Northwest Arkansas startup hires fertility care leader for key leadership role

EmployWell, a Northwest Arkansas-based healthcare startup, has hired fertility care administrator Robin Mangieri of Connecticut as chief of clinic engagement.

Mangieri is EmployWell’s third employee, working alongside Fayetteville entrepreneur Natalie Shew, the founder and chief executive, and co-founder and chief operating officer Steffany Benton of Stuttgart.

Launched in 2022, EmployWell is a workforce management platform that helps nurses work more efficiently by reducing administrative burdens.

“When I first met Robin, we immediately bonded over our joint passion for improving both patient and provider experiences in fertility care,” Shew said. “She is also keenly aware of the essential role of nurses in improving quality outcomes for clinics and patients. Robin will play an essential role in ensuring our workflow solution aligns with our customer and end-user needs.”

Shew started EmployWell because of her challenging experiences as a patient dealing with Endometriosis and infertility.

“Nurses were simultaneously my lifeline and my biggest pain point while navigating my complex care journey,” she wrote in a blog post. “When I started peeling back the layers of who was responsible for my poor patient experience, it wasn’t my nurses — it was a broken system that unfairly overloaded nurses who are responsible for most of our direct patient care.”

Benton is a registered nurse and nurse practitioner who has experienced firsthand the challenges nurses face.

“As a registered nurse and later as an advanced practice provider, I experienced the relentless pressure of juggling patient care and administrative tasks,” she said. “I often felt undervalued and overwhelmed. Even in a more controlled clinic setting, the stress persisted, leading to emotional and physical burnout, despite delivering quality care.”

Shew explained that the administrative burden cost is valued at $570 billion annually, driving nurses away from healthcare. Using artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP), EmployWell’s workflow assistant, Provider Ally, maps nurse workflows for specialty clinics and identifies administrative bottlenecks for better work satisfaction and productivity.

According to a news release, Mangieri will help generate cost-saving opportunities for clinics via Provider Ally while decreasing the administrative burden on nurses.

“I am excited to join EmployWell,” she said. “This is a great opportunity for me to work with a team that shares my passion for supporting fertility nurses and their patients. I am eager to apply my skills and experience to my new role and collaborate with Natalie and the talented team at EmployWell.”

Mangieri has two decades of leadership experience in reproductive medicine. She is on the executive board of directors for The Nest Egg Foundation Inc., a nonprofit organization providing financial grants for in vitro fertilization treatment for those unable to start their families due to financial need.

She was most recently the CEO of Illume Fertility (formerly Reproductive Medicine Associates of Connecticut), a multi-clinic fertility clinic working with patients across Connecticut and New York. Mangieri has also been chair of the Association for Reproductive Managers, a special interest group of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.