* Photograph by Shane Van Boxtel / Image Studios
Network Health
An attorney by training, Coreen Dicus-Johnson says she got into the field of health care by “happenstance.” But it didn’t take long for her to realize it was the perfect fit for her career.
“Health care is constantly moving, and I love problem solving — it’s one of my favorite things,” Dicus-Johnson says. “It was considerably more dynamic.”
A two-time Wisconsin Titan 100 honoree and 2014 Marquette University Alumni Award recipient, Dicus-Johnson entered the industry 25 years ago and worked both on the provider side with Ascension Wisconsin and the insurance side with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Wisconsin before joining Network Health as president and CEO in 2016. She quickly helped the firm go from losing more than $30 million a year to recording $1 billion in revenue in 2022.
Among the challenges facing the health care industry is the regulatory environment, Dicus‑Johnson says, but she is a strong believer in the U.S. health care system, which she says offers the best, fastest life-saving care in the world. Recognizing the importance and connection of oral health is something Dicus-Johnson sees as one of those problems she’d like to help solve for the U.S. health care industry: “I joke that, before I get out of this business, I’m going to reconnect the mouth to the rest of the body for insurance purposes,” she says.
While Dicus-Johnson says she’s proud of her work turning around Network Health’s bottom line and aspires to grow the company to $2 billion by 2030, earning “best in class” status for employee engagement is her top priority as CEO. When she arrived at the company, it ranked in the 63rd percentile for employee engagement, she says, and today it’s in the 86th percentile and climbing.
“We like to talk about our organization as being a place where we’ve created a work family, where you can come and feel valued, you can be developed,” Dicus-Johnson says. “All the things we do to take care of the people we love, we do at work.”
Anne Zizzo, founder & CEO of Zizzo Group Engagement Marketing, nominated Dicus-Johnson for the Women of Influence award because of her multifaceted leadership abilities and boundless energy.
“Coreen Dicus-Johnson has an extensive track record of proven results as a leader in multiple facets of the health care industry, Zizzo wrote. “In addition, Coreen has served on several nonprofit boards and chaired fundraising events that have made a significant positive impact on the Northeast Wisconsin community.”
Dicus-Johnson says she’s been fortunate to have been guided by incredible mentors along her leadership journey, including one who told her that becoming CEO meant transitioning from a career that was about what she’d done to a career that was focused on what her team could do. She has embraced that advice and says her leadership style today is very much in line with the culture she’s working to create at Network Health.
“I don’t have to be the smartest one in the room,” Dicus-Johnson says of her team. “My job is to remove barriers, to help them solve problems, and make sure they know that I care about them.”
She says she landed in her leadership position because of people who believed in her, and she doesn’t take that for granted.
“Every position I’ve had, it’s because somebody said, ‘Hey, you know that Coreen Dicus-Johnson — she’s got energy. She’ll figure this out and you should talk to her,’” she says. “And that’s been my career. Now, I’ve got to pay it forward.”
