Being Authentic: Insights from Jita Buño, Associate COO, UC Davis Health

Host Chris Marshall shares the mic with Jita Buño, Associate COO of UC Davis Health, a major academic health center located in Sacramento, California. She discusses exciting and innovative developments like Aggie Square and the 48X Complex, which is set to become the largest surgery center in the country.

Buño shares her remarkable, non-traditional journey to her leadership role at UC Davis Health. She emphasizes the importance of saying "yes" to opportunities and the significance of authentic relationships.

As a U.S. Navy veteran, Buño shares valuable advice for military personnel transitioning into the civilian workforce and the advantages of earning an MBA for career advancement. She also discusses the evolving landscape of healthcare, and the integration of AI to improve healthcare quality and efficiency.

Tune in for valuable insights from Jita Buño on leadership, career development, and the importance of staying true to your passion.

Transcript

Chris Marshall
Welcome! netWORKed is the official podcast of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management. I am your host, Chris Marshall, director of alumni relations and network strategy.

On this podcast, we will feature conversations with industry leaders who are preparing the next generation of inspired, innovative, and collaborative leaders who are committed to making a positive impact. We are so excited today to have Associate COO from UC Davis Health, Jita Buño joining us today. Thank you so much. I'm excited to have our talk.

Jita Buño
Thank you for having me here today. I'm equally as excited to talk to you.

Chris Marshall
Fantastic. Before we get digging in here with this conversation, I want to give you an opportunity to talk about all of the exciting and innovative things going on at UC Davis Health. I know there's a lot.

Jita Buño
Yeah, I will share with you some of the exciting things that are going on. I don't think we have the time to talk about all of them, but let me just run through some of the highlights of what's happening on campus here today.

If you have been on UC Davis Health Sacramento campus lately, you have seen all the construction we've got going on. And one of the most exciting buildings that we are building right now is the Aggie Square.

It is a unique public. a partnership that will also bring a lot of great jobs to our local market, you may have seen in the Sacramento Business Journal that there was an article just a couple of days ago about the plans to have 20% of the jobs that will be available in Aggie Square will be people that live locally, which is just super exciting for us.

We're also building our 48X Complex, which is our ambulatory surgery center, which is the largest surgery center project in the country. It will have 14 ORs, a number of surgical clinics, and really state-of-the-art equipment to take care of our patients.

 We just broke ground in the Folsom Medical Office Building. Again, it is exciting to see the expansion in the community to serve as many people as we can.

And then another big project we have is the replacement tower that will go up in 2030. So, we are working on that project as we speak.

On the clinical side, we just launched our transplant program and really it is important to us that we take care of our Sacramento region patients and families in Sacramento so not to have them drive to the Bay Area for care.

It is extremely important to us. And then we are launching the Heart Transplant Program in the next few months. So, few of the highlights, but very excited about all of them.

Chris Marshall
Yes, certainly. We are so fortunate to have such an amazing and innovative healthcare system right here. in the Central Valley in Sacramento. So, I'm very excited for the future of UC Davis Health. Now, to give a little context, you know, you've been the associate COO of UC Davis Health since 2020. But I want to talk about the path of how you got to UC Davis Health.

Jita Buño
Yeah, so I've had a very non-traditional path to the role that I have today. And you know, short answer really is that along the way I've said yes to a lot of scary things, right? And I think that really is the way to sort of plow forward that when something is available to you, you say yes to it with the right people around you to support you in your journey. But…

Chris Marshall
I love that. I love I'm trying to say more. Yes, right now. Yes. Well, so this is an important conversation for me.

Absolutely. Say more. Yes. I love that.

Jita Buño
So to take the walk down memory lane, my family and I actually moved here from India when I was a senior in high school. So not the most ideal time for a teenager to move across the world.

Chris Marshall
Yeah, no, no awkward, awkward moments at all, during the high school experience.

Jita Buño
I was always a cool kid.

Chris Marshall
Totally. Perfect. Good, good. Good. I'm glad we're on the same page here. That's why we get along.

Jita Buño
Absolutely. So I joined the Air Force Medical Corps right after high school and while I was on active duty I finished my undergrad in computer science. Around the time 9/11 happened a lot of us had a sense of duty at the time and I spoke a lot of the languages. I was really interested in the human intelligence aspect of it. And then having a computer science degree really sort of enabled me to move into the Navy as an intelligence officer.

