Unstoppable @ Craig

Leading with Philanthropy: Katie Kramer's Journey and Insights

• Craig Hospital • Episode 15

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Katie Kramer, the dynamic president and CEO of the Boettcher Foundation, shares her inspiring path, where leadership and philanthropy intertwine to forge transformative change. Explore the intricate dance of technology, philanthropy and leadership as we navigate the evolution of today's world. Katie’s narrative as a trailblazing female CEO unravels the threads of responsibility and pride that come with breaking barriers. Delve into the multifaceted nature of philanthropy, encapsulated in the concept of "time, talent, treasure and ties."

The essence of authentic leadership emerges as we embrace vulnerability and genuine human connection. Through stories of empathy and emotional intelligence, we highlight how listening and understanding the unspoken are crucial in mission-driven environments. Katie’s leadership philosophy is a testament to balancing legacy with innovation, nurturing future leaders with adaptability and care. This enlightening conversation promises to inspire personal growth and enhance service to communities, as we learn to embrace opportunities and challenges with grace and courage.

For more information, transcriptions and behind-the-scene photos, visit https://craighospital.org/unstoppable

Craig Hospital is a nationally recognized neurorehabilitation hospital and research center specialized in the care of individuals who have sustained a spinal cord injury (SCI) and/or a brain injury (BI). Located in Denver, Colorado, Craig Hospital is an independent, not-for-profit, 93-bed national center of excellence that has treated thousands of people with SCI and BI since 1956. Learn more: https://craighospital.org

Jandel Allen-Davis

Welcome to Unstoppable at Craig, where we pull back the curtain on what makes healthy workplace cultures click and what happens when people are empowered to expand the boundaries of what is possible. We'll explore the perspectives of employees and leaders who have carte blanche to speak their truths, tell their stories and unlock uncommon ways of approaching challenges. I'm Dr Jandel Allen-Davis, CEO and President of Craig Hospital, a world-renowned rehabilitation hospital that exclusively specializes in the neurorehabilitation and research of patients with spinal cord and brain injury. Join me as we learn from people who love what they do and what happens when fear doesn't stifle innovation. Welcome to another episode of Unstoppable at Craig, and today I am joined by Katie Kramer, who is the president and CEO of the Betcher Foundation.

Jandel Allen-Davis

And you know, as we think about, remember that the theme of, or the. If there's a thread that runs through every episode of Unstoppable, it's this notion of what makes for great cultures, and there are things that are tangible, there are things that are intangible, that are part of the leadership alchemy that pulls together great cultures, and there's something really, as those of us who have either been beneficiaries of philanthropy or those who have been able to actually be the benefactors of philanthropy, there's something incredible that, that sort of generosity from millions of people sometimes a family, sometimes even in the smallest ways what that fuels in terms of the power of leadership to truly transform and change lives. And so it's just going to be fun to spend some time with my dear friend, katie Kramer, and we go way back. We go way back to 2006. That's unbelievable how fast time flies and what our journeys have taken us to where they've taken us over that very, very long time.

Jandel Allen-Davis

So I want to thank you, a for just saying yeah, let's talk. That's always fun. But also the Betcher Foundation has been an amazing, amazing partner of Craig and it is part of the fuel that makes this place so, so wonderful. So, on behalf of people who are in beds right now here at Craig, family members who are supporting them, team members who are doing the work that they do to support those families, those who have come before and actually even those who don't know they're going to need us but Will I just say thank you, thank you, thank you and welcome Well thank you, what a way to start, jandel.

Katie Kramer

You always get me right there in the heart and just knowing what an incredible place that this is. And for me, the relationship with Craig is deeply personal, in addition to being professional and the fact that we've been friends for so long and you're here as following many incredible leaders at Craig over the years. But you in this role here and this place for our community, you know one of a kind and it's an honor to come alongside, and the Betcher Foundation I know has supported with many grants over the years and in the mission, and so thank you what you do for the world the world not just our, not just Colorado.

Jandel Allen-Davis

Well, we both got to say thank you, and I will say you are more than more than welcome, and I think it's interesting that you said there's the better sort of part of which is such a huge part of your story, but then that it's deeply and intensely personal too. So why don't you just start by sharing some of your journey, that journey from intern to president and CEO? And you're celebrating good grief. How can it be your 27th anniversary as a foundation?

