ETERNAL OPTIMIST
If you don’t know who Katie Zenovich is, you probably should—the fruits of her labor benefit practically everyone living in the Central Valley.
As the Senior Vice President of Development & External Affairs and Chief Development Officer at Community Health System, Katie is a highly visible representative for Community (the area’s largest non-profit healthcare system). She leads the organization’s corporate fund development strategy, develops key external alliances, and secures principal gifts (i.e. large donor investments) totaling several million dollars annually to advance Community’s mission and business objectives. Her facilitation of donor investments enables the Central Valley’s largest healthcare provider to be a world-class enterprise.
“It’s a big, huge machine,” Katie allegorizes, “and it’s a very expensive machine, but we work to keep fueling it so that we can take care of everyone who needs care.” Since its inception, Community has believed in making outstanding medical care readily available locally. Katie’s work realizes that goal.
In May 2006, Katie joined Community as the Executive Director of the Foundation before being promoted to Vice President of Corporate Development in 2014. Four years later, she moved up again to her current role. Community is the largest healthcare provider in the Central Valley. It continues to be ranked as the most outstanding healthcare system in this region. Its reputation for excellence and continual advancement has been steadfast since its humble beginnings over 125 years ago. In this way, it’s easy to find a similarity between Community and Katie’s style of doing things. “I say it frequently, and I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t believe it: we really don’t stop anywhere short of world-class.”
Community is on a mission to provide exceptional healthcare in the Central Valley, alleviating the burden of traveling hours away to access it. “Not just me, but my colleagues, our leadership team, our Board of Trustees has a vision and a focus to be the best and bring the best. The folks who live here deserve access to top care right here at home,” she says. At Community, they “deliver the best and strive for better! This means doing the hard stuff that no one else, in many cases, can or will do. When we do it really well, success follows,” she adds.
Katie is so passionate about her work that many of her conversations, even off-the-clock, go back to improving healthcare in the Central Valley. Katie remarks. “I do believe in our mission, which is to improve people’s lives. People ask me sometimes, ‘Well, how do you ask people for money?’ And I think it’s not even hard because it’s not for me—it’s to make something better; it’s to improve your life, your family’s life, your friends’, your neighbors’, ours, everybody around us, so that the central part of the state is supported.”
Katie clearly loves what she does, and she’s quick to point out that Community has cultivated that positive environment for not only its patients but also its employees. “I’m very fortunate to do what I do and work where I work. The beauty of it, I think, is our culture at Community,” says Katie.
“When I reflect on this, I think one of the big factors is that we have a great team. We all, at the leadership level, like each other, appreciate each other and work well together.” Katie likens the leadership at Community to a baseball team. “I play my base really well. Somebody else plays their base really well and, together, we’re amazing! So that makes a great dynamic because the environment is really constructive even in the hardest times.”
Katie takes a reflective tone while discussing Community’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Our whole organization pulled together” to help those on the frontlines. “All I could think about was ways to support them. We worked to get them everything they needed to do their jobs. We even engaged people in the community to donate meals to them. It meant a lot to our hospital workers that people actually cared about what was going on inside.” Katie is quick to point out, however, “I don’t think any of it would have happened if we weren’t in an environment where everybody’s on the same page. It takes great vision and leadership and really good communication throughout, and we have that.”
Because of Katie’s unique position, she is able to explore innovative ways for Community to serve the Central Valley. Terry’s House is a perfect example of this. Located directly across the street from Community Regional Medical Center in Downtown Fresno, the 17,000 sq. ft. “home-away-from-home” gives families of critical care patients a place to eat, sleep, and recharge. “That is my baby,” Katie is quick to admit. “I had a vision of some kind of hospitality home for the families of patients at Community Regional. I put my neck out on the line and went to our board with a proposal—I hadn’t been here very long, either,” she chuckles. Without hesitation, “they said, ‘Okay, that’s great. You knock yourself out! Raise enough money to bring it about.’ And, well, we did it.”
When Katie gets her hands on a project, it tends to gain momentum quickly. Within about a four-year timeframe, $5.5 million was raised and Terry’s House was built—its 20 private guest rooms have been hosting families since 2011.
“We have been very successful in seeking and gaining support for the expansion at Clovis,” elaborates Katie. Its first expansion, which culminated in 2008, doubled the size of the hospital. Recently, Katie and her team focused on cancer care. “We raised $20 million in just three years to help bring about the new Community Cancer Institute, which is on the Clovis Community campus,” and opened in 2018. “It has fixed a problem. Patients don’t have to leave the area for excellent cancer care and treatment. It’s here, all under one roof.”
