STA FF profile
KRISTEN KOUK
I n joi n i ng Baylor Health Care System
Foundation last summer, Kristen Kouk took over
a number of important fundraising events for the
organization. Chief among them: the Employee
Giving Campaign — no small undertaking for a
newly hired employee. Despite her relatively short
tenure, Kristen helped Baylor Scott & White
Health – North Texas employees exceed their goal,
raising more than $1.7 million with 55 percent of
employees participating.
“Being able to hit these goals really shows how
much employees love to give back to Baylor,” Kristen
said, adding that she was impressed with the level of
leadership involvement in the campaign. “There are
195 Baylor Scott & White Health leaders, and we
had 90 percent participation among them,” Kristen
said. “I think that speaks to the quality of the organization and the character of our leaders.”
Kristen brings a wide range of event management and public relations skills to her role with the
Foundation. After graduating from McKinney
High School and later The University of Texas at
Austin, where she majored in public relations,
Kristen moved to California and worked on a
political campaign for a mayoral candidate. She
later worked at a boutique PR agency before moving on to Meeting Professionals International,
where she managed PR functions.
Before joining the Foundation in August 2015,
Kristen spent four years with Back on My Feet, a
nonprofit organization with local chapters throughout the country. Back on My Feet staff recruit members from homeless shelters and commit to running
with them several days a week. Members who
achieve certain participation levels can then qualify for other programs, including financial literacy
courses and job skills training.
“Working on the political campaign taught me
about high-stress scenarios,” Kristen says, “but
Back on My Feet taught me that we’re all living,
breathing human beings who sometimes make
mistakes. It gave me a new perspective: we all have
struggles — and we’re all special.”
Kristen recently discovered that she wasn’t the
only one who had made a move from Back on My
Feet to Baylor. One of the homeless men she ran
with was recently hired by Baylor to help with the
Faith in Action program in which Baylor ships
older, but still functioning, medical supplies to
both local and international beneficiaries.
Kristen lost touch with the man but recently
noticed him in the cafeteria. He was wearing
scrubs and a pager, and she learned that he’d been
hired to deliver linens throughout the hospital.
“This man is homeless. He was offered employment and rewarded for his hard work,” Kristen
says. “Baylor believed what I believed — that while
he might be living in homeless shelter, that doesn’t
mean he can’t be offered an opportunity to show
his commitment though hard work.”
Stories like this make Kristen excited about
working at Baylor. “I get to interface with so many
different types of people in my work, whether it’s
the C-suite, nursing or food services. It means you
have to be relatable to
a wide variety of audiences,” Kristen said.
“Working with all
types of people — it’s
what the Gospel is. It’s
not just sitting with
them — it’s walking
with them and talking
with them.”
KRISTEN KOUK
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