Kitty McKay Named 2026 Innovator Healthcare Hero for Northern Nevada

Carson Tahoe Health is proud to celebrate Kitty McKay, Vice President of Community & Patient Experience, who has been named the 2026 Innovator Healthcare Hero for Northern Nevada by Nevada Business Magazine.

For 20 years, the Healthcare Heroes Awards have recognized individuals making an impact on healthcare across Nevada. The Innovator recognition celebrates forward-thinking approaches to addressing healthcare needs and creating meaningful change.

For Carson Tahoe, Kitty’s recognition reflects something we see every day: her ability to bring people together around an idea, build partnerships, and help turn vision into action for the communities we serve.

Bringing a Community Vision to Life

In her role as Vice President of Community & Patient Experience, Kitty’s work spans patient experience, philanthropy, population health, communications, volunteer services, and regional engagement. Across that work is a consistent focus on listening to the community, identifying opportunities to make a difference, and bringing the right people together to respond.

One example is Healing Our Kids & Community, Carson Tahoe Health’s prevention-focused youth behavioral health initiative.

As Carson Tahoe and its community partners saw the growing behavioral health challenges facing young people, the organization began asking an important question: 

How can we reach children earlier, before they reach a point of crisis?

Healing Our Kids & Community grew from that shared commitment to prevention, connection, and resilience. Under Kitty’s executive leadership, the initiative has been brought to life through the work of teams across Carson Tahoe Health, our community outreach efforts, donors, educators, healthcare professionals, and a growing network of community partners.

Vehicles of Change are one way Carson Tahoe delivers that mission directly into the community.

Through four mobile outreach vehicles—EAT, PLAY, ART, and SOUND IDEAS—Carson Tahoe brings engaging, play-based wellness experiences to children where they already live, learn, and gather. Each vehicle provides a different way to help young people build connection, confidence, resilience, and emotional well-being.

In partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Western Nevada, Carson Tahoe has already delivered more than 1,344 hours of programming and reached approximately 400 young people through two pilot programs. The initiative continues to grow, with expansion into additional rural communities underway.

Kitty often describes the goal as helping children develop an “emotional immune system” giving them tools, relationships, and experiences that can help build resilience long before a crisis occurs.

Innovation Through Collaboration

The success of Healing Our Kids & Community is not the work of one person, program, or vehicle. It reflects what can happen when an organization and a community come together around a shared purpose. That collaborative approach is central to Kitty’s leadership at Carson Tahoe: bringing together teams from across the health system, creating space for new ideas, developing community partnerships, and helping move ambitious ideas from possibility to action.

Carson Tahoe Health congratulates Kitty on this well-deserved recognition and celebrates the leadership, collaboration, and commitment to community that it represents.

Learn more about Healing Our Kids & Community and explore Nevada Business Magazine’s September 2026 issue featuring this year’s Healthcare Heroes.