Carrie O'Neill JD, MA
Carrie O'Neill is a dynamic speaker and award-winning author who brings out the best in teams and organizations. She gives leaders new language and tools to engage, align, and energize every member of their team. She combines expertise gained in her roles as an attorney, executive, and consultant, with experiential learning and creative arts-based techniques, to rapidly shift perspectives and reveal new possibilities in organizational management and culture. After learning that some medical schools were partnering with horses to teach medical students communication and teamwork skills, she created Possibilities Farm, LLC, where she partners with horses to teach personal and professional development programs.
Carrie is an expert in patient-centered care who has served as a Vice President of two healthcare associations, one state and one international. As a consultant, she successfully facilitated complex projects including Always Events® and the Patient and Family Engagement Forum of the World Innovation Summit for Health, a global collaboration hosted by the Qatar Foundation and Imperial College London. Carrie also led one of the first statewide pilot tests of the HCAHPS survey and developed and taught a national patient experience improvement curriculum funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in 23 states. She is the author of the award-winning book HorsePower Your Hospital: A Guide for Leaders to Improve the Healthcare Experience and HCAHPS Basics, as well as several book chapters and widely-used healthcare resources.
Carrie's educational background includes a JD from Northwestern University where she was an editor of the Law Review, an MA in Sociology, an IHI Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship, and certification by the Equine Experiential Education Association. She is currently serving on the board of the Nokota® Horse Conservancy, where she met one of her horses, Jackpot, when he was a semi-feral wild stallion. Working with 1200 pound animals is a daily lesson in effective leadership. Carrie believes developing effective partnerships, rather than using bribes or threats, is the secret to success with horses and with human teams. She used that approach to successfully acclimate Jackpot to domestic life and to train her two miniature horses to visit healthcare facilities and schools.
Carrie is an expert in patient-centered care who has served as a Vice President of two healthcare associations, one state and one international. As a consultant, she successfully facilitated complex projects including Always Events® and the Patient and Family Engagement Forum of the World Innovation Summit for Health, a global collaboration hosted by the Qatar Foundation and Imperial College London. Carrie also led one of the first statewide pilot tests of the HCAHPS survey and developed and taught a national patient experience improvement curriculum funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in 23 states. She is the author of the award-winning book HorsePower Your Hospital: A Guide for Leaders to Improve the Healthcare Experience and HCAHPS Basics, as well as several book chapters and widely-used healthcare resources.
Carrie's educational background includes a JD from Northwestern University where she was an editor of the Law Review, an MA in Sociology, an IHI Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship, and certification by the Equine Experiential Education Association. She is currently serving on the board of the Nokota® Horse Conservancy, where she met one of her horses, Jackpot, when he was a semi-feral wild stallion. Working with 1200 pound animals is a daily lesson in effective leadership. Carrie believes developing effective partnerships, rather than using bribes or threats, is the secret to success with horses and with human teams. She used that approach to successfully acclimate Jackpot to domestic life and to train her two miniature horses to visit healthcare facilities and schools.
