Emmanuel Hospice

About Emmanuel Hospice

We are an interfaith collaboration created by St. Ann’s, Clark, Porter Hills and Sunset. With over 200 years of combined experience, we share resources, skills and expertise to deliver care with unparalleled compassion. We are committed to offering the highest level of quality care by being Medicare certified and CHAP accredited. Our local ministry is led by our Board of Directors and driven by our passionate Vision, Mission and Values.

Vision

To shape a community, which embraces death as a meaningful transition through the care of mind, body and spirit.

Mission

The mission of Emmanuel Hospice, an interfaith partnership, is to provide exemplary spiritual and physical care creating a peaceful experience for the dying and their loved ones.

Values

Empathy – We value the unique experience of each individual and their loved ones during this life transition.

Hope – We celebrate death as a beginning, not an end.

Stewardship – We exercise careful and responsible management of the resources, both material and human, entrusted to us.

Respect – We honor the dignity of every person.

Our Members

Sara Lowe
Executive Director

Sara provides mission based, collaborative leadership to Emmanuel Hospice in her role as Executive Director of Emmanuel Hospice. She has over fifteen years of health care experience working in both Hospice and Long-Term Care. Sara has served patients in a variety of settings, as well as provided leadership and education regarding end-of-life issues to healthcare staff and the community. In addition, she has collaborated with community organizations on initiatives to improve the quality of healthcare across the continuum in our community.

Sara serves on the Making Choices Michigan Steering Committee, is the Co-Chair of the Michigan Home Care and Hospice Public Policy Committee, a member of the Interfaith Service Council of the Kaufmann Interfaith Institute, President of the Northview Community Swim Team and has previously served as a Board Member of HIV/AIDS Services (Now the Red Project).

Sara earned her BSW and MSW from Grand Valley State University where she served as President of the BSW Student Organization and studied abroad in Durban South Africa at University of Natal completing a service learning project at an HIV/AIDS clinic.

Sara has called West Michigan home for her entire life growing up in Zeeland Michigan where she lived with her parents Mike and Kathy Torrey and her sister Kristin Torrey.

She currently lives in Northeast Grand Rapids with her husband Elliott (married 14 years) and their two children, Avery (10) and Hudson (8). As a family they are active in the Northview Community and in their faith community of Trinity United Methodist Church.

Heather Duffy
Director of Fund Development

Heather Duffy is an artist from the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

She has lived in Grand Rapids for the last nine years, and joined Emmanuel Hospice as their Director of Fund Development in July of 2019. She formerly worked in development for WGVU Public Media.  Prior to her appointment at WGVU, Heather worked as the exhibitions curator for the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts.

Her experience also includes serving as the exhibitions manager for ArtPrize, working in academic and commercial art galleries, and as an independent curator presenting exhibitions of contemporary art in New York, Michigan, and throughout the American Southeast.

Heather was recognized for her professional achievements in the Grand Rapids Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 class of 2015 and class of 2017.  She exhibits her studio work regionally and nationally, and holds an MFA in painting from Kendall College of Art and Design.

Heather and her husband, Matt Ruiter, welcomed their first child, Wallace (Wally) in May of 2018.  Their family also includes a very darling mostly-German Shepherd rescue pup named Pappy Van Winkle.

CORPORATE MEMBERS