Great career, I loved it, met some amazing people, and did some good work. And then at some point, I was like, I should probably grow up. And so came to work with UC Davis Health and it has been a fantastic experience. have had a lot of opportunities, have met some incredible people, just love the Sacramento community that UC Davis Health is really a key part of. So yeah, it's been an incredible journey getting here.

Chris Marshall
I've always been curious. I mean, intelligence is such a broad term. What sort of stuff were you working on when you were working in intelligence?

Jita Buño
Well, if I told you, I'd have to kill you.

Chris Marshall
Fair enough, we can move on.

Jita Buño
No, you know, I think you're right. Like, intelligence is such a broad, sort of broad, like, industry. And I think, like, over the years, it has also changed. But when you take a look at different branches, they all are focused on a very, very unique set of, like, intelligence values. human intelligence, which is really sort of like people-to-people connection, people-to-politics connection, people-to-community connection. And that is what spoke to me. My love of people, processes, systems, all of it combined in one.

Chris Marshall
Yeah. And I know that you know, there's always a process with building teams and how you put the people around you. And like you said, finding that support. So I know that is something we will, we will talk about. But I want to talk about your roles at UC Davis Health. I mean, over the last 16 years, you went from a senior budget analyst into the C-suite.

And I know this would be the first question that any of our students or alumni would probably have for you. How did you make that transition over the last 16 years?

Jita Buño
Yeah, and you know, I'll go back to sort of being very centered in what you love, right? So, I have always loved people. I've always focused on, sort of genuine, authentic relationships, right? That really has to be the core of everything that you do. It always will start with people, it will always end with people. So, what you do in between those two is really what matters.

And so I think that for me, it was, again, having some amazing leaders around me who believed in me, who gave me chances. amazing woman who said, hold my hand, we're going to go there together, had an amazing support system at home that gave me confidence and time to do some of this because I've done all of this in the 16 years while raising two kids.

So it's again, nothing that we do, we do by ourselves. And so, I think it's just been sort of a combination of all of that. I will also just say that you know, investment in yourself is important and that, you know, investment means investment of education, investment of training, investment of relationship, key relationships along the way.

And these are again, authentic, genuine relationships. These are not, I have your business card relationship, right? These are truly people and it's a two-way street and it is grounded in love, is grounded in compassion, it is grounded in gratitude.

So yeah, it's been sort of fun, like a fun journey, and we'll see where this takes me.

Chris Marshall
You know, I love that. It's just the authenticity and genuine feeling, and I think, you know, it comes back, you talk to the women who help lead you along the way to get where you're at, and I know that something that's important to you is being really active and then being an advocate and a voice for women trying to get into that C-suite, which I know is challenging and you are intentional about it. And what are the things that, and the advice that you have for women looking to get into your position?

Jita Buño
I think I would tell women, let's not focus so much on the title, right? So in sort of the... early years of your career, I want you to focus on your craft. I want you to focus on your skills. I want you to focus on being great at what you do. Right. That is what is going to sort of a propel you forward. Right. You have to know your craft. You have to be good at what you do.

And then you have to be comfortable knowing the next step will potentially make you nervous. It would potentially make you scared. And that's what I want you to use to go further in your career.

The other thing that I would also just share is that look for those people around you who share common interests. Right. And always follow your heart and do what you love. So don't chase money. Don't chase titles. Chase what you love to do and be almost militant about adding value.

So everything that you touch, make sure that you are going to leave it better than you found it. There's a lot of people. We all are very good at saying what's wrong, but how many of us are actually taking what's wrong and fixing it. So be the fixer.

Chris Marshall
Yeah, I mean, that's amazing. And, you know, it's hard to argue with the success you've had at UC Davis Health, but I want to know if there were any transitions between your roles that were particularly difficult or if there's anything you would have done differently along the way.

Jita Buño
Yeah, I don't know if I would have done anything differently, but I, you know, I will share that one of the hardest transitions for me was to go from being a technical expert to being more of a journalist. And what we know is that when you transition in your career, when you step into the leadership roles, you no longer are the expert at everything that you are responsible for.

So I'm not an expert in the OR space, the pharmacy space, the surgical space, the transplant space. So that transition was very hard for me. When I was in finance when I was a programmer and when I was in intelligence, I took so much pride in knowing. everything about my craft. But that becomes harder and harder. So my first managerial role… was a difficult transition. And I want to thank all the people who were sort of like around me at that time to allow me the grace to come to terms what I needed to learn to find my own confidence and the right questions to ask to make the right decision.

