NCBF Excellence Award

Patricia Winthrop is the winner of the 2020 NCBF Excellence Award. Patricia had a distinguished career for 40 years in the insurance and health care fields, but her true calling has been in community service. The oldest of six children, Pat was raised in the historic town of Lexington, Massachusetts (“Birthplace of American Liberty" as she proudly tells anyone willing to listen). Her parents (both social workers) stressed the importance of commitment to community and public service and they, in turn, have instilled this commitment in the next generation.

For nearly 20 years, Pat has been an active volunteer for the Arizona Bar Foundation, assisting in numerous projects to promote law-related education and to provide legal assistance to Arizona’s vulnerable populations.

At the request of the Foundation, Pat and Anne-Marie Alameddin several years ago started a medical-legal partnership in conjunction with St. Vincent de Paul, a non-profit entity devoted to serving the poor and homeless. The project was two-fold: first, educating physicians and medical staff to recognize how unresolved legal issues can lead to chronic medical problems; and second, providing legal services to those in need. In that regard, Pat provided volunteer administrative and intake services and recruited volunteer lawyers from the Phoenix community, who continue to regularly staff legal clinics held on-site at the main St. Vincent de Paul campus.

In addition to being a mentor for The Challenge Foundation, Pat is a dedicated supporter and volunteer for the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, a non-profit organization that provides free legal services to detained adults and unaccompanied children in Arizona.

Pat has also been an effective fund raiser for other non-profit legal service entities. Pat is a Next Generation Fellow of the Arizona Bar Foundation. Additionally, in lieu of accepting any compensation for her part-time work over the last five years with the Center for Divorce Education, an entity that helps parents and children deal with the difficult process of divorce and separation, Pat negotiated a direct monthly donation from the Center to the Arizona Bar Foundation. To date, those donations have exceeded $50,000.

Aside from her passion for the Arizona Bar Foundation, here are a few lesser known facts about Pat:

• She is a 30-year breast cancer survivor
• She was a Keystone Kop 19 years ago with her sister-in-law, Laurie, in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
• She was a member of a local Irish Step dancing troupe (We have pictures)
• She played on her high school and college tennis teams (strong serve, no backhand)
• She cannot do math, cannot cook and cannot pass by an infant or dog without stopping to fawn over it
• She, together with her husband and (3) close friends, have been part of an acoustic folk group for over 20 years; check out http://www.feeneywinthrop.com/
• She and her husband, Larry, have (2) dogs who sleep wherever they want ( we have pictures of that  too)

There is more, but that is all we can share....