Kathy Vezina is the Associate Executive Director of the Hanley Center for Health Leadership. She began in that role in January 2012. As Associate Executive Director, Kathy has primary responsibility for Health Leadership Development Program and Alumni activities and support, the Hanley Center’s Health Equity & Health Disparities work, and organizational oversight of the Physician Executive Leadership Institute Foundational and Advanced programs. In addition, she works closely with the Executive Director in general operational supervision of Hanley Center activities.
Before joining the Hanley Center, Kathy spent 9 years as the Chief Administrative Officer and Legal Counsel for Counseling Services, Inc., a diverse Community Mental Health Agency serving York and Cumberland County residents. In that role, she was responsible for quality and performance improvement, compliance, utilization review, risk management, and legal affairs. She is credentialed by the National Association for Healthcare Quality as a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality. She successfully initiated and guided the organization through process of initial accreditation by the Council for Accreditation, one of the primary accrediting bodies for mental health agencies. While at Counseling Services, Kathy was a member of the first class of the Hanley Health Leadership Development Program.
As a nurse and a health care attorney, Kathy has worked in healthcare in Maine for the past 25 years in the private practice of health related law, public policy, legislative advocacy, and teaching. For 10 years, she served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern Maine, Muskie School of Public Policy teaching a required course in Health Law for Health Policy & Management graduate students.
Kathy is originally from Concord, New Hampshire, moving to Maine in 1984 after a several year hiatus in the San Francisco Bay area. She attended undergraduate and graduate school in nursing at the University of California, San Francisco—the top ranked nursing graduate school in the country. After completing her Masters Degree and Pediatric/Adolescent Nurse Practitioner training, she taught nursing at University of Southern Maine. Her interest and activity in public policy development and legislative advocacy on nursing and health related issues then led her to a career transition into Law. While attending Law School at the University of Maine, she served as the Editor in Chief of the Maine Law Review.
Over the years, Kathy has been active in both legal and nursing professional organizations, served on various health care boards and committees, and volunteered as a nurse in the Biddeford Free Clinic. She now regularly spends time visiting patients at Central Maine Medical Center with her standard poodle therapy dog, Zephyr.
