Where Are They Now? Lissy Hu Joins Ascend to Tackle Workforce Challenges

Lissy Hu’s decision to take the lead at Ascend Learning, a healthcare education and training organization, rather than launching a new venture was rooted in her strong connection to Ascend’s mission of empowering individuals through educational and skills development tools and learning resources.

A through line in her career is tackling the problems posed by healthcare workforce and resource constraints, including staff shortages, more complex patient needs and changes in payment models.

Lissy Hu, M.D., MBA

As the founder of CarePort Health in 2012, which was later acquired by WellSky, Hu focused on developing solutions to help patients transition smoothly between different types of care after leaving the hospital.

Seeing the ongoing challenges in healthcare staffing and workforce development, Hu chose to transition to the role of CEO at Ascend in October 2024, the same month she left WellSky.

“It’s a challenging time right now in healthcare where you have just a lot of shifts happening,” Hu says. “You’ve got the silver tsunami, the aging of the baby boomer generation. You’ve got people living longer, so they’ve got more chronic conditions.... So they have more, not just clinical needs, but they have more needs around their mobility, around their home, needs around social determinants of health.”

Ascend is focused on transforming education and training across the healthcare, fitness and wellness industries. Headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, it provides innovative software and learning systems to 60% of U.S. nursing schools, training about 300,000 nursing students annually.

Beyond nursing, Ascend supports allied health professionals, first responders and wellness experts by offering users the skills and knowledge needed to excel in their roles. Under Hu’s leadership, Ascend Learning continues to introduce innovative solutions such as a patient care technician orientation program designed to streamline onboarding.

The recent launch of Claire AI, a generative artificial intelligence tool, further demonstrates the organization’s commitment to innovation. This tool assists educators in creating customized assessments tailored to students’ areas of weakness while also saving educators’ time.

“The more that you can have enabling technology that up-levels your providers, everybody, to the top of their license, the more you’re going to be able to deliver against your patient outcomes and retain critical healthcare workers,” Hu says.

Hu’s journey to becoming a leader in healthcare and education was inspired by her parents. Her father’s passion for science and her mother’s career as a nurse and home health aide influenced her education and career choices.

She earned both her medical degree and MBA from Harvard. As a student, her business plan won the 2012 Harvard Business School Business Plan Competition in the Social Enterprise Track, providing the funding needed to launch CarePort. The company’s success led to its acquisition by Allscripts Healthcare Solutions and later by WellSky for $1.35 billion in 2020.

Hu says she sees Ascend not just as an education and technology company but as a digital health organization with the potential to transform workforce development in healthcare.

“Being part of the healthcare team is about being a lifelong learner. There’s so much change, and so how do we make that easier and more effective? I think that piece is missing in healthcare [information technology].”