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April 11, 2022 / 2022 Top 25 Women in Business

Andrea Barton Reeves, Top 25 Women in Business 2022 Honoree

By Susan Shalhoub
Andrea Barton Reeves Employer: Connecticut Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Authority Title: CEO Check out all of the WIB honorees here!
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Prior to leading the Connecticut Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Authority, Andrea Barton Reeves was the CEO of Harc Inc. in Hartford, which supports people with intellectual disabilities and their families.

She was named one of five business leaders to watch in 2021 by Hartford Business Journal. She has also been named to HBJ’s Power 25 in Health Care list.

She is a fellow of the Connecticut Bar and American Bar foundations. Barton Reeves is also a fellow in the 2021 Fall Cohort for Women Leaders for the World.

Q: What’s been your biggest professional accomplishment so far?

Standing up the Paid Leave Authority, from scratch, in a pandemic, is my biggest professional accomplishment. We created the Paid Leave Authority completely remotely. Our team is phenomenal, and I am so proud of their work to bring paid leave to the people of Connecticut.

Q: What’s the next big goal you want to accomplish professionally?

I would like to be an effective force in bringing paid family and medical leave to more states and support the passage of paid leave on the federal level. I would also like to mentor more young women to become powerful leaders in their own right.

Q: What’s one of the biggest professional challenges you’ve overcome?

Starting the Paid Leave Authority in a pandemic was certainly a professional challenge. The statute had very aggressive timelines to be met and no one could have imagined that the world would look as it did in March 2020. Navigating all the complexities of starting a $400-million agency certainly tested us, but we were able to stand up the agency and make paid family and medical leave a reality for our state.

Q: How has the COVID-19 pandemic forced you to adapt as a leader?

Leaders are always adapting because organizations are never static. I adapted by hiring my team remotely, establishing relationships with state-agency colleagues without meeting with them in person, and creating new relationships with state legislators, all while adapting to the impact of the pandemic.

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