Karen Cassidy is the Founder and Executive Director of Hildegard House, Kentucky’s first and only comfort care home which provides a home and compassionate care for those at the end of life who have no home or loved ones to care for them so that they may die with dignity. Karen has been blessed with many educational opportunities: Bachelor’s degree in nursing from Mount St. Joseph, Masters of Science in Nursing from Boston University, Doctoral degree in Education Leadership from Spalding University, and an Executive MBA from Bellarmine University. Karen was tenured on the nursing faculty at both University of Louisville and Bellarmine University, teaching Community Health Nursing for over 25 years. It was when she served as a palliative care nurse practitioner at St. Mary and Elizabeth Hospital that she saw the gap in end of life care and those that were not able access hospice care because they didn’t have a home or resources to pay for caregivers or family to provide them needed care when they were dying. Karen has been recognized by the community with a 2016 Bell Award, 2018 AARP Purpose Prize Award, by her alma mater, Sacred Heart Academy, with the 2023 Alumni Award from Bellarmine University.
