Robert Haffey

Throughout your career you have given yourself to the healing of others, beginning where all good medicine does: at the bedside, in the science and practice of nursing, before expanding into the broader work of leading major healthcare systems. 

Since joining Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital as President and CEO, you have confronted challenges that would test any leader’s resolve. As an unprecedented pandemic continued to surge, you kept Brockton Hospital’s doors open and accessible to all, welcoming the National Guard to serve the community alongside staff. Your message then was steadfast: Brockton Hospital exists to provide care and will persist in that mission. 

You faced another test in February 2023, when a 10-alarm electrical fire immediately shuttered the hospital you’d fought to keep open. With the hallways dark, the elevator still and patient records offline, you led the hospital through the safe evacuation of 162 patients—many critically ill—without injury. In months following, you ensured that hundreds of displaced staff continued to receive salaries, while overseeing a sweeping renovation that redefined the future of Brockton Hospital as a safer, more patient-centered care center.  

When its doors reopened in 2024, Brockton Hospital emerged even more deeply rooted in its commitment to the people of Brockton and southeastern Massachusetts. That ingenuity reflects your career, spent in constant pursuit of better—better systems, better outcomes and a better experience for every person who needs and deserves exceptional care. Therefore, in grateful recognition of your extraordinary service, Stonehill College is proud to present you with the President’s Award for Excellence. 

Given this twenty-eighth day of May,  
Two Thousand and Twenty-Six 

​ 
Reverend John F. Denning, C.S.C. 
President, Stonehill College