of balanced health information to protect and enhance public health.

A Phi Beta Kappa from NYU, Ilyssa is a speaker, author, and award-winner. She was was named Woman Achiever of the Year by the YWCA of NY in 2000 and a Rising Star by the HBA in 2001. In addition, Ilyssa received the HBA President's Award in 2011 and was named one of the industry's 100 Inspiring People by PharmaVOICE in 2012.    

All information in the honoree’s bio is reflective of the time they won the award.