As a young girl, Judy Coffey dreamed of being a nurse, and helping others is a value she learned growing up in Chicago, where she pitched in at fundraisers with her family. Her father, Anthony, led by example and taught Judy and her siblings the value of giving back to community. “That was ingrained in me. By the time I could stand on a stool, I was washing dishes at spaghetti dinners and collecting shoes for the unfortunate during Thanksgiving,” recalls Coffey, senior vice president and area manager for Kaiser Permanente in Marin and Sonoma.
Coffee went on to attend nursing school and began her career in the medical field in Chicago before relocating to California and working as a night shift nurse in San Rafael. Her passion for health and community reignited by chance after the birth of her daughter, Alexa, one September day. “They whisked her away in an ambulance, and she was diagnosed with heart disease,” says Coffey. Though Alexa was an active girl, playing soccer and basketball, her life was cut short at the age of 17, when she succumbed to heart disease. “After Alexa was born, I got involved with the American Heart Association [AHA]. She is my ‘why,’” says Coffey.
Today, Coffey’s involvement with the AHA is a natural fit. She serves in several leadership capacities: treasurer for the AHA’s Western States Affiliates Board; chairman of the AHA operations and finance committee; and member of the AHA Hospital Accreditation Business Management Committee. “Judy has passion inside her,” says Stacey Gibbons, executive director, of the North Bay AHA. “Her heart never stops giving.”
Coffey is also actively involved with the Northern and Central California Hospital Council, the Sonoma County Workforce Investment Board, United Way of the Wine Country, and Empire College. “It’s important to give back. This is where we live; this is our neighborhood.”
Like her father, Coffey leads by example at Kaiser Permanente and encourages her management team to get involved in the community. “When any new leader [is hired] at Kaiser, I ask the individual to get on a board within six months,” she says. “We easily have 120 physicians and staff members [serving] on boards.” According to Coffey, their involvement helps in three important ways. “It helps us know what’s going on in the community, what the needs of the community are, and helps us spread the word—prevention, prevention, prevention.”
Over the past 30 years, Coffey has clocked in countless hours to community service. What has surprised her most about her experience? “I’m on so many boards, and there are only so many hours in a day, yet there’s the passion to do more. And I realize how amazing people are and how willing they are to give back—whether there’s a fire or a flood. It’s a pleasant and wonderful surprise to know there’s no hierarchy when it comes to doing our best and getting involved. It’s not about how much money an organization has or collects.” According to Coffey, even small gestures make a difference. “We recently participated in a children’s book drive at Kaiser, and collected 2,800 books,” she says.
Since those early days when Judy stood on a stool washing dishes, her ideas about community service have evolved and her hope is that the nonprofit community will work together collectively. Education, income and health are key to creating a thriving community, according to Coffey, and no matter your background, address or occupation, everyone must work together to serve.
Meanwhile, Coffey’s passion for health and community is the force that drives her to serve on boards and support as many fundraisers as she can. She’s particularly drawn to support those causes that involve children and health. “The young people are our future,” she says. But no matter the issue, her instinct is always to find solutions. At a recent fundraising event for education, someone approached Coffey about housing issues. “What can Kaiser do about housing? I don’t know,” she says. “But there are homeless issues, and we all need to get involved and help find solutions.”
