Meet Our Founder
Founder | Chief Executive Officer | Director of Nursing
For Maryann Burk, hospice is more than a profession—it is the culmination of a career dedicated to ensuring every person has access to exceptional healthcare, regardless of where they live.
Maryann’s journey in healthcare began as an ICU nurse extern, where she witnessed firsthand the resilience of patients and families during life’s most critical moments. Those early experiences taught her that exceptional healthcare extends beyond clinical expertise—it requires compassion, communication, and the ability to care for the whole person.
She went on to serve medically underserved communities through the Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) system, where she helped open four health centers dedicated to expanding access to quality healthcare. Working alongside patients and families in urban communities, Maryann became passionate about health equity, believing that a person’s ZIP code should never determine their health outcomes. She was privileged to provide care, education, and advocacy for families who often faced significant barriers to receiving the healthcare they deserved.
Her career later led her into home health and ultimately hospice, where she discovered her true calling: walking alongside patients and families during one of life’s most sacred journeys.
The inspiration for The Willows Hospice, however, came from a deeply personal experience.
When Maryann’s own mother entered hospice care, her family experienced firsthand how difficult it could be to receive timely, consistent, and compassionate care—particularly in rural Indiana. Despite being an experienced nurse who understood the healthcare system, Maryann found herself feeling overwhelmed and unsupported during one of the most difficult seasons of her life.
That realization became the turning point.
If she, as a nurse, felt abandoned by the process, how much more overwhelming must it be for families with no healthcare background?
She knew hospice could—and should—be better.
That experience inspired the creation of The Willows Hospice with a simple but unwavering mission: to provide every family with the kind of care she wanted for her own mother.
Today, that mission extends throughout Northwest Indiana. Whether serving families in rural farming communities or larger cities like Crown Point, Merrillville, Valparaiso, and the surrounding region, Maryann remains committed to ensuring that every patient receives the same high standard of compassionate, personalized care. She believes that having more healthcare choices does not always mean having better care, and that every family deserves a hospice committed to clinical excellence, timely response, clear communication, and meaningful relationships.
Under her leadership, The Willows Hospice has built its culture around a simple promise:
Comfort. Clarity. Connection. Bringing the Calm.
Comfort means easing pain, honoring wishes, and helping patients live each day with dignity.
Clarity means helping families understand what to expect, answering every question honestly, and guiding them with confidence.
Connection means ensuring every patient and family knows they are never alone.
And Bringing the Calm means being the steady presence families can depend on—showing up, listening, responding, and providing peace during life’s most difficult moments.
Maryann believes hospice is about far more than end-of-life care. It is about preserving dignity, honoring every life, supporting those who love them, and creating moments of peace in the midst of uncertainty.
When she isn’t leading The Willows Hospice, Maryann enjoys spending time with her family, gardening, canoeing, and continuing to serve the Northwest Indiana communities she proudly calls home.
“The greatest privilege of my career is not building a hospice. It is building a place where families feel seen, heard, supported, and never alone. That is why The Willows Hospice exists.”