As a child, Teshera Hull ’19 remembers tagging along with her mother to the local community college, but her mother never had the opportunity to complete an associate’s degree.
More than a decade later, Hull earned her own Associate of Arts degree, becoming the first in her family to pursue higher education. She carried the degree proudly—not only for herself but also for her mother, her grandmother, and the many others in her family who hadn’t been able to take that step.
“I always had a thirst for knowledge and education,” says Hull. “Now, my siblings have gotten their college degrees, too, and my younger brother even has his PhD.”
She later decided to build on her AA by earning a BS in Business Management from Pepperdine University. The program was flexible to fit around her full-time work schedule, and it helped her understand the theory behind the practices she had already been applying in education management roles as she worked in for companies like Johnson & Johnson, Cardiovascular Systems Inc., and Terumo Medical Corporation.
After spending more than a decade in the for-profit world, Hull joined the American College of Surgeons in the not-for-profit sector. It was an opportunity to study the transection between medical societies and industry. “Because medicine constantly evolves, medical societies continue educating doctors and professionals after they get their degrees,” she explains. “It was a very intentional choice that allowed me to better understand how to work with doctors and key opinion leaders.”
When her employer transferred her from California to Chicago, she began to consider a master’s degree. Not-for-profit work moved a slower pace than what she was accustomed to in the corporate world, making it feel like the right time to advance her education—even as a single mother who dabbled in real estate development (and continues to do so today).
“I chose communication as my path for my master’s degree because I realized that communication would be the lifeblood of whatever I chose to do,” she explains. “With Northwestern’s MS in Communication (MSC) program, I was really excited about the experiential learning and the practical way they spoke about communication. I even sat in on a class to get a feel for how discussions unfolded.”
After graduation, she was given the opportunity to join GE Healthcare. She decided to return to the for-profit world and join GE Healthcare as a solutions marketing manager for radiology and interventional cardiology.
When Education Translates to a Career Advantage
Hull saw the value of her degree pay off within the first few months of working her new role, when she was able to identify and address a critical communication gap. Her organization was preparing to launch a new product at a medical conference, but the sales team hadn’t been notified. The plan was to let them know after the announcement was made and teach them more about the device later.
“Because of my training in the MSC program, I know how communication works in the digital age,” she explains. “While the approach they wanted to take was one that’s been done many times over the years, we needed to handle this differently. We had to talk to the sales team beforehand because the news would spread quickly. They needed to know before everyone else.”
She also credits the program with helping her recognize the need to temper perfectionism before it hinders task completion. “I realized that it’s okay to give something your very best shot, do as well as you can, and then stick a pin in it and acknowledge that it was the best you could do at the time. Not everything always has to be perfect. When you’re killing it in one area, sometimes you have to fail in another area. It’s about give and take.”
After making such a fast impact in her first role at GE Healthcare, the organization was eager to offer her a skip-level promotion, moving her into a higher-level position where she has even more influence. Hull now serves as the marketing director for diagnostic cardiology.
“My communication skills and being able to identify, listen to, and synthesize information, as well as seize new opportunities, opened the door to an amazing opportunity for GE Healthcare,” she explains. “Every year, there’s a challenge around engaging cardiologists at medical conferences. I’ve said year over year, ‘It’s not about gimmicks at a booth. It’s about being integrated into the curriculum.’ ”
After leading the team in the development of eight 30-minute didactic sessions for a medical conference, she saw a nearly 1000% improvement in cardiologist engagement. These sessions also sparked conversations about potential research opportunities. This remarkable achievement recently earned her the GE Healthcare CEO Award for 2025.
Healthcare’s Expanding Audience Requires Smarter Communication
The communication skills she built at Northwestern are also preparing her for a big change in medicine: the need to reach and engage with a broader audience. Historically, medical device manufacturers like GE Healthcare target practitioners and technicians. Today, however, these companies are talking to everyone in the healthcare ecosystem, including patients and employees.
To make sure stakeholders receive the right message, Hull relies on data and storytelling. For example, she created a data-driven storyline to help internal teams understand the power of the products they were selling. “The story compares a hospital’s diagnostic cardiology to a department store’s shoe section,” she explains. “Our ECG management system not a high-ticket item, but it’s everywhere, and it penetrates all over the hospital. It’s in over 90% of the top hospitals across the country. That smaller-ticket item can lead to bigger-ticket items: capital equipment like million-dollar MRI and CT machines.”
The message started to reverberate across the organization, and it helped her gain the internal support and buy-in she needed.
Using data in storytelling is something she plans to integrate even more into her work as she explores new ways to drive meaningful change in healthcare.
“One of the reasons I’m fascinated with cardiology is because my aunt passed from a sudden heart attack. My father—her brother—had a quadruple bypass,” Hull explains. “Many times, women don’t get the same level of care because research and studies aren’t done on women. I want to be the voice in the room advocating for equitable care. I want to leave a legacy by using technology and data to address care in a more equitable way. What I learned at Northwestern will help me do that. When you put a lot into the MSC program, it’s the gift that keeps giving.”