But that transition was hard.

Chris Marshall
Well, and it led to kind philosophy for building teams. I mean, there are a lot of moving parts going into your role and managing those, I'm sure is very difficult. And so how are you able to build those teams that are so functional and so successful?

Jita Buño
Yeah, I think that's a really good question. And I want to believe that my leadership style is highly customized to the department, the group. the leader, the frontline staff that I'm talking to, right? So a key part of leaders job is to create the space where people are comfortable and feel space in sharing the good, the bad and the ugly, but then know that together we will solve whatever that is sort of facing us right now.

I think the other part of you know, the other part of building strong teams is to focus on people's strengths.

Too often we focus on what am I not good at and how do you become, how do I become good at what I'm not good at? And what I want to challenge all of us is to flip the script on what am I good at and how do I do more of what I'm good at and then partner with people to stand in those gaps.

And so when I build teams, I am building teams based on people's strengths. I spend no time in sort of focusing on what people are not good at. Right. We have highly diverse teams. We have highly skilled teams, but you know, I go back to none of us do anything by ourselves. And so how do you create the structure, the team, the culture that is open to this idea? And allow my teams to come to me and say, don't feel like doing this. I'm not good at it. Right. We have plenty of other people who are good at what you're not good at. So let's find that connection point.

Chris Marshall
Awesome. I mean, it's functional, functional teams, efficiency. I mean, finding, finding the people that are, that are better at something and then helping them with the things that they have blind spots for. I mean, I, I love it. That's a, that's fantastic advice. And we've seen healthcare especially, be really dynamic and fast changing. What are the biggest shifts you've seen over the last 16 years in healthcare?

Jita Buño
You know, healthcare has changed so much and yet it hasn't moved at all, right? So, so, so the clinicians sort of commitment of highest quality patient care hasn't changed. Um, uh, people's ability to work together and work through hard problems and react to, you know, whether it's COVID, H1N1, Ebola, none of that has changed. We are still one. willing, we're still capable, we still know how to do this. What is changing though is our payer landscapes are changing vastly.

And that is something that every single healthcare leader that I speak with in the region and nationally is sort of watching for is concerned about. I think our payers are getting bigger and bigger and almost too big to fail. And we're seeing the same shifts in healthcare. healthcare provider space. So no longer do you find sort of that standalone, standalone physician practice, right? They're all sort of attaching themselves to a health system.

Across the country you're also seeing health systems merging together and becoming bigger, right? You just saw that with Kaiser and Geisinger. We've seen that with a lot of other large systems. Now, the sell on this is that it is going to improve patient access to specialties, that it is going to bring down the cost of care, and that you will have a lot of economies of scale. I think it's too soon to tell right now and we'll see if that trend continues, but that has been an incredible shift. The advent of sort of new technologies and, you know, AI, et cetera, that we will talk about potentially later. But I think that this is a great opportunity for us to center on. what is new and to the extent that it improves patient quality of care, we should all just be open to it. So yeah, there are lots of changes in that space.

Chris Marshall
Awesome. I mean, you just put that one up on a platter for me as we transition into a question about AI. And real professional, I appreciate that making my job easy today. But you look at UC Davis Health CEO, Dr. Lubarsky, and he's made no secret of his support of AI in healthcare specifically to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery. How has UC Davis Health started to integrate AI into the health system? And what are you hoping to see in the future?

Jita Buño
Yeah, so I think that I will sort of go back to, and I'm really, really proud of the University of California's commitment to research and teaching. So as we think of AI, I think of it in the sense of research, innovation, and training the future leaders of tomorrow. UC Davis Health again, like as you said, our CEO has made no qualms about this. And so we are in sort of an exploratory phase right now on what this would look like we have a very, very ambitious sort of plan on what this could mean for us. You know, when you think about like effective healthcare ops, you think about people, processes, and standardization. And that's where AI could potentially be very helpful is to take away waste in the process and, you know, allow the clinicians, allow the care teams to work at the highest level of their license.

And so if AI could improve in the way that our patients work with their clinicians or sort of like interact with their physicians. I think that there's a lot of value in that. Even in the back end of our, you know, our supply chain, our revenue cycle functions, right?

That there are lots of ways that we could potentially use AIs in making the right decisions and ensuring that our quality of care is not compromised - that would be the goal.

