Editor’s Note: McKnight’s Long-Term Care News and McKnight’s Senior Living are profiling the McKnight’s 2021 Women of Distinction honorees daily July 6 through Aug. 6. To see the 2021 McKnight’s 2021 Women of Distinction awards ceremony, register for free here. For additional profiles of McKnight’s Women of Distinction, visit this page.
Janice Pate’s career in long-term care began when she was just a child. She was the oldest girl in a single-parent household, and her great-grandmother trained her to serve residents/patients in her home. There were no established nursing homes for people of color in the 1960s in Georgia, so Pate’s family took on an important role in the community.
Pate would go on to graduate from Renton Technical College as a licensed practical nurse in 1991 after quickly discovering her love for caring for others. In the next few years, she would assume multiple different positions, from managing care for postoperative and skilled nursing residents and patients to becoming the nurse supervisor at Woodmark Assisted Living. She then earned her degree as a registered nurse and became the director of nursing for Covenant Shores Retirement Community in 2007.
Pate extended her formal education by earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from the University of Washington and a few years later landed her current position of director of nursing at Bayview in Seattle in 2019. She also has been a fellow in LeadingAge’s Larry Minnix Leadership Academy, to which she has returned as a leadership coach.
“I have never seen anyone provide the level of clinical expertise, management skills and care and heart for residents and staff in skilled nursing as I have with Janice Pate,” Bayview CEO Nancy Weinbeck said.
The top exec says that Pate was able to return stability and morale to the Bayview staff after a “revolving door” of nursing directors. According to Weinbeck, Pate has raised the facility’s quality of care to an exceptional level.
Colleagues say she is deeply respected both at Bayview and within the entire LeadingAge Washington community. One of the members she coached through the Leadership Academy described her as having a well-balanced personality that can be funny, inspirational and professional all at once.
Weinbeck believes Pate’s dedication to serving residents and families and her fight against systemic racism for more than three decades has shaped her into someone who inspires all of her colleagues.
The McKnight’s Women of Distinction program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News and McKnight’s Senior Living. The program’s Diamond sponsor is PointClickCare, and the Roundtable Sponsor is Paycor.
