Morre L. Dean, FACHE, was named chief executive officer of Porter Adventist Hospital and president of Adventist Health System’s Rocky Mountain Region, effective March 30. Morre has dedicated his life to service in Adventist hospitals for more than 25 years, serving most recently as chief executive officer for Parker Adventist Hospital.
If ever there was an Adventist version of “local boy makes good,” Morre fits the bill. He was born at Porter Adventist Hospital and raised in Denver. He attended Mile High Academy in the shadow of Porter and at age 16 started working in the mailroom as a messenger.
During his first few months on the job he met Ron Sackett, then president of Porter Adventist Hospital. The conversation they had impacted Morre’s career passion from that day forward. “I have the best job in the world,” Sackett told him. “Every day I get to help people who make a positive impact on other people’s lives.” From that moment on it was Morre’s goal to become a hospital CEO.
Gradually his responsibilities expanded, and by the time he graduated from Mile High Academy he had held four jobs at Porter: opening the health club, answering phones, making deliveries throughout the hospital, and working in the Patients Business Office.
Morre attended Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska. After graduating with degrees in accounting and management he landed a three-year finance residency at Florida Hospital in Orlando. While working at Florida Hospital, he had the opportunity to interview with Mardian Blair, then president of Adventist Health System. Mardian said something that remains emblazoned in Morre’s brain today: Morre, if you want to succeed, you’ve got to want to own the company.
“That might seem like a strange thing to say about a not-for-profit, church-owned hospital,” says Morre. “But I understood him to mean that you have to pour your heart and soul into it every day. You’ve got to have the passion to run a hospital like it was your own business. You have to own the successes and the failures. You have to care about it as if it were your own.”
For many years Morre poured his life energy into the ministry of managing Adventist hospitals across the county. Today he is excited to be “back home” at Porter where it all started.
“Working in an Adventist hospital is definitely a ministry,” shares Morre. “The beauty of a faith-based, not-for-profit organization is that when it is successful and the bottom line flourishes, the local community benefits and not just shareholders. Money is reinvested to provide more and better services to benefit the community.”
Morre has a strong belief that Adventist hospitals, schools and local congregations have amazing opportunities to band together and accomplish things in the community that none could accomplish alone. “That’s what Extending the Healing Ministry of Christ is all about,” says Morre, speaking of the Adventist Health System motto. “It’s about touching lives with healing. Every day thousands of people enter the halls of our institutions seeking care, and no matter what type of care they need, ultimately what they want to receive is love and compassion. And that’s what we are here to do.”
Randy Haffner, president of Adventist Health System’s Multistate Group and former president of Porter Adventist Hospital, says, “I have had the good fortune of working with Morre in various capacities over the last 25 years. Given my high respect for him and my deep personal attachment to Porter, the South Denver Group Hospitals and Centura Health, it gives me great joy and comfort to know that Morre will carry forward our mission and the stewardship entrusted to us to meet the healthcare needs of our community.”
Morre and his wife, Katrina, have two children who both attend Mile High Academy. Tyler, 18, graduates this year and Jillian, 15, is a freshman.
In partnership with the hospital’s Board of Directors, Morre has initiated an active search for a new chief executive officer at Parker Adventist Hospital.
This article, also published in the May 2015 print edition of OUTLOOK, was submitted by Stephen King, senior vice president for the Rocky Mountain Adventist Health/Centura Health, where he serves the five Adventist hospital campuses in Colorado. It was written by Mark Bond.
