Attorney Ayesha Mehdi Addresses Challenges Faced by Women in Health Care During Leadership Summit Keynote

Spencer Fane Partner Attorney Ayesha Mehdi, J.D., MHSA, drew on her own experiences as a Pakistani immigrant to the United States for her keynote address at the fourth annual Southern Nevada Women’s Leadership Summit on March 25, 2022, as she addressed the unique challenges faced by women leaders in health care.

Held at University Medical Center’s Emerald Room, the event was hosted by the Nevada chapters of the American College of Healthcare Executives, the Healthcare Financial Management Association, and the Nevada Medical Group Management Association, with profits from this year’s summit donated to the Las Vegas-based nonprofit Project 150, which provides basic necessities to homeless, displaced, and disadvantaged high school students. 

The event offered women leaders across Southern Nevada insight from some of Nevada’s most prominent healthcare leaders, including Mehdi, who works closely with physicians, healthcare professionals and various healthcare and closely held businesses as a corporate and healthcare attorney.

Mehdi — who grew up in Pakistan and earned her Bachelor of Business Administration, law degree, and master’s in healthcare administration while starting a family in the United States — used her personal experiences to illustrate the power of staying true to one’s vision and turning would-be weaknesses into strengths.

Growing up, she said all of her female role models were excellent wives and mothers, but none were professional or working women. When her now-husband proposed, Mehdi asked her mother-in-law if she would be able to continue her education after marriage. Her mother-in-law said yes.

“Surround yourself with first-class people and people that you like, and choose your partner very, very carefully,” Mehdi advised, while encouraging women to decide not to internalize negative messages.

“Education changed my life,” she said. “It transformed me. It gave me status. It gave me confidence. It gave me a career.”

MORE ABOUT AYESHA MEHDI

Ayesha Mehdi is a partner attorney in the Spencer Fane healthcare and mergers and acquisitions groups, where she counsels clients on healthcare compliance as well as through small healthcare business deals to multimillion-dollar transactions. Speaking at regional and national seminars and conferences for both legal and healthcare associations, Mehdi has earned numerous awards for her dedication as an attorney in the Las Vegas community, particularly for pro bono work. She received her Bachelor’s in Business Administration with honors in Finance from Walsh College of Accountancy and Business Administration (MI) and her Master’s in Health Services Administration and Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Kansas, where she served on the law school’s Board of Governors.