For much of Coleen Rickey’s professional career, every road has led back to Ascension St. Vincent's. It's where she first embraced servant leadership 25 years ago, and where she returned — for the third time — after walking alongside a sibling through a serious health event that redefined how she thinks about her career, her faith and showing up for people in their most vulnerable moments.
Coleen first arrived at St. Vincent's Riverside after overseeing corporate wellness programs for NBC in New York City and the YMCA in Jacksonville. She took a coordinator role and provided the foundation for what would become the patient experience program.
When St. Luke's Hospital became Ascension St. Vincent's Southside, she helped onboard an entire workforce in a single day. She rose through the organization, moved into ambulatory care and eventually joined the national office, traveling to Ascension ministries across the country to share what the Jacksonville team had developed.
Then her brother needed a liver transplant. Coleen, one of 10 siblings, stepped away from her career to prepare as his donor. She spent four months completing 12 specialist evaluations while attending daily Mass to discern the decision. In 2023, after a successful transplant, God put it on her heart to do more.
"I loved my career. It was continuing to rise, and I thought that was what mattered," Coleen said. "Then this life experience happened and I thought: What is important? Is it a big title? It was how I could help transform people's lives."
That clarity brought her back to Ascension for a third time. As Ascension St. Vincent's Mobile Outreach Health Ministry Manager, Rickey now leads a team that sets up clinics at churches and schools across Jacksonville to serve residents who lack access to care. Through generous donations to Ascension St. Vincent’s Foundation, the ministry treated 10,000 patients, filled about 3,500 prescriptions at no cost and delivered $2.7 million in value of care.
She spends 60% of her time in the community alongside her team, bringing a lens shaped by two decades in patient experience. "I'm always looking at it from the consumer experience, from the patient we're serving," Coleen said. "They don't know the jargon. They're thinking, 'I'm scared.'" That perspective drives a population health strategy to make sure clinics sit where the community needs them most.
"We might take 100 blood pressures and they're all normal," Rickey said. "Then number 101 comes in hypertensive with no medication. That person didn't even know. We can change the trajectory of their life."
This year she is building a strategy to grow the ministry's reach by at least 10%, with new grant-funded programming launching in the LIFTJAX corridor on Jacksonville's east side.
"I was able to be there for my brother when he needed me most and wanted to find a way to do that on a daily basis," she said. "God works in mysterious ways. Every time there's been a knock on my door, it's led me right where I'm supposed to be."
