Late last week, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds congratulated five individuals and organizations from across the state for their tireless work as they received Iowa Nonprofit Awards. This includes St. Anthony Foundation Director, Trish Roberts.
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Roberts was notified she would be receiving the 2021 Iowa Nonprofit Staff Leadership Award a few weeks ago. She was nominated by St. Anthony Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kyle Ulveling, who says Roberts is deserving for many reasons. In addition to her establishment of clear goals and expectations for stakeholders and outstanding communication skills that create a thriving culture of inclusion, Ulveling says she has, “Established sustained, beneficial relationships with the clinical community of West Central Iowa that benefit from the Foundation’s success, with thousands of St. Anthony supporters that donate their financial resources, time and expertise to further the mission of St. Anthony Foundation and St. Anthony Regional Hospital, and with hundreds of staff members that serve our region.” Roberts says this award would not be possible without the support of so many others.
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In her 28 years as director, Roberts says she has been blessed to be able to work with the community and regional residents on several different initiatives. She has spearheaded fundraising campaigns for the Pastoral Care program and the St. Anthony Surgery Center. But the most recent, for the St. Anthony Regional Cancer Center, faced challenges the likes of which this team had never seen.
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She says the campaign team of about 45 to 50 people pressed on, changing their message and strategy to meet the new normal and it was phenomenal to be able to celebrate the giving from the region and from those in as many as 15 other states. They topped their goal by $4 million to a total raised of $11 million. And then, they were able to open the cancer center during the pandemic, in December of last year. Roberts says this was so important because cancer touches everyone’s lives and the pandemic did not diminish the need for quality, compassionate care. She points out several things she and the entire team learned during the pandemic.
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Roberts is humbled to be selected for this award and thanks the Iowa Nonprofit Awards selection committee as she knows there are many people across the state doing good work. Roberts adds that though she is not yet sure of the next bigger project, she asks people to stay tuned for the new and innovative ways the entire St. Anthony team will pull together to serve their patients and their families.