Six years after REALTOR® Barbara L. Pearce began volunteering at The Connecticut Hospice in Branford, Conn., in 2012, the beloved community organization was on the verge of closing. Debt hit $12 million, and its bank account dwindled to almost no cash, due in large part to the government reimbursement system.
Pearce, CEO of Pearce Real Estate, a company founded by her late father Herbert in 1958, was asked to evaluate the property to help it avoid insolvency.
The hospice crisis quickly worsened when the successor to the retiring CEO died suddenly. Pearce, a lawyer and business school graduate, was asked to become interim CEO for a year and lead a turnaround. “A turnaround is a hard 24/7 job—and never guaranteed to succeed,” she says.
Yet, the formidable challenge appealed to her. “I grew up with the belief that working and volunteering were part of your responsibilities and that everybody has something they’re good at doing. You have an obligation to use those gifts,” Pearce says.
She also liked the idea of helping an organization that had an important purpose and history in her community. The Connecticut Hospice became the country’s first inpatient hospice in 1980 after founder Florence Wald introduced the care model from England. Pearce’s father had served multiple roles on the board and sold it its waterfront building in nearby Branford in 1999.
Pearce deeply believes in the hospice’s purpose of offering quality care and comfort rather than medical treatment that is no longer effective or desired for people near the end of life.
“After consulting with my [real estate] agents, they hugged me and said, ‘Go save the hospice.’ I agreed to six months, left my number two, President Nanette Pastore, in charge and started my new role Jan. 31, 2019,” she says.
‘Nerves of Steel’
Pearce quickly found the organization in worse straits than she expected. When COVID-19 hit 14 months later, the situation further deteriorated, making it hard for patients to receive care. Nearly 40% of its nurses quit in the first 90 days.
Her prescription to save the hospice represented a combination of strategic resolve and quiet compassion. She quickly purchased 200 sets of scrubs, collected supplies from stores closing, “borrowed” students from Yale School of Nursing where her late mother taught, and set up a vaccination center in the cafeteria. “People were crying when they got their shots. I knew if we could make it through COVID, we could prosper and deal with other unknowns,” she says.
Pearce credits such fearlessness to her real estate career. “If all your assets are on the line, you develop nerves of steel to sleep at night. Every year when you open an agency, you have overhead costs but no income since nobody buys a house right away,” she says.
Her six-month tenure stretched into six years. She negotiated with the U.S. Department of Justice to settle the multimillion debt to Medicare. She recruited new business leaders and health care professionals to the board to inspire confidence. She developed partnerships around Connecticut for hospice care, added dementia services, served as the development officer as well as CEO and received a Congressional grant for $1.9 million for site improvements.
A Life Saver
Her approach reflects her irrepressible spirit, says board chair, Bill Kosturko, who Pearce recruited after working together at other nonprofits. “At the hospice, she put together a great team to get the job done, working virtually nonstop to keep the ship afloat,” he says.
Besides her hard skills, Kosturko praises her compassion. “She doesn’t wear her compassion on her sleeve, but I’ve seen her stay after a workday to visit quietly with patients and intervene,” he says.
After Sylvia Allais was hired to be CEO and president last year, Pearce returned to her real estate company, knowing the hospice was in capable hands and had $12 million in reserves and a staff of 200. The timing was propitious with her son Bradley Pearce Fleming joining the family firm as a residential real estate agent.
Pearce, 71, who started at Pearce Real Estate in 1981, remains CEO but now carves out more personal time—training for this year’s Boston Marathon, working on her 50th Harvard college reunion, volunteering, relishing her new grandparent role and traveling with her husband—“something we could never do before,” she says.
Hospice volunteerism remains an integral part of her essence. “It’s given me far more than I put in and intensified one of my core principles—make the most of the time you have to make the world better,” she says. “For many, hospice is a lifesaver.”
