HIGH PROFILE: NANCY HOLLINGSWORTH
Occupation:
President and CEO of Saint Agnes Medical, and I am a registered nurse. Saint Agnes was founded by the Sisters of the Holy Cross, and has been serving our Valley community for over 85 years. We have a wonderful staff and Physicians who are extremely committed to caring for our patients in body, mind and spirit. Saint Agnes is a very busy Medical Center, providing a full array of emergency, medical and surgical care. We are perhaps best known for our expertise in heart and vascular and cancer services, as well as obstetrical care. In 2014, we delivered more than 3,500 babies!
Marital status:
I’m married to Andy (for 32 wonderful years!). We met at Fresno State we were assigned as lab partners in chemistry! He was in agriculture and I was in nursing, and both majors required the same organic chemistry class. We are so fortunate to have three children who are all grown up now. John is our oldest and is a third generation of Hollingsworths to attend California State University Fresno. Brittany graduated from California State University Monterey Bay in Kinesiology and recently was married this past summer in Santa Cruz. Sarah is our youngest and she, like her older sister, graduated from CSU Monterey Bay. She is now attending graduate school at Columbia University in New York. All three of my children were born at Saint Agnes and they went to Saint Agnes Child Care Center. We are fortunate to have a wonderful child care center on the Medical Center campus. It is an enrichment program and the staff takes great care of the children. It really makes a difference for working parents to have a day care program close to where they work.
First job:
My first job as a nurse was at Saint Agnes where I worked on the oncology unit. As a student nurse at Fresno State, I had experienced great support from the nurses at Saint Agnes, so I knew I wanted to be a “Saint Agnes nurse” as a new graduate.
Birthplace:
I was born and raised in Southern California in Los Alamitos, which is right by Seal Beach. When I was a senior in high school, I knew I wanted to become a nurse. I also wanted a “going away to college” experience so I considered the various nursing schools throughout California. I picked Fresno State because the nursing program was very well established and it was only a four-hour drive from my home. I had never been to Fresno before, so my parents came with me to visit the campus and I was very excited about what the university had to offer. What a great choice it was!
Favorite “pig-out” food:
We lived in Nashville for several years and I acquired a real affinity for southern food. My favorite southern meal is pulled pork, cornbread, coleslaw, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, and coconut cake for dessert. We moved our family to Nashville packed up all three children, plus the dog and the cat, and loaded in the family van so I could attend Vanderbilt University for graduate school. My husband was very supportive about that move. I completed both a Masters of Science in Nursing and a Master of Business Administration at Vanderbilt. All of us really enjoyed living in the South. It is a beautiful part of our country. The people are very charming and there is much to do there great food, great music, professional sports and Nascar racing. We have a lot of happy family memories from our time there.
Favorite color:
Blue — in any shade. It makes me think of nature: the sky, the ocean, blue hydrangeas. I love blue!
Favorite game:
Football is my favorite game to watch. I don’t like to play games, at least not sports, because I’m not very coordinated. Since both my husband and I are CSUF alumni, we always watch the Bulldogs. We both like baseball, too. We lived in the Cincinnati area when I was working for Deloitte Consulting Firm and we enjoyed going to watch the Cincinnati Reds play baseball. The stadium was new, the hot dogs were great and it was on the river so it made for a really fun outing. Now that we are back in California, we always root for the San Francisco Giants. I really do not participate in sports anymore, but I like to play mind games, like Cranium and Scattergories, as well as card games like Canasta. It is part of what we do at family gatherings.
Every New Year, I resolve to:
Do something that will help me be healthier. It might be about exercise or nutrition or healthy habits. I do the Health Watch spots on 1430 KYNO and I really do believe in the value of those health tips that I discuss, so I work on incorporating them into my life as well.
Most valued material possession:
Is a cat considered a material possession? I love my cat. He’s an inside cat named Bambino and he sits in the window every evening watching and waiting for me to come home. He follows my every step all evening. Since he doesn’t go outside, I’m a source of entertainment, and he’ll stalk me and pounce on me. He’s sweet and playful. My children picked him out for me at the SPCA as a surprise for Christmas.
When I have some extra money I splurge and:
Go antiquing. I don’t collect anything in particular, but I always find something interesting that catches my eye. My sister, Bonnie, and I were antiquing in Morro Bay recently and I found an old tin sand pail painted blue with several mermaids on it. It was so quaint and I decided I had to have it!
Favorite city outside California:
I worked for Deloitte Consulting out of the Cincinnati office for many years, and traveled around the country providing strategy and operations support for large health systems and academic medical centers. I loved the travel, and working in a new and interesting city. My favorite cities were Chicago, New York, Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Phoenix and New Orleans. Working in a city gives a different feel than being a tourist and I really enjoyed these cities. I met wonderful people and worked with great clients.
Last goal accomplished:
The healthcare industry is undergoing incredible changes considering the elements of healthcare reform. So, at Saint Agnes we have all been focusing on creating a care delivery care system with a broader focus on community-based services while continuing to preserve our great capability for acute inpatient care.