Chris Marshall
Yeah, I mean, that sounds amazing. And any sort of technology that can improve the process and make health care more accessible or less expensive or any of those things is something that would be fantastic. And I wanna take a little lighter turn here. I know you're a big 90s rap fan and UC Davis Health does a great job of keeping everyone healthy from SacTown to the Bay Area and back down. And so I want to know what you think, uh, the most important business lesson you've learned from nineties rap and, uh, and also what's your, uh, what's your favorite song?

Jita Buño
Sactown to the backdown. I love this. I'm going to have to California love for, uh, for those in the back. I love this. So, um, nineties rap nineties music. I'm more of a generalist when it comes to, uh, musical space. And so it's more for me about the vibe that I'm looking for, right? It's that one song from Tupac, when you just need that boost of confidence or when you are feeling sort of vibing right, then you want to listen to Q-tip and the vibrant things, the vibrant things. So it's, I can't pick, right? I can't pick one song that would just be not right. So yeah, it is just all of it is the... when the time is right, there's plenty of rap to sort of get you through it.

Chris Marshall
Just finding what speaks to you. Yeah.

Jita Buño
Tupac, Biggie, plenty of it.

Chris Marshall
I love to hear it. I mean, that's fun. And that sort of leads into my next question. I've had the pleasure of hearing you speak a couple of times now. And one of the things that really sticks out to me is your authenticity.

Uh, every time I hear you talk, every time I, you know, we have the opportunity to cross paths, I get the same version, uh, of Jita and that's great. It's amazing. It's tough to do, you know, and I want to know it's how do you balance authenticity and professionalism. And as my dear friend, Dave Chappelle might ask, has keeping it real ever gone wrong?

Jita Buño
So, um, isn't that an interesting question? Why do we believe? that keeping it authentic, keeping it real, could be unprofessional. And I think that it is such, we should, we need to explore that further because in our society, we have this idea of, you know, authenticity may be seen as unprofessional.

And I think that therein lies the change that I want to explore, right?

Chris Marshall
You know, when I wrote that question, I hadn't really framed it that way. I mean, I- I'm learning something.

Jita Buño
I thought you were you were sort of like good, you know, it's like teeing me up to knock it out of the park here. But Chris, I would tell you this. In my career, I have tried very hard to be authentic and, you know, approachable and really be myself. As we talk about DEI, as we thought, as we talk about creating. safe and sort of like an inclusive workspace. What that means to me is that people feel comfortable bringing their authentic selves to work, right? Of course, you're going to be kind, of course, you're going to be respectful, of course, you're going to be collaborative, but be comfortable being who you are at work.

And it hasn't backfired on me yet, but what it has done... is that I walk hospital hallways and I see people, it sort of allows me to meet people where they are, right? We have sort of authentic, genuine connections. I try very hard to meet people where they are. And I think I loved when you said that each time you talk to me, you get the same version of me because that is the goal.

I don't want anyone to feel like they have to be someone else or try to talk a certain way. We all code-switch, right? We do this. And that's okay as long as you are doing that because you want to meet the moment and you want to meet the person you are talking to in the right, in the most approachable way. So yeah, keeping it real is the name of the game.

Chris Marshall
I love it. And, you know, it helps me to be more authentic. I'm in my mustache era right now, which I'm excited about. I'm looking forward to seeing what the future holds. So that'll be fun. And, you know, it's always great to have these conversations. I learn something every time we talk. And so that's... It's great. So I appreciate these talks and I appreciate you. And this is great. And I hope that people get the same sort of value that I get out of our talks when they listen to this.

 One of the things that I wanted to talk about that we sort of touched on lightly at the beginning was your transition from the military into more private sector work. And UC Davis Graduate School Management has been named a Gold Level Top-10 Military Friendly® graduate school for 2023-24 by militaryfriendly.com which is something we're really proud of.

We had a veteran’s career fair in the last couple of weeks, which I'm excited about. And what is your best advice for someone transitioning from the military to the private sector and into civilian life? And what was the most challenging part for you?

Jita Buño
Yeah, so first of all, congratulations. I love that. I think that is incredible. My advice to anyone who is transitioning from the military into sort of a private sector world is to just know the skills that you bring.

Understand that you have had lots of experiences, a lot of experiences that most people don't have. And now there is not going to be always this one-to-one sort of relationship between the job you did and the job you want now post...post-military, but what is consistent is that you know how to work hard, you know how to work with a variety of different people and personality and background.

