Paula Herzmark: fundraising and friend-raising for region's safety-net hospital system: executive director of Denver Health Foundation is driven to make a difference.

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: [spirit of] ATHENA

Paula Herzmark says knowing she has the opportunity to give back is what gets her up in the morning and keeps her going during the day, and that's a valuable mindset considering the giving she inspires on behalf of Denver's public safety-net hospital system.

"I am energized by making a difference," says Herzmark, executive director of the Denver Health Foundation, the fundraising arm for Denver Health. The hospital and its programs delivered more than $360 million in uncompensated care last year and treat about one in four Denverites.

What's also evident is Herzmark's commitment to Denver, the place she's called home since 1970 when she moved immediately after finishing graduate school at the University of Texas. She's been a force in business, government or community service--sometimes all three--ever since.

"I love it here," says this year's Athena Award winner. "Colorado is the only place to live."

Born in Honolulu, Herzmark grew up in El Paso, Texas, the oldest of three girls whose father was an astrophysicist, the chief scientist at White Sands Missile Range. Her experiences since her arrival in Denver have been a mix of entrepreneurism, government involvement and community service, experiences she draws upon today. She served on former Gov. Richard Lamm's cabinet from 1977 to 1982, developed two cable companies--Solar Satellite Communications, which she took public in 1984, and Prime Time Cable Corp., which she started in 1984 and sold in 1990.

"I had a wonderful opportunity to learn how the private sector works and to be able to then carry on those lessons into the nonprofit world, where my heart really is," she says.

That initial foray into the nonprofit world was the Robert E. Loup Jewish Community Center, where Herzmark served as CEO from 1992 to 2004. During that time, she also chaired the board of directors for the Denver Health and Hospital Authority as it transitioned from the auspices of city government (as Denver General Hospital) to an independent authority.

"The idea was to be able to give Denver Health the flexibility it would need to survive in a very different environment than we had been in to that point," Herzmark says of the hospital's transition in the late '90s. "We have gone basically from about 2,500 (hospital) employees to 5,300. Almost 40 percent of Denver's children get their care at Denver Health or in part of our system.

"We believe this wouldn't have been possible, that the financial model would not have...