Phil Castle, The Business Times

Christy Whitney devoted a portion of staff meetings at HopeWest to what she called stars and wishes.

Whitney asked her staff to name stars  — to praise notable efforts or celebrate work anniversaries. She also asked what staff wished for, what would make their jobs easier. A vacuum cleaner, in one case.

Reflecting on her lengthy tenure with the Western Colorado hospice and palliative care organization she helped found, Whitney cited as her stars the community and volunteers for their support. “There’s nothing we could do without them.”

As for her wishes, Whitney said she hopes HopeWest will continue to thrive, to expand and serve more people. “To just keep going on the same trajectory, to offer a better health care experience at the end of life.”

Whitney recently stepped down as the first president and chief executive officer of HopeWest, retiring after a 45-year career as a nurse and health care executive. She worked nearly 30 years at HopeWest.

During that time, what started out as a single facility operated out a home donated by Veterans Affairs grew into an organization with an in-patient hospice center in Grand Junction and offices in four other communities that serve an area of more than 10,000 square miles on the Western Slope. 

That’s not to mention three retail outlets, a restaurant and coffee shop, the profits from which support HopeWest.

An organization that started by caring for five patients and their families subsequently has served more than 29,000 patients in hospice care alone.

Whitney traces her roots back to the Chicago area and the origin of her career to nursing positions at a hospital in a suburb of Chicago.

She moved to Durango in 1978 and worked in a series of positions at Mercy Medical Center, including hospice nurse and director of home health and hospice. Between 1988 and 1990, she served as vice president of patient care and interim administrator.

She subsequently worked three years as CEO of Capital Caring, a hospice in the Washington, D.C., area.

In 1993, Whitney returned to Western Colorado to become the first president and CEO of what would later become HopeWest. She said she was attracted by the opportunity to help launch a community based hospice. “How cool would it be to start something from scratch?”

Within two years, additional offices opened in first Collbran and then Delta. The first Heirlooms for Hospice store opened in 2000.

In 2007, HopeWest acquired the historic Miller homestead on 12th Street in Grand Junction and restored the home to house the Artful Cup coffee shop.

In 2008, HopeWest opened the nearby inpatient care center, a facility that also houses the Spoons Bistro & Bakery.

HopeWest expanded its services to Meeker in 2014. The Montrose Center for Hope opened in 2016. 

The Bacon Center for Living Your Best opened in Grand Junction in 2020 to house several HopeWest programs as well as offices.

Whitney said she never imagined at the time she began working with HopeWest the organization and its operations would grow the way it did. “I thought I was taking a little job in Grand Junction.”

She attributed growth to community support. “It’s really the communities that have supported us throughout.”

Joseph Breman, a member of the HopeWest Board of Directors, credited Whitney for her vision and compassion — as well as her ability to enlist the assistance of others. “She collects people. She knows how to use a person to better organize, to bring them in to help.”

Whitney said she’s looking forward to spending more time with her husband in Meeker. She said she also expects to continue working on leadership and policy projects with her consulting firm. “Hopefully, I’ll be able to engage in things I care about.”

She said she’ll miss the people she’s worked with at HopeWest and their combined efforts to solve problems.

It’s her wish, Whitney said, that those efforts continue and HopeWest continues to help people deal with illness, death and grief.