After 12 years running a health care foundation, its director is stepping down and taking on a new focus.
“I’ve got a two-and-a-half-year-old grandson I don’t see enough of and things to do – while I still have knees I want to get up into the mountains, things like that,” said Michael Brown, retiring executive director of the High River District Health Care Foundation. “It’s just time.”
He came to the foundation in 2009 after spending seven years working in administration at Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) and running his own business for a decade prior.
There were a few factors that attracted Brown to the role, not the least of which was reducing a one-hour each way commute to SAIT to a five-minute walk.
But it was more about the opportunity to run a business-like organization with a focus on community, he said.
“We really view ourselves as a community organization with an interest and passion around health care,” said Brown. “It’s about community and that so appealed to me, that I could have an impact on our community and all the Foothills area.”
Over his 12 years with the foundation, more than $6.5 million has been injected into health care.
The first major undertaking was a $1.6-million expansion of the High River Community Cancer Centre at High River Hospital in 2013 in partnership with the High River Rotary Club.
“That has turned into just a fabulous facility,” said Brown. “People don’t have to drive all the way to Tom Baker (in Calgary) to get their chemo – if you’re living in Okotoks, 20 minutes down the road you’ve got a fabulous facility.
“We’re really proud of that.”
The foundation has also been proud of its most recent major capital project, a $1.6-million upgrade to the maternity ward at High River Hospital, which opened in 2019, he said.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the foundation has been working to provide for hospital staff in order to prevent stress and burnout, and ensure the hospital is adequately equipped to handle whatever comes its way.
“Not only nurses and doctors, but everyone – the cleaners, the kitchen staff, the lab,” said Brown. “We’ve been investing and probably put $97,000 into equipment, beds, whatever is needed for responding to the pandemic.”
One of those projects was to replace the $30,000 tub units, which include lifts, on the second floor of the hospital. The High River and Okotoks legions pitched in to help with that initiative, he said.
With COVID at the forefront of health care minds, he said there aren’t any new projects coming down the pipe in the near future for the High River District Health Care Foundation, but that could change on the other side of the pandemic, he said.
The foundation takes its lead from Alberta Health Services, he said.
“I think right now everything is focused around getting through what we’re getting through,” said Brown. “There isn’t any huge project on the horizon at this point, but as we come out of this pandemic I’m sure there will be some new ideas flooded out to us.”
Another motive to retiring is to allow someone else with fresh ideas to take the helm and steer the foundation into its future funding campaigns.
Brown said he feels as though he has done everything he can for the organization.
“It’s time for some new blood, new ideas, maybe someone a little more technically-savvy that I am – I’m kind of a cheque-in-the-mail guy rather than an online guy,” he said.
While he’s aiming at April for retirement, he said that will depend on whether someone suitable is found to fill his shoes. The job has been posted and a search for the right fit is ongoing, he said.
It’s important to have a passion for community, to be a good people-person, and to have business skills with the ability to slip between marketing and accounting as well as donor relations, said Brown.
“Kind of a jack-of-all-trades,” he said, adding non-profit or health care backgrounds are nice to have, but not necessarily deal-breakers.
The foundation operates in conjunction with AHS and its board members, he said, and there are always AHS representatives and physicians on the board who can lend the voice of medical expertise.
As he retires from the foundation, Brown said it has been flattering to see the community interest in his departure – but he said his success with the organization has been about far more than just him.
“All the good things the foundation has done is because people in High River and Okotoks and Nanton have really stepped up around health care,” he said. