Grady job a natural fit for new nonprofit chief

As a Duke University student who thought she wanted to be a doctor, Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders interned in the summer at Grady Memorial Hospital. Now she’s working on behalf of Grady again.

On Thursday she was named president of the Henry W. Grady Health System Foundation, a charitable organization established about 15 years ago to raise money for the hospital system.

She is the third major figure to take on the turnaround of Atlanta’s historic safety-net hospital, which seemed in danger of closing two years ago.

Borders, 51, said she would stay on in her City Council position, at least until the end of her current term next year.

She is taking over the nonprofit just as the board that runs the hospital is poised to kick off a capital campaign with a goal of more than $100 million. That will supplement a $200 million pledge for capital projects made this year by the Woodruff Foundation.

The Grady foundation will play a role in the capital fund-raising, but not the lead, said A.D. “Pete” Correll, chairman of the board of the private nonprofit corporation that runs the hospital. Borders, instead, will be asked to focus on planning an annual campaign that will bring in $10 million to $15 million a year.

For Grady, that income “could make the difference between being on the cutting edge and slugging through the mud,” said Michael Young, CEO of the Grady Health System.

Between the capital campaign and annual fund-raising, Grady officials foresee a broad new approach to bringing in money. Metro Atlantans may be asked to donate $10 to Grady at the grocery checkout. A corporate sponsor might send a check to Grady for every touchdown a Falcon scores. There could be a Grady black-tie ball or a road race or golf tournament. Donors with the deepest pockets could buy naming rights to an operating room or nursing unit.

Taking the foundation job was both a rational and emotional decision for Borders, she said in an interview Friday.

On the rational side is her experience: She holds a master’s degree in health administration from the University of Colorado. She worked in health care administration for 15 years, but also has experience in marketing. Through volunteer work, civic organizations and political campaigns, she has developed a wide network of contacts in many segments of the community.

On the emotional side is the family connection. Her mother, Gloria Borders, was a “Grady baby,” born there in 1933. Her aunt Juel Borders was a member of the hospital board. And her father, William, a retired internist, was on the staff of Hughes Spalding, a unit of Grady that later became a pediatric hospital.

The opportunity “was immediately compelling,” Borders said.

And Borders’ hiring “is a good thing for Grady and a good thing for Atlanta,” said Suzanne Begin, executive director of the foundation.

As foundation president, Borders joins Correll and Young, both brought in this year as part of a comprehensive effort to keep Grady from drowning in debt.

In March, Correll was elected chairman of the board of the new private nonprofit corporation that is running the hospital. Until then, the hospital had been managed by the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority, whose members are appointed by the political leaders of the two counties. The authority continues to exist as owner of the Grady real estate, and some authority members serve on the board of the new corporation.

In September, the new corporation hired Young as health system CEO from Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo, N.Y. He is the sixth person to serve as head of the hospital in three years.

Leaders believe the hospital’s old governing system hampered the effectiveness of the foundation

“The community never really got behind the hospital as an avenue for giving,” foundation board member Kathleen Klatt said. “I think everybody felt they had paid for Grady through their tax money and didn’t need to give again.”

The political ties of Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority members who also served on the foundation board made some would-be donors uncomfortable, leaders said.

“I think the fact that they have resolved the issue about who’s running Grady is going to open up the ability of the foundation to really make effective asks for money,” said Lem Hewes, a retired King & Spalding attorney and founding member of the foundation board.

Throughout the turmoil and transition of the past few years, the foundation brought in a steady stream of about $3 million a year.

The money bought new isolettes for premature babies to replace obsolete ones held together with adhesive tape. Grady staff members attended training paid for by foundation mini-grants. Other programs throughout the health care system benefited from funds brought in by the foundation.

But the foundation often has been short-staffed, foundation board Chairman Henry Grady III said. And several positions on the foundation board —- including those previously held by hospital authority members —- are vacant.

Borders brings both a “sense of comfort and an element of excitement” that will inspire others to move forward, Grady said.

For her part, Borders said she planned to spread the message that Grady is “an incredible resource and asset,” not only for those in need of health care but as an important part of the area’s economy.

“We have an opportunity as a community to lift up this resource, polish it and relish it,” she said.

And she’ll be asking for the money to do it.

UPDATE

THE STORY SO FAR

> March 2008 —- A newly formed private nonprofit corporation assumes management of Grady Health System. Former Georgia-Pacific CEO A.D. “Pete” Correll is its board chairman.

> May 2008 —- The Robert Woodruff Foundation delivers the first $50 million of a promised $200 million donation to the hospital.

> September 2008 —- Michael Young, then CEO of a Buffalo, N.Y., hospital, begins work as Grady’s CEO.

> December 2008 —- Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders is hired as president of the Henry W. Grady Health System Foundation, which raises funds to support Grady.