Susan Barkley

Susan Barkley has over two decades of experience helping organizations advance and improve – as an engineer, a strategist and a corporate consultant for a range of private sector, government, academic and nonprofit institutions. During her career, she has assisted more than 200 hospitals and existing businesses in their growth and development, as well as helped guide hundreds of executive coaching clients.

Susan is known for her ability to quickly diagnose an operational challenge and devise a creative, sustainable solution with the customer in mind. Her strengths are a unique combination of deep analytical skills paired with the approach of working respectfully through relationships to get things done. She adeptly learns details where needed while maintaining the big picture and prioritizes accordingly. 

Ms. Barkley launched Phileanthropy in 2016, in response to the needs she observed across the service sectors of healthcare, government, nonprofits and higher education. The performance improvement advisory firm’s clients include new and existing institutions across the nation. 

Previously, Susan served the State of Tennessee as a Senior Management Consultant as a team member in Customer Focused Government. In this position, she represented the Office of the Governor and cultivated relationships across many departments, serving as a resource to help clarify and achieve missions and visions. 

Whether partnering with Central Procurement on steering culture towards one of customer orientation, or helping the Department of Correction determine a meaningful way to calculate appropriate telehealth visits, she constantly seeks to add value strategically throughout an organization.

Prior to her government experience, Susan was recruited to Nashville by Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) to join the internal consulting team, Strategic Resource Group (SRG), initially focused on market-level service line development. Here she also helped establish the corporate service line for Behavioral Health, modified the company’s approach to evaluating physician engagement, designed the initial analytics tool suite for the sales team, and applied an existing toolkit for Operating Room process improvement while augmenting it with business growth tactics. Her most significant contribution in this role was compilation and implementation of a labor management toolkit and training series, which led to creation of a new position for Ms. Barkley. 

As HCA’s Corporate Director of Management Engineering, Susan built a council that gave voice to a critical function of the organization, and established clear communication and priorities between the field-based engineers and Executive Leadership. Demonstrating the ability to lead through influence, she balanced many projects and multiple roles in a complex matrix enterprise as liaison, resource and guide.  

Prior to her time with HCA, Susan worked for a variety of non-profit hospitals and hospital systems across the southeast. As a Senior Performance Engineer with Premier, Inc., she established basic productivity reporting for a rural critical access hospital in upstate South Carolina. As a Management Consultant for Carilion Clinic, a multi-site teaching system in southwest Virginia, she implemented a balanced scorecard across all facilities and service lines. Her earliest experience with a large bed teaching hospital was automating a performance measurement system for Navicent Health in Macon, Ga. 

In addition to choosing professions that serve others, Susan has lent her time and expertise through volunteering and board service. Her love of volunteer service began in high school as a candy-striper in the local hospital, logging over 400 hours across 6 departments and as a courier. As Philanthropy Coordinator for her sorority (Alpha Gamma Delta) she raised funds for JDRF and launched an organ donor campaign. She has mentored a Little Sister through Big Brothers Big Sisters, coordinated events for children at a women’s shelter and was recognized as the Roanoke Valley Jaycee of the Year.  

Ms. Barkley served on the board for Ronald McDonald House of Southwest Virginia and has volunteered with Ronald McDonald House in Nashville for eleven years. She has served two terms as a board member of Nashville’s Young Leaders Council (YLC), a non-profit devoted to preparing young professionals for board service. She is a graduate of the Tennessee Government Executive Institute (TGEI), a cross-agency residential experience designed for senior leaders. She is the first female alumna to serve on the National Engineering Advisory Board for Mercer University, her alma mater where she earned her undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering. She also received a Master of Business Administration from Wake Forest University through the Executive Fast-Track program.