Coleen Rickey, pictured far right, is manager of Mobile Health Outreach at Ascension St. Vincent’s.

After donating part of her liver to save her brother’s life, Coleen Rickey discovered a renewed calling to bring health care and Christ’s compassion to those most in need.

By all appearances, Coleen Rickey had built a successful career. She helped shape the patient experience at Ascension St. Vincent’s, trained colleagues across the country and continued advancing into leadership. But when her brother needed a liver transplant, everything she thought she knew about success changed.

Today, Rickey believes God was preparing her all along for the work he was calling her to do.

Now serving as mobile health outreach manager for Ascension St. Vincent’s, she leads a ministry that brings health care directly into neighborhoods where access to medical services is limited, meeting people where they are with compassion, dignity and hope.

“My career was continuing to rise, and I thought that was what mattered,” Rickey said. “Then this life experience happened, and I asked myself, ‘What is important? Is it a big title?’ I realized it was how I could help transform people’s lives.”

Rickey first joined St. Vincent’s Riverside 25 years ago after leading corporate wellness programs for NBC in New York City and the YMCA in Jacksonville. She accepted a coordinator position that helped lay the foundation for what would become the hospital’s patient experience program.

When St. Luke’s Hospital became Ascension St. Vincent’s Southside, Rickey helped onboard an entire workforce in a single day. She later moved into ambulatory care before joining Ascension’s national office, where she traveled throughout the country sharing best practices developed by the Jacksonville team.

Then life took an unexpected turn.

One of 10 siblings, Rickey stepped away from her career when her brother needed a liver transplant. She prepared to become his living donor, spending four months completing evaluations with a dozen medical specialists while attending daily Mass to discern God’s will. The transplant was successful.

That experience transformed more than her family. It reshaped her understanding of vocation.

“I was able to be there for my brother when he needed me most,” she said. “After that, I wanted to find a way to do that every day.”

In 2023, she returned to Ascension St. Vincent’s for the third time, bringing with her more than two decades of experience and a renewed sense of purpose.

Today, Rickey oversees the Mobile Health Outreach Ministry, which brings clinics to churches, schools and community sites throughout Jacksonville. Supported through generous donations to the Ascension St. Vincent’s Foundation, the ministry has cared for nearly 10,000 patients, filled approximately 3,500 prescriptions at no cost and provided an estimated $2.7 million in health care services.

Rickey spends much of her time alongside her team in the community, always mindful of the patient’s experience.

“I’m always looking at it through the eyes of the patient,” she said. “They don’t know the medical jargon. They’re thinking, ‘I’m scared.’”

That perspective shapes where mobile clinics are located and how services are delivered.

“We might take 100 blood pressure readings and they’re all normal,” Rickey said. “Then the next person comes in with dangerously high blood pressure and no medication. That person didn’t even know. We can change the trajectory of that person’s life.”

A parishioner of St. Matthew Parish in Jacksonville, Rickey and her husband raised their three children in the parish, where each attended St. Matthew Catholic School before continuing to Bishop Kenny High School. She begins most mornings at the 6:30 a.m. Mass at Assumption Parish, a quiet routine that grounds her workday in prayer.

Her commitment to serving others extends beyond her profession. Rickey serves on the advisory board of Catholic Charities Jacksonville, and she and her husband were co-chairs of the 2026 Catholic Charities Black & White Soirée.

This year, she is leading an effort to expand the Mobile Health Outreach Ministry’s reach by at least 10%, including new grant-funded programming in Jacksonville’s LIFT JAX corridor.

Looking back, Rickey sees God’s hand guiding every step of her journey.

“God works in mysterious ways,” she said. “Every time there’s been a knock on my door, it’s led me right where I’m supposed to be.”