Speaker
Reverend Kathie Bender Schwich, FACHE
Rev. Kathie Bender Schwich is chief spiritual officer at Advocate Aurora Health. She oversees spiritual care, clinical pastoral education, church affiliations and faith community relationships, ethics, environmental affairs and sustainability, physician and team well-being, and trauma recovery and resilience. She has been with Advocate Aurora for more than a decade and has more than 30 years of experience in spiritual care and executive leadership at the national level. Previously, she served as assistant to the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and executive for synodical relations. An ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, she serves on the boards of Portico Benefit Services and Lutheran Social Services of Illinois and is convener of the Senior Mission Leaders Group of Lutheran Services in America. She received undergraduate degrees from the University of Michigan and Saginaw Valley State University and a Master of Divinity degree from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn. She is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Executive Leadership program, holds graduate certificates in healthcare management and patient experience leadership, and is a graduate of Stanford Medicine’s chief wellness officer course. She is board certified in healthcare management as an ACHE Fellow.