Spotlight: Caroline Koller, account manager
This month, it’s our pleasure to introduce an employee who has already made an outsized impact on her team and the client relationships she manages during her short time at Sharecare. Meet the Sharecare Employee Spotlight for October: Caroline Koller, account manager.
Born in Buffalo, NY, Caroline lives in Virginia Beach, VA with her husband Forrest, and they will soon celebrate their first wedding anniversary in November. This month, Caroline also celebrates a meaningful personal milestone; reaching five years since first receiving her cervical cancer diagnosis in October 2019. Largely influenced by her past personal health experiences, Caroline brings her valuable perspective and leads with empathy to build meaningful connections with our clients in her role as an account manager.
Caroline’s manager Neely Niemann, director of strategic accounts, explained that Caroline has made a remarkable impact at Sharecare through her passion for health and well-being. “Through her own health journey, Caroline has fostered a fresh sense of community and trust amongst her peers. She actively encourages others to tackle their own health challenges with courage. She embraces challenges and contributes valuable ideas regularly, all while remaining eager to learn from her peers so that she can grow.”
Additionally, Christy Wilson, vice president of national accounts, emphasized that from day one Caroline has come to work with an open heart and a kindness that is contagious – and felt by colleagues and clients alike. “We are beyond thrilled to have Caroline on our team! Outside of Sharecare, Caroline has spearheaded initiatives to increase awareness of women’s health and developed her own platform called femUNITY. Her innovative ideas and tireless efforts have led to providing women with valuable resources and connections.”
Kudos to Caroline for her relentless dedication and for being a shining example of how one person’s journey can transform lives! We hope that you’ll join us in recognizing Caroline’s tenacity and strong work. Read more about her in the interview below.
Tell us about your role, Caroline.
I’m an account manager on Sharecare’s account management team, which wears many hats as the liaison between our company and our clients. Our responsibility is to make sure that our clients are happy, and that their employees are utilizing the platform to support the lifestyle and habit changes they’ve set as goals. We work with HR and benefits leaders at large companies, to help them visualize, plan, and then architect a health and well-being program for their employees and members. We’re able to customize and configure our platform and offerings to the exact needs of each specific client, and their population. We report back to leadership often on the different key metrics we’re tracking. I usually have several meetings with each of my clients throughout the week and then work closely with the marketing, customer service, and implementations teams to collaborate on next steps. The account management team acts as the client-facing lead but we rely on great working relationships with internal colleagues. Any issue or idea that arises from the client will always come through account management first, so being able to prioritize and act strategically are important strengths within a role like mine. I think I am good at seeing the big picture and helping others see that, as well.
Can you share a little about your journey leading up to joining Sharecare?
I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communications from Syracuse University and spent the first part of my career at WeWork, where I worked both in New York City and in San Francisco. At WeWork, I focused on client and team relationships, growing and maintaining a book of clients that included small businesses up to large enterprises. I was on a steady path at WeWork where I could envision my future roles but was then diagnosed with cervical cancer in October 2019. I went through a period of time during and after treatment where I couldn’t work because my treatment plan was so aggressive. In between my time after WeWork and starting at Sharecare in November 2023, I worked for a women’s health non-profit, where my role was focused on managing our partnerships. I believe that strong relationships are at the core of any role. I got to work on those skills and learn a lot about the health world through my time with the non-profit.
This month, I’m coming up on five years since my diagnosis – which is a really big milestone within the cancer and medical community. It’s something that’s talked about “from diagnosis, onward.” It feels emotional and amazing to reach this point, and I’m super grateful. It’s the light that leads me to what I want to do throughout my life, and how I want to spend my valuable time.
Why do you love working at Sharecare?
I love being able to support a platform that helps people build healthy habits and manage their well-being. Sharecare really promotes preventative exams, screenings, and actions you can take to make your life better. Especially with my past background as a cancer survivor, that’s huge. I wanted to be a part of a mission-driven company with a tangible impact within the healthcare industry.
I love working with people like Neely, Christy, and other fantastic humans who I speak with daily. They’re always wanting to innovate and make sure that the client experience is as optimal as possible. When interviewing for this job, Neely’s interview really sold me. I could tell right away she was a great people leader, and I wanted to work with her. I remember ensuring with the recruiter that I would be on her team! Neely is detail-oriented and has a wealth of knowledge. Being in a positive work environment like this – I really believe that clients can tell the impact it has because it makes what we offer more valuable. Clients can tell if the team dynamic is a happy one – and when people are happy, they really do better work.
What’s a cause you’re passionate about?
I have a huge passion for women talking to each other and supporting each other in the health challenges they face. I think women are often silenced and just told to kind of ‘grin and bear it’. But there’s so, so much power in talking with each other about our health experiences, and fostering community is incredibly important. Before starting at Sharecare, while I was in my healing phase, I built an online community forum for women to talk about their health and well-being experiences and hear from other women who have experienced the same issues, lived with the same health condition, or have questions about it. It’s essentially like Reddit, but for Women’s Health. It’s called femUNITY.
What inspired you to create an online forum for Women’s health?
I built femUNITY while I was healing from my cancer treatment. I went through chemotherapy, radiation, and brachytherapy, which is internal radiation that is specific to cervical cancer. From early 2019 until October 2019, I was experiencing incredibly painful lower back pain. Really horrible tailbone pain. I was bleeding. I was exhausted. I was having a lot of symptoms. What I sought out the most during that time, was finding other women who had experienced what I was going through.
I kept going to online spaces to try to find a forum setting where women were talking to each other, but I couldn’t really find anything that was specific to women’s health. I ended up reading a lot of blogs that women just created on their own. But that’s a one-sided story, instead of a community forum with back-and-forth dialogue. So I had this idea to create femUNITY, with 11 forum topics. I’ve always been really interested in entrepreneurship. One of the forum headers is persistent pain, another is mental health, there’s also wellness & nutrition, and several others. In the forums, you can share your own experience, read other women’s experiences, reply to them with your own comments, and start a dialogue. I’ve received motivating responses from women who have said this resource has made all the difference, since it’s comforting to be able to share their challenges, since there hasn’t quite been a space like it.
Where is home?
I was born in Buffalo, NY – Big Buffalo Bills football fan! I’ve lived in Buffalo, Syracuse, Nantucket, New York City, San Francisco and currently live in Virginia Beach, VA. My favorite place to be is Nantucket Island off Massachusetts.
What do you enjoy when you’re not at work?
My husband Forrest and I love going to the beach, and spending time with family.