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Our Stories

Meet Adrienne...


My working mom journey began 24 years ago. I am originally from New Jersey, but I have lived in eastern Pennsylvania for the majority of my adult life. I graduated from medical school in May of 1998 and got married one week later. The following month, I began my orthopedic surgery residency and two years later, I became a mom for the first time. My daughter Danielle was born in 2000, and I went back to work six weeks later. My typical work week at that time consisted of up to 100 hours with overnight stays in the hospital when I was on call. I was the only woman in my program and determined not to be the weak link, but also determined to be a great mom.


In 2002, my daughter Kayla was born. I was in the fifth and final year of my residency. I went back to work four weeks later this time and was then faced with the break-up of my marriage four weeks after that. It was a very difficult time in my life, and I could have never handled it without my parents’ help. My mom had already been taking care of the girls while I worked, but after my break-up and ultimate divorce, we all moved in together. We then lived together for 20 years, and my parents helped me raise my daughters. I am so fortunate and grateful to them.


After residency, I did a one year fellowship and then went into practice. I have now been in practice for 20 years, and while the 100 hour weeks ended a long time ago, my work has continued to be extremely demanding and time consuming. I tried to find a balance between my career and motherhood. My daughters have always been and will always be my top priority. I worked hard for many years in school and post-graduate training to get to where I am as a surgeon, so it was also important to me to succeed in my career. I  often struggled with feelings of guilt about being away from my daughters so much of the time, but I always made sure I was available for every school event, field trip, parent-teacher conference and extracurricular activity. I did my best to adjust my work schedule, and I took as much time off as I could so we could do things together.


As my girls grew up and learned more about my career, they understood why I needed to work, and why I often had long days. My daughters are now amazing young adults, and I could not be more proud of them. Even with grown kids, being a working mom can still be a balancing act at times. We juggle three busy schedules with my work, my older daughter's work as an event coordinator at Iowa State University, and my younger daughter's schedule who is a fresh graduate of NYU.  Now that they are older, I decided to try something new and found a true passion in ballroom dancing. In 2018, I began taking lessons and competing with my incredible instructor. This involves a fair amount of travel, and the girls join me when they can. We continue to make it work and truly understand the importance of quality time. 


I look forward to this next chapter in my life as a business owner, and I hope that all of the skills I have gained over the past 24 years will serve me well now. Lisa and I co-founded this company based on a strong friendship and a strong desire to do something different after many years on the front lines of  healthcare. Our expertise lies in managing the demands of a career in medicine and motherhood. We are dedicated to helping our fellow goal oriented working moms in the healthcare industry,  and we look forward to connecting with this amazing population of women.

          Adrienne Towsen, M.D.
​           Co-founder & Partner


      


         Mom to Danielle and Kayla

 Orthopedic Surgeon & Entrepreneur

      Competitive Ballroom Dance                             Student


Meet Lisa...


I was raised in Chester County, Pennsylvania in a large Italian family. Despite the unexpected loss of my mother to heart disease in 2017, I am so lucky to have 3 amazingly supportive sisters, a brother, and an amazing dad who always told us to reach for the stars. With my siblings come their beautiful families, 7 nieces, and 6 nephews. I attended the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science where I earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology in 1999. From there, I went on to do pediatric HIV and DiGeorge syndrome research at the Abramson Research Center, Children’s hospital of Philadelphia from 1999-2001. In 2001, I enrolled in the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and graduated with a Masters of Science while obtaining my license to practice medicine as a Physician Assistant in 2003. I spent most of my medical career practicing in the field of vascular surgery, and have since transitioned to a major global health insurance company conducting medical reviews and providing determinations for a clinical appeals department.

My heart and soul, is my 15-year old daughter Maggie. She was born in 2008 and hasn’t stopped filling my world with love and adventure ever since. We have a shared love of volleyball and all things Disney. I suffered a bit of post-partum depression after she was born. For someone who seemingly had it all together, and was completely in control of every aspect of her life......this tiny baby was in control of everything. So I turned to running for therapy and raised money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society while I trained for my first half marathon in Philadelphia, November 2008..... and I never stopped running. Since that time I have completed 10 full marathons including New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Marine Corp x3, Pittsburgh, Disney x2, and Rome, Italy. Maggie can often be seen by my side on a run while she is wearing her roller-blades. 

I was constantly faced with feelings of guilt when school functions were missed, or I couldn’t commit to being a homeroom mom due to my unpredictable work schedule. This was the reason I set out to find a position where I could use my medical brain and have more flexibility to be there for the things that mattered in my daughter’s life. While I sometimes miss my patients, my days in the operating room, and coffee breaks with my favorite colleagues, I set out to find a position that was more conducive to the lifestyle I needed, so in 2017, I founded Clapperboard Consulting, LLC, that provides medical accuracy consulting to the film, literature, and advertising fields (www.Clapperboardconsulting.com.). That same year I also signed up to provide triage editing services to Dynamed, an EBSCO subsidiary. One year later I found myself employed by a major global health insurance company, and have been there ever since. We are the first Physician Assistants, and currently remain the only, to be employed by a major health insurance carrier for the purposes of clinical appeals.

It’s often hard for me to sit still, so dreaming to start this company as a working mom myself, has given rise to both an incredible friendship and lofty life goals. Adrienne and I became fast friends via mutual medical colleagues. Our drive to pursue The Working Mom endeavor developed during the course of many years of friendship, marathon running together, motivation, and jumping the hurdles as working moms ourselves.

We hope you enjoy our products and ideas as much as we do! There is much more to come......

Lisa Piliero Drozdowski, M.S., PA-C
​          Co-Founder & Partner

      

               Mom to Maggie

 Physician Assistant & Entrepreneur

   Accomplished Marathon Runner