Montage Health’s Employee of the Year and Physician Recognition Award

Celebrating excellence among Montage Health employees and medical staff

Teresa Nunes of Montage Health’s Business Development department and gastroenterologist Kathryn Swanson, MD — the 2024 recipients of two of Montage Health’s most-prestigious year-end honors — share multiple traits, according to the colleagues who nominated them: selfless service, compassionate caregiving, unwavering dedication, positivity, an ability to collaborate with and support their colleagues, and a steadfast commitment to Montage Health’s patients and the community.

Teresa Nunes, Employee of the Year

For busy doctors and medical staffers, the person most frequently on speed dial might be Teresa Nunes, a physician liaison and Montage Health’s 2024 Employee of the Year. If she doesn’t have exactly what they require to make their jobs a bit easier, she’ll cheerfully find a way to get it.

“We are often their first phone call if they have a question or need a resource — information, technology, or whatever else they’re looking for — and aren’t certain how to access it,” she says. “As physician liaisons, we are the link between the hospital and our community’s health providers. Our role is about ensuring that doctors and their staff have what they need to better serve their patients.”

The 12-and-a-half-year Montage Health veteran and Monterey County native was surprised and humbled to be one of 10 nominees for Employee of the Year.

“I was truly honored, grateful, and completely shocked to win the award,” Nunes says. “Those who are familiar with me know that I am seldom at a loss for words, yet this occasion was one of those rare moments. I was deeply moved. It is truly an honor and privilege to be a part of such an outstanding organization, surrounded by exceptional colleagues. My passion for helping others makes this experience even more meaningful.”

And according to her Employee of the Year nomination, helping others is one of the things that Nunes does best.

“Teresa’s positive attitude, exceptional customer service, and ability to collaborate with and support colleagues and stakeholders exemplify her spirit of hard work and dedication to her craft,” her nomination reads. “Her commitment to our health system and its mission is truly inspiring.”

Kathryn Swanson, MD, Physician Recognition Award recipient

The recipient of Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula’s 2024 Physician Recognition Award has been surrounded by top-drawer medical professionals from the moment she first opened her eyes.

Kathryn Swanson, MD, was born at a worldwide epicenter of medical excellence — Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore — where her dad, Dr. Phillip D. Swanson, met her mom Sheila, a young laboratory technician and Johns Hopkins University PhD student.

“I was always drawn to jobs that involved caregiving,” Swanson says. “I worked in a retirement home when I was in high school. I was an au pair in Switzerland during the summer. I even had a part-time job as a nanny when I was in college at Stanford.”

Swanson graduated from Stanford in 1982, earned her medical degree in 1987 from the University of Chicago, studied internal medicine for three years at University of California, San Francisco, and returned to Stanford for her fellowship in gastroenterology, becoming board-certified in 1993.

When Swanson and her husband Mark Vierra, MD, a surgeon with Montage Medical Group, moved to Monterey in 2001, they were immediately impressed with what they found.

“Talented medical staff, state-of-the-art facilities — it was everything Stanford and UC San Francisco were,” she says. “The level of care was sophisticated and up to date. The nursing staff was exemplary. As a physician, you’re only as good as the people around you, and Montage Health is outstanding.”

Swanson says she was humbled to be nominated and very surprised to be celebrated with the Physician Recognition Award.

“I feel that there are so many other people who deserve this award more than I do, and I’m so grateful,” she says. “There are so many extraordinary doctors here who are deeply dedicated to their patients and the hospital.”

But colleagues who nominated Swanson place her among the elite doctors they’ve been privileged to know.

“Kathy has been one of the most caring, skilled, and responsive physicians on the medical staff for decades,” says Daniel Hightower, MD, a Montage Health radiologist. “Her compassionate care has helped multitudes of patients over the years, with a grace that personifies the word physician. A healer, master of the art, and knowledgeable provider of medical care, combining her deep understanding of medicine with grace and approachability, Kathy epitomizes the best attributes of a true physician. She has been a leader of other physicians, demonstrating to other doctors the traits of availability, affability, and ability.”

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