Transcript of Kathie Supiano video:

Kathie Supiano: I’m Kathie.

Speaker: Nice to meet you.

Kathie Supiano: Thanks.

Speaker: So we’re going to have you walk into this room over here. They're ready for you.

Beth Cole: She’s serious. Say when. Oh, go ahead. Okay. Kathie.

Adrienne Bott: Kathie.

Taryn Hiatt: All right. Well, Ms. Kathie...

Ruth Campbell: Yeah. I knew Kathie as a social worker, a colleague at the University of Michigan. When she came, I was really impressed by her strong clinical background. She just was very enthusiastic. I was really happy to hire her.

Mark Supiano: The University of Utah thought they were recruiting me, which they did. What they didn't know, and frankly, I don't think Kathie or I really knew either, what impact she would have with contributions to the University of Utah.

Laura Bradbury: I think a big part of her legacy is this Caring Connections program.

Adrienne Bott: We provide grief support for the community.

Michael Staley: It’s evidence-based. Yes, it’s tender, but it’s also pointed in that we need to teach people how to carry their grief.

Beth Cole: We started out with one group, and now Kathie has... It's just burgeoned, and now there are groups all over the country.

Laura Bradbury: We serve 400 grieving people a year in our grief support groups, and train 500-plus clinicians every year. So her footprint is going to be all over clinical care, not just in the state of Utah, but beyond that.

Adrienne Bott: She’s really passionate about making sure that everyone, from all walks of life, can get access to quality mental health care—and especially quality grief care.

Mark Supiano: She’s always been driven to kind of advance knowledge and [be] very inquisitive. And I think that’s the spark that ultimately led her to pursue her PhD training and the research career that she has forged for herself.

Laura Bradbury: She is an incredible researcher.

Adrienne Bott: She’s got research all across the board.

Michael Staley: There has never been a drought of inspiration with Kathie.

Kimberly Ponce Gonzalez: She’s just so open to giving her knowledge, and she doesn’t gatekeep it. If I didn’t have her, I feel like there’s a lot of things that I wouldn’t have done today. It’s hard, like getting emotional.

Laura Bradbury: Well, Kathie, it’s hard to narrow it down. I’ve just been continually inspired by your humanity, by your care for all the people that you’ve come in contact with.

Ruth Campbell: I am so happy that you’re being recognized for the work you’ve done and I’m very proud of you.

Adrienne Bott: You’ve made me better by encouraging me to find my voice and to speak out for those who are vulnerable.

Kimberly Ponce Gonzalez: I just want to thank you so much for all the years that you’ve taught me.

Taryn Hiatt: I could go on for a few minutes about how I’ve been made better by you, but I think the first would just be the lessons you taught me and how to take what mattered to me and bring it to our community in a way that was meaningful.

Beth Cole: Thank you so very much for being you, serving so many, many people.

Speaker: She’s retiring soon.

Michael Staley: Yeah.

Speaker: What do you think her legacy’s going to be? How she impacted this community?

Michael Staley: Wow. Kathie is going to leave a paved road for us to keep driving on. We all want to live up to Kathie’s legacy, and we would all feel disappointed in each other and in ourselves if we didn’t do that. So that’s what we plan to do.

Speaker 11: Anything we haven’t talked about that you feel we need to talk about?

Michael Staley: No, I probably should talk to my therapist.

Kathie Supiano: I am just blown away. I mean, I don’t even know what to say. When you get to work with such wonderful people, it really does make the work... In my whole career, I’ve only had two days when I actually dreaded going to work. Only two, and not many people can say that. Thank you, all of you.