Kathleen Thomas is on a mission. That’s just how she operates.
The new major gifts specialist at St. Tammany Hospital Foundation is a nonprofit veteran, having previously lent her passion – and her know-how – to Odyssey House, the American Diabetes Association and, most recently, the Al Copeland Foundation, where she served as director.
After relocating to St. Tammany Parish from the south shore – and experiencing that commute – the decision to join St. Tammany Health System wasn’t a difficult one.
“My whole career has been about making an impact on the community, and the health system gave me that feeling,” she said.
“Even before I got a job here, I was very excited that this would be my hospital. I love that, at its core, the health system is working to impact the community, to keep the community healthy.”
Shortly after joining the foundation team this past spring, she felt the patient experience first-hand when her son broke his foot. Even had she not been employed by the health system, she would have brought him to St. Tammany, she said, given its pediatric Emergency Department.
But the treatment he received validated her feelings about the place. “It’s different,” she said. “It’s just not like a lot of hospitals. It has heart.”
Her new role with the foundation is twofold. As her title suggests, she’s here to help channel the generosity of local donors to make sure their gifts make the most meaningful impact not just to the health system but to the donors themselves.
Also, though, she’ll be working in the philanthropy office at St. Tammany Cancer Center – A Campus of Ocshner Medical Center, a job that isn’t at all unfamiliar to her, given her work with the Copeland Foundation.
“I had been raising money for cancer for eight years, so it was a way to continue to fundraise in something I believe in but to shift gears and have a direct impact on the patient,” she said.
“This sounds really corny, but someone asked me the other day, ‘Are you loving it? I knew you in your former job and I know your heart.’ I told him: As a fundraiser, we raise money and we know the impact and we can tell people about that impact, but a lot of times you don’t get to see the impact or feel the impact. But when I walk through the cancer center, I see the impact. I’m talking to patients about the impact. I walked down to go to my vehicle the other day and I saw the cart of food going to the patient, I saw the hug, I saw the tears.
“I saw what the impact was. I get to see the heart. I get to feel the heart.”