Bela Labovitch is leading the way in technology and mentorship at athenahealth, where she is the VP of engineering. A fierce advocate for women in technology, she speaks regularly at conferences and forums to encourage and support women technologists. She is equally passionate about healthcare interoperability and fixing our healthcare system. In 2019 and 2021, the Healthcare Technology Report named her one of the Top 25 Women Leaders in Healthcare Software.

Labovitch began her computer science journey in high school, where she took a class and fell in love with programming. She later took college-level classes while attending Brandeis University, where inspirational professors cemented her desire to major in computer science.

“Even back then, I had a sense that tech could make a difference in the world,” she says.

After Brandeis, Labovitch was interested in a PhD or master’s program that would lead directly to industry, so she applied to Northeastern.

“I did want to learn; I felt I had gaps,” she recalls. “What I loved about Northeastern was that I could work and get real-world experience while getting my master’s.”

Her decision was helped by Mitchell Wand, who had switched from Brandeis to Northeastern shortly before.

“He was a great professor for me as undergraduate,” Wand says, “and I knew Northeastern must be good if he was going there.”

Following her master’s degree, Labovitch started as a programmer, then became a team lead, an architect, and a director of software engineering — “a fairly typical career,” she says. But before long, she pivoted.

“I had young kids and I felt like it was not my moment yet,” she remembers. “So I went back to being an individual contributor as an architect. Then I had a startup phase, before returning to director-level work after my kids grew older.”

Eventually, Labovitch landed in healthcare software, albeit by accident.

“A friend contacted me to talk to a startup around medication adherence, a huge issue in healthcare that costs this country $500 billion a year,” Labovitch says. “He had this idea of creating an automated pillbox which would remind people to take their medications and convey the data to a centralized care database to enable caregivers and providers to view a patient’s adherence. It was an early internet-of-things device, and it was an exciting journey. I saw firsthand the difference that the pillbox made to the lives of some people. It deeply affected me, and I wanted to stay in healthcare helping patients.”

Now, as a vice president of engineering at athenahealth, she leads a team on a mission to repair our broken healthcare system.

“There’s so much we can do with tech to automate and build interoperability of disparate systems to allow our clinicians to see a full view of their patient’s information,” Labovitch explains. “Right now, patient data is siloed. We want software to talk to each other with APIs, so that a lot of the manual work can be automated. It’s an interesting time in tech with AI and large language models, these can effect big changes in healthcare.”

Labovitch started the Women in Technology initiative at athenahealth to support tech women at the company. She also speaks at conferences and local events to excite women and girls about tech and convince them that it’s an amazing career. She is also an executive sponsor of Girls Who Code, a nonprofit focused on attracting girls to tech early.

“Attracting and keeping women in tech starts early, so we have to address the pipeline problem,” she says. “Once they’re in this field, I focus on keeping them in. Women face specific challenges; we can work on making the environment a hospitable place to grow their careers.”

What I loved about Northeastern was that I could work and get real-world experience while getting my master’s

Labovitch mentions with pride a woman she mentored who changed her major to computer science and joined athenahealth.

“She’s gone on to become a mentor herself and is working on bringing more Latina women into tech,” she says. “I’m proud of the trajectory of her career, but also her trajectory of making a difference for women. I get to view the next generation of women who are helping others at athenahealth and beyond.”

Looking back at Northeastern and Khoury College, Labovitch remarks on how the profiles of both have risen.

“All the kids I know now are trying to get into Northeastern. It was well-known when I was there, but not as well-known as it is now,” she says. “It’s exciting to see its journey these last few years. There have been great initiatives to help support women in CS. I look forward to getting more involved with these initiatives, too.”

And with the rapid developments in machine learning, AI, and big data enabling change in the way core work gets done, she is excited for Khoury College’s future.

“Northeastern graduates are talented, inspired students,” she says. “We see and hire them. They want to change the world, and I love that sentiment coming from the graduates of this generation.”

Reacting to the 40 for 40 honor, Labovitch feels grateful for Northeastern.

“It means a lot to me. I’m truly honored to be recognized, feeling proud for the education I had at Northeastern and grateful for what it’s doing for students today,” she says. “I’m looking forward to staying connected and helping the college. As I went through the 40 for 40 honorees list, I recognized some of the wonderful professors that I had while I was a student, such as Harriet Fell and Betty Salzberg. They were very impactful on me as role models, teachers, and women in computing. They inspired me and my career.”