DGTL Voices with Ed Marx

Episode: Empowering the Next Generation of STEM Leaders (ft. Dr. Laura Preitula)

Date: September 3, 2025

Overview

In this episode, Ed Marx sits down with Dr. Laura Preitula to explore her journey from Mexico City to becoming a prominent leader in healthcare technology. The conversation centers on empowering future STEM leaders, the significance of diversity and multiculturalism, intergenerational leadership lessons, and practical advice for those at all stages of their careers. Dr. Preitula shares her mantras, upbringing, and the philosophies that continue to shape her deep commitment to education, mentoring, and transformative leadership.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Early Influences: Multiculturalism and Family Foundations

• Dr. Preitula was born and raised in Mexico City and moved to the U.S. about 30 years ago after meeting her future husband at a computer science symposium (03:31).
• Raised by parents working in healthcare—her father a surgeon, mother in nuclear medicine—Laura originally planned not to enter healthcare herself.
• Her family’s philosophy: “Education is the only inheritance that nobody will ever be able to take away from you.” (04:44, 13:35)

2. Personal Mantra and Leadership Philosophy

• Laura’s personal purpose statement: “To love people.”

  “For me, the greatest thing in this world is people. I love people. I like watching people, I like studying people. But more than anything, I love helping and supporting and servicing people.” (02:32)

• She highlights the centrality of community, curiosity, and supporting others as key leadership traits.

3. Navigating Cultural Identity, Family, and Parenting

• Both of Dr. Preitula’s children are multilingual and multicultural, with strong exposure to technology from a young age (04:29).
• Dr. Preitula and her husband prioritized supporting their children’s individual interests and fostering their growth as independent thinkers.

  “We really wanted them to discover who they are…You have your teams, you have their strengths, and you know that you could probably do it better, but you need to guide them and then they can grow.” (11:07)

4. Transition to Healthcare and Professional Growth

• Career began in supply chain, then shifted to manufacturing and finance—eventually entering healthcare at the time of the Y2K crisis (06:38).
• Applied lessons from manufacturing and supply chain to healthcare innovation, including processes like "just in time" supply management.

5. Defining Leadership: The Role of Curiosity and Resilience

• Emphasizes the value of curiosity above all as a leadership quality:

  “If you're curious about stuff, you're going to try, you're always going to be like, ‘What about this? What if I do this?’” (09:03)

• Resourcefulness and community support are pillars of her approach.

6. Mentoring and Advisory: The Creation of Selden Advisory Services

• With her husband, established a consultancy in 2016 focused on workforce development, executive presence, coaching, mentoring, and blending both—what she calls "codering" (12:02).

  “Blending coaching and mentoring actually gives a lot to people when they're stuck as well. So I called it codering.” (13:23)

7. Commitment to Education

• Lifelong learning is a central value; earned her doctorate at Vanderbilt in Leadership and Learning in Organizations during COVID-19 (13:35).

  “We've been lifelong learners, my family…The only inheritance that I could ever keep and nobody can take away from me is my education.” (13:35, 15:33)

8. Empowering Next Generation STEM Leaders

• Dr. Preitula’s passion for developing the next generation stems from her upbringing and experience modeling executive presence for underrepresented groups (15:44).

  “Now you've shown me what a person who looks like me can aspire to become.” (16:04)

• Emphasizes giving back, focusing on service rather than individual achievement, and being open with and accessible to emerging professionals.

9. Advice for Senior Executives

• “The higher you get, the less time that you're going to have for others. And that should not be the case…You should always, always be at the service of others.” (19:12)
• Calls for intentionality in serving and mentoring others as a leader advances.

10. Advice for Early-Career Listeners & Students

• Encourages curiosity, bold exploration, and learning from failure:

  “Be curious. Go out there and explore…Don't be afraid—be prepared and be aware.” (20:09—21:03)

• Stresses the importance of identifying a support infrastructure for failure and recovery.
• On opportunity:

  “Opportunities are not given. I do not believe that opportunities are given. Opportunities are created and you create them with your work, with your connection…You have to be bold, you have to be adventurous.” (22:17)

11. Self-Care and Recharging

• As an extrovert, recharges by seeking energizing, like-minded networks and periodically retreating for personal renewal:

  “For me, energy comes from other people. Right. So this right now for me is creating great energy.” (23:31)

• Makes time for family and solo retreats to balance her high-energy, outward-facing roles.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On leadership curiosity:

  “If you're curious about stuff, you're going to try, you're always going to be like, ‘What about this? What if I do this?’”
  —Dr. Laura Preitula (09:03)

• On the role of leaders:

  “The higher you get, the less time that you're going to have for others. And that should not be the case.”
  —Dr. Laura Preitula (19:12)

• On creating opportunity:

  “Opportunities are not given… Opportunities are created and you create them with your work, with your connection. But that's when you have to be bold, you have to be adventurous.”
  —Dr. Laura Preitula (22:17)

• On fear as a superpower:

  “You can make fear your superpower…focus on what you don't know, explore the unknown, act on the unknown and reintegrate that into your world.”
  —Dr. Laura Preitula (25:10)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:32 – Personal mantra: “To love people.”
• 03:31 – Journey from Mexico City to the U.S. & multicultural family life.
• 06:38 – Entry into healthcare and career evolution.
• 09:03 – Defining leadership: the power of curiosity.
• 12:02 – Creation of Selden Advisory Services and “codering.”
• 13:35 – Educational journey, doctorate at Vanderbilt, value of education.
• 15:44 – Passion for empowering new STEM leaders; representation story.
• 19:12 – Leadership is about serving others at increasing levels.
• 20:09–21:03 – Advice to early-career professionals: curiosity, exploration, infrastructure for failure.
• 22:17 – Opportunities are created, not given.
• 23:31 – How Dr. Preitula recharges; the value of community and strategic solitude.
• 25:10 – Final thought: making fear your superpower.

Conclusion

Dr. Laura Preitula’s episode is an inspiring, actionable guide for both established and emerging leaders in healthcare and STEM fields. Her story highlights the essential values of curiosity, lifelong learning, service to others, and boldness in creating opportunities. Through lived experience and deep wisdom, she models the power of empowering the next generation by making representation visible, fostering inclusive communities, and reimagining failure as an essential step in growth.