Katie Kramer

But tell your story? Well, sure, so I did. I alluded to the fact that the relationship with Craig was personal and that goes beyond our friendship, because the mission is deeply personal to me and I don't know that a lot of people know this about my story, but I was in a car accident when I was 22 years old and had a traumatic brain injury, and there was a period of time when I didn't know if I'd ever be able to work again, and so the impact on my family and my friends, it was profound, and so the impact on my family and my friends, it was profound. And so just to share a little bit more of the depth of that story and then sort of how it fits in with the Betcher story too, so I'll take you back to ninth grade. I walk into my new high school and there was this wonderful guidance counselor, mrs Bornhauser, who called me into her office and she said Kate, I think you might be Betcher material.

Jandel Allen-Davis

And I know, and I was like oh my goodness, what is that?

Katie Kramer

But I better find out. And then had heard of the wonderful Betcher scholarship and so made it my goal throughout high school to try to put myself into a position just to compete, because it's very competitive, and feel very blessed that I was lucky to be 40 of the students that were chosen that year when I graduated from high school in 1993. And so I had the chance. It was life changing. Betcher's invested in me too. I'm a beneficiary, but they invested in my potential and paid for my undergraduate education. I went to CU Boulder and so I had a wonderful experience there. And it ends up being a full circle story with Betcher, because when I was just finishing up senior year, there was this fellowship position that was advertised at the Betcher Foundation and I thought how wonderful. I was newly married to my wonderful partner, Joe Kramer, and we thought how perfect for me to take a year it was a year-long fellowship and give back to this organization that had invested in me.

Katie Kramer

And actually my sister won a Badger scholarship too, so it literally changed generations of our family to have the gift gift my parents didn't have to worry about our education and so the chance to work there under a wonderful leader, Tim Schultz, and have this fellowship. I got the job and was real excited to start, and it was. I was commuting from Boulder. I was just finishing up a last semester at CU. I was just finishing up a last semester at CU, and on my way down to work in downtown Denver, where we're located on Highway 36, classic story Traffic came to a stop and I was able to stop, but the person behind me wasn't, and so I think the thing that is so just paradoxical about it is, you know, it seemed like it was like $2,000 worth of damage to my car.

Katie Kramer

You know, it seemed like it was like $2,000 worth of damage to my car and you know the thing, it was almost seven years before I fully recovered in all the ways. So so much too, but I had seizures as a result of that experience and I did all sorts of therapy because I had a neck injury as well as the brain injury. But for somebody who had an identity that I felt like if I worked hard enough, I could always get the A or I couldn't do that anymore. Get the A or I couldn't do that anymore. And so I remember when I was playing Yahtzee with Joe at the time and I couldn't add the dice, I think we didn't know right away that I had the extent of the injury, but or couldn't remember, like the, a phone number, all the digits, or would feel like I'd be reading the same thing.

Katie Kramer

I was still in school, so trying to read the same passages over and over and over and not feeling like I could get the wiring in my brain to understand what I was reading. And then, you know, had the chance to do cognitive therapy and stuff, and so I'm just so grateful that there were therapists and neurologists and that came alongside me in that recovery. But yeah, it was. It was a really scary time and and my neurologist did tell Joe privately I did not know this at the time that he wasn't sure that I would be able to work full time and a lot of that stemmed from just the, just the seizures I would continue to have. So you know, fighting back through that, I am grateful for all the support and I was determined.

Jandel Allen-Davis

I really was.

Katie Kramer

So, at any rate, that's a little bit about that piece, and then the rest of the journey at Betcher Jandel is. I'm grateful to them for helping me through that really difficult time in my life where they cut back hours for me and allowed me some accommodations to be able to continue to work. I'm so grateful for that. And it was about within a year that we had a position open. It was a longtime scholarship secretary at the time and I, at 22, had the audaciousness to put together a proposal of what if we hired a director of the scholarship program. And then I applied.

Katie Kramer

Oh, I love it I wanted the job and Tim believed in me and let me have the chance to run our scholarship program for five years and then invited me to be the vice president when I was 26 years old and I certainly grew into that 26 years old. And I certainly grew into that role over time and I've been the CEO for the last seven and a half, so I cannot believe that it's been like a blink, but I've had a chance to do just about every job at the Fletcher Foundation in the period of those 27 years.

