Marie O'Gara, Development Coordinator, Hospice of Siouxland
Upon graduating from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln with a bachelor's degree in business administration, Marie O'Gara began working with Hospice of Siouxland as a volunteer coordinator. For the last 10 years, she has served as Hospice of Siouxland's fund development coordinator. In 2000, she led Hospice of Siouxland's first major donor campaign which raised $1 million to launch a new service line - Siouxland Palliative Care. Over the past seven years, she has raised over $250,000 through successful grant proposals to develop and strengthen this new model of community-based care for individuals at the end of life. These grants helped lay the ground work enabling Hospice of Siouxland to become one of 15 rural PACE demonstration sites across the country, supported with a $500,000 grant from Medicare.