Celebrating Our People – Meet Katherine

Inventory Specialist Katherine Williams is Saint Joseph East’s Employee of the Year, but she has another title among her peers: snack lady.

She brings snacks for her 12-person department weekly — such as cupcakes, chips, fruit, pop, and on Fridays or Mondays, doughnuts or something from McDonald’s. “That’s just me,” she explained. “I’m a giving person and I love to give because I give from my heart. I don’t ask for anything in return.”

The through lines in Katherine’s life have been both giving and upward movement. She’s been with the Saint Joseph system for 23 years, the bulk of that time at Saint Joseph Hospital and the last four at Saint Joseph East. She first started in housekeeping, then worked her way up to central sterile before moving to the operating room, pulling instruments and supplies needed for each surgery. Now Katherine takes care of inventory for the operating room, inventorying, tracking, ordering and stocking, even checking OR supplies two or three times a day. “I’m very on top of it, making sure I don’t run out of anything,” she said.

Katherine came to Saint Joseph for a better job after working factory, dry cleaning and other stints. That push for improvement in her life was forged early, growing up in what she calls “a poor environment” in public housing in Lexington and later raising three children as a single mother determined to provide for her kids. 

“It made me become stronger and what I am. I started out in housekeeping and realized I wanted to go up the ladder, and that’s what I’ve been doing because I know that you can always do better,” Katherine said. “I always think there’s something better for me out there.”

Her early life also explains the snack lady title, she said: “Because back then, I couldn’t give and now, I’m like, if I can give to others and show my appreciation, then that’s what I’m going to do.” 

Katherine said the best part of her job is just coming to work every day, “knowing I have a great team and a fantastic boss (Jessica Fraley Ireland) — she’s a superhero. She has our back 100% and she doesn’t ask us to do anything that she cannot do. She pitches in. When you have special people willing to help you and are behind you 100%, it makes your job much easier. And that’s what I have.”

As an inventory specialist, she doesn’t work directly with patients, but she said she still feels she’s caring for them indirectly because she ensures the OR has what it needs to take care of patients.

Katherine points to her personality as a way of expressing Saint Joseph’s values, “knowing that what my job entails is helping others and getting that person on the main track as far as them having surgery and getting them to feel much better. I’ve always been a people person — I love dealing with people and I love taking care of others. That’s my passion. I don’t ask for anything in return because I feel like that’s a gift that I have.”

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