Kathleen C. Amyot, MD
With more than three decades of experience in medicine, healthcare leadership, and organizational development, Kathy brings a unique combination of clinical credibility, executive leadership experience, organizational insight, and professional coaching expertise to her work with healthcare leaders.
Kathy particularly enjoys working with physician leaders, creating a trusting environment where they can step back from the demands of leadership, explore different perspectives and possibilities, and gain clarity about what may not have been visible before. Her coaching helps leaders move from insight to intentional action.
Most recently, Kathy served as Deputy Chief of Staff for the Veterans Affairs Nebraska-Western Iowa Healthcare System, providing leadership for the operations and administration of a rural, multi-specialty healthcare organization serving approximately 11,000 veterans. She worked closely with physicians, executives, and interdisciplinary leaders navigating the complex demands of quality, access, workforce challenges, organizational change, and patient care.
Prior to her executive leadership role, Kathy practiced family medicine in the Air Force, in the private sector, and in the VA — including serving as faculty and program director for Family Medicine residencies. She also held senior medical leadership positions with the Nebraska Air National Guard, including serving as interim State Air Surgeon and leading the Medical Group for the 155th Air Refueling Wing.
Her experience spans clinical practice, physician leadership, academic medicine, executive administration, organizational change, and healthcare systems improvement, giving her a broad and practical perspective on the realities facing today’s healthcare leaders.
Kathy earned her M.D. from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and completed her Family Medicine Residency at Andrews Air Force Base, where she served as Chief Resident. She is a graduate of the Hudson Institute of Coaching and holds an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) credential from the International Coaching Federation.
Outside of work, Kathy is a homebody at heart. She enjoys time with family, tending her garden, and creating things — whether through baking, knitting, or whatever creative project has caught her interest.
What’s your coaching philosophy in action?
I believe the most effective coaching begins with curiosity — shifting to a deeper level of awareness that is difficult to reach without a trusted companion.
My role is not to tell leaders what to do. It is to help them see more clearly, challenge assumptions, identify what is getting in their way, and move forward with greater intention and confidence. They need a trusted thinking partner who understands healthcare, can ask the questions that matter, and will challenge them when necessary.
Coaching creates space to step back, think differently, reconnect with what matters, and determine what leadership looks like in this moment and the next.
What’s the leadership challenge you’re known for solving?
I think we often become the person we wish we had walking alongside our prior self. I work particularly well with successful healthcare leaders navigating change, greater responsibility, or a new chapter of leadership, particularly physicians transitioning from clinical expert to organizational leader. I also help high-performing leaders think beyond the next challenge toward sustainable performance and purposeful leadership, for the long term.
Describe your ideal coaching client.
My ideal client is successful, yet feels there is something more. I enjoy working with people to look beyond the immediate situation and explore how they want to lead — and who they want to be as a leader and beyond. People who are willing to consider beyond the expected measures of success and are interested in finding joy and satisfaction in their lives.
What’s a leadership breakthrough you’ve witnessed?
I love when a client is able to step away, often in nature, and reconnect with themselves. From this space they can see how they can authentically lead in a new way — using their own measuring stick for success.
One client who comes to mind was able to realize what fulfilled them was not necessarily the next step “up” the ladder as expected, but a shift that was far more personally fulfilling in a different but equally impactful role.
What’s your unique background and experience?
Like many MEDI Leadership coaches, I’ve sat on both sides of the leadership table — experiencing clinical practice while leading organizations, developing physicians, and supporting other leaders. I’ve built my career in complex healthcare systems, often in environments where women were underrepresented in leadership.
My background in military and academic medicine adds a distinctive perspective, shaped by an early expectation that physicians lead both in the clinic and in the field. I’ve also had the privilege of working in academic medicine and playing a part in developing the next generation of military and physician leaders.
These perspectives and experiences equip me to help leaders navigate complexity with clarity, confidence, and intention — while staying grounded in who they are and what matters most.
What myth about executive coaching do you love to bust?
That coaches serve as advisors or “fixers.”
Coaching is not about remediation but recognition that the next level of leadership requires something different. It is not necessarily more knowledge or harder work, but greater self-awareness, intentionality, adaptability, and perspective that opens up new possibilities they had within them all along.
They don’t need an expert telling them what to do. They need a trusted thinking partner who understands healthcare, can ask the questions that matter, and will challenge them when necessary.