Janell Mason

Kindness comes in many forms, says Janell Mason, who found her kind of kindness after retiring from a career running health care startups in 2003.

The next year, she started volunteering, and quickly found a home at the Ronald McDonald House.

“My personal motto is ‘make every day count,’ and it was a place I could do that,” said Mason, who volunteered and sat on the charity’s board before becoming its director four years ago.

She called the opening of Little Rock’s new 32,000-SF Ronald McDonald House, a five-story beacon of comfort on the campus of Arkansas Children’s Hospital, her greatest achievement.

“We also just opened our third program, the Ronald McDonald Family Room at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, on the NICU [neonatal intensive care unit] floor, where NICU families can come in to get a cup of coffee or a meal, or a little rest and comfort. We support these families on some of the worst days of their lives.”

Beth Coulson, the former appeals court judge and longtime philanthropist, has been an invaluable mentor, Mason said, always reliable for advice.

“She had a huge impact in getting me involved locally after I retired in 2003. My business background in managed health care startup companies, two of them in Arkansas, does intersect with the nonprofit work. She saw that.”

A native Texan and graduate of Sam Houston State University, Mason said she’s most proud of opening the new Ronald McDonald House “debt-free,” and serving more families than ever before. RMHCA also operates the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile, a 40-foot mobile clinic that offers free dental care and dental hygiene education to children.

Mason led the $9 million capital campaign for the new house, which opened in late 2016, and has overseen a budget expansion from about $1.1 million to about $1.8 million in 2019. The charity serves about 4,000 people a year, she said. “Success for us is being able to provide families with what matters most — time with their child."

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