Jandel Allen-Davis

Yeah, there was so much in that.

Katie Kramer

I'm sorry, yes, no, no, no, no, no, and I can I could wait.

Jandel Allen-Davis

So, first of all, thank you for sharing that way that you know the your your experience with this brain injury traumatic brain injury and you're mentioning that it changed you that that you know that's nobody wants these, but there are ways we hear this walking through the halls.

Jandel Allen-Davis

I know this about patients whether spinal cord or brain injury who there's a resilience that kicks in, especially if you're supported by the right folk. And by the right folk it's not just the great therapist. That is what happens within this health care domain, in an organization that says she is one of ours and we're going to invest in her and we're going to make, we're going to provide the kinds of accommodations that enable her to get back to or move ahead to whatever's next. And you know, that's a mark of great cultures that I felt it important to say publicly on this podcast, because we are wasting talent when we don't. And look at you today.

Jandel Allen-Davis

And it also goes to show how miraculous the brain can be. You know that recovery can take some time, but it does happen. Brains are that squishy little bit of gelatin between our ears, does amazing, amazing things, and it is, at the same time, still a mystery. But the other thing I heard back to Tim who doesn't love Tim Schultz? Let's just start there in terms of the kind of culture he had built that enabled you to stay for 27 years and he said yes, when you brought things, talk about the culture at the foundation.

Katie Kramer

I think that's a great story of evolution, Jandel, and what Tim brought to it and I feel proud to continue is, I think, that philanthropy. And just quick background about Vetra Foundation private family foundation started in 1937 by a wonderful, generous family of serial entrepreneurs in the state. They were immigrants. They came here like so many wanting to work hard and build something and build a family and a life and a community. And they did well. They were blessed, they did well and they decided they wanted to give back and invest in the state of Colorado. So we do only grantmaking in the state of Colorado back and invest in the state of Colorado. So we do only grant making in the state of Colorado.

The Power of Philanthropy and Leadership

Katie Kramer

And throughout that time we've given away like $420 million in every part of the state. But the story of that it's now 87 years old. The Betcher Foundation. And when Tim started the period of time, my first jobs, jandel, when I started as the intern with the fellowship position, I got the first domain name. I built thank you, cu Boulder, leeds College of Business for my business education, but built the website, wow, built a selection database to, you know, try to automate some of our all the handwritten selection process that was formerly of the better scholarship program to the first marketing brochure. So we were coming in a time where technology was everything was done. When I started, you know, people were still there, were secretaries and executives and we were on typewriters and not networked computers. That was another job that I had to do. So there's a reputation sometimes with philanthropy that it's like the ivory tower and very inaccessible and stuffy and I would say that there may have been some of that. I was certainly intimidated coming from my better scholarship interview when I was 18 years old.

Jandel Allen-Davis

You would have been anyway, right? Yes, of course.

Katie Kramer

But I think what the work to make and continues to be our work to make, what we do, we are servants and what we do we cannot do without people like Craig and all the organizations that we invest in throughout the state. So to make sure that our work is accessible, that we are partners in helping people get the resources that they need. And so he tore down that ivory tower and those walls and I love that. He used to say, jandel, our job, we can't fund everybody and not everything fits our priorities. Like it just doesn't you do these things and other foundations do other things. But he said it's a goal always that someone, if they're going to meet with us, that we give them three ideas they didn't have.

Katie Kramer

And so this idea of trying to be a connector there's that resources does doesn't mean like money always, but it's your. It's your the connections, the ability to connect dots, like we work throughout the state. So I know what happened in Mancos last year and Holyoke last year and Cortez, and so when people come to us coming with a project that's similar, we connect dots for them and sometimes we give grants but we continue to, I think, provide our value and part of our philanthropy is our people that work there. We're part of this gift that the Boettcher family, I think, invested in for the people of Colorado, that we help people find access to resources.

Jandel Allen-Davis

Gosh you know it's interesting.

Katie Kramer

I think that we talk about. You know the phrase that we have the opportunity to give. They've been chosen because of their leadership and their service, their heart for service. It's wonderful, and so we talk about that philanthropy. I think the way we define it is time, talent, treasure and ties. Ties Because one of the things and that's that connection piece, like if you have access to a community or connection, the power of a network, you know that.

