Lorraine Field, Chief People Officer
Born and raised in Virginia, Lorraine Field earned her bachelor’s degree and a Master of Science in Human Resource Management from Virginia Tech and began her 35-year career shortly thereafter. After briefly working in Washington D.C., Lorraine took a bite out of the Big Apple and joined American Express in New York City.
Her experience at American Express and later TriWest Healthcare Alliance has afforded her diverse opportunities to hone her people-centered skills while mentoring and guiding hundreds of individuals to become effective business leaders.
While at American Express, Lorraine built a management orientation program to develop leadership and business communication skills among novice executives from outside companies with minimal executive experience. The program revolutionized the American Express executive pipeline and showed Lorraine the importance of training, developing, and investing in people. Lorraine often remarks, “If you find the right talent who understand the culture and give them time to thrive and deliver, you’ll build an effective leadership team while reducing turnover.”
During her time as a board member for Fresh Start Women’s Foundation, Lorraine provided guidance and empowerment to women in need. Often, women at the foundation were coming from instances of domestic violence and needed to take back control of their lives. This also helped to solidify one of Lorraine’s core beliefs that life just happens and any of us can face devastating circumstances, so it is important to remember we need to help those facing such situations so we can practice empathy and compassion.
During Lorraine’s time at TriWest Healthcare Alliance, she was skilled at developing programs for the three different work cultures she interacted with. From healthcare executives to military personnel to entrepreneurs, Lorraine was able to meet each group where they were at and design programs to help them reach their goals. One highly successful approach is a leadership program focused on opening the lines of communication with employees so managers could customize the level of management each individual needed, depending on the task assigned. While this greatly reduced micromanagement tendencies and gave employees space to thrive, it also taught valuable leadership skills to the entire organization, thereby improving the culture overall.
Today, Lorraine continues to mentor and guide her colleagues at Sonora Quest Laboratories by championing emotional intelligence and situational leadership. She believes strongly in saying yes to everything and maximizing the art of the possible. Her formula for success depends greatly on regular check-ins and teaching employees to pay attention to their emotional barometer by tracking the physiological changes in the body and reducing, if not eliminating, negative self-talk. Lorraine is a proponent of understanding one’s limitations and being patient in how we navigate such obstacles, while still striving for success in the workplace.
Lorraine is more than just a human resources executive; she is an empathetic partner, mentor, and coach for her staff and colleagues. Her self-reflective approach to interacting with others is one she shares often to help the frustrations in the workplace not take center stage. Her goal is to always understand the challenges employees face, to help them identify and implement strategies to manage whatever may come their way.