Editor’s Note: McKnight’s Senior Living, McKnight’s Long-Term Care News and McKnight’s Home Care are profiling the McKnight’s 2024 Pinnacle Awards honorees daily in April and May. For additional McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards content, visit this page.
For Cathy Williams, providing senior care at a level that exceeds expectations is in her blood. As the CEO of Winslow Campus of Care in Winslow, AZ, she keeps the skilled nursing facility and its staff members focused on meeting the needs of its unique population: Native Americans, some of whom speak only their native language.
The campus employs staff members who speak Navajo, Hopi and Spanish so that communication won’t be stymied by language barriers.
Winslow Campus of Care was founded by Williams’ parents in 1976, and at the time, it was the only nursing home in Winslow. It remains the only SNF working with the Navajo Nation in that area. Williams took over as CEO in 2008, amid a professional journey that was true to the path her parents created.
She began working at South Mountain Manor, now called South Mountain Post Acute, in Phoenix and eventually served at 10 other facilities in the state in various roles, including activities director and admissions positions.
Her always-steady, positive attitude inspires those with whom she works and who work for her to strive harder to provide excellent care. She recognizes that even small touches — such as the woven fabrics and bright colors for which members of the Navajo Nation are known — can influence healthcare outcomes.
But there’s more to those homey touches for Native American clients and residents. It’s a promise that their traditions and customs, which are integral to Native American life, will not be put aside when elders require the level of care offered at Winslow Campus of Care.
- Williams is the president of the Arizona Health Care Association Foundation.
- She is a member of the American Health Care Association’s independent owners constituency.
- Williams received a gubernatorial appointment to the Arizona Nursing Care Institution Administrators board, on which she served from 1992 to 1998.
The McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Senior Living, McKnight’s Long-Term Care News and McKnight’s Home Care. Honorees were recognized March 21 at a dinner and awards ceremony in Chicago. Omnicare was the Silver sponsor for the 2024 Pinnacle Awards program. Parker Health Group and Sentrics were event sponsors.