Katie Kramer

Well this is the Leadership Denver Network we've been part of through the Leadership Foundation all these years the power of that network that we can bring to bear to the people that we're supporting and serving. It's powerful beyond just the money that you show up and share your talents or you give your time. You know, invest, even with your dollars, gosh, you know. So it's like pay it forward.

Jandel Allen-Davis

It's a force multiplier. You know all the words we use, and I love the ties part, because I think one of the most important thing we do as leaders is service connectors of ideas, of systems, of people, of places. And how cool that you get to do the work statewide and can connect communities to each other, great ideas, work that's going on other places. You know I love the generational issues of being in roles, like whatever the roles are. When I was in my mid-40s, I was at KP, kaiser Permanente and had little ones, but I was in clinical practice, so I wasn't home many nights. Well, every third to fourth night I was out somewhere delivering babies and taking care of women. And then to find ourselves in these CEO roles as women.

Jandel Allen-Davis

There's lots of different, it seems to me, lenses. We could look at that through whether it's the lens of ages and stages, and I'd wonder, though, through the lens of being a female CEO, and not necessarily even mid-40s with kids. But in what other ways did you need to, or have you had to, navigate challenges but also opportunities Like what do we uniquely bring when we tap into and I'm going to say it this way that feminine sort of spirit, I suppose, because men can tap into that too. I think we can do our masculine and our feminine. That's some of what we have to be able to do?

Katie Kramer

That's a great question, and I think one of the things that I feel most proud of in my life is I've had a chance to be, an opportunity to be a trailblazer in a couple ways the first female XYZ like whether it was the first I grew up in the Episcopal church. And I was the first first female xyz like whether it was the first I grew up in the episcopal church and the I was the first female acolyte in our church I wanted to be an altar boy.

Jandel Allen-Davis

Yeah, they didn't have them back in the day, yeah, I was proud of that cool and even um.

Katie Kramer

I was the first executive at betcher that was a female, like we had wonderful um again. They were called secretaries at the time, but I was the first person that didn't have that title in that role. And then, even coming into this role, I'm the first female CEO, the youngest and the first Vector Scholar, and so I take great pride in that being the first, and also it feels like a lot of responsibility.

Jandel Allen-Davis

It cuts a few ways, doesn't it? Exactly, those firsts are something I don't think that hit me until sometimes, since I've been over here. First woman.

Katie Kramer

I agree. Ceo.

Embracing Authenticity in Leadership

Jandel Allen-Davis

First African-American CEO of either gender, and then a number of those crazy firsts Talk about I was going to ask. This is going to be my next question how do you define or how do you characterize the responsibility that you carry with it, that it comes with With?

Katie Kramer

being the first yeah.

Jandel Allen-Davis

As you said, first it comes with. It's really cool, that's right, and it has responsibility. What are some of those?

Katie Kramer

things. The first thing I would say is I had a quote in my bulletin board from the time I was in middle school. I don't know where it came across it, but it's a quote by Louis Pasteur. That was comparison is the death of true self-contentment, so something like that. I may have misquoted that exactly, but the thinking I try not to think about that too much because sometimes that feels too big. I don't, I try not to think about that too much because sometimes that that feels too big. That that responsibility, I just, I just do me.

Jandel Allen-Davis

I love it.

Katie Kramer

What else can?

Jandel Allen-Davis

you do Right.

Katie Kramer

I mean I, I cannot. I'm never going to be Jandel, Allen Davis or Tim Schultz or who you pick the leader. I just want to be Katie Kramer, mandela, Allen Davis or Tim Schultz or who you pick the leader. I just know how to be Katie Kramer and I am grateful for my parents for always just encouraging me to be me, and so I just try to think about the things that I value. I think that that guides me, things that I care about and how I show up, and I think one of the special ways that and I don't this is I don't, it's not a female thing. The first thing, it's just a maybe a Katie thing yes.

Katie Kramer

I just believe we're whole people, jandel, like I don't know how you can like not come into even the workplace and not acknowledge the fact that you have spit up on your shoulder or the car didn't start or the dog whatever, blah, blah, blah. That doesn't mean that we're not professional in the workplace, but it's just a recognition that people always are carrying some load and we never know that. And so if you don't show up with empathy, no matter what gender you identify with, that's. I think one of the most important things is seeing people in their wholeness.

