“It is so important for employees to feel that they can belong in a community that resonates with them,” says Sam Balsubramani, a member of Intuitive’s Global Marketing & Insights team and the Diverse-Abilities Employee Resource Group (ERG). “ERGs at Intuitive, including Diverse-Abilities, provide a safe space for authentic expression, knowledge-building, storytelling, and community.”
As part of Intuitive’s celebration of Disability Employment Awareness Month, Sam shares about her Intuitive experience and what she’s learned as a part of Diverse-Abilities (and about her adventuring and trail racing, too).
Tell us about what you do at Intuitive and how you contribute to its success.
I’ve been at Intuitive for a little over three years. I started as an MBA intern in the height of COVID-19, working on digitizing our patient-facing marketing strategy. I transitioned into Patient Marketing full time for a couple years before moving into my current role on the Global Marketing & Insights team.
Within the Global Marketing & Insights team, my role is focused on ecosystem portfolio marketing, where I message the value of the Intuitive ecosystem offerings to our customers globally, specifically hospitals and governments.
What is your proudest achievement at Intuitive?
As cliché as this may sound, every day at Intuitive is a gift. I find so many people who are curious to learn, hungry to solve the most pressing healthcare challenges, and eager to work collaboratively to do so.
Everything we do here is grounded in one common mission: to improve patient lives. The mission is palpable in everything we do, and I’ve found achievement and meaning in many things I do here, both big and small: in customer interactions, in team interactions, in our ERG work, and in the entire ecosystem that makes Intuitive special.
Tell us about why you decided to join Diverse-Abilities.
I joined this ERG around the time I joined Intuitive, three years ago. I have always identified as a close ally of this community, and I knew that I wanted to join and drive impact within Intuitive.
Much of this desire was shaped by my childhood. Growing up, my mother was a special educator, teaching children with learning difficulties. She would often tell me how intelligent and empathetic these children were, and it got me thinking about how there was still a prevalent societal stigma around these children, and so many other individuals, who didn’t fit within a certain “norm.”
When I reflected on this more, I attributed this to a general lack of awareness, education, and conversations around disability and impairments in general. While this has overwhelmingly improved over time, I think there is still more we can do in championing destigmatization through awareness-building and workplace conversations. That is my key focus in the ERG.
What have you learned being part of the Diverse-Abilities ERG?
So much. It is so important for employees to feel that they can belong in a community that resonates with them. ERGs at Intuitive, including Diverse-Abilities, provide a safe space for authentic expression, knowledge-building, storytelling, and community.
Specifically, Diverse-Abilities has really reminded me about the sheer diversity of the disability community. Everyone has a different superpower, but there is a ton of nuance to think of as it relates to accommodation and needs. It’s important to ensure that everyone has a voice at the table, even within this community, and sometimes that means driving institutional change, which can be hard to effect (depending on the situation).
Despite this sometimes seemingly vast scope, I have learned so much from my fellow Diverse-Abilities co-leads around the importance of showing up in everyday interactions, ready to advocate for the community. My Diverse-Abilities teammates are a powerful example of how the collective voice is much stronger than each individual’s.
Tell us about the theme for this year's Disability Employment Awareness Month, “From Bias to Belonging: Building Inclusivity Through Disability Awareness,” and why it’s important to you.
The theme aims to highlight that unconscious biases are natural cognitive responses in us; it is normal to draw from our experiences and biases and view the world through those lenses. Sometimes it can be a natural reaction to make snap judgments about those who identify with the disability community. But what matters is what we do after these thoughts arise: how we choose to check these thoughts and channel them into inclusive actions. Much of this internal corrective mechanism can be built through increased education, awareness, and conversation around disability, and this is what this theme, and event, really speak to.
As a vocal ally who has seen the negative effects of limited conversation around topics like these, this is something I’m particularly passionate about, and so it’s important for me to drive efforts that promote organizational-wide education and conversation and facilitate belonging.
Tell us more about you. What gives you energy or inspiration—inside and outside of work?
At work, it’s the feeling of contributing to something that is so much bigger than myself. The meaningful impact that we have on patients is always a grounding reminder of what’s important, and why we do what we do. I remind myself of this mission often, especially when things get busy at work!
It’s easy to feel motivated and energized at work. The mission is so powerful, and the people I work with are some of the most driven, intelligent, empathetic people I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with.
Outside of work, I have two main passions. I love being outdoors and climbing mountains. I am an avid trail runner and spend much of my time outside on trails (especially trying to maximize summer!).
I’ve run more than 35 trail races. My distance sweet spot is anywhere between a half marathon to a marathon. Some of my favorite memories are on Half Dome (an 8,839’ summit in Yosemite National Park), Mount Whitney (a California mountain that is the highest in the contiguous U.S., with an elevation of 14,505’), and Mount Kilimanjaro (a 19,341’ dormant volcano in Tanzania). Being on the trail or on a mountain often grounds me in the present and humbles me regularly.
I also derive a lot of joy from music. I’m a concert violinist and play regularly in ensemble orchestras across the Bay Area. Again, for me, this is a reminder of living in the moment and making literal music in the present.
What else can you tell us about the Diverse-Abilities ERG and the work members are doing?
I’m so proud of Diverse-Abilities and our team. We’ve made so many positive strides in disability inclusion! Recently, Intuitive received a top score in the Disability Equality Index ®, which recognized us as one of the best places to work for disability inclusion.
We see our efforts moving the needle across recruiting, technology implementation, and accommodations. Even within Intuitive, our ERG has grown in membership and engagement very quickly, attracting key organizational change-drivers cross-functionally.
Still, there is much untapped potential in harnessing the collective voice to increase disability awareness, fundraising, and community and caregiver engagement. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 40% of employees in the workplace have a disability. If this number is to be believed, this likely means that we are all closely interacting with at least one person at work who identifies as having a disability. This is far more prevalent than one might think, so it’s incredibly crucial that employees recognize that they have an advocating body in us and can join to represent, help, advocate, or learn with us at any time.
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Ready to join Sam in making an impact across Intuitive? Check out our open roles.
