People are the heart of everything we do.
Our team
Sarah Smithson, MD, MPH
Co-Founder & Co-CEO
Sarah Smithson is an experienced physician-leader with a background in leadership development and curricular innovation. Since medical school, she has engaged in work around complex health systems, focusing on the human factors that influence success and failure in clinical medicine, from quality improvement efforts to one-on-one relationships between team members. Her current work in Relational Leadership is fueled by a passion to improve the clinical environment for all: patients, their families, health workers, and learners.
Prior to founding Relational Leadership Partners, Sarah worked for the non-profit Intend Health Strategies, a national leader in teaching relational practices. In addition, Sarah was an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine (UNC SOM), where she served as the Assistant Dean for Clinical Education and the inaugural Director of Interprofessional Education and Practice. She worked collaboratively with faculty, staff, and students across the state to continuously improve medical education for the school's 800 medical students.
Sarah also led Relational Leadership at Carolina, an interprofessional, cross-generational learning collaborative focused on authentic, inclusive leadership training housed within the Provost's Office of Interprofessional Education and Practice. With over 200 local alumni trained in the first three years, the program continues at UNC and is highly regarded, seeing uptake and investment across the health professions schools, the health care system, the university at large, and state-wide university affiliates.
Sarah completed her internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. She earned a dual MD/MPH degree from Emory University in Atlanta after completing her undergraduate studies at Butler University in Indianapolis (Go Dawgs!).
Jane Cooper-Driver, MSc
Co-Founder & Co-CEO
For more than two decades, Jane has worked at the intersection of individual and cultural transformation in organizational and leadership development. As co-Founder and co-CEO of Relational Leadership Partners, she co-designs the organization’s strategic direction while overseeing the creation and delivery of the Relational Leadership curriculum. This curriculum empowers medical students, faculty, clinicians, and health system leaders with tools to foster stronger connections, enhance team collaboration, and drive advocacy.
Jane is passionate about creating transformative experiences that ignite relational sparks among individuals and teams, believing that improving the quality of interactions is key to driving positive change in healthcare. Previously, she served as co-CEO and Chief Programs Officer at Intend Health Strategies where she supported the Relational Leadership national movement. Before that, she served as Senior Director of Learning and Development at Iora Health, where she co-designed the practice launch curriculum and led orientation, leadership, and professional development for diverse primary care teams.
Jane holds a Bachelor of Arts from Boston University and a Master of Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She resides on beautiful Cape Cod with her family.
