Posted on 04/20/2003 2:43:21 AM PDT by sarcasm
WASHINGTON -- The American Red Cross is reviewing compensation of its senior employees after discovering that Bernadine Healy was awarded $1.9 million during her tumultuous last six months as president of the nonprofit agency.
Healy wept in public frustration when she was forced out of her job in the tense and confusing aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. After a dispute with some board members over how to handle donations, she was stripped of her title as chief executive officer on Oct. 26 but allowed to retain the title of president until the end of 2001.
Tax documents disclosed by the congressionally chartered organization show that between July and December 2001, the Red Cross awarded Healey:
• $1,340,701 in deferred compensation.
• $296,661 in salary.
• $228,929 in severance pay.
• $50,000 in expense allowances.
• $5,622 in benefits.
"Based on the organization's agreement with Dr. Healy, we are unable to provide any further information on her compensation and severance," senior American Red Cross spokesman Phil Zepeda said Friday.
Healy's close confidante, chief of staff Catharine "Kate" Berry, was fired 11 days after Healy. Between July 1 and Nov. 6, Berry was awarded $73,602 in salary and benefits, $132,509 in severance pay and $403,473 in deferred compensation.
None of the money came from donations earmarked for Sept. 11 victims or for other disaster victims, Zepeda said.
The bulk of the organization's $4.5 billion in revenue that year came from other sources, such as the sale of blood.
Healy was replaced last August by Rear Adm. Marsha Evans, who was running Girl Scouts of the USA. Evans initiated a staff study of pay and benefits for senior employees.
In addition, Zepeda said, the 50-member all-volunteer board has hired consultants to compare Red Cross figures with those at other nonprofits and to suggest ways to "tie financial rewards directly to the achievement of results."
Healy's $1.9 million in compensation during the last six months of 2001 was more than twice the $912,373 in pay and benefits that she received during her first 22 months at the Red Cross, which began in September 1999.
The compensation figure "is certainly high for the nonprofit world," said H. Art Taylor, who is president and chief executive officer of the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, which monitors charitable groups. "But the Red Cross is a big organization."
The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported in October that 34 of 282 large nonprofits that the magazine surveyed paid their chief executives more than $500,000. The highest salary listed was $690,000 for University of Pennsylvania President Judith Rodin. Healy's salary, bonuses and benefits were listed as $519,000.
"The Red Cross board has done what it should have -- full disclosure of its decision," Taylor said. "Now the public can decide if it was equitable and fair and appropriate."
Healy, a physician and researcher who previously served as dean of the Ohio State University College of Medicine & Public Health and director of the National Institutes of Health, now writes a monthly medical and health column for U.S. News and World Report. Messages left on her voice mail Friday were not returned. Richard Folders, who arranges interviews with employees of the magazine, said he knew of no other way of reaching her.
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