Building the future of healthcare innovation

Halle Tecco (CWR ’06) built her career by moving early toward new ideas and emerging opportunities others had not yet fully recognized.

That mindset helped define her path as an entrepreneur, investor and educator, and earned Tecco the Professional Achievement Award from the Alumni Association of Case Western Reserve University. The award recognizes a graduate of the university whose career accomplishments and leadership have brought distinction to both the individual and the university.

After graduating from CWRU, Tecco joined Intel’s finance management program and moved to Silicon Valley, drawn by the chance to be close to technological breakthroughs as they were happening. But even then, she knew she wanted work that paired innovation with purpose.

That vision sharpened during business school, when she interned at Apple and was given the healthcare segment to manage at a time when the company—and much of the tech world—had not yet focused seriously on healthcare.

“I think Apple’s perspective was basically, ‘Let the intern work on it and see what she comes up with,’ she recalled. “The way I saw it was, “oh my gosh, what an opportunity.’”

What Tecco found was an unmet need in healthcare to better serve patients, reduce costs, improve outcomes and expand access. That discovery led her to focus her work on the intersection of healthcare and technology.

“In my mind, there’s no better way to make a positive impact on society than through human health,” she said.

After business school, rather than taking what she described as the “safe corporate job,” Tecco took a leap and founded Rock Health, building one of the earliest platforms dedicated to digital health innovation.

“I realized I could either keep trying to convince people or just start building,” she said. “Sometimes you’re not the most qualified person to do something, but you’re the most willing. Always be the most willing.”

Tecco credits CWRU with helping build that confidence. She said the university’s academic rigor, seminars and broad campus experiences pushed her to think critically, communicate effectively and raise her hand when opportunities emerged. A first-generation college graduate, she also said scholarships and work-study made it possible for her to attend Case Western Reserve at all.

Since then, Tecco has gone on to earn graduate degrees from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School, teach digital health investing at Columbia Business School and serve on multiple boards, all while continuing to invest in companies and ideas she believes can improve healthcare. Earlier this year, Tecco released Massively Better Healthcare: The Innovator's Guide to Tackling Healthcare's Biggest Challenges, which debuted on the top spot in the Entrepreneurship category on Amazon.

Her advice to current students and recent graduates who may not have mapped out a perfectly linear career path: “Optimize for learning, not just title of compensation,” she said. “Titles and compensation are nice, but really think about what you can learn and who you’re going to spend your time with.”