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Laurie Breedlove ’88, FACHE, SPHR
Senior Vice President, Human Resources
Community Hospital Corporation

Dallasite Laurie Breedlove ’88, FACHE, SPHR found her career in health care by process of elimination, a process that began in a high school Management Internship Program. Because she had an interest in medicine—her mother was a retail pharmacist— and a desire to help people, Laurie chose an internship that rotated her through all the departments of a local hospital.

She began college as a pre-med major but discovered she didn’t like the labs or the incredibly competitive nature of pre-med. Accounting seemed like a good choice until she did an internal audit internship at a national bank in Dallas. “After that summer, I knew I didn’t want to be an auditor.”

Researching additional possibilities in the medical field led her to hospital administration and �԰�����, where she found a good fit for her collaborative nature and her interest in helping people through medicine. With health care administration, she could “still help people, just in a different way.”

Laurie began her health care career at Presbyterian Healthcare System in Dallas where she was fortunate to have �԰����� HCAD alumnus Doug Hawthorne ’69, ’72, FACHE as her preceptor. “This relationship has lasted my entire career” she says “and Doug is still someone I can call for advice or assistance. As a result of a great residency, I was able to move immediately into an assistant administrator role.”

In addition to its strong residency program and a cadre of incredibly supportive alumni, Laurie lauds the �԰����� HCAD Program for producing generalists. “While it can be a hindrance not to have a technical specialty or clinical background” she explains “it is positive in that so many sectors of health care are possible career paths. As a generalist, I developed a sense that I could try anything and if I didn’t know about a topic or how to do something, I had the courage and confidence to assume I could figure it out.”

Being a courageous and confident generalist led to successful tenures as Chief Financial Officer/Vice President of Administration for BloodCare in Dallas, Director of Clinical Practice for Simmons Cancer Center at UT Southwestern in Dallas and Administrator for Patient Care Services at Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.

In May 2005, Laurie joined Dallas-based Community Hospital Corporation (CHC), as Vice President and then Senior Vice President for Human Resources. “Caring for others keeps many people motivated; however, the hours and days are unending and the resources to perform their work have become scarce. As a result, having a culture of respect, integrity and excellence becomes critical so that people can thrive in the workplace. Caring and supportive co-workers throughout the organization are critical and employees must feel the leadership cares about them” she insists. She is proud of the fact that, as a team, CHC cultivates that type of atmosphere and helps “hospitals continue to be viable in their communities.”

A skilled leader and certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), Laurie received the Regent’s Award from the North Texas Chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives, an organization of which she is a former President.  She has also been involved with several non-profit organizations and served on the advisory boards of Our Children’s House and the Ronald McDonald House, both in the Dallas area.

In an ironic aside, Laurie admits that early in her tenure at Carter BloodCare in Bedford, Texas, where she promoted volunteer blood donations, she only gave blood once. When her six-month-old goddaughter required open-heart surgery and needed blood, Laurie was found to be a match. She, of course, donated the blood but proved to be such a “hard stick”—it took three technicians to get the job done—she was never again asked to be a donor. (Now, 22 years later, that child is a proud graduate of Texas A&M.)

For Laurie, helping others is a family affair. Her husband of 12 years is the COO/General Manager at Seven Loaves Food Bank, housed in their church and one of the largest food banks in Collin County and they are the parents of a fourth grader. Consequently, their lives revolve around their daughter, her school and activities, the church and the food bank.

Although Laurie finds health care an exciting and challenging industry, she notes that in today’s environment, the number of hospital roles, especially the opportunity to be a hospital CEO, are shrinking. She advises students and early careerists to remain open to other sectors of health care such as practice management, consulting, supply chain, human resources and numerous facets of elder care where many opportunities exist.