Meet Ruth Gebremedhin. Ruth’s role as Product Strategy Manager on our Product team is to focus on visioning, developing, building, and standardizing products and capabilities across Belong Health’s portfolio. She gathers product feedback on new and existing products/capabilities from other Belongers, and helps the team problem solve, focusing primarily on the engagement and care management space.
Originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Ruth is based in San Francisco and spends her days taking in everything the city has to offer. Learn more about Ruth and what drives her passion for healthcare.
What led you to this career or to Belong?
Growing up with pharmacist parents, I developed a conviction around the power of food and the role that it plays in prevention of disease. At the same time, I recognize that healthy eating is rarely an easy endeavor for most people. There are economic, cultural, behavioral, and political barriers that form a person’s eating habits. The tension between these two realities – the importance of healthy eating and the friction people experience doing so – pushed me to learn more about the barriers to health choices for certain communities, especially those who are underserved. This has led me to spend the 10 years in nutrition, public health, incentive alignment, service design, and product.
Belong provided an opportunity for me to imagine what better care could look like using those interests and areas of expertise.
What kinds of activities energize you?
I’m energized by supporting local music, art, dancing, and figure skating. I love empowering youth and meeting new people. My perfect weekend would start off early with coffee as the sun rises, followed by some sort of physical activity (my vote = skating on a rooftop ice rink with a view). After a fun sweat, I’d get breakfast or lunch (two favorites: Scandinavian or Ethiopian). I’d follow that up by experiencing some art with a friend either at a museum or live music.
What's something—big or small—that you're really good at?
I’m really good at parallel parking 😊
How do you describe Belong to friends or family?
We directly partner with health plans to help them offer better care products/experiences to underserved populations.
