Lucas Gordils-Molina Makes a Career of Helping People

Lucas Gordils-Molina has the type of job that can be hard to explain. Sure, he works in the hospital, but he’s not a doctor or a nurse. He isn’t the first face you see at the welcome desk and he’s not behind the cash register in the cafeteria. However, he works with these colleagues every day to make sure people have the best possible experience at Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN).

In short, he helps people.

Gordils-Molina is Director of Patient Experience at LVHN. Gordils-Molina and his team support colleagues to create a great experience for anyone who visits LVHN for care.

His philosophy is simple: Always do right by the patient and everything else will follow. 

Gordils-Molina did not begin his career in health care. In fact, he imagined a totally different future when he graduated from college in Puerto Rico with a degree in social sciences and marketing.

“I was working in banking doing marketing for a credit union,” he says. “I realized it wasn’t meant to be. I wasn’t making a difference or impacting people’s lives the way I wanted to.”

That realization led Gordils-Molina to apply for a position as community outreach coordinator at Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH)–17th Street, where ultimately he was hired to support the family medicine practice and community health and wellness center.

“That was a beautiful opportunity to build meaningful connections with my community,” he says. “I listened to stories about the challenges people faced, and it was my job to help them.”

The work he did made an impact – and a great impression on his colleagues and leadership.

“The people around me saw potential in me and had faith I could continue growing,” says Gordils-Molina. “With their encouragement, I applied for a position as a project manager at LVH–17th Street. That set in motion a career path I never saw for myself but I now see is so clearly what I am meant to do.”

As a project manager, Gordils-Molina was involved in every aspect of hospital operations. He supported countless projects at LVH–17th Street, and when conversations swirled about opening the health network’s first new hospital in nearly 50 years, one leader saw Gordils-Molina as the perfect choice to lead the project.

“It’s an opportunity I will never forget,” says Gordils-Molina. “That was the dream – for everybody and especially for me – it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of every step of opening a new hospital.”

When LVH–Hecktown Oaks opened in 2021, Gordils-Molina’s contributions to the project’s success did not go unnoticed.

“That changed everything in my career and opened a lot of doors,” he says. “I helped open LVH–Carbon and LVH–Dickson City, and it was an honor to be part of the team bringing LVHN care to new communities.”

But when his mentor approached him and challenged him to ask, “What’s next?” Gordils-Molina was excited by the possibility of building a new program.

By that time, Gordils-Molina was campus operations manager at LVH–Hecktown Oaks, so he was involved in day-to-day projects and operations for the entire campus. It was a good opportunity to see projects through from start to finish. When a new position opened for someone to lead a new patient experience team, he decided to make a change.

“It was a leap of faith because I had never thought about the opportunity to build something new,” says Gordils-Molina. “It felt special because leadership was trusting me with this new responsibility. The support I have received from my leaders is one of the most rewarding parts of my career at LVHN. There were always people around me looking out for me. I will always treasure and be eternally grateful for that mentorship.”

Now his day-to-day responsibilities look very different. He could be leading education sessions with colleagues, analyzing survey data in his office or rounding in the hospital, but one thing remains the same.

He has never stopped asking, “How can I help?”

“We should never lose sight of where we came from,” says Gordils-Molina. “All the experiences I’ve had in my career have prepared me for the conversations I have now with colleagues, patients and families. When I get a chance to sit in a room with someone, find out what matters to them and influence change to make things better, that is what keeps me going.”

Gordils-Molina has one piece of advice for anyone thinking about a career in health care.

“First and foremost, know why a career in health care is for you. If you want to help people, you’re on the right path,” he says.