“I’m a bird launcher, not empty nester, but bird launcher!” Stephany laughed in an interview this past summer. “I saw it on Instagram, and I was like ‘Oh my gosh—that’s me!’”

Stephany and her husband, Doug, had successfully launched two young women into adulthood when an opportunity came up to return to the healthcare industry. Since October 2023, Stephany has been the president of Queen’s North Hawai‘i Community Hospital on Hawai‘i Island.

“It’s been a new season for me, too.”

Stephany began her career at Kahuku Medical Center—then Kahuku Hospital—in 1998, becoming its CEO from 2011 to 2017. Before joining Queen’s, she was deputy director for Holomua Collective, a nonprofit whose mission is to make Hawai'i more affordable for all working families. She also previously served as a program manager and community engagement navigator for Hawai‘i Energy.

“It’s these experiences outside of a hospital that provided me with a real macro approach to health and wellness,” she explains.

She sees a need for more bridge builders and translators, both within and outside of organizations, to find opportunities to work together on finding solutions. She hopes to use her own lived experience and professional knowledge to be someone who can serve as this kind of connector.

“I get excited about being able to partner and collaborate more, especially focusing on social determinants of health,” she says. “Where does access to healthy food come in? Where do affordable energy, affordable housing, and safe communities fit in with traditional health care?”

“I’m on a sensing journey,” she adds, “really listening, asking questions, learning, and seeing where I can add value.”

One great example of Stephany aligning her unique professional experiences is applying for a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, a seemingly unusual source of funding for a hospital.

“The grant focuses on energy efficiency at the hospital,” she explains, “and while I couldn’t [work on it] while I was at Hawai‘i Energy, since I’ve jumped back into healthcare, I can do it now.”

She says leveraging new and novel sources of funding like the EPA grant is helping to increase stakeholder engagement and providing high quality, highly reliable care.

Caregiver engagement and caregiver wellness are also important parts of the equation. “If we take care of our people, they will take care of our patients,” she says.

She’s also spending time getting to know her new community, including several Omidyar Fellows who have welcomed her to Hawai‘i Island.

“I feel like I have a network in place that I can reach out to, and I think I’ve met with three fourths of them already,” she smiles. “I just love getting to know who’s doing what, starting to build those relationships, and being able to work with Hawai‘i Island Fellows.”

Stephany says taking time to connect with others is a vital part of one’s well-being, and simply talking about health is a great place to start.

She asks people to think about “what are you doing for your overall health and wellness? What are your practices? And do you have opportunities to have those conversations with others in your organization or within your own family?”

She adds, “being able to share your challenges and your wins with others is important because healthcare is also all about relationships. Someone can come in and do a procedure and just go in and out, but someone who does a procedure with tender loving care and asks about how you’re doing makes a huge difference.”