When Frances Snipes began the LEADing Teams Core program with MD Anderson’s Leadership Institute last year, she was surprised to be assigned a coach.

“I’ve had mentors throughout my career who have been great sounding boards, but a coach is someone who will help you take that hard look at your leadership style and provide nonbiased feedback, who’ll cut through your doubt and help you devise a leadership plan,” says Snipes, director...

Seventeen years ago, a phone call changed the course of Fayleta Lawrence’s life. It was her mother, breaking the news that she had just been diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer.

“I started crying,” says Lawrence, a patient services coordinator at MD Anderson League City. “I remember thinking: there’s no number after four.”

Lawrence had been working for a record label, but her mother’s diagnosis caused a shift in her career...