Angela Workoff, ITS Departmental Liaison

As an ITS Departmental Liaison, Angela Workoff helps bridge the gap between WCM clinical and academic departments and ITS services. With a background in both technology and project management, as well as writing novels and distance running, she embodies the fluidity and endurance required to translate the specifics of tech to academic faculty to help move projects across the finish line.

In your own words, what is your role in ITS? 

I am a Departmental Liaison, and I've been in this role for about four years. 

It's interesting to describe the role to people, whether I'm trying to tell people at the dog park what my job is, or I'm trying to tell faculty what we do here, because I think we wear a lot of hats. I would describe myself as an IT generalist. And I also tell users and faculty I'm not technical, but I try to serve as a bridge between technical folks and departments. It's a lot of work in translation. Which is how I've always found my way with an IT career, even though I have a liberal arts background. 

Do folks at the dog park typically get it if you explain it like that? 

It's become easier and easier as I've taken on a little bit more work. I recently inherited most of Nicole Virelles’s old clinical departments. So now I can say a bit more about assuming a portfolio of different academic departments or different clinical departments, which makes more sense when I say something like: I serve as a bridge between radiology and primary care and pediatrics and the IT department to ensure that the needs of the clinical departments are met. 

Hiking around New Paltz with Edie

But this is not your first role in ITS, right? 

That's right. Most of my career in IT was in project management. I spent about a year serving as a scheduler on a help desk for my first ever job in IT. I was like 22. But when I turned 23 or so, I had friends in the project management office who started saying “why don't you try this?” And then it just became what I learned how to do. So, my previous job in the private sector where I spent about 10 years was my gateway into Weill Cornell. When I was a project manager here I worked with the RAC team for about four years in OSPM, from 2017 to early 2021. 

What interested you in making the transition from OSPM to Departmental Liaison? 

I wanted to interact more with our end users. This role brings me closer to the mission. Interfacing directly with faculty and departmental administrators and seeing the meat of what we do here as an academic medical institution has been so exciting.  

What's your favorite part about your current role? 

When I can actually help a doctor do what they need to do. Another layer of being a liaison is that we help faculty members and admin navigate the different bureaucracies that exist between Weill Cornell, New York-Presbyterian, and the Epic Together teams. My colleagues and I serve as navigators. When our users are asking “how do we get through this system?” or “What form should be submitted?” often there is not a direct path. But sometimes a faculty member says, oh, this hasn't been working, and when I’m actually able to figure out what they need, that’s the real kick for me.  

Are there any projects you're working on right now that you are particularly excited about? 

It's been super fun being part of practice spin-ups and move-ins at 575 Lex and with WCINYP (Weill Cornell Imaging and NYP – pronounced “wiki-nip”). Radiology is setting up a brand-new site in Brooklyn, all the way on 86th Street in Bay Ridge. I got to listen in on the server room design - like MDF, IDF design, and cable plant discussion, which is what I used to do in my old job. I used to help out on the construction side, so that's fun. 

So you're hearing them design how this thing is actually going to be built?

Yeah! Like, how do you set up a radiology practice with three MRIs? What are all the considerations you need to think about when you're creating a space for patients? Those are the kind of decisions I like being close to. 

And you’re saying that they are starting the clinical build out at 575? 

Oh, it's happening! They’re opening two practices, Primary Care and OBGYN in April, and Radiology is having a big opening at the end of the year.  I think they might encompass two floors and have this wild, fancy seven Tesla MRI. 

You mentioned earlier that you found your way into IT but have a liberal arts degree. What was your educational background? 

For high school I went to Brooklyn Tech, which is a heavy math and science school, so I was on a very heavy math and science track. But once I got to college, I decided “I don't need to do this anymore,” and I was a history major who specialized in medieval theology. I studied St. Francis and St. Bonaventure, and I loved it. But then I really needed a job when I was 21, and my buddy from Brooklyn Tech said his company needed someone to schedule and dispatch engineers to client sites, so that’s where I learned everything.  But then I left that role to get my MFA in creative writing. 

Oh, tell me more about the MFA... 

It was so much fun. It was the best two years I've ever spent. I met wonderful writers, I had great mentors. I read a ton, I wrote a lot. I got to teach, which I really loved at the time. I was at Rutgers Newark. One of my thesis advisors, Tayari Jones, just released a book a week ago, and I got to go to her book release at Barnes and Noble and give her a hug and say hi. 

Yet another favorite hobby - getting ready for the Oasis Reunion shows in Summer 2025

Are you reading or writing anything interesting right now?  

I'm reading David Lynch's memoir. I haven’t been writing as much, my other hobbies are taking over. I’m a distance runner. When I got my cancer diagnosis a couple of years ago, writing fiction wasn't serving me as well, but getting into running and strength training made me feel strong while I was going through treatment for something crazy like breast cancer. I'm sure for some people the escapism of writing fiction works, but I felt so wholly consumed by what was happening in the moment, I didn’t have space to imagine something else. I have a dream about writing a fictionalized cancer narrative one day, in which I would break some preconceptions we often see in narratives about cancer.  

Tell me more about the distance running 

I've been running since I was about 27. It was always something I did just to see how far I could go. Before I got cancer, I ran three half marathons. And then once I got sick, I joined a track club and thought, okay maybe this is possible. Maybe I could run the New York CIty Marathon. I grew up right down the block from where the marathon passes on 4th Avenue in Brooklyn. So, it’s something I saw as a little kid. I grew up playing soccer, but I never thought that I would be a runner at all. That seemed like the least fun part of any sport. But here I am!  I just ran my second New York City marathon this year, and I’m going to run a third one this year, and I’m gearing up to run a half-marathon in March. It’s what I do to keep myself sane. And it's dovetailed into other things - I went on a 100-mile hike through Scotland's Highlands with a running buddy last summer. I've transitioned into these wildly long endurance sports. 

Hiking the West Highland Way in Scotland in the Summer of 2025