Leadership Through Faith by Sue Schaffstall
As President and CEO of Catholic Health, how does Mark Sullivan’86, the man at the helm of a major hospital system, deal with leading his team in the midst of a Global Pandemic? Leadership through faith seems like a good way to sum up how Sullivan does his job and lives his life. Being President and CEO of any major organization is challenging on its own, throw in a world heath crisis with no end in sight and the stress level can sky rocket, or not. Sullivan says that he loves what he does. “I get to live my values at work and carryover what I learned at St. Francis.” How did he, during the peak of Covid, stay grounded in his faith while working 12-14 hours a day, seven days a week?
“In a time of uncertainty, what I had to do in my life and in my job was create certainty,” said Sullivan explaining that uncertainty instills fear and quells any hope that people have. “Being so grounded in my faith, no matter how difficult it got, was the buoy to the craziness of Covid.” He further explains that, “no matter what happens, when you know with certainty that we have our health, our family, spirit, hope and faith. If you have those, no matter what happens in the world or in your job, you are going to be okay.” Sullivan refers to his job as a vocation and gives all the credit to his team at Catholic Health. ”I want to provide them all the tools they need and this includes spiritual care.” At the height of the Pandemic, he needed to make sure that everyone had everything they needed on all levels; physically, emotionally, and spiritually. He was creating certainty in the uncertain world of Covid. “It was like building and repairing an airplane while it was flying.” Sullivan reflects on the Prayer of St. Francis and how it applies today. “If you seriously read the words to the prayer of St. Francis,” said Sullivan, “the message is so true for not only society but also for how we are dealing with healthcare challenges, how we are dealing with personal challenges, isolation, social distancing, it really does resonate. When you really think about it, where there is doubt -faith, despair-hope, darkness-light; that gets right to the bedside of treating almost 1,000 Covid patients.”
Catholic Health was asked to discuss its COVID approach on international news.
A little known fact about Sullivan is that he didn’t get accepted at St. Francis right away, he was waitlisted. “I was crying in my living room behind a chair in 8th grade because all my friends got into the schools they wanted to get into. Sullivan did eventually
Signs were tied up throughout the community, this one was right near St. Joseph Campus.
The Factory Buffalo - with supplies of gowns in question, we reached out to a local (Kenmore) company and they augmented plant to make gowns!- very cool
6 | FALL 2020
