{"id":13185,"date":"2026-03-03T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/activism-and-altruism-karen-zink-reflects-on-a-life-of-giving-back-after-beating-cancer\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:34:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:34:58","slug":"activism-and-altruism-karen-zink-reflects-on-a-life-of-giving-back-after-beating-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/activism-and-altruism-karen-zink-reflects-on-a-life-of-giving-back-after-beating-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Activism and altruism: Karen Zink reflects on a life of giving back after beating cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"For
For most of her life, Karen Zink, a nurse practitioner, has helped others. To be on the other end of that care felt wrong, she said. She is pictured here on Feb. 18. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When Karen Zink was told she had breast cancer in late 2025, the diagnosis \u2013 and the need for treatment \u2013 was hard news. Not because she had learned she had a dreaded disease, but because she had to ask for help.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was awful. Absolutely, positively awful,\u201d she said. \u201cI love being the giver. Receiving? Whoa, not so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

For most of her life, Zink has been the one helping other people, including women going through similar periods of their lives in La Plata County. To be on the other end of that care felt wrong, she said.<\/p>\n

The desire to give back to her community led Zink to build a distinguished nursing and public health career and an impressive record of community engagement.<\/p>\n

She worked for 55 years as a registered nurse practitioner. She also helped found one of America\u2019s first women-owned women\u2019s health clinics, worked to expand health care education in Southwest Colorado and volunteered in community health initiatives including COVID-19 vaccination clinics.<\/p>\n

\"Karen
Karen Zink accepts the Citizen of the Year Award in 2022 during the Durango Chamber of Commerce\u2019s \u201cDurango Rocks\u201d annual awards ceremony at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College. Zink has dedicated her life to serving her community through health care and philanthropic donations. (Durango Herald\/Jerry McBride file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

On the side, Zink and her husband, Jerry Zink, have long been actively engaged in local politics and made philanthropic donations to dozens of community projects.<\/p>\n

Zink ended up beating her cancer. And though the diagnosis forced her hand to retire from health care work, she has no plans to stop giving back.<\/p>\n

A La Plata County kid who wanted to make a difference<\/div>\n

\"A
A young Karen Zink plays on a tractor in La Plata County in the 1950s. (Courtesy of Karen and Jerry Zink)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

It all started in 1959 with a lamb named Fritzi and sealing envelopes, Zink said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first political engagement was at age 9,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was a group of people who were trying to get a county-funded hospital in the community here in La Plata County. In 1959, they were fundraising and sending out mailers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zink\u2019s mother, who worked as a nurse and was also highly engaged in local politics, enlisted her help to stuff and seal envelopes with informative pamphlets in support of the hospital, which were then mailed out to La Plata County residents. That left an impression.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were activists who were trying to get another hospital in the community,\u201d Zink said. \u201cThey needed their children\u2019s help with the stuffing of the envelopes, the sealing the envelopes, the return address labels.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, she enrolled in the La Plata County 4-H Club, where she signed up to raise Fritzi the lamb. Caring for another living creature was a full-time responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe implication from my parents was \u2018this is for the rest of your life and is not to be skipped,\u2019\u201d Zink said.<\/p>\n

\"Karen
Karen Zink with her lamb at a La Plata County 4-H Club meeting. (Courtesy of Karen and Jerry Zink)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

She said 4-H hammered home a sense of responsibility. At 16, she got the chance to go to Washington, D.C., with the club to learn more about the country\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

The trip \u2013 and learning the importance of civic government \u2013 stuck with Zink. When she graduated from high school, she decided to go on to a diploma nursing program at Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in Denver, where she became class president.<\/p>\n

After earning her diploma, she decided to get her bachelor\u2019s degree in nursing. To pay the bills and gain experience while in Loretto Height College\u2019s nursing program, she worked as a nurse at St. Joseph\u2019s Hospital in Denver, where she stayed for 10 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think I was going to be cut out for hospital nursing,\u201d Zink said.<\/p>\n

But it turned out she loved it \u2013 apart from pediatrics and hospice. She worked as a float nurse, bouncing wherever she was needed in the 500-bed St. Joseph\u2019s Hospital in every department other than the inpatient psychiatric care and the operating room, she said.<\/p>\n

