The Board of Directors of Hospice Muskoka announces that Chief Executive Officer Donna Kearney has made the decision to retire from her role at the end of 2026.
The Board has tremendous gratitude for all that Donna has done, and continues to do, for Hospice Muskoka and extends our best wishes for a wonderful and very well-deserved retirement.
In 2020, at the start of the pandemic, Donna joined Hospice Muskoka as NP-Medical Director at Andy’s House, Ontario’s first Nurse Practitioner Led Hospice, which opened with three funded beds delivering much needed palliative care in south and west Muskoka. The following year, she took on an expanded role, adding Executive Director to her portfolio and earlier this year became CEO.
Donna built and currently leads a team of staff and volunteers who oversee the ten beds at Andy’s House and numerous community programs, including a new program, Andy’s House at Home, which brings palliative care into your home. We applaud Donna’s vision and tenacity in advocating for palliative and end of life care. She has led the organization to its current position of excellence, achieving full accreditation from our governing body, Hospice Palliative Care Ontario, in the delivery of residential palliative care, community programs and grief and bereavement.
In her notice to the Board, Kearney shared “It is time for me to pass the torch to the next leader who will carry forward the Board’s next strategic vision,” she said. “I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to serve this organization and the community, and for the extraordinary commitment of the people who make this work possible every day.”
Over the next six months, as Donna continues to lead Hospice Muskoka with her hallmark passion and commitment, the Board will conduct a recruitment process to find the talent required to lead our organization into its next chapter.