THE LEVEL-UP LADY

Karen Bowling

Executive Vice President of Government Affairs, WVU Health System and President and CEO, Princeton Community Hospital

SUPERPOWER: Caring deeply

Helping people was always on Karen Bowling’s agenda. As an extrovert and as someone who wanted to make a difference, nursing seemed like a natural choice. Years later, her ascent to the position of executive vice president of government affairs for the WVU Health System and president and CEO of Princeton Community Hospital reflects her lifelong dedication to always pushing herself to the next level.

“I’m a lifelong learner,” she says. “I believe that you can’t be static. You always need to be thinking about how you can grow and improve as a person and in your career.” Bowling started out with an associate’s degree in nursing and went to work, but soon went back for a bachelor’s and master’s degrees—then expanded her clinical knowledge as a nurse practitioner and eventually found opportunities to make a difference at a larger, more administrative and policy-driven level.

As someone who’s seen health care from nearly every angle, Bowling brings a unique perspective to her role. “I learned that there were not very many administrators who had a good clinical background. I wanted to represent the workers and the patients and what would be best for them,” she says. “As an administrator, I could bring that clinical perspective.”

Bowling says she stays motivated at this stage in her career by the impact she’s having on patients and also by the team that surrounds her and by the words of her father that linger even now after lighting a fire in her years ago. “I grew up back in the day that women weren’t necessarily in the workplace or held at the same level or esteem as men,” she says. “My dad told me, ‘Look, Karen, I know what it’s like out there. You might have to work a little harder because you’re a woman. But you need to do it, because you are capable of doing anything you put your mind to, and you’re going to be successful because of that.’”

This profile corrects inaccuracies in our Fall 2024 print edition.

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