Jandel Allen-Davis

And if I can interrupt, I would go so far as to say, first of all, I'll say amen. I used to say to the last executive team I sat on and say here too that I'll say it differently. I say people. I used to say our people. I would say those we serve want to see us and they want to be seen by us. They want to see us. Amen, the whole of us, totally. You know, for me, when I have to sort of say something that may feel I don't know some way, and it's how I'm choosing to hear it or think it, you know, I say, oh my gosh, my pits are sweating. Right, because their pits sweat too.

Katie Kramer

And when you allow yourself, if you allow yourself to bring your whole self to work and show up in all your humanness, right and all the crazy ways.

Jandel Allen-Davis

It's that thing that Marianne Williamson said, or it's also, I think Nelson Mandela must have said it in a speech that when we hide our light under a bushel basket, we're not serving anyone and showing your light, bringing all your wonderfulness. That's why I'm sitting here smiling at you, because you listen, I can't be Katie Kramer, let's just call it. You're saying you can't be. Oh my gosh, you're amazing. When you do that, it gives permission for others to bring their whole selves in too. Don't be so dang buttoned up, no doubt. And the other thing I will say is.

Katie Kramer

I deeply believe that from our emotion, from our heart, comes the power. I really believe that it's head and heart together and I will tell people you know, I'm not ashamed to say that there are things what we do is deeply meaningful. It brings me to tears and also, when things are hard, I cry. You know, my God, like I'm feeling overwhelmed with my schedule. My sweet executive assistant, megan's, like what can we do so? And I tell folks don't you ever apologize for your tears? Amen. It really means. It just means that you care deeply, or you're touched by it, or it's hard, yeah.

Jandel Allen-Davis

And it is and again it brings.

Leadership in Mission-Driven Organizations

Jandel Allen-Davis

I think that's one of the things that makes for great cultures is enabling and creating the space for people to bring their whole selves to work and to be supported and to give support, and there's something about Craig that makes that, I think, essential, and it can be a work in progress at different times. But even just coming up to do this interview, I got on the elevator because there was a patient, a family member, who were also on, and so I introduced myself and said hello, and as I was getting off at two and they were going up to four, as I was standing there just asking a little bit about them to see this person's family member just go. Thank you so much for this and.

Jandel Allen-Davis

I said you're welcome. I said, and I'm about to cry, and she's about to cry. And so I had a dear friend and mentor from my Kaiser Permanente days, carrie Conan, who said you should cry every day. Yeah, she cried every day. It just means what you're doing matters, and sometimes it's the hard tears and a lot of times it's just tears of joy and you know or tears of breakthrough, or eurekas, you name it.

Katie Kramer

It's all kinds of things that I get to see here that just make me so excited and happy. Well, and we're lucky to work in these mission-driven organizations that you get the privilege of helping, yeah.

Jandel Allen-Davis

What are those few leadership lessons or leadership, I'd say, requirements that you think that folks need to have, and is your responsibility to help them learn.

Katie Kramer

Right, wow, the thing that comes to mind first is listening.

Jandel Allen-Davis

That would be good. Yes, in a lot of places these days.

Katie Kramer

Listening, everywhere listening, and we've invested, like just even in professional development in our on our own team about how how to listen and and I think we do that as an organization professionally listen right Like what are people's needs, how can we serve, and so I think that's a critical thing for any leader in their development to listen to what people need around them, to notice, to be empathetic about those types of things.

Katie Kramer

So I feel like that is one of the most important things that I see in my daily work and it carries over when I think about how we develop our own leaders at the Bachelor Foundation and we invest deeply in everyone's leadership development. We believe everyone is a leader. Everyone has their own individual development plan. We talk about what are their dreams short-term, mid-term, long-term because we want to be part of that journey. And again, the journey may not always be a betcher, but there's really transparent conversations that happen amongst our team about how do you want to grow, and we have feedback loops built in right that we're talking about things quarterly, so there's an ability to take ownership in your own growth right internally at Betcher, but how we think about that for our own team and for our scholars. So I'm even thinking we have our scholars experience, which is our retreat for all the incoming students that are starting college in the fall, as well as all of our current students that are at the university.

