Stella Renner Worley is the epitome of perseverance. As chief executive officer of Star Strategic Business Services working in Colorado with Keefe Memorial Hospital and Melissa Memorial Hospital, climbing the professional ranks was a tough journey that still reinforces her perennial passion to be a good person, a good mother, and a good professional. She thrives on challenges and disapproves of the words, “It can’t be done.”
Ms. Worley started her career working part-time as a nurse’s aide, then she began working full-time while balancing raising her children and caring for her husband, Dion Lee Worley, who had cancer. She always possessed an entrepreneurial spirit, yet when her cherished husband of 30 years died, and she became a single parent, her priority was to spend more time at home. Still, she continued working, serving as a consulting chief financial offer and chief executive officer. Today as a full-time CEO of her own firm since 2022, Ms. Worley is in the business of developing and evaluating leaders by helping individuals rise to specific positions to build departments within hospitals. Further, her duties include overseeing billing and analyzing the financial activities of various offices, including physicians’ practices and other businesses. Additionally, she provides software assistance, helps clients meet their financial goals, and fills in as the CEO or CFO when required.
Having earned a degree in accounting and computer programming, Ms. Worley held previous positions as an interim CEO at Melissa Memorial Hospital and CEO of Keefe Memorial Hospital, where she also was director of finance and accounting, revenue cycle manager, and a nursing safety staff member. One of her most impressive accomplishments was managing the hospital’s financial department, including handling the billing process, which, she recalls, was unlike that of any other independently owned business. Ms. Worley’s efforts helped the community to better understand the intricacies of hospital billing, resulting in the hospital’s pivotal shift from borrowing funds to accumulating millions of dollars in reserves and savings prior to the onset of COVID-19 and securing government payouts. Adjacent to her work, Ms. Worley was a member of the President’s Advisory Council at Lamar Community College and the Eastern Plains Healthcare Consortium. With a heart for giving back to society, she volunteers for community initiatives such as the local Community Drug and Alcohol Awareness Prevention Coalition and Baby Bear Hugs.
Ms. Worley believes her success is the realization of the guidance and motivation she received from mentors, who urged her to seize her current position. She recognizes that other major factors, too, have contributed to her overall achievements, such as her own determination, self-taught skills, and her parents’ inspiring her early on to pursue a career in healthcare – as her father, Larry Renner, was a military medic and ambulance driver, while her mother, Shirley Renner, became a licensed practical nurse at the age of 50. Ms. Worley is appreciative and proud that what also separates her is having started from the ground as an entry-level staff member, which has given her a deeper experiential understanding, confidence, analysis, and a birds-eye view of what it takes to get every job done. Possessing these characteristics, she can make more informed decisions and has gained people’s professional and personal trust.
Within the next decade, Ms. Worley seeks to grow her business and involve her young daughters while providing them with opportunities to explore the consulting industry. By instilling in her daughters the belief that they can pursue personal passions and careers, she hopes to empower them to make their own choices. Enjoying time with her family the most, Ms. Worley is the proud mother of Samantha, Dillon, Ethan, Dawson, Evan, Savannah, and Serenity, and she has seven grandchildren.
