Meet Our 2026 Phyllis Mills Living Legend Award Winner: Margaret McDonald

The Phyllis Mills Living Legend Award honors a VNS Health team member who has been with the organization at least 10 years and who, like Phyllis, has made notable contributions to VNS Health and to our mission. This year, 26 team members were nominated for this award. To see a full list and who the finalists were for this award, click here.

Early in her career, while working in a cancer care center and conducting symptom-control research, Margaret McDonald, Associate Vice President, Center for Home Care Policy & Research, kept thinking about what happened to patients when they left the clinic and returned home.

“The patients came into the clinic for a visit and then would come back again in a month,” she says. “What I wondered was: ‘What happens in between visits?’” So much of person’s health, she realized, is managed at home.

For the past 28 years, Margaret has focused on what happens to a person’s health at home as part of the Center for Home Care Policy & Research at VNS Health, which helps develop and promote evidence-based practices that enable people to live well at home and in their communities as they age and as they recover from illness.

This Monday afternoon, October 26, Margaret will be honored for that work with the 2026 Phyllis Mills Living Legend Award.

The award recognizes a VNS Health team member with at least a decade of service who has made exceptional contributions to the organization’s mission, exemplifying the dedication of Phyllis Mills, the legendary nurse and longtime Board member for whom the award is named.”

Founded in 1993, the VNS Health Research Center seeks to improve how people live at home by analyzing the details of everyday care: for instance, determining the best mix and timing of skilled clinical visits that will reduce the risk of re-hospitalization for our heart failure patients—or, how to identify patients who are at high-risk for developing an infection during their home care episode.

Margaret helped build, and still oversees, much of the operation behind that research. She secures funding, ensures studies comply with state and federal regulations, makes sure data is collected ethically, and trains and mentors the team members who carry out the work. She also teams with academic partners to shape studies that can succeed within the realities of home-based care, including the complexities of regulation and reimbursement.

“What I really love about the job is supporting and developing people,” says Margaret. “Our team of investigators and study staff have great ideas, and I want to make sure they can carry them out. Building this team and making that possible is one of the things I’m most proud of.”

In nominating her for the award, a colleague credits Margaret’s hard work behind the scenes for much of the Center’s impact and success over the years—which includes securing $65 million+ in external funding and generating over 500 peer-reviewed publications.

Margaret understood the value of home-based care long before she studied it. Growing up, her sister required 24-hour, hands-on care, and Margaret experienced firsthand how invaluable home health aide services can be—not only to a person receiving care, but to their whole family.  

After nearly three decades on the job, Margaret sees the Phyllis Mills Living Legend Award as an honor for the Research Center and for colleagues across VNS Health who make its research possible—from helping shape research questions and filling out surveys to piloting new interventions. “It’s a whole organizational effort,” she says. “What we’re here to do is to provide the data and information that helps VNS Health and other home-based providers to deliver the right care to the right person at the right time. “