Giving back to Zink\u2019s home<\/div>\n

With experience and an education under her belt, Zink knew she wanted to return to La Plata County.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor my graduation from nursing school, my mother gave me a gift membership to the Colorado Nurses Association,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was the same sort of parenting that she had used in the past. She said, \u2018I\u2019m buying you your membership, and from now on, it\u2019s your responsibility to be a member of your professional organization.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1983, Zink was tapped to help establish the University of Colorado\u2019s baccalaureate outreach program in Durango, which brought CU\u2019s prerequisite nursing coursework to students attending Fort Lewis College.<\/p>\n

\u201cI needed to set up prerequisite coursework through Fort Lewis College, find a space for the classes and recruit the students,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

After 21 students graduated from the program, CU brought a master\u2019s program to Durango. Zink decided to get her master\u2019s degree and become a certified women\u2019s health nurse practitioner. She also became a certified childbirth educator through the American Society of Psychoprophylaxis and Obstetrics.<\/p>\n

At that time, the former Community Hospital had a birthing center, Zink said, and she started teaching weekly birthing classes in Farmington and Durango.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had childbirth classes going pretty much constantly for 18 years,\u201d she said. \u201cAbout 2,000 women went through my birthing classes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Between 1985 and 1989, Zink worked as a nurse practitioner for OB\/GYN physicians in Durango. In 1989, she founded the Southwest Women\u2019s Health Associates<\/a> alongside her business partner Debbie Jones and collaborating physician Dr. Lloyd Lifton.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of the first two nurse practitioner-owned and operated clinics to start in the United States,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Outside of that, she helped support the founding of Southwest Midwives; volunteered at the 9Health Fair \u2013 now known as 365 Health \u2013 drawing blood and managing the fair\u2019s labs; and helped organize community vaccination clinics during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\"Karen
Karen Zink at a COVID-19 vaccination clinic. (Courtesy of Karen and Jerry Zink)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Karen Zink is not done yet<\/div>\n

Zink did not want to stop working in health care. But her body had other plans.<\/p>\n

In February, 2025, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Treatment prevented her from being able to commit as much time to her work, so she decided to retire at the age of 75.<\/p>\n

But she is not done yet, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel called to civic engagement,\u201d she said. \u201cWell, I\u2019ve been doing it for a lifetime. But I feel called to devote the rest of my career to that. And my career will be until I\u2019m incapacitated or until I die.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three main things Zink and her husband focus on in the philanthropy space are education, children and open space conservation.<\/p>\n

The Zinks own the Sunnyside Meats processing plant<\/a>, which allows local farmers to process their livestock for sale in a USDA-certified plant right in La Plata County. Before Sunnyside, Zink said, that was not the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t have a USDA-inspected packing plant in the community at the time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Karen
Karen Zink is seen on Feb. 18. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Additionally, Zink has worked to preserve open space \u2013 particularly farmland \u2013 from development.<\/p>\n

Most recently, she made a $1 million donation<\/a> to FLC\u2019s new nursing hall \u2013 a wing of which now bears her name \u2013 which is meant to give students hands-on learning experience in a state-of-the-art facility, right in rural Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

She even turned her cancer diagnosis into a demonstration. After one chemo session, she contacted FLC\u2019s director of nursing, Maggie La Rose, to see if she could give the nursing cohort a real-life lesson about cancer treatment and patient care. La Rose agreed, and Zink let students observe how to clean her chemo port.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, dedicating her life and career to giving back to her community was made easy by the people who live in it. The outpouring of support has made dealing with cancer that much easier.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the love and support of hundreds of people in the community that made my experience much easier for me than it otherwise would have been,\u201d Zink said.<\/p>\n

sedmondson@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Karen
Karen Zink is shown how one of the mannequins in Fort Lewis College\u2019s nursing hall works. Zink said when she started her career in nursing 55 years ago, she and her fellow students practiced on real people \u2013 including patients and each other. The new mannequins give students more leeway to make mistakes and learn from them, better preparing them for working with actual people. (Scout Edmondson\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

practitioner works to bolster women\u2019s health care in La Plata County<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,61,1141,714,1142,994],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-health","tag-healthcare-provider","tag-human-interest","tag-profile","tag-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13185"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18851,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13185\/revisions\/18851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13185"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}