Good Shepherd Nursing Home will welcome Morgan Murphy on March 1 as its first female administrator. The Most Rev. Mark E. Brennan, Bishop of the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese, and the Board of Directors of the Welty Home for the Aged, Inc. selected Murphy for the position, after she spent years serving as the nursing home’s assistant administrator and regulatory and compliance officer.

Murphy is a Wheeling native who is a graduate of Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a specialty in health services for long-term care at West Liberty University. She also earned a master’s degree in health care administration from Ohio University and is a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator.

She is eager to assume her new duties as Good Shepherd administrator, succeeding her father, Donald R. Kirsch, who served as Good Shepherd administrator for 45 years.

“I am extremely honored to be given this opportunity,” she said.

Kirsch noted the Mount de Chantal connection that has benefited Good Shepherd over the years.

“Clara Welty, a graduate of Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy, donated her fortune to the Diocese to provide for the care of Wheeling’s elderly people,” he said. “I believe that the knowledge and guidance the Visitation Sisters provided encouraged Miss Welty’s philanthropy.”

That knowledge and guidance has also prepared Murphy well to assume the challenges of running a corporation that cares for 192 people and employs more than 350.

“My colleagues and I have spent Morgan’s entire adult life preparing her for this type of opportunity not if, but when and where it became available,” Kirsch said. “Now that the opportunity has arrived with the Welty Corporation, Morgan is the right person, with the right skill set at the right time to carry the legacy of Clara Welty forward for the next generation. All corporations should be so fortunate.”

Murphy has been a familiar face at Good Shepherd since she was a child. She often accompanied her father as he visited with residents and families and remembers being part of a group of piano students who performed music recitals for residents.

“I have always felt that Good Shepherd is an extension of my family,” she said. “I’ve worked within the Welty Corporation for over 10 years, and I would not be who I am today without this organization.”

Murphy’s job preparation began in her teenage years, when she helped with resident activities at Good Shepherd and worked evenings and summers as a receptionist. Before joining the Good Shepherd staff as regulatory and compliance director in 2017, she completed a yearlong administrator-in-training program at Good Shepherd, then was named manager of skilled rehabilitation and long-term care facility at East Ohio Regional Hospital. She later served as an integration specialist at the Ohio Valley Health Services & Education Corporation.

“I was fortunate to be surrounded by great mentors, and particularly my dad. There is no denying the love and dedication he has for the Welty organization, and I am proud to have learned from the best and thankful that I share the same level of passion in caring for the elderly,” Murphy said.

“With the knowledge he and others have shared with me over the years, I am confident that I am prepared for this role,” she added. “I am excited to continue this journey and enhance the corporation’s high level of care and services provided to so many in our community.”

She also acknowledged and thanked her husband Ryan and son Kolton for their love, understanding and support.

“I’m happy to have the opportunity to continue my career in Wheeling. Both my husband and I are Wheeling natives, and it is meaningful to us to raise our son here and remain close to our families,” she said.