Considering the efficiency with which Katie performs her job and the passion she has for the Central Valley, you might assume that this was her calling from day one, but that’s not exactly the case. Katie was born and raised in Santa Barbara as the youngest of four, where, she reminisces, “The ocean was really our life!” Their babysitter was even a lifeguard, and Katie has fond memories of growing up surfing and fishing, and even learning to water ski in the ocean. She came to the Central Valley to attend Fresno State at the urging of her older sister, who had married a dairyman and moved to Tulare. Katie graduated from California State University, Fresno, with a bachelor’s degree in business.
A series of college jobs she held had a common thread in healthcare by happenstance—she’d never previously envisioned a career in healthcare. “I became quite passionate about healing people, helping people, hearing their stories, and, hopefully, enhancing their life somehow.” Blood and guts didn’t really bother her, but she didn’t want to be hands-on in that way. “I realized, at that time, I could be most helpful on the business side of healthcare.” Katie eventually went back to school and obtained a degree in healthcare management from the University of Phoenix. “And I’ve been here defending Fresno ever since because people laugh and … aren’t very nice to Fresno.” But people like Katie are working to upend the negative misconceptions about Fresno by spreading the word that Community is building a comprehensive health system to meet the Valley’s growing needs.
“I’ve always been very driven. I’ve always had focus. I’m accused of being very optimistic, which is true. I think within that optimism, I am able to innovate and be creative—which is necessary for my work,” says Katie. “I think that, as I’ve evolved, I have developed confidence and tenacity, much more than I had years ago. That’s just because of experience—you get that over time. When I was 28, I really wanted to have the experience and the knowledge that I do today, but there’s no way of getting there without having lived the professional life I’ve lived.” Outlook has a lot to do with it, too. “I think optimism is one thing, attitude is another. Both of those things are something that you can control. I would say those things might lend themselves to some wisdom,” she contemplates.
Katie understands that the “rising tide raises all ships” mentality yields tenfold benefits. Originally, “I wanted to inspire others. Now, I feel like I look for opportunities to prop others up. I want the people I am working with to be incredibly successful,” she mentions. “I ask my team for extreme performance—I ask myself for that. But when they do perform, then they should definitely be celebrated and rewarded for it.” And what happens when a whole team is successful? Just take a look at Community Health System.
Neuroscience is next on the docket. The groundwork for a dedicated neuroscience institute at Community Regional was laid when Bob Smittcamp donated $11 million dollars to seed the project and the Bob Smittcamp Family Neuroscience Institute was named in his honor. “Anybody needing neuroscience care will have a destination. There’s nothing like it right now in our region—it’ll be the first,” Katie explains. This facility will, again, solve the proximity problem, and keep patients close to their homes in the Central Valley. “It’s going to be a $65 million project, and we’re going to fundraise the lion’s share of that,” she asserts.
With neurological issues, time is of the essence. “That’s part of the slogan. I say, ‘It’s about time.’ So it is about time we do this, but it’s also about time…” The pun is evident, as is the need for the neuroscience facility Community has in the works. So much of life truly is about timing—being at the right place at the right time; using time wisely; enjoying time well spent. Our jobs take up a substantial part of our time on earth, but if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life, right? Katie says, “I am really fortunate because I continue to love my work, and get up every morning and think, ‘I get to make a difference today. I get to do something that I really want to do.’” If each and every one of us got up and approached life with the zeal that Katie Zenovich demonstrates daily, can you imagine what our world would look like?
Editorial Director Lauren Barisic
Photographer Ellie Koleen
Stylist Alma Wolverton
Hair Lawrence Luna & Christopher Fiffe
Makeup Kristen Nicole Flores
Ellie Koleen
Photographer
Ellie is a lifestyle, wedding, and brand photographer based in Fresno, California. An artist behind the lens, her trademark airy, light-filled style and masterful camera angles make her work easily recognizable. She uses her love for all things design related as inspiration for her work, and you can find her traveling any opportunity she gets to capture stories for her clients. The Fresno Bee named Ellie Best Photographer for the People’s Choice Awards four consecutive years in a row.
Alma Wolverton
Stylist
Alma is an editorial stylist, closet editor, personal shopper, image consultant, and boutique owner, based in California’s San Joaquin Valley. A small-town girl, she was raised with an impeccable work ethic and determination to achieve her dreams. Today, Alma owns and operates Pum Bum Society in Fresno, where she takes enormous pride in bringing the latest and most exclusive looks, brands, and trends, that both celebrities and fashion experts alike are wearing, to the Central Valley.
