Giselle Roman grew up in Monterrey, Mexico, where she felt the full weight of familial and societal expectations to live a traditionally successful life. For years she strived to fulfill these expectations, becoming a doctor and getting married to a man along the way. Eventually, the pursuit of a conventional life gave way to an overwhelming inner desire to embrace her true self. Today, Giselle is the medical director of cardiovascular and metabolism for Novartis Mexico and is openly gay.
When Giselle decided to come out, the process set in motion both internal and external changes. She decided to cut her hair short and wear what made her feel most comfortable: “These external changes helped me with my self-acceptance journey because when I saw myself in the mirror and loved the person that I was looking at it reminded me that I was changing from the inside and that this change was for me. Cutting my hair the way I liked it helped me be more confident in myself.”
Another big change in Giselle’s life presented itself in the form of a career move; she switched from working as a clinical physician in Monterrey to a role with Novartis in Mexico City. Her mission is to improve the lives of Mexicans by way of working collaboratively with the hospitals, physicians, and patient organizations. The career change suits Giselle who values the opportunity to address healthcare challenges on a system level.
Giselle’s mission is also personally motivated: “My primary focus lies with cardiovascular diseases, which are one of the main mobility and mortality rate drivers in Mexico and around the world. My mom, my dad, my grandparents are cardiovascular patients. So every day I think about them and how I can impact them. And if I can impact them, I can impact a lot of lives like them.”
For Giselle collaboration and creating safe spaces where diverse ideas can surface are key to solving complex problems: “We must collaborate inside and out, and collaboration means diversity, and collaboration means inclusion, and collaboration means recognizing what we can do better and to ask for help. That's what makes us a team and that is what is going to make us grow as an organization and as a society.”
“Five years ago, I was invisible. I didn't know what I was doing here in life. Now, here I am and I know exactly what I’m doing and for whom. I'm a lesbian woman in a directive role. I have to say it out loud because I would like that someone would have told me this 10 years ago because I didn't have that reference.”
