{"id":99210,"date":"2024-02-28T11:01:30","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T21:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\/midweekpro\/?p=99210"},"modified":"2024-02-27T11:08:20","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T21:08:20","slug":"kathy-morimoto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\/midweekpro\/kathy-morimoto\/","title":{"rendered":"She’s All Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Photo by Lawrence Tabudlo<\/p><\/div>\n

For new president and CEO Kathleen \u201cKathy\u201d Morimoto, the mission of St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawai\u2018i is to carry on the legacy of St. Marianne Cope through compassionate care.<\/p>\n

While growing up in her hometown of \u2018Aiea, Kathleen \u201cKathy\u201d Morimoto never imagined she would someday take on the leadership role of a major organization. But while she couldn\u2019t envision her future career path, she was still sure that her voyage through life would lead her to where she was needed.<\/p>\n

How prescient she turned out to be! In December, Morimoto was named president and CEO of St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawai\u2018i, after its board of directors conducted a comprehensive local and national search and determined she was ideally suited for the role due to her experience in the health care field. <\/p>\n

Morimoto credits the unseen guiding force that\u2019s led her to this point in her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo think that with God\u2019s grace that He actually shaped my journey to lead me here always leaves me humbled and grateful,\u201d she says. \u201cBut it was always as I was walking my own journey. I never realized how important it was for me to appreciate those steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her first steps on the ladder to success included education, notes the proud graduate of Hawai\u2018i Baptist Academy and University of Hawai\u2018i at M\u0101noa, who later earned a certified public accountant designation. Morimoto began her career as an audit and consulting manager with Arthur Andersen LLP. She also served in leadership roles at The Queen\u2019s Health System and The Queen\u2019s Medical Center.<\/p>\n

In all, she has a decade of health care experience in Hawai\u2018i. Most recently, she served as vice president of clinical integration and community health at HMSA.
\n\u201cThe one thing that resonated with me throughout my lifetime was, \u02bbWork hard so you can support your family,\u2019\u201d she explains. \u201cIt was never a professional ambition for me to say, \u2018Well, I want to be a president and CEO.\u2019 Not at all, but I think because of God\u2019s grace, He led me here and prepared me for what this role requires. But also giving me the humility to know that this role is not about me, it\u2019s about the \u2018heart\u2019 work.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Morimoto, the business of St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawai\u2018i is not merely hard work \u2014 which she fondly refers to as \u201cheart work\u201d \u2014 because it\u2019s firmly based on a warm tradition of caring for others, especially k\u016bpuna. <\/p>\n

Sponsored by the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities, St. Francis Healthcare System is the only Catholic health care system in Hawai\u2018i. The health and wellness programs offered by it are rooted in a legacy that started with St. Marianne Cope and the Sisters of St. Francis, who came to Hawai\u2018i to care for those with Hansen\u2019s disease in 1883. <\/p>\n

Cope was born on Jan. 23, 1838, and a Feast Day ceremony to honor her legacy took place in January at the St. Francis campus. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that struck me before even joining St. Francis in this role is I felt the love and compassionate care that resonates from this special place,\u201d Morimoto says. <\/p>\n

For example, just one of St. Francis\u2019 myriad of components is the Clarence T.C. Ching Villas, a skilled nursing facility with short-term rehabilitation services.
\n\u201cMy family members are grateful patients of the Villas,\u201d she notes. \u201cI was walking the campus, I was meeting folks who work here, who are part of the organization and part of our partner organization \u2018Ohana Pacific. It is truly the caring heart and dedication of each person here that cares for k\u016bpuna in such a meaningful way that struck me. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the main reasons why I decided that this was the perfect fit for me. One of the things that I think is incredibly important at this day and at this time is how we appreciate, how we value, how we care for our k\u016bpuna so that they can live with dignity and with quality of life. That\u2019s our sweet spot. That\u2019s what St. Francis has honed over the years.\u201d <\/p>\n

Among St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawai\u2018i\u2019s other services are a new adult day care center, which recently opened on its Liliha campus; Franciscan Vistas \u2018Ewa, an affordable independent senior living community; and Hale O Meleana, which offers a full range of residential care options. <\/p>\n

The system also offers hospice care for patients nearing the end of their lives, in nursing homes or at its home-like 12-bed inpatient facility in Nu\u2018uanu. <\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not all the multidimensional system provides. It also has caregiver education and wellness classes, bathing and personal care services, transportation services and much more. <\/p>\n

