When Christine King traded her stethoscope for Slack notifications, she brought something invaluable to the tech world: a deep understanding of what happens when systems fail people instead of serving them.

The Unlikely Beginning: From Bluegrass to Bedside

Before Christine became a nurse, she lived a life most of us can only imagine; traveling the country as a professional bluegrass fiddle player, living in a van with her bandmates. "You see a lot," she reflects on those days. "Big cities, small rural areas, wealthy areas, impoverished areas. You see a lot of disparities."

It was during this nomadic lifestyle that Christine experienced firsthand what happens when healthcare systems fail. Needing medical care while stranded in the middle of Wyoming with no urgent care for miles, she realized how many people lack access to basic healthcare resources.

This experience, combined with her natural helper instinct, led her to nursing school and eventually to become a labor and delivery nurse As she put it, birth is "the only reason someone's happy to go to the hospital.” And having witnessed two births firsthand, I can absolutely attest to the truth of her statement. 

The COVID Crucible: Leadership Under Pressure

Starting her labor and delivery  career in fall 2019, Christine had no idea what was coming. When COVID hit, healthcare became even more chaotic than usual. Many nurses left the profession, and Christine found herself rapidly promoted to charge nurse, managing entire floors, triage departments, and teams of medical professionals. Talk about getting thrown into the fire! We joke about giving new hires responsibilities quickly after they start, but we are writing code not triaging a COVID unit! 

"I very quickly was quite senior on my floor, which was scary, honestly," she admits. But her background as a performer had taught her how to "pretend like I could" handle pressure, even when thinking "I dunno what I'm doing" on the inside. Fake it till you make it in real life here! 

The transition from individual contributor to manager taught her a crucial skill: anticipation. "This patient is close to delivering. That patient isn't. I think that one could be stable... I need to take action on that one because she's not urgent, but this one could be, so I need to make sure I have resources available."

The Technology Lightbulb Moment

Christine's pivot to tech came from frustration, not fascination. While working on her hospital's "baby friendly" designation—a reimbursement program tied to specific KPIs—she discovered they were failing not because they weren't providing good care, but because the electronic medical records system made it nearly impossible to document that care properly.

"The charting is so buried in the workflow... The nurse has so many other things to think about. We can't remember to go three flow sheets deep to chart this thing. The UI needs to change," she explained to their EMR provider as a subject matter expert.

That's when it clicked: "Technology needs to fit to the human. Versus the other way around. And if that happens, it has so much potential."

A podcast mention of Salesforce led her to Trailhead, where she found herself drawn to the gamified learning experience. "Ooh, confetti. That's kinda fun," she laughs, describing her first impression of earning badges on her phone during slow night shifts.

Building the Culture She Always Wanted

Big institutions like the Cleveland Clinic and the Air Force were great, but Christine eventually hit a wall. She moved to StorIQ because she wanted her work to actually mean something internally. Looking back on those huge organizations, she says "I never felt like I could have any internal impact... It always felt like I was middle management."

At those massive organizations, Christine’s most-used phrase was, "I'm sorry. I have no control over that." Decisions were made by people far removed from the actual work, leading to frustrating situations like COVID safety measures that made emergency C-sections nearly impossible to perform quickly. If you’ve ever been in middle management, you know the feeling of getting squished from both sides. 

At StorIQ, Christine found the opportunity to build something different. Meeting founder John at a real estate investing conference, she saw the classic founder-integrator dynamic: "He has ideaphoria forever, you know, ping, ping, ping, pinging. And I'm like, okay, what are we doing?"

The Anti-Pizza Party Boss

Christine takes pride in being what she calls "not a pizza party boss"—referencing healthcare's tendency to offer pizza parties instead of addressing real concerns like pay and working conditions. This echoes the broader workplace trend of superficial perks like ping pong tables being used to lure workers back to the office, when what employees really crave is genuine appreciation and meaningful change.

Instead, she focuses on actually listening to her team and following through. When a Google ads specialist suggested new tasks, she made sure to circle back: "He was like, oh, I thought you forgot about that. I was like, oh no, I didn't forget."

She's built systems to ensure ideas don't disappear into the void: "Even if it's not something we can execute on, then I can actually take notes and say, wow, I really love that idea... I'm putting it in a public place. We do have a public ideas place so that it's documented publicly."

Remote Leadership Lessons

Leading a fully remote team, Christine has had to think differently about building culture and maintaining connection. She acknowledges the trade-offs, especially for younger team members who might benefit from in-person mentorship and networking opportunities.

But she's found ways to maintain the human element that drew her to nursing in the first place: regular check-ins, silly prompts during standups, and creating space for casual conversation alongside the work.

The Human-Centered Approach

Throughout her journey from bluegrass musician to nurse to tech leader, Christine's core philosophy has remained constant: put humans first. Whether it's designing medical record systems that work with nursing workflows or building a startup culture where people feel heard and valued, she's committed to making technology serve people rather than the other way around.

For Christine, that "how" is simple: listen first, act on what you hear, and never forget that behind every system, every process, and every decision are real people trying to do good work.

Wise Wolves is a Salesforce consulting partner specializing in healthcare technology implementations. We work with provider organizations, value-based care entities, and medical device companies to deploy transformative technology solutions. Connect with us to learn how we can help your organization navigate the future of healthcare technology.