Owen Receives Hospice Leadership Award

Hospice of the Carolina Foothills (HOCF) announced today that Heidi Owen, MBA, CFRE, CAPS, HOCF Vice President of Business Development, received the Carolinas Center Peter Keese Leadership Award at the 43rd Annual Carolinas Center Hospice and Palliative Care Conference held in Greenville, SC September 9-11. The award was given in recognition of Owen's "leadership in hospice, for devotion of significant time in promoting hospice care, vision and forward thinking, involvement in hospice care throughout North and South Carolina, and active involvement in all stages of hospice development" according to the Carolinas Center.

Owen began her career with the former Hospice of Rutherford County in 1994 as Director of Development. In addition to establishing one of the most recognized volunteer programs in the state, she led three capital campaigns raising all funds needed for a grief counseling and administrative building, inpatient unit, addition to the unit and a conference center. She served as the project manager for all facilities and received her general contractor license in NC and SC in order to ensure construction of the facilities. Owen became a Certified Fund raising Executive in 2003. Owen wrote the grants to begin and expand the palliative care, grief counseling, caregiver support and children's grief programs which continue today. While still working with Hospice of Rutherford, she became Executive Director of Friends of Carolina Hospice, a 34-year old volunteer hospice in SC. She led the organization to Medicare Certification in 2013 before becoming Regional Vice President of Hospice Advantage with six offices. In 2016, she assisted in the merge of Hospice of Rutherford County with Hospice of the Carolina Foothills. She also been a national hospice speaker and consultant.

Owen is a 1982 graduate of West Henderson High School in Hendersonville, a 1985 journalism graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a 2001 graduate with an MBA from Gardner-Webb University. She is from Etowah, and she returned to Etowah in 2014.