One-on-one with Patty Kehoe

	THE BASICS: Born Patricia Miller on April 28, 1958, in Albuquerque; bachelor’s in business administration from University of Phoenix, and master’s in public health from California College for Health Sciences; married to Tim Kehoe since 2001; four children: Rabeka, 30, Michelle, 28, Chad, 26 and Josh, 23; two grandchildren: Ava, 4, and Jake, 1; Bichon named Jasmine. POSITION: President of Molina Health Care of New Mexico; formerly vice president of health-care services at Molina; spent 20 years as a nurse. WHAT YOU DIDN’T KNOW: Kehoe has been fascinated by flight since she was a little girl and her pilot uncle would take her and her sister out in his small plane. But her adventures are not limited to the sky. “When I went to Tahiti one time, I swam with the sharks and rays,” she says.

She’s hoping it will lead to something bigger, specifically competitive bodybuilding. Kehoe would like to enter events – muscle-baring getup, fake tanner and all – by 2014.

“It’s just one of those things,” Kehoe says from her Albuquerque office, where family snapshots and her various craft projects lend a homey feel. “(I thought) maybe it would be something different and fun.”

Kehoe is an adventurous spirit, a fun-loving mother of four who likes to try new things. Her bucket list presently includes a blimp ride which, when you think about it, is a logical next step: She’s already traversed the sky aboard a glider, hot-air balloon, helicopter and biplane.

Her live-life-to-the-fullest style was born, in part, from childhood illness. Severe asthma had a young Kehoe in and out of emergency rooms and hospitals.

Back then, oxygen tents were a common treatment.

“One of my birthdays, my first Barbie doll was (passed) through a hole in an oxygen tent,” Kehoe remembers.

Breathing problems limited her activity as a child, but medical advances gave her a little more leeway as a teenager.

She joined the basketball team at Highland High School, and hasn’t sat still much since.

In fact, she lists weight lifting as one of her favorite ways to relax.

“I know that sounds funny,” she says with a laugh.

Asthma influenced Kehoe in another key way: After all those days and nights in the hospital, she says she realized she wanted to go into health care. There were no medical professionals in her family – her dad was a salesman, her mom an accountant – but her own childhood experience was all the inspiration she needed.

“(While in the hospital) I saw other children, and as I grew up and my asthma became more controlled and medicine advanced, I thought ‘I need to help others,’” she says. “I didn’t want to really be a doctor, but I wanted to be a nurse where I was actually helping people and children through hard situations.”

That realization happened around age 10, she says. By high school, she was spending her summers as a candy striper at St. Joe’s.

She moved to Colorado for college and spent the first decade of her career at a Denver hospital. When she and her family moved to Albuquerque – “I wanted my children to be around (extended) family,” she says – Kehoe worked another 10 years mostly as a home health-care nurse.

She then made the jump to administration. Molina of New Mexico, which provides managed care to Medicaid beneficiaries, has about 200 employees and 90,000 members in New Mexico. Kehoe says heading the operation allows her to “impact a population instead of just an individual.”

But there are things she definitely misses about those day-to-day nursing shifts.

“I’m a touchy-feely person and that touch I think is healing to people, which is why I still have to do it,” she says. “I can’t give it up completely.”

She puts her nursing skills to use with the Wheels for the World ministry, an organization that sends teams to developing nations to deliver wheelchairs and other ambulatory devices. Kehoe had already taken some medical mission trips to Mexico when she first heard about Wheels for the World. She decided to join the organization on a trip to Peru a few years ago, not knowing what she was in for.

“I was the busiest person there,” she says.

Kehoe treated horrific wounds but also some more-commonplace conditions that had spiraled out of control simply because the patient hadn’t received care or even basic medicine. After four trips to Peru, she says one case in particular stands out: The young son of a wheelchair user showed up to the outreach area with severe eye infections.

“He was actually going blind from them and all he needed was antibiotic eye drops, which I happened to have that trip,” Kehoe says. “When I went (back) last year … he was much better and he wasn’t losing his vision.

“It’s the simple things that really touch you.”

Q: If you had to start your career over, would you do anything differently?

A: I love nursing. I’ve done so many different types of nursing, I don’t think I would’ve (changed anything). … I have loved nursing. It’s been gratifying, it’s taught our family a lot, and I can travel with it. … I so much enjoy what I do. I don’t think I’d do anything else.

Q: Was there a particular nurse you had along the way (as a child with severe asthma) that inspired you?

A: I had a great nurse (while living) in Greeley (Colo.) – compassionate, would sit with me when my family wasn’t there, just talked calmly. When you have asthma and struggle to breathe, it causes some panic and she taught me how to try to work through those. … She was awesome. And then throughout my career, of course, I’ve met more and more amazing nurses.

Q: What was your first job?

A: Dunkin’ Donuts in high school on Gibson, close to Highland. We’d have to make doughnuts and work the counter. And you could eat all the doughnuts you wanted on break. (Laughs). I still love doughnuts.

Q: What do you think you learned from your parents?

A: My dad is a very honest, high-integrity, personable man, and I’m not saying my mom is not, but I think what I learned from him is to be respectful and honest and have integrity when you meet new people. He was meeting new people all the time as a salesman. Those are core values that have helped me throughout my whole life, and he wasn’t afraid of new situations, so that helped me a lot. And my mom is the math whiz, so I’m good with numbers. She always taught us to do that. She’s very methodical, which has helped me. Even in nursing, you have to be methodical and solve problems. Both of those together has been a nice combination.

Q: Do you have any guilty pleasures?

A: Hot Tamales. Yes! If they’re around, I’ll eat them regularly. I try not to have them around; my dentist tells me ‘What are you doing?’ I’m not a chocolate person, but those Hot Tamales …