You have sort of like innate ability to connect with people. All of those skills absolutely transfer over to it doesn't matter what you do. Look for people, look for schools who really understand the vets and understand your experience and will help you pave a path forward.

When you get out, also please file your VA benefits, right? That even if it's a 0% service-connected benefit that you'll have, there are so many things that sort of like open up to you in the state of California and potentially actually... in like the other states as well.

But you know, in like in California, your kids go to school, or the tuition is waived, right, for the state school and the UC schools, right? So just know those, like know what you're qualified for, and don't be shy about using those benefits for your schools.

And then of course, there are so many people out here that are, who are focused on the experiences of the vets. And so the schools that really have the programs specifically designed for people who are transitioning, seek those folks out, seek out the departments that are focusing in on it and learn, learn what all your options are.

Yeah. wanted to give a quick shout-out to our second-year MBA student, Ryan Wilson, who put on our veteran’s event. So that's exciting to have dynamic students that, you know, care about the community and want to lift people up like you're saying and making sure to take advantage of those benefits as well.

And we've talked a lot about mentorship and support and the people around you. And I know that you've had a lot of great mentors and you yourself have been a mentor to people. So there's no right way to be a mentor or to find one, but what's the best advice that you have in your approach for finding mentorship?

Yeah. So, um, I'll, I'll share with you sort of my philosophy on that. I think it is. It is hard in life to sort of have one person. Um, be all that you want that person to be, right? And this goes in your personal life, it goes in your professional life.

That I would rather people focus on building sort of a board of advisor type of structure, right, that you have a number of people who you may go to for a variety of conversations, advice, right, if it's life, if it's work, if it's I'm not feeling good about this today, I'm not feeling good. confident about this today, have sort of a group of people that you can share and bounce ideas off of.

And in my experience, that has been the most valuable sort of like interactions, again, grounded and centered in genuine human connection is a two-way street. But moving away from this idea of a mentor to a board of advisor, I think as you grow in your career will probably serve you well.

Chris Marshall
And very similar to the way you approach team building. Find specific skills. And I heard a description of mentorship at the Emerge Summit from Metro EDGE recently about mentors having seasons. It's not always going to be a lifelong mentor that's there at your wedding and on further into your life. Sometimes it's almost a flash. where there's some advice or something that you can get from someone that helps change your trajectory. I know that's been true for me, but I loved that approach is mentorship as a, as a season potentially, but not leaving any, uh, not leaving any value on the table because there's a lot of great people that can be a part of that, that board of board of trustees for your success.

Chris Marshall
Love that board of trustees for your success.

Jita Buño
Yes. Great.

Chris Marshall
I mean, trademark that's, that's ours now.

I wanted to talk since at the Graduate School of Management you know we offer graduate business degrees um and it's been about 10 years since you got your MBA from our cross-causeway football rival Sac State, which I will not hold against you. I don't want to talk about any recent results but I just want to see what your advice is for anyone thinking about And how has that helped, helped you progress, and been a catalyst in your success?

Jita Buño
Well, thank you for not holding it against me. So, um, I think that if you are someone who is looking for a career in leadership management, sort of owning a business, I think that this MBA, you know, allows you to sort of hone in and. sharpen the toolset and the skills that you're going to need in that career field. Right? So absolutely, please pursue it. Please go forward and do it. It is not going to hurt you. Right?

In many of the jobs, at least in UC Davis Health, most of the management roles now have this as a requirement. And so it is something that you're going to need. If you are, you know, interested in sort of following that path forward. I think like MBA just for me, it gave me such a unique perspective on healthcare and sort of industry as a whole.

It sort of allows you to look at a business from a strategy standpoint and not get caught up in reacting in the moment, but sort of allows you to pause and zoom out and sort of approach a problem. from an organizational standpoint and not so much from a reactionary standpoint. And I think that is a learned skill set. It's not something that we are born with, right? And so I think that those are some of the tools that you're going to learn when you go through a very structured MBA program.

And these are the teams or the cohorts that you will go through or the students that you will meet in the programs. you're going to keep in touch with them and you're all sort of, you, it's such a small world, right, that you're going to find connections and you're going to grow up together, are going to change the world together. And so I think that to me was, you know, another key of the program was I am keeping in touch with the same people from my cohort, right, that some of them I have hired, many of them I have partnered with and I've worked with in the community.

And so together again, it is that group of people that you, you can reach out to and talk to, and maybe they could be part of your personal board of trustees.

