Becky Tucker’s life has long been about balance. Growing up on a ranch in Las Cruces, New Mexico, she started gymnastics at an early age.
“I was walking on the backs of couches when I was 7, and I just fell in love with the sport,” said Tucker, president of Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Southwest Fort Worth. “But I got to a point where I had outgrown my local gym.”
When she was 11, her parents sent her to live with an aunt in Dallas, so she could train at a Carrollton-area gym.
“I worked out before and after school six days a week,” Tucker said. “It really helped shape who I am and gave me the ability to prioritize my time, so I could balance school, training and meets.”
A whole new world
An injury introduced Tucker to a world outside gymnastics, including healthcare.
“I got to just be a normal teenager,” Tucker said. “I also went to physical therapy and really liked it.”
She decided to leave gymnastics before her freshman year in high school, but that also meant returning to New Mexico.
“I kept thinking of ways to go back to Dallas,” she said. “I told my parents that I wanted to go to a Texas college and being a state resident would make it easier and less expensive. Eventually, I wore them down.”
Inspired by her experience with physical therapy, Tucker attended the University of Texas at Austin, majoring in kinesiology with a biological science minor. While working at an ophthalmology office, she met two grad students who were studying healthcare administration.
“I hadn’t heard of that, but I learned that it was the business side of healthcare, and that was intriguing,” Tucker said. “I still planned to be a physical therapist, but I decided to get a master’s in healthcare administration because I wanted to run my own clinic one day.”
After graduation, she entered a program at Texas Woman’s University that allowed her to get master’s degrees in both healthcare administration and business administration.
“I thought that would give me some flexibility in case I decided I didn’t like healthcare,” she said.
Into the hospital
Intrigued by hospital operations, she began looking for a job and in 2004 applied for an administrative assistant position in Medical Affairs at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Plano.
“I didn’t get the job, but the person they hired didn’t show up for orientation, so they extended me the offer,” she said. “I landed in the best place for me, because it gave me such a great view of hospital operations. They interact with so many areas.”
While there, she learned about Texas Health’s administrative residency program and Phil Wentworth, longtime Texas Health Plano president, encouraged her to apply.
“I was the first internal candidate to go through the process and get selected,” she said. “I’ll always remember when I heard that I’d gotten it. I went on a post-graduation vacation, and I got the call and got engaged on the same trip.”
She was placed at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth, where Barclay Berdan, now CEO, was president.
“I remember him asking me what I wanted to be doing in five years,” she said. “I said I wanted to be a hospital president, but maybe not in five years. ‘Never sell yourself short,’ he said. ‘You can do anything you want.'”
“I was impressed by Becky from the start,” Berdan said. “I could tell she was a hard worker, and she had the focus and drive to achieve her goals.”
Focus on expansion
In Fort Worth, Tucker learned about developing new service lines, helping bring bariatric surgery and assisted reproductive technology to the hospital.
Joseph DeLeon, then vice president of Support and Ambulatory Services at the hospital, was impressed right away.
“Becky is an all-around excellent administrator,” DeLeon said. “She is tenacious and works to plan, organize and execute on strategic initiatives with consistent success. Her humility enables her to be most effective as a leader.”
Tucker went on to play a key role in Texas Health’s expansion into ambulatory services as vice president, integrated health campuses.
“I really enjoyed the growth and development, and helping communities have services closer to home,” Tucker said. “I oversaw construction, operations, hiring – all the things I loved. I also did a lot of community work. It’s really important when going into a new community to help them get to know and understand Texas Health.”
Eventually another door opened. When DeLeon, by then president of Texas Health Southwest, became president of Texas Health Fort Worth in 2018, Tucker replaced him – 14 years after her interview with Berdan and three months after the birth of her second child.
“My son started kindergarten the same day,” she said. “So I told them I’d be late for my first day of work.”
Gaining perspective
Finding a balance between job and family isn’t always easy, but the COVID-19 pandemic has helped put things in perspective.
“For me, it’s about spending time with family,” said Tucker, whose son is now 9 and daughter is 3. “We go for walks in our neighborhood, we ride bikes and I just spend every moment possible with them.”
The pandemic has brought both challenges and rewards.
“We have an extremely strong team here,” Tucker said. “We rely on each other’s expertise and support. We’ve cried together, we’ve rejoiced with each other. It’s been such a roller coaster.”
Gretchen Hunt, M.S.N., R.N., ACNS-BC, NEA-BC, chief nursing officer, said Tucker is always looking for ways to ease the burdens on caregivers and other hospital employees.
“Becky and I have known each other for more than 15 years and I have enjoyed watching her grow into a thoughtful, strategic leader,” Hunt said. “I appreciate her desire to understand the full scope of the issue when we are working on challenging decisions. This strength was important as we traveled through the pandemic.”
At work, Tucker has had to juggle the day-to-day challenges of the pandemic with her normal responsibilities as president.
“You need to focus on what you need to focus on – whether it’s our staffing or COVID census – while also balancing planning for the future,” she said. “We still want to be able to deliver high-quality patient care, give people a good experience and have our employees like what they do and where they work.”
