Kapella takes SSMH Foundation helm July 31
Posted on Sunday, July 20, 2008
Karen Kapella has been named executive director of the Siloam Springs Memorial Hospital Foundation, the fundraising arm of the hospital.
Kapella fills the post being vacated by Joyce Van Roekel, who is retiring July 31 after serving eight years with the foundation.
Originally from Oklahoma, Kapella and her husband, Tom, moved to Siloam Springs from Cincinnati, Ohio, six years ago when he joined DaySpring, a subsidiary of Hallmark Cards Inc.
Since that time she worked as the development officer for the North Arkansas Symphony in 2003, and as a marketing, special events and fund-raising consultant. For the past four years, she served as conference coordinator for Washington Regional Foundation's and Washington Regional Medical Center's "Speaking of Women's Health"event in Fayetteville.
"I'm excited to be a part of Siloam Springs Memorial Hospital and am grateful for the opportunity to work with Joyce in the foundation before she retires," Kapella said. "I will strive to carry on Joyce's wonderful work, and I thank the community for their continued support of the foundation."
Kapella said she has a special feeling for health care. Her father was a medical doctor in private practice for 43 years in Davis, Okla., and she grew up knowing the importance of caring and professional healthcare on a local level, she said.
In Northwest Arkansas, she serves on the board of directors of the North Arkansas Symphony and currently heads a transformational task force whose mission is to revitalize and restructure the symphony.
Kapella attended Oklahoma State University in Stillwater on a piano scholarship, intending to major in music, but changed her major and graduated in 1980 with a bachelor of science degree in clothing, textiles and merchandising with an emphasis in fashion merchandising.
After graduation she worked in the retail and wholesale fashion industries in Houston, Dallas, New York and Cincinnati.
Her hobbies are photography, piano, college sports, cooking, reading and helping her family in Oklahoma with ranching activities. She and Tom are members of First Baptist Church of Siloam Springs.
As executive director of the hospital foundation, Kapella will work with a volunteer board of directors to support the hospital's work and bring the community and hospital together to assure continuing quality health care. The foundation provides for capital equipment and improvements, scholarships for medical professions and healthcare programs for the community.
Under Van Roekel's tenure, the foundation's most popular fund-raising events - Dinner with the Docs and the SSMH Foundation Annual Golf Classic - were founded. Those events, combined with the foundation's annual Phonathon, have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to support the hospital.
"I'm especially proud of the money we raised for the obstetrics department which allowed for renovations and equipment to make all the labor and delivery rooms private," Van Roekel said.
The SSMH Foundation was established in 1990 as a 501 c 3 nonprofit agency to receive, maintain and distribute funds raised by personal donations, grants, capital projects and special event fundraising and special programs not covered by government grants. The foundation does not contribute to the hospital's normal operating costs. Rather it provides ongoing resources which allow the hospital to purchase medical equipment, undertake renovations and sustain programs.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
