"Her health care analysis is courageous, insightful and highly readable." --
Brenda Loew, M.Ac., L.Ac., NW Institute of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine"Knows the ins and outs of the wildly confusing health industry and she can explain it all clearly-even entertainingly." --
Ann Medlock, Founder & Pres. of the Board, The Giraffe Project"Right on target. Health care is the mission, not the price; and the trail is well documented in her book." --
Allan Morris, Former Health Care Business Executive
Kathleen O’Connor has emerged as one of the most knowledgeable voices within the health care industry. Her credentials are impressive. Over the past twenty years, she has garnered experience in numerous sectors of the health care industry: as a bureaucrat and administrator at the University of Washington; as a Medicare marketing and sales executive at a for-profit HMO; as the founder of and executive director for a nonprofit organization; and as an entrepreneur, watchdog, and investigative publisher monitoring the health care industry.
With degrees in Japanese and Comparative Governments, and her extensive training, Kathleen has been said to speak three languages: English, Japanese, and Health Care. Her ability to translate complicated health care information into consumer-friendly language has made her a popular speaker and widely read author, both locally and nationally. Her works include: a monthly column for the editorial page of The Seattle Times; cover stories in Healthcare Infomatics, InfoCare, HealthPlan Magazine, HMO Magazine, and Washington CEO; articles in Business and Health, Managed Care Journal, Journal of Employee Benefits, Puget Sound Business Journal, and Diversity Business News; and opinion pieces in The Puget Sound Business Journal and the Seattle Post Intelligencer.
Kathleen has also been featured in national magazines, such as the Dow Jones’ Career Journal, Click Chicks, Glamour Magazine, and Women’s Day, among others. She is a paid published poet the publisher of the O’Connor Report: Insights and Commentaries on Health Care Today. Her Glossary of Health Care Terms and Definitions is in its third printing, with over 30,000 copies sold, and her latest book, The Buck Stops Nowhere, explains the problems of the health care industry—and provides possible solutions to them.
Recognized nationally for her consumer-oriented advocacy, Kathleen is consistently asked to participate in public and private forums, such as the National Medicare Coverage Advisory Commission and the first Community Leadership Project (1996-99), sponsored by the Kettering Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation, and the National Association of Community Leadership Programs. A graduate of the Leadership Tomorrow Program in Seattle (1985), she has been active in several community activities, such as Save the Pike Street Market Committee; Seattle Women’s Commission; King County Board of Mental Health; Boys and Girls Clubs; Leadership Tomorrow Governing Board; the Giraffe Project; and Senior Services of King County. She is the founder and president of W.H.E.R.E. (Women for Health Care Equity through Reform and Education); and also serves on the Women’s Health Advisory Committee, Region X, US Public Health Service; Advisory Panel, Center for Excellence in Women’s Health, University of Washington; Advisory Board, Dental Health Services; and was a member of the White House Women’s Conference Circle. She is president of the Fremont Club of Rotary International (aka the Fun Club), which is the first officially charted Rotary Club of the century (Jan. 1, 2000).
Raised on Route 66 and a past resident of California, Virginia, Florida, Washington, D.C., and Japan, Kathleen eventually settled in Seattle, Washington, where she continues to make her home.
