Jennifer Gabriel: from Hospicare to Women’s Hall of Fame

Earlier this month, Jennifer Gabriel, who previously worked as director of development and community relations for Hospicare & Palliative Care Services in Ithaca, started her new role as executive director of the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York. Gabriel shared some of her fondest memories from her time with Hospicare and her plans for her role at the Women’s Hall of Fame.

Gabriel is a native of the Finger Lakes area, but she left after finishing her college degree, with “no intention of returning,” she said. Her family had moved away, so there wasn’t much to stay for. But in 2009, her brother moved back, and she paid him a visit.

“And I had that profound feeling of being home when the plane hit the runway in Ithaca,” she said. “And I was like, ‘Wow, I have to be here. This is where I belong. This is where I want to be.’ So, that’s when I began really thinking about coming back to the region.”

In 2010, Gabriel returned to the area as a major gift officer for IC, where she stayed for the following nine years.

Around that same time, Gabriel’s longtime friend was diagnosed with brain cancer and later died, something that introduced Gabriel to the “power of hospice.” That, combined with a desire to use her skills to give back to the community in a different way, led her to leave IC and take on her role at Hospicare in 2018.

“And it has been a remarkable experience,” she said. “It’s just a fantastic organization that serves so many people. Getting to meet the patients and the families who are served by the incredible staff at Hospicare has just really connected me back to this region in a way that I was craving and really looking for.”

While she was only with Hospicare for a few years, Gabriel made countless memories, which is why it’s “bittersweet” that she left Hospicare for the Women’s Hall of Fame, she said. Gabriel explained that she wasn’t doing a lot of searching for new positions when she got wind of the Women’s Hall of Fame’s position opening earlier this year.

“I actually got a notice of this from a very close friend of mine who I’d worked with at IC, and she had seen the listing on Indeed and sent it to me with the subject line in all capital letters that said, ‘THIS JOB HAS YOU WRITTEN ALL OVER IT,’” she said. “And when I opened it up, it really does.”

Thanks to the Women’s Hall of Fame being in Seneca Falls, Gabriel won’t have to leave the area, which allows her to stay in the place she loves. In addition, Gabriel has long been involved in women’s rights efforts, so she has the chance to pursue something she’s passionate about.

On top of all that, the Women’s Hall of Fame needs a good fundraiser, something she has plenty of experience in from her time at Hospicare. And the Hall of Fame is looking to take on a new direction, something she’s excited to help lead.

“The Hall of Fame is embarking on a $25 million comprehensive campaign to reimagine what it means to be the National Women’s Hall of Fame, so really thinking about the programming, regionally and also nationally, that can celebrate the accomplishments of women and celebrate, of course, the inductees that the Hall of Fame already has in its roster, but also looking for inspiring the inductees of tomorrow,” she said.

Even as Gabriel looks forward to what lies ahead, she’ll never forget what she left behind. Gabriel said that Hospicare was as much a rewarding career as it was a way to grieve the loss of her friend.

“To be able to do something in her memory every day and always have her in the back of my mind has made this an exceptional experience,” she said. “It’s an exceptional organization anyway, but because I had that personal connection to it, it just made my day-to-day life that much more special. And so, I feel like I did right by her. And, at the same time, we have a lot of fun and did a lot for the community as well.”

In the three years that she was with Hospicare, Gabriel saw the important role that it plays in the overall community, providing “such an incredible resource for not just individuals who are facing serious illness or end of life, but for their entire families and their networks,” she said.

“As [families] go through that year of firsts following a death — the first birthday without mom, the first Father’s Day without dad, that kind of thing — we are there to help support those individuals at wherever they’re at,” she said. “I think that that’s one of the things about Hospicare that I think is the most little known and most valuable part of the work that we do.”

That mission never wavered during the pandemic, though Hospicare still faced plenty of challenges. Gabriel described how Hospicare employees, like many health care workers, struggled at the beginning of 2020 with supplies and keeping workers and patients safe.

Much of what Hospicare offers — from residential visits to communitywide events — had to be either canceled completely or adjusted to a virtual format, including Hospicare’s biggest fundraiser of the year, Women Swimmin’ for Hospicare.

Women Swimmin’ funds 10% of Hospicare’s annual operations, roughly $150,000 per year, so “the impact of canceling or even downsizing an event like that to our bottom line was really potentially devastating,” Gabriel said. So, Hospicare’s team got creative, switching it to virtual and opening the participation up to anyone, not just women. And that turned out to be a good change, as 2021’s Women Swimmin’ is similarly open to all.

Gabriel hopes to bring a similar positive change to the Women’s Hall of Fame, she said. The Women’s Hall of Fame recently moved to a different building and is currently fundraising to help renovate it and expand the exhibits. Gabriel sees this as an opportunity to help the Hall of Fame continue to inspire women like her.

“For me, when I think about who are my biggest role models in life, it’s my grandmother; it’s my mom; it’s my third-grade teacher, Mrs. Kelly; it’s my English teacher from high school; it was all these women that have inspired each one of us individually,” she said. “And the goal of the National Women’s Hall of Fame is to celebrate all of those people, so not just the people that we get into the induction, but really to inspire women and to inspire us to keep inspiring each other.”

Even though she’s working outside of the county now, Gabriel remains connected to the community, volunteering for several organizations like the Cancer Resource Center and Loaves & Fishes. She’s also keeping up a small scholarship she gives to one Ithaca High School student annually who’s going to study journalism. Those connections, she said, all harken back to her love for the county.

“My whole family, although we all scattered in the ’90s, we’ve all now come back to this area,” she said. “So, my parents are here. My brother and his wife and their son are here. My husband and I are here. And so, this is the home that we all plan to be in for the rest of time. This is home, and it always was home. I just had to leave in order to figure out that that was the truth.”

Learn more about Hospicare at hospicare.org and Women Swimmin’ at hospicare.org/women-swimmin. For more information about the Women’s Hall of Fame, visit womenofthehall.org.