Griffin Health Caregiver Kimberly Kozlowski, of North Haven, was recently awarded the 2025 Spirit of Planetree Award at the organization’s 53rd Annual Employee Service Awards.
The Griffin Health Spirit of Planetree Award honors caregivers whose attitudes and deeds inspire others to greater heights and have advanced Griffin’s person-centered care efforts. Kozlowski will also be recognized at Planetree’s annual conference to be held in Baltimore, Maryland this fall.
A licensed clinical social worker at Griffin for more than seven years, Kozlowski serves as the lead crisis clinician and advocate for Griffin’s Population Health Department. Known for her exceptional compassion and dedication to her patients, she recently went above and beyond to care for a young patient with disabilities in the Griffin Hospital Emergency Department, ensuring the patient felt loved, protected, and comforted during a very challenging and prolonged stay.
“Kimberly’s leadership has transformed Griffin’s pediatric/adolescent ED protocols to better address patient’s social determinants of health, positively impacting Griffin and its community,” the nomination for Kozlowski stated. “She also founded a kindergarten Girl Scout troop and launched a project to create touching “get well” cards for our patients, helping to empower the next generation of leaders.”
About Planetree
Founded in 1978 by, Angelica Thieriot, a San Francisco patient who endured a traumatic healthcare experience, Planetree is an internationally-recognized not-for-profit organization that partners with health care providers around the globe to advance patient-/resident-centered approaches to care. Planetree has been at the forefront of the effort to personalize, humanize, and demystify the healthcare system for more than 30 years. With its model of patient-/resident-centered care being implemented in a diverse range of hospitals, continuing care facilities, outpatient clinics, and consumer health libraries across North America, Canada, Brazil, The Netherlands and Japan, Planetree is demonstrating that patient-centered care is not only an empowering philosophy, but a viable, vital, and cost-effective model of care. For more information, visit www.planetree.org.