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Episode Summary
In this episode of Amplify: Elevating Patient Voices, hosts Ursula Mann and Brent Korte sit down with Sandra Walker, venture capital partner at Hard Climate Venture Studio and founder of Viacern.
Sandra has spent decades working across global healthcare systems—spanning pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, diagnostics, venture capital, and now climate innovation. Throughout her career, she has been drawn to tackling the kinds of complex, messy problems that require systems thinking, collaboration, and bold leadership.
The conversation explores how leaders make decisions within complex systems, why unconscious bias often shapes those decisions, and how personal experiences—like caregiving—can influence how we approach change.
Sandra also shares her journey as a remote caregiver for her father during a critical health period, highlighting the emotional and logistical challenges many caregivers face but rarely talk about.
From healthcare leadership to climate innovation, this episode examines how different systems intersect—and why solving tomorrow’s healthcare challenges requires thinking beyond traditional boundaries.
Why You Should Listen
If you’re navigating complex decisions in healthcare, leadership, or innovation, this episode offers a powerful perspective on how to think differently.
Sandra Walker brings decades of experience across global healthcare systems, venture capital, and climate innovation—combined with a deeply personal caregiving journey. Her insights highlight what it truly takes to create meaningful, system-level change.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- How to approach complex, messy problems with clarity and confidence
- Why unconscious bias plays a bigger role in decision-making than we realize
- What leaders can do to make better, more inclusive decisions
- The realities of remote caregiving and how to navigate it with intention
- Why the future of healthcare is closely tied to environmental and system-wide thinking
Whether you’re a healthcare professional, caregiver, innovator, or leader, this conversation will challenge how you think—and inspire you to take a more thoughtful approach to impact.
Sandra Walker
With over 30 years of experience, she has led transformation, innovation, and growth across the pharmaceutical, biotech, and diagnostics industries—ranging from championing large-scale organizational change to building and scaling her own venture.
Driven by a passion for the intersection of psychology, neuroscience, business, and technology, she founded Viacern to develop AI-enabled leadership assessments that help executives and teams improve decision-making in complex, high-stakes environments. This work strengthened her ability to guide leaders and founders through uncertainty—skills she now applies to scaling hard tech climate ventures.
Across healthcare, leadership technology, and climate innovation, her focus has remained consistent: bridging science, business, and execution to turn ambitious ideas into measurable results.
Currently serving as a Venture Partner at Hard Climate, she leverages this experience to support founders working to decarbonize industry—the climate equivalent of “hard-to-treat diseases” in medicine. These sectors are critical to the global economy yet highly complex to transform, requiring the same level of technical rigor, stakeholder navigation, and strategic execution she has developed over decades.
She partners with scientists and engineers to spin out early-stage technologies into ventures such as Secant Fuel and FeX Energy, connecting them with the capital, talent, resources, and partnerships needed to create impact at scale.
She is also deeply committed to supporting women in tech and STEM innovation. Through mentorship, advocacy, awareness-building, and efforts to reduce decision-making bias, she aims to ensure that the best ideas can thrive—regardless of who or where they come from.
Medical Disclaimer:
The content shared on Amplify is for informational and educational purposes only.
Nothing discussed on this podcast—including stories, experiences, perspectives, or commentary from hosts, guests, or contributors—should be interpreted as medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment recommendations.
Always seek the guidance of your physician or other licensed provider with any questions regarding your health, medical conditions, or treatment options.