Advancing healthcare through Asian culture and collaboration

Driving innovation in healthcare requires viewpoints that reflect the diverse patients we serve around the world. Learn how two employees’ ideas to provide cultural education to employees, professional development and support to Asian colleagues helps Stryker deliver on our mission to make healthcare better. 

At Stryker, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) promote a culture of inclusion and belonging by providing support, enhancing career development, and providing education in the work environment. And with more than 51,000 employees located around the world, nine employee-led ERGs help us influence positive change across the company. The newest ERG began based on the work of two passionate employees who got together and had discussions about a group that would eventually become the Asian Community Empowerment—ACE for short. Kara Faulkner, a Staff Design Assurance Engineer within New Product Development on the Joint Replacement Team, was one of those employees, along with Kimberly Chan, Senior Engineer on the Joint Replacement Team. “Kim and I shared many discussions and brainstorming sessions when I first started at Stryker,” Kara says, “and two years later we pitched our vision to leadership. We received full support to move forward and begin our journey of building an AAPI community within Stryker.”

The launch of ACE was met with resounding support from leadership and employees alike. When the ERG launched, 700 employees joined the virtual kickoff event. “It was extremely exciting to have that much engagement,” Kara says. “It just shows how passionate Stryker employees are in learning, growing and being open to something new.”

Like all employee groups, ACE supports Stryker’s DE&I commitment to maximize the power of diverse backgrounds, talents and perspectives to make healthcare better. Dr. Antonia Chen, an orthopaedic surgeon practicing in Boston, Massachusetts, thinks diversity within healthcare companies is crucial in providing better outcomes for patients. “We serve a diverse patient population and the composition of our healthcare teams and companies like Stryker should reflect our patient base,” says Dr. Antonia Chen. “By incorporating diversity into leadership [teams] and employees at companies like Stryker, you provide a diverse base of individuals who can innovate and provide patient care from multiple different perspectives. Thus, diversity is crucial to improving how we serve our patients and innovate new technologies. It helps us tackle issues from different viewpoints and implement new ideas.”

“I’m really proud of my Korean heritage and the sense of belonging I have at Stryker and I want to do what I can to help others feel the same sense of belonging.”

From those early conversations about forming a new ERG, to now having an executive level steering committee with 14 chapters across the U.S., ACE has been a grassroots movement—employee-started and employee-led. “And we are just getting started!” Kara says.