Katie Kramer

And that's part, fundamentally, of what we talk about. We talk about mental health, we talk about listening, we talk about how to be empathetic, support people in need, support friends, how to be good, how to be a good friend, how to compromise. You know, some of those, those pieces which I wish especially, you know, charged in our world right now. It feels contentious, it is, and I just I think if we were able to continue to see the big picture and there's always lost Jandel, and you can't always get your way, and so you know, when leaders come to the table, whether they're trying to compromise about water in Colorado or whatever that is, you know there's values in conflict.

Katie Kramer

The reality is we usually have the same values. It's just a matter of how much you prioritize them or whatever. So I think if you can look for where we have the commonalities and come from that, I think that that really helps you to be effective in a leadership context, no matter what your context is.

Jandel Allen-Davis

So listening, and I would think, just knowing you, that it's listening to the said and the unsaid. So true Listening can involve way more than just your ears.

Katie Kramer

Well, and what's not being said right, and who's not invited to the table?

Jandel Allen-Davis

And what's that body language over there saying? So I'll say to folks I can see your thought clouds. I can't see what's in them, but I can see just based on things. So there's the listening part there. You know, as I've heard about, the phrase I use is have these invisible backpacks that are, in some parts, lived experience, in some part what happened that morning.

Katie Kramer

Right, you know those sorts of things that you're bringing into the office.

Jandel Allen-Davis

So I heard sort of appreciating that and there's a phrase that if I were going to encapsulate this and it is an important leadership thing what I didn't hear you say is learn the finances, learn the quality. I mean, those are you know. Learn, you know. That's what I think about. And well, we all need to, no matter the thing that, that really this isn't a game of showing what you know, it's that what's that phrase that goes people don't care what you know, know until they know that you care.

Katie Kramer

Oh, so great.

Jandel Allen-Davis

Yes, absolutely.

Katie Kramer

And it is. It's beyond IQ, it is the EQ piece right here, the emotional intelligence, and I think even other things I've been reading too, jendell, just in a world that is so volatile and changing, is your AQ, your adaptability quotient, which I love, yeah, so there's some.

Katie Kramer

I wish I was, I could keep it in my mind to give credit to people that are smarter than me, that have those ideas, but I definitely see that the ability to things change so quickly and one of the things that I didn't say that I think that's part of it, and the challenge of a leader is you know how you were talking about, seeing what's not said and the thought clouds, or whatever.

Katie Kramer

But I think one of the things that I struggle with too is just the courage sometimes to call it out or take action on it, because you know we have a good thing going and we're getting along and there's but there's still some conflict. So, you know, making sure that you have the courage to step into that. Or you can read the room and how hot the system is, and I'm using air quotes here- for those of the context, of how far you can push.

Katie Kramer

And one of my other favorite leadership quotes leadership is disappointing people. At a rate they can accept Marty Linsky and Ron Heifetz.

Katie Kramer

I love that I love their work and what I like about that is sometimes and I think that this is where we get stuck sometimes in life you end up with you're passionate about a cause and you care so deeply and you want change now and you want to burn it down because you can't take it anymore. Yes, and there are sometimes systems or people that can't accept change, and so you have to have a balance for how far can you push and how much do you need to bring people along, because I think part of that leadership challenge is talking to people, inviting them into the conversation, having ownership as part of the solution. But I think that that's tough, is pacing. Change is tough sometimes.

Jandel Allen-Davis

I think it's one of you know. Even back to the question I asked about what will and I'm going to say we do or how are we navigating leadership, following folks who have built strong organizations with an understanding that we're going to add to the strength is the pace of that kind of change? And so I'm just grateful that you talked about how that can be tough. And I think the other thing that is sort of part of that is this how do you manage that conflict, whether it's you know well, wait a minute, you're not, we're not old, this isn't like we used to do it or those sorts of things how you manage and work through that in a way that preserves your soul and doesn't let us get afraid to do what we need to do or question the systems that must be torn down. Yeah, and you got to do it. You got to do it, and I don't know how you do it, but I'll tell you that for me it's.

