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When Courtney Hoffbauer was in high school, a teacher gave her parents some advice: “If you could just get her through high school, you should consider it a win!” Graduate. Get a full-time job. Call it good. That was the ceiling someone else set for her.
Today, Hoffbauer is Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President of Patient Care Services at UPMC Presbyterian in Pittsburgh, responsible for the entire nursing staff at one of the region’s busiest hospitals. Her parents have a new suggestion: “Let’s show them your doctorate degree.”
A Family That Didn’t Say No
Hoffbauer’s parents moved from Boston to Florida in a van with $1,000 to their name. As entrepreneurs, they built a successful life from that start, and they taught their daughter how to run a business along the way. She credits them, and their refusal to say no, with making her who she is.
That lesson was tested early. Hoffbauer began nursing school right after high school graduation, working toward her associate degree. Just shy of finishing, she failed a clinical. With graduation so close and the course not offered again in time, she was told she couldn't retake it.
Faced with failing the program, she couldn’t accept that answer. She called every community college in Colorado, spent the summer at Trinidad State College, and earned her associate degree. From there, she earned her BSN at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. She knew she wouldn't stop at a bachelor's.
Hoffbauer is candid that she isn’t a good test taker and that her path has included many setbacks. Each one, she says, made her fight harder. Her colleagues know that instinct well. When someone tells her no, her response is consistent: “You mean yes. How do we get there ... let’s figure it out.”
Close to The Bedside
Even as she moved up, as charge nurse, nurse manager, and house supervisor, Hoffbauer never left her roots behind. “My heart beats at the bedside,” she says. She opened a diabetes clinic, and when she moved back into an inpatient leadership role, she said, “I’ll keep the outpatient, too.” And so, she did. When colleagues left, she stepped into interim roles. She describes herself as a “Steady Eddy,” always willing to take on a new project and learn.
When she took over an outpatient wound and hyperbaric clinic, leadership set modest expectations: “You’ll never make money on it, and we don’t expect you to.” Hoffbauer didn’t settle for that. She put her business upbringing to work, and the clinic succeeded.
Coming Back to CU
After earning her master’s in nursing elsewhere, Hoffbauer returned to the University of Colorado for her doctorate. This time at CU Anschutz College of Nursing. She enrolled in the Doctor of Nursing Practice in Health Systems Leadership program during the COVID-19 pandemic, and she asked herself whether it was crazy to start then.
She went through the program alongside the chief nursing executive of UCHealth. Already friends, the two became study buddies, holding each other accountable the way workout partners do. The experience felt different from her earlier education: she was more connected, and the learning framework worked better for her. When she finished, she asked herself, somewhat in awe, “Did I really just do that?”
Today, it’s the degree she’s proudest of.
Opening Kamin Tower
Courtney Hoffbauer giving a tour of Kamin Tower, a new building at UPMC's Presbyterian campus. |
After nearly 20 years with UCHealth, Hoffbauer joined UPMC two years ago and was promoted into her current role this summer. Her charge is substantial. In January 2027, UPMC will open the 17-story, 636-bed Kamin Tower on its Presbyterian campus. It is the largest health care construction project in the state, designed to support healing, well-being, and community connection.
Hoffbauer is the clinical voice for putting the tower into operation. She is responsible for making sure the building works for the nurses and patients inside it, including the planned move of nearly 600 patients into their new space in the course of one day this coming January. She calls the work “a labor of love.” She is also committed to mentoring the next generation of nurses who will staff it.
Her advice is the lesson she learned early: “Don’t let other people’s expectations define you.” Along the way, her husband offered a different kind of prediction than her high school teacher. “Someday you’ll tell these stories.” And tell them she does, using them to illustrate that setbacks are only setbacks if we allow them to be.
Today, she’s a long way from a teacher’s prediction about a high school diploma. For Hoffbauer, she has covered that distance the same way each time: someone said no, and she asked how to get to yes.