Chris Marshall
Yeah. And I loved it when I pursued mine, on nights and weekends where just being in a room with people focused on professional development and improving themselves by going to these classes and being able to bounce ideas off them in real-time. One of the things I love specifically about the Graduate School Management is some of those obstacles you might have thought about previously in getting those graduate degrees like having to be in person or not being able to work aren't there.

You know with options you know nights and nights and weekends online in person it's there's no better time to be able to go and get those degrees if you've ever been thinking about it. So I think it's an exciting time to be someone that's, that's looking for something like that.

And this is the netWORKed podcast. SoI have to ask what is the best piece of networking advice you have ever gotten or given?

Jita Buño
Okay. So in full honesty, I don't consider myself good at networking. It's something that I'm just not good at it. I dread it. I'm telling you like our younger days, I used to be mortified of having to walk into a room full of strangers and then having this idea of I have to network with as many people as possible.

And I can't tell you that I received a very good word of advice from anybody, but I will share with you what I've learned and sort of how I rewired my brain to approach networking.

 I want to believe that there's plenty of listeners out there too, right now, who are like, oh, I don't like, you know, it's, it's not a comfortable thing to do. To be fair, we did meet at a networking event. So I mean,

 But was that not, that was a great event. It was very sort of like intentional small groups, small groups designed Like events, right? It wasn't that go to go in this room and meet 500 people. It was that we had a small group and we, we got to know each other then. So I think that was great. So, which leads to my sort of how I do these things is to.

If you meet three people who you connect with and genuine connection, right? It's not about how many phone numbers you got. It's about how many people can you connect with on a human level. Did you have a good interesting conversation? Did you feel like there is something about that person that you want to learn more of? That is the key to building relationships in my books. And that's what's helped me really expand my network is that every single person that I meet, I was genuinely curious about them. I was genuinely, you know interested in sort of what could be next.

Chris Marshall
I mean, I think that's, that's great. I think it's about moving the goalposts for what success in networking is. I had a recent networking event. I met a guy and he's going to help me re-grip my golf clubs and we're going to play pickup basketball. That's not necessarily business-related, but we're going to get some exercise. And now he's someone I call a friend. I, and so I love the approach of finding that common ground, uh, and intentionally having a conversation with someone without expectation and just wanting to learn about them.

And that's what I think makes you a successful networker, Jita, a very successful one! But I love that philosophy of meeting people and networking and just being genuinely interested in who they are as people. That's great. And for people that are genuinely interested in you, it's always sort of tricky at times and I think people get intimidated by asking, but what is the best way to approach you if someone wanted an informational interview or a coffee or you know, what is the most successful route to have a conversation like that?

Jita Buño
Yeah, so if you find me in the community, please come up, please say hello, I would love to talk to you and yeah, would love if I can be part of your career journey, I want to be part of it. The easiest way to reach out to me would be to email, jpbuno@ucdavis.edu. I also just love to make connections, right? So if I am not the right person, we have 5,000 people here, and I want to believe that there might be a connection within that community someplace, so I would be happy to make those connections as well.

Chris Marshall
That's fantastic. And that's why I asked this last. So people have to listen to the full podcast to get that information instead of just scrubbing to the end, which I hope they don't do. I wanted to give you one last opportunity. I mean, sometimes when you know, you're, you're talking in the moment, there's maybe something you missed or something else that you wanted to share, uh, along the way, is there anything else, advice or otherwise that you'd want to share with our listeners?

Jita Buño
Yeah, I think just to sort of wrap it up, I would say that as you are, as you are exploring your career, please lead with kindness, lead with compassion, lead with curiosity, and believe in the good, right? That I want your assumption to always be, always assume that there is a good intent. And follow your heart and do things that scare you.

 And I think that is the only way that we're going to push the goalpost forward, right? Is that if we continue to all do things with the right level of commitment and do the right thing not just for ourselves, but for the community that you share space with?

Chris Marshall
That's amazing. Once again, loved our conversation today. My heart is full. This has been a wonderful, wonderful chat. I appreciate you. Thank you so much, Jita, for spending some time with us today.

Jita Buño
Yeah, thank you, Chris.

Chris Marshall
It's been super fun. Thank you for being a part of the neWORKed podcast presented by UC Davis, the Graduate School of Management. To learn more about us, please visit gsm.ucdavis.edu. For more episodes, please be sure to follow us on your favorite podcast platform. I'll see you next time.