(upbeat music) - Hi, everyone, Steve Adubato.

We now welcome Vanessa Broadhurst, Executive Vice President, Global Corporate Affairs at Johnson & Johnson.

Vanessa, great to have you with us.

- Glad to be here with you today, Steve, - You got it.

Describe your role at JNJ.

- So I lead Corporate Affairs at Johnson & Johnson, and I think of my group as having three main buckets.

First, we do the corporate branding, so corporate brand equity in Johnson & Johnson.

We also have our global philanthropic efforts, including our global health equity presence.

And then my team also does our worldwide communications.

- And let me also say that Johnson & Johnson, a longtime supporter of public broadcasting, and our broadcasting as well at the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Vanessa, talk to us about, we have a heavy focus on leadership.

You're a leader at a leading corporation.

Your leadership journey, I know it's a really broad, big picture question.

How would you describe how you got to be in the lofty position you are at JNJ?

- Well, listen, I think there are a lot of factors that go into anybody's success, but there are a few things that I've tried to keep in mind during my career.

First of all, I'm a lifelong learner, and as you can imagine, when I was younger, you know, I thought a lot about my position, my next job, et cetera.

But I've really found that my career has been a patchwork quilt.

And essentially, there've been a lot of opportunities that I've taken.

And sometimes I ask myself, when I'm taking on new opportunities, you know, that maybe seem a little bit dynamic, maybe a bit of a stretch, hey, what's the worst thing that can happen?

You can do it.

You have to have con confidence in yourself and continue to advance.

I think the other things that have really helped me outside of my learning journey is I've had great mentors in this space.

You know, everybody needs a kitchen cabinet.

And I've had a set of great ones who have been able to advise me along the way.

- You know, one of the things that fascinates me about not just your role at Johnson & Johnson but the overall effort to deal directly with the challenge of health equity, but it's not air quotes, it's real, talk about what the challenge is and how you and your colleagues are facing it directly.

- Sure.

Well, thanks for the question.

It's a great one, Steve.

Health equity is tremendously important to us at JNJ.

It should be important to everybody.

So the premise is, and really we saw this dramatically play out during the pandemic, is that unfortunately in the United States, there are black and brown communities that don't achieve the same health care outcomes as other communities.

A lot of this is multifactorial.

It has to do with, you know, where you grew up.

Your zip code that you live in is the highest determinant for your health care in the United States of America.

It's also important abroad.

And at JNJ, we feel that a rising tide lifts all boats.

For all of us to be healthy, we all need access to great health care.

Corporate America and philanthropy, more specifically at your company, describe that mission.

- Yeah, maybe I'll take it to the premise at JNJ.

I think Joaquin probably talked to you about our credo.

- Your CEO, I'm sorry.

- Yeah, yeah.

- One second, check out our website, SteveAdubato.org.

It'll come up right now.

Check out that interview with the CEO of Johnson & Johnson.

Joaquin was terrific in there.

Go ahead, please.

- Yeah, fantastic.

So our CEO Joaquin Duato, I know, was on your show and probably talked a little bit about our credo, which is our North Star document that leads us at Johnson & Johnson.

And essentially, the first paragraph of our credo is about the patients that we serve as well as the health care providers, second, our employees, third, the communities in which we live and work.

And if we do all that appropriately, we're gonna benefit our stockholders.

That third paragraph is about our communities in which we live and work.

And that has been the principle document at JNJ since its inception.

Now, importantly, when we think about philanthropy, it's not just philanthropy at Johnson & Johnson.

We really believe that we have an obligation to live into and improve our communities.

So we do do a lot of philanthropic things at JNJ.

As a matter of fact, we have a very philanthropic workforce that has contributed, you know, close to $23 million in the state of New Jersey.

And we matched that 29 million into the state of New Jersey as a corporate match.

We also have a number of different health equity initiatives.

During the pandemic, I think we saw that COVID really illustrated some of the health disparities we have but also fundamentally how critically we depend on frontline health care workers.

And JNJ has a tremendous commitment to health care workers.

We have basically supported nurses- - Nurses from all the- - since our inception.

- There's a whole campaign that's been going on that JNJ supported around nursing, the nursing profession, well before COVID.

- Well before COVID, but during COVID, we decided to make a commitment of $250 million over 10 years to supporting frontline health care workers.

As you've said, Steve, we've been supporting nurses for decades and decades.

Additionally, we have a program we call ORTHE for short, which is Our Race to Health Equity.

- And that is a- - O-R-T-H-I?

O-R-T-H- - O-R-T-H-E, - E. - Our Race to Health Equity, it's an acronym.

- My bad, I apologize.

- That's okay.

- And, you know, essentially, this is our 100... You know, during the pandemic, we made a $100 million initial commitment to Our Race To Health Equity, which was a commitment that we were going to do over five years.

We actually, as of the end of last year, had spent $80 million on this initiative in the US.

And it's really to change the course of health equity in the United States.

It is supporting and partnering with many, many community-based organizations.

You know, at JNJ, we know how to develop drugs and medical devices, and we like to have the expertise of the community come through, and partner with different not-for-profit organizations to make sure that we are getting that local impact that we know is so desperately needed.

- And so beyond the philanthropic piece, the partnering is a big deal, the sharing of resources, the doing things together.

A big part of our sister series, "Lessons in Leadership," is talking about partnerships and how organizations, private sector, not-for-profits, they're able to do things collectively and together that neither one would ever be able to do alone.

Vanessa Broadhurst from JNJ, I wanna thank you so much for joining us.

We appreciate it, all the best.

- Thanks, Steve, really appreciate your time.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Celebrating 30 years in public broadcasting.

Funding has been provided by NJM Insurance Group.

RWJBarnabas Health.

Let’s be healthy together.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

IBEW Local 102.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

And by The Fidelco Group.

Promotional support provided by Northjersey.com and Local IQ.

And by New Jersey Globe.

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