There is also a retreat and homeless outreach center in Wai\u2018anae known as Our Lady of Kea\u2018au, and a preschool in \u2018Ewa Villages designed to provide keiki with a great start in life. <\/p>\n

Partnerships with other organizations to provide caregiving have also been a sustaining force at St. Francis over time and Morimoto indicates she would love for that to continue. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s about over 200 employees who are part of St. Francis and each day as I meet them, I see that they wear St. Francis \u2014 not as a badge \u2014 it\u2019s really a duty and a calling. And I am honored and humbled to walk alongside of them and serve this amazing history,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

Morimoto\u2019s own history and upbringing have certainly shaped her personality and sense of self. In fact, she strongly believes that her role at St. Francis connects smoothly with her own lived experience of growing up in a nurturing family led by her father and mother, Setsuo and Misae Naito.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what I love as I thought back about all of the different connecting points, I\u2019m sure none of it was by coincidence. I think it\u2019s all a part of a grander God\u2019s plan, and my family, as long as I can remember, have role-modeled caregiving,\u201d Morimoto emphasizes. \u201cThey honored each other, they cared for one another. My mother and father took care of their parents in their elder years. And today, my mom is going to be 97 in a couple months, and she\u2019s surrounded by love and support from our family. Particularly, she has a live-in caregiver and my brother \u2014 who is always visiting because he lives very close by.\u201d <\/p>\n

When it comes to her own nature, Morimoto describes herself an \u201cextreme introvert.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a characteristic she believes she inherited from her dad, who passed away in 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust thinking back and realizing, I think a lot of that is an example that I had from my dad, who was very quiet, very thoughtful, very observant and always intentional. And I never really understood that until I started to see that in myself,\u201d she explains. \u201cAnd so, I\u2019m very grateful to him because he showed me so much of what it meant to be a good person, what it means to be a person of integrity, what it meant to be committed to a purpose and being steadfast about it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Her dad was also known by the nickname \u201cStrong Boy,\u201d due to his remarkable physical strength while serving in the U.S. Army, working in the construction industry in Hawai\u2018i and hitting a golf ball the farthest while playing with his friends. <\/p>\n

Part of Morimoto\u2019s love of working in the health care field revolves around her dad. She says that trait was developed while she was employed at a previous position at Hawaiian Electric Industries and Hawaiian Electric Co. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then, as life happens, my dad became critically ill all of a sudden \u2026 so I left my role at Hawaiian Electric Co. to spend time caring for my parents, my dad especially,\u201d explains Morimoto. <\/p>\n

After 10 months of her being by his bedside, Morimoto\u2019s father eventually became paralyzed and spent the next two years in a skilled nursing facility. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut that journey made me fall in love with health care and it was through that experience that I got a call from a dear friend and a mentor who was on the Queen\u2019s board at the time, asking if I would be interested in joining Queen\u2019s in a strategy role,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

Flash forward to today, and Morimoto is proud to say she started a family of her own. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband, David, is my soulmate. We\u2019re just a great team together, and he has had a lifelong career at Central Pacific Bank where he is chief financial officer. We share the joy of two daughters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their eldest daughter graduated from Syracuse University in New York last year. Their younger child also followed in those footsteps by attending Syracuse, before ultimately transferring to Santa Clara University in California. Morimoto spent four years traveling to Syracuse for family weekends, and she\u2019s excited to still be able to visit there \u2014 because that\u2019s amazingly close to where the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities is based. <\/p>\n

Although she\u2019s not Catholic, Morimoto says that faith is at the core of her being. She enjoys attending Christ Centered Community Church in Honolulu, also known as C4 Church. She loves participating in meditative sessions called \u201cFresh Fire\u201d at church on Monday mornings. <\/p>\n

In her spare time, Morimoto has taken up golfing with her husband and enjoys yoga as a rejuvenating stretching exercise. She also has had a lifelong tradition of enthusiastically playing the Japanese card game hanafuda in family tournaments for \u201cbragging rights\u201d \u2014 which continues to this day. <\/p>\n

Summing up her feelings about life and her career, Morimoto\u2019s voice brims with emotion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had the most amazing mentors and lifelong friends who continue to support and encourage me,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd then, I found blessings every step of the way, and that comes from my trust and my faith in God, which I can use to be the source of purpose and identity and confidence.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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