2015 Leaders in Health Care Awards: Lifetime Achievement

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

Sister Karin Dufault

General Superior, Sisters of Providence International, Montreal

Sister Karin Dufault began her nearly 50-year career in the health field as a nurse at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Oregon.

Even though I have moved into leadership positions, I continue to this day to be a nurse, Dufault says. Ive had an opportunity to touch many people through health care ministry.

Dufault holds a bachelor of nursing degree from Seattle University as well as a masters and doctoral degrees in nursing from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. She was a clinical nurse specialist and nurse researcher in Portland, then became a patient care services administrator. She later returned to her hometown of Yakima as administrator of St. Elizabeth Medical Center.

In 2012, Dufault became general superior of the Sisters of Providence International in Montreal. Founded in 1843, Sisters of Providence supports missions in Canada, the United States and around the world. Before assuming her new position, Dufault was the provincial superior in the Mother Joseph Province (Washington and Oregon) for the Sisters of Providence and acting president and CEO of Providence Health System in Spokane. Earlier roles included vice president of mission leadership and Providence Health board chair. For five years, she was executive director of the Supportive Care Coalition, a Catholic health ministry committed to palliative care in Portland. She has served on many boards, including the Catholic Health Association.

As a health care industry administrator in changing times, Dufault advises executives who lead change initiatives to recognize the value that every person brings to an enterprise and to the conversation. In order for good to come from change, she says those involved must pay attention to the fears, doubts and the grieving process one goes through when giving up something.

Change agents must have a sense that they are called to do something very important, she adds. That creates confidence, she asserts. With that confidence and that inspiration, you can move mountains.