Karen Nodolf

Karen Nodolf started her first three-year term as a Cascade Medical Foundation Board Member in 2025 after retiring (almost) from a 50-year career in health care. (She was still working as a part-time instructor at Wenatchee Valley College’s nursing program when she joined the Foundation board.)

She had been looking for a way to continue to give back to the community.

“The Foundation does amazing work, and I am grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of it,” she said. “I have spent a lifetime caring for others and although my career path in nursing is ending, I am looking forward to taking the new fork in the road and caring for others in a new way.”

She grew up in Brewster, starting her health care career at the age of 16 as a CNA. After attending Washington State University, she worked as a Registered Nurse for 45 years, with experience in in Oncology, Hospice, Home Health, Pediatrics, Informatics and Case Management as well as working for DSHS in the Residential Care Services/Long Term Care program.

She had always hoped to move back to Eastern Washington. She and her husband settled in Leavenworth in 2022, where she continues to enjoy hiking, kayaking, skiing, gardening and quilting.

Her mom, also a nurse, lives at Leavenworth’s Mountain Meadows.

“My family loves the area,” she said.