Higgins working to boost nutrition, access to health care
Triangle Business Journal
March 17, 2006
by Courtney Doi
CHAPEL HILL - Kathy Higgins has an award named after her.
Higgins is the namesake for the new YWCA Academy of Women Kathy Higgins Gutsy Girl Award.
"She epitomizes heart and head and raw courage. She is an incredible role model for women and girls," says YWCA Executive Director Leigh Duque. "Kathy Higgins is the gutsiest girl we've ever known."
Higgins' 18-plus years with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina once had her on a public relations track. At one time, she led a 25-member team at BCBSNC with a $10 million budget for media, advertising and branding.
But, in 1995, she was tapped to launch a new department that would focus on corporate citizenship for the insurance company.
Today, Higgins wears a dual title of vice president of community relations and president of the $57 million Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation.
The foundation, which she helped create in 2000, has awarded approximately $16.9 million in grants to organizations in North Carolina since its inception.
Though she's been with the foundation since its inception, Higgins says she feels a higher sense of accountability for Blue Cross' role in supporting the health and well-being of the state's residents since she added on the foundation president's title in October.
"I just have a full responsibility around not only how we do that on an everyday basis, but how are we actively being people who are forward-thinking and trying to not only address issues today but constantly thinking about tomorrow and how we will respond then," Higgins says.
As president of the foundation, Higgins is focused on three priority areas. One is providing access to health care for the underserved and uninsured by funding services that address their needs.
She's also determined to build a culture in North Carolina that encourages physical activity and proper nutrition and to helping strengthen the local nonprofit community.
To meet her goals, the foundation staff, Higgins says, must be active in the nonprofit community. "We are keenly aware of our professional and personal responsibility to be engaged in the community, connected to nonprofit leaders, community leaders, thought leaders and business leaders to know what the emerging issues in the community are," Higgins says. "That's our responsibility - not just to be in this office, but to be out there."
Higgins is an active member of more than a dozen nonprofit boards and committees. She has balanced those commitments for the past 14 years with caring for her mother, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
As a former board member and chair of the Heart of Carolinas corporate food drive, Higgins networked tirelessly to encourage food donations, says Jane Cox, executive director of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. "She is the embodiment of a true corporate citizen," Cox says. "She is a tremendous partner. She cares deeply about the roots of what can make a society great. Her energy and her intention and her perfection are all unmatched."
As she reaches out to the community, Higgins says it is equally important for community leaders to feel as though they can easily reach out to foundation staff. Toward this goal, she says, the foundation recently redesigned its Web site and the staff is committed to reading every word of every grant application that comes through the door.
Higgins launched the Healthy Community Institute for Non-Profit Excellence under the foundation's umbrella. The institute meets twice a year in Wilmington and Charlotte. The free two-day event brings staff members and board chairs of organizations together to hone skills in areas such as strategic planning, board management and fundraising.
Danielle Breslin, a foundation manager, describes Higgins as someone with high expectations who is both extremely supportive and hands-off at the same time.
"She sets high level strategic directions and really gives staff the freedom to get from point A to point B in the way that works best for them ... ," Breslin says. "She very much challenges us to think of new and better ways to do things. She is very willing to go out there and fight for things that we think are important at the foundation."
Higgins enriched her management and leadership skills last spring during a three-month journey through Australia and New Zealand as an Eisenhower Fellow and Fulbright Senior Scholar. While traveling, she met with leaders in health care and government to understand best practices from both philanthropic and access standpoints.
"I just came back with such a sense of value," she says, and a sense of the responsibility "to make a difference and to work with people full of purpose and passion to address the health and human services of North Carolina."
Higgins brought back ideas on how to promote better nutrition and physical activities and how to take a holistic approach to educating families on health issues.
When she came across an innovative approach to domestic violence from health, justice and police perspectives in Tasmania, she set up a conference call between leaders there with members of the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
As she leads the foundation into the future, Higgins has one overarching goal in mind. "I really do come to work everyday with a focus on how do we support access to health care for the uninsured, how do we identify creative and innovative ways to fill the gaps and how can we be a voice in creating good policy to support access to health care."
"I genuinely love the work," Higgins says. "I would not have known 20 or 25 years ago that I was going to run a major foundation or be in corporate philanthropy, and yet I can't imagine doing anything else."