Spotlight: Diana Lawless, senior accreditation specialist

Last year, Sharecare earned a three-year Accreditation for Wellness and Health Promotion (WHP), the highest distinction awarded by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). This achievement represents the dedication and collaboration of incredible cross-functional teams, and we want to thank every colleague who contributed their time and effort to make this success possible.

Today, we’re excited to introduce you to a member of the Sharecare family who was instrumental in leading the accreditation process: Diana Lawless, senior accreditation specialist. With nearly three decades of experience in nursing and health program accreditation, she is part of a dynamic team at Sharecare. Joined by Sarah Richardson, Mary Gentile, Whitney Good, Seth Hailey, Jon King and Michelle Snyder, together, they work ensure our programs continue to meet the rigorous benchmarks set by NCQA.

A nurse by trade, Diana began her career in a small rural hospital in Tennessee, and moved on to Vanderbilt, and St. Thomas before joining Healthways in 2008. Departing in 2017 after Sharecare acquired that company in 2016, Diana later returned to our team in 2019 to lead quality efforts that now span population health, wellness, and case management programs. Living with her husband Jerry on two peaceful acres in Lewis County, TN, Diana celebrated her 5-year wedding anniversary November 2025!

We hope you’ll join us in commemorating Sharecare’s recent accreditation by reading our interview with Diana, one of the many incredible individuals who helped our team achieve this milestone.

Tell us about your role, Diana.

My official title is senior accreditation specialist, and I oversee and conduct the surveys we do through NCQA for accreditation across our programs—our Population Health program for condition management, our Wellness and Health Promotion program for lifestyle management, and our Case Management program, which is our advocacy program. We’ve always been accredited for three years at a time since I’ve been doing this, and that’s really a credit to Sharecare’s programs. Three-year accreditation is the highest Accreditation status awarded by NCQA, and it makes us stand out in a competitive market.

I like to compare it to choosing a college—you’d want to pick an accredited school because your credits will transfer. When health plans delegate areas like disease management, case management, or lifestyle management to us, they’re trusting us to uphold the highest standards. NCQA’s survey is very rigorous. They don’t just check that policies exist now—they look back years to make sure we’ve been following them consistently. That’s why I often say, we’re always in survey mode.

What’s your biggest challenge on the job?

Adhering to NCQA standards while finding ways to stay innovative. Sometimes people worry that requirements will crush creativity, but that’s not true. When I’m pulled into meetings about something new that Sharecare wants to do, my goal is to help the team understand how we can stay compliant and creative. I try to help our teams to reimagine their solutions and ideas in ways that keep us both cutting-edge and compliant.

Can you tell us about your career journey leading up to joining Sharecare?

I’m a nurse by trade and I actually started out working in a little rural hospital in Perry County, Tennessee. Early on, I could already see technology merging with healthcare, and I wanted to be prepared for that shift.

When I joined Healthways (acquired by Sharecare in 2016), I started as a clinician on the phones, working with members across the U.S. to help manage their chronic conditions. When you’re a nurse in a hospital or clinic, your schedule is unpredictable and you can’t just clock out at 4 p.m. I wanted to go back to school, but I needed a set schedule to do that. Healthways gave me that opportunity. Working there gave me the set schedule I needed to go back to school, and I eventually earned my master’s degree.

Before returning to Sharecare, I worked briefly at HealthTrust, a GPO, but I always said if Sharecare ever called, I’d come back—and they did. In 2019, I returned to lead accreditation, and I’ve been here ever since.

How do you like to spend your time outside of work?

I tell my husband all the time—I like to piddle. I’ll piddle here and there, but my perfect day is spending it with him. We have two acres and we love being outside, cleaning up the yard, or just hanging out. We’ve been married five years this November.

I lived in Franklin for over 20 years, but after COVID, my husband and I moved back to rural Tennessee for a slower pace of life. If you’ve heard of the Elephant Sanctuary, that’s where I live now, in Hohenwald, TN. Compared to the city traffic, here running an errand takes five minutes instead of an hour. It’s peaceful. You have more time to just breathe.

Who has influenced you most in your life?

If you’d asked me that a few years ago, I would’ve said my mother, my aunts, or my grandmother. But I lost my father five years ago, and every day I see more of him in me. I realize now what an influence he had on me—how I handle conflict, how I view the world and politics, even the little messes I make around the house. He’s always in the back of my mind. After he passed, I started to see how much of him lives in me.

What achievement are you most proud of?

Helping my stepson with an intellectual disability to become more autonomous. When my husband Jerry and I married, he was told to get a conservatorship for his son, which would’ve taken away all his rights and just put him on SSI. I said, “No, he’s smarter than that—he just hasn’t been given the opportunity.” We worked with counselors, and community resources. He went on to vocational school after high school for customer service. Now, he lives semi-independently, works a full time job and pay his own rent. That feels like such a big achievement, especially in the short time that we did it.

Another proud moment was being elected the first-ever female president and chairwoman of the Democratic Party in my hometown. My dad held the chairman position for 30 years, and it was an honor to carry that forward as his daughter.

What’s a cause that’s important to you?

Two that are especially close to my heart are Planned Parenthood and Remote Area Medical (RAM). Both are about access and making sure people get the care they need regardless of income or insurance. Planned Parenthood provides essential healthcare and education that so many people rely on. And RAM brings doctors, dentists, and eye specialists to underserved communities. Sometimes people camp out overnight just to be seen.

I’ve volunteered with both organizations and seeing that kind of direct impact has stayed with me. It reminds me why quality and accessibility matter so much, not just in our work at Sharecare, but in healthcare everywhere.