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Growing up in Punjab, Gill always thought she’d become a physician. Even after immigrating to Long Beach with her parents and younger sister, she believed that. Then, her father got laid off one month into their lives as Californians.

“The dreams of me becoming a doctor [turned into], ‘OK, now we have to find a job and survive,’�� Gill recalls. 

She soon found her way to the post office where both she and her sister began working in well-paid roles. “It was a big deal to all of the Indian community,�� Gill says with a smile. “Like, ‘Oh, how did you get in?’��

The job proved to be the first step in a career for Gill’s sister �� she still works there today, Gill says �� but Gill wanted something different for herself. She just didn’t know how to get it. Her language skills at the time made communication difficult, and the financial aid system for higher education remained a mystery to her. She simply didn’t know what to ask or of whom when it came to preparing for medical school.

So, she instead enrolled in ESL classes and microbiology courses. She worked the graveyard shifts at the post office so she could go to school during the day. Soon, she discovered she had the prerequisites for nursing school and enrolled at a local university to earn her associate degree.

By the time she finished in 2000, nurses were in short supply, and she quickly found a job as a new graduate. But working as a nurse was not what she envisioned.

It is said that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. For Gill, who encountered bullying during her first months of nursing, it didn’t just make her stronger. It made her a leader for change.

“Nursing school taught us, ‘nurses eat their young,�� and I didn’t understand what that meant until I started experiencing it,�� Gill says. “It got so bad, I would just cry. �� I was so new, I didn’t know who to go to.��

Gill’s response was to not give up but to double down. She joined committees whenever the opportunity arose. She grew her skill set. She made friends. She worked her way up to become the charge nurse for the unit and then the assistant manager. Most importantly, she crystalized her mission. 

“That changed my whole mindset,�� Gill says of her early nursing experiences. “[I decided] if I ever became a leader in this organization, I would never let this happen to anyone.��

Mervin Francisco-Passarella, DNP, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, CNML, can attest to Gill’s commitment to that promise. Their relationship stretches back to 2006, when he was hired as a staff nurse and Gill took him “under her wing�� to mentor and guide him. As a result, he’s seen her grow as a leader �� and personally felt the impact.

It’s easy to dismiss respect and compassion as soft skills that are nice to have but not genuinely important, especially in a field where hard skills can spell the difference between good and bad patient outcomes. But Gill puts the lie to such thinking. As her example suggests, it is not only possible but preferrable to leverage both skill sets in hospital administration. 

In her current role as chief operating officer, Gill leverages her hard-won knowledge of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to leadership. When she opened a different hospital, she recalls, she threw down the gauntlet during her first town hall meeting. 

There would be no bullying, she declared, and no incivility.

“I’m proud to say that, 14 years later, that hospital still has the same culture where people respect each other,�� she says.

As Gill’s role has expanded, so too have her goals. “I don’t oversee nursing [anymore], but I oversee utilization management and case management, all of our support services. I oversee security, food and nutrition, environmental services, volunteer services �� everything,�� she says. 

She smiles before adding: “Anytime someone asks me to explain my job, I tell them, ‘Everything I hate at home is what I’m responsible for at work.’��

Just like her early days as a new nurse, Gill hasn’t let the challenge of a new role stymie her. Today, her goal is to remove barriers for her team and to empower other leaders. 

Often, this commitment takes the form of encouraging education. 

Gill herself has modeled this. After earning her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Master of Business Administration at ��������, she encouraged another staff member on her team to go back to school. She acknowledged it would be hard and really considered what she was asking him to do.

“I [was] like, ‘You know what? I'm going to be a role model,�� Gill says. “So, I came home, talked to my husband and enrolled in the doctorate program [at another university]. I wanted to show them that I’m with them. Like, this is hard, but it’ll be totally worth it. So, again, very proud to say that 80% of my nursing leadership team had a doctorate at [my previous] hospital.��

Francisco-Passarella had a similar experience with Gill. “I still remember Ruby encouraging me to enroll in the MBA program through ��������. I was a fresh nurse manager working the night shift then, unsure if I was ready to take that step,�� he says. “But she saw my potential and pushed me to invest in my education. I graduated in 2010, and when I applied for a director of nursing position, I was incredibly thankful for her guidance. One of the key requirements for the role [at that organization] was being master’s-prepared, and because of Ruby’s encouragement, I had the qualifications needed to take that next step in my career.��

One aspect of ascending to the C-suite that rarely gets mentioned is how isolating it can be. But Gill’s natural inclination to build relationships has insulated her from that to some extent and offered up an added benefit along the way. 

“No matter what obstacle or challenge, I just always go back to relationships,�� she says. 

“It's all about how you treat people and the time that you take to build those relationships and collaborations.��

Accordingly, Gill has implemented routine rounding for senior leaders on the units. It’s an opportunity to recognize good work among the nurses as well as to identify places for improvement. She says the practice has transformed both leadership (to include more than data in its evaluations) as well as the frontline workers themselves. Getting out of the silo and into a collaborative approach can benefit patient outcomes, Gill notes.

Francisco-Passarella concurs. “My three key leadership pillars �� people, partnership and accountability �� were deeply influenced by Dr. Gill’s mentorship,�� he says. 

Gill’s influence extends beyond the two hospitals she’s helped build (Baldwin Park and her previous center). She is also a force at home, albeit in a different way.  

“If you see me in my household, I’m a very different person �� just cooking and doing everything that an Indian wife does,�� she says. 

She feels she’s been lucky to have a supportive husband who’s encouraged her to get her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. And she’s been lucky in her children, too �� three daughters who walk the line between dual cultures with self-respect and an ambition that echoes that of their mother.

As for that 19-year-old immigrant who had a dream of becoming a doctor, even she is sated. “After getting my doctorate, people call me Dr. Gill,�� she says wryly. “I always wanted to do it for my parents. �� Once I got [it], I was like, ‘OK. I can now relax and send my kids to school and not worry about my school anymore.��

Of course, she may worry about her staff’s education too. But that’s just part of paying it forward as a leader.

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