Jandel Allen-Davis

I want this place to be here 100 years from now, 200 years, 117 year old institution. Awesome that. Back to adaptive quotients. They've lived it, starting with tb right and polio, yes, and now neuro rehabilitation for spinal cord and brain injury um, now they're not going to let me deliver babies here. I always have to say that at some point We've got plenty of work to do in this space. There is so much to do, both in terms of the current building off of the legacy, of what this wonderful, wonderful gem for the country, let alone the world, is in some ways. But then it's future. We've got exciting plans that go beyond capital, you know, in terms of the physical space.

Jandel Allen-Davis

But, thinking about the communities, back to some of the work that you all are even thinking about the communities out there that we send patients back to and I'll call them patients then when we send them back but they are persons, they are people living alongside a disability.

Jandel Allen-Davis

They are persons, they are people living alongside a disability, and there's work to do in those communities that we have a responsibility to engage in, lead, make better for people, and that one's not a hard one to push, but it's certainly at all. I mean people are excited about the potential there and see the importance and see the enormity of a task like that and how you even do it alongside other partners, while doing the work we need to do today Right To evolve our inpatient programs.

Katie Kramer

Past present, future.

Jandel Allen-Davis

You're always living it Well. I want to thank you, but I also want to make sure I give you last word.

Katie Kramer

Oh, I'm grateful. So my last word is gratitude. Thank you, friend, so much and you have continued to be a wonderful role model and friend for me these many years and it's awesome to be on the journey together.

Jandel Allen-Davis

So it's a journey we're going to take it, thank you, thank you, wow. So Katie and I go back nearly 20 years in friendship. It's coming on pretty soon next year It'll be 20 years that we've known each other and I've watched her growth Not that she didn't already start as such a strong leader even back then and it's been just a real gift to know a leader of this caliber and a friend and a person and a woman of this caliber. So much was packed into our time together. I like the concept of philanthropy in four dimensions that it's not just about the treasure they give away, but the time that they invest in those that they serve, the opportunity to help develop talent through philanthropy not just those who are asking, but how they use their or she uses her role in supporting communities to connect people and obviously the treasure, but also the ties. That is, we're building community, we're making new friends, we're connecting new people, new ideas. What an amazing treasure and an essential part of strong communities.

Building Strong Leaders for the Future

Jandel Allen-Davis

Great foundations are and great philanthropy of all sorts are, and I think it's one of the more important roles that we play as leaders is this idea of recognizing that we actually serve missions, we serve communities and to think about leadership. I love that she grounded what we do wonderful, wonderful organizations and our accountability, responsibility and the joy is to make sure those organizations endure. While we're evolving them based on what's needed at the time, you never forget the essential parts of the legacy that's been built, the core of who organizations are, and we have to make sure, in order to serve the future, that we're paying and very close attention and are mindful of the present. And then, of course, we've got to be looking out over the horizon, based on what we're seeing right now around what next? And having to step boldly and courageously into those spaces, even when our voice is shaking, as I said. And then this idea, because of what philanthropy has the ability to do through being more flexible, about matching capital to needs, then looking at the work that they're doing now, recognizing that we are in desperate, desperate need of strong leadership on so many planes and dimensions today, and supporting communities this way is important. And then, my heavens, the adaptability quotient.

Jandel Allen-Davis

When I wrote that down, I thought well, that is Craig's DNA, you know, in terms of both, who we serve, but also in terms of this incredible team of professionals of all stripes that have to meet patients and families where they are and adapt their style in order to do the best work that we do here. There's a versatility that's part of being adaptable. That really is a true core leadership strength and probably finally I mean Katie's clearly amazing I mean good grief. You know multi-generational Coloradan, just always a person who says yes to opportunity but leads boldly and courageously and has the ability at the same time, to be vulnerable and talk about the tough stuff. I loved this conversation because of that.

Jandel Allen-Davis

But you know, finally, that recognition that part of what builds strong cultures and makes them endure is making sure that we really are tending to that next group of leaders and the opportunity that we all have to lead from wherever we stand, and that leadership is so, so, so much more than a title. So I would say again you know I feel so blessed to get to do what I do every day in service to Craig Hospital and our community and these conversations, trust me, I get way more than I give and I've taken away from Katie today some real cool things to think about in terms of how I serve at Craig, but also how I care for myself, and I hope you did too. So thank you for making time to be part of this Unstoppable at Craig episode. Thanks so much.

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Jandel Allen-Davis, MD

Host