Patrick Traynor to Receive MSUM Hartz Award
Patrick Traynor, president of the Dakota Medical Foundation, has been selected to receive the university’s 32nd annual L.B. Hartz Professional Achievement Award.
An awards reception will be held Tuesday, April 29 in the Comstock Memorial Union Ballroom on campus.
The award is named in honor of the late L.B. Hartz, the founder of Hartz Wholesale Company headquartered in Thief River Falls. It’s presented annually by MSUM’s College of Business and Innovation to an individual who has created economic opportunities for others through innovation, entrepreneurship and community service.
A North Dakota native, Traynor earned degrees in economics and law from the University of North Dakota. He began his career as an attorney with the law firm of Conmy, Feste, Bossart, Hubbard and Corwin in Fargo. In 1994, he was appointed deputy director/general counsel of the N.D. Workers Compensation Bureau. He became president of Dakota Medical Foundation (DMF) in 2000, and in 2005 led the establishment of Impact Foundation to help nonprofit leaders vastly improve their fundraising abilities and capacity to serve. Traynor oversaw development of the impactgiveback.org website for online fundraising and volunteering, which features more than 500 area nonprofits and each year hosts Giving Hearts Day.
DMF is also widely known for its Lend A Hand program that helps volunteers with fundraising for families in medical crisis, and the CassClayAlive Initiative that is reducing childhood obesity through work with childcares, schools, worksites and community settings. DMF’s Breakthrough Idea Challenge, introduced in 2012, has stimulated bold new approaches needed to better solve health problems.
Traynor spearheaded the construction of a new center for nonprofits which opened in 2013. This building provides much-needed space for area nonprofits to hold meetings, conferences and retreats.
He serves on the boards of the Anne Carlsen Center for Children, Gate City Bank and the North Dakota Safety Council, and as a volunteer for Ducks Unlimited and the University of North Dakota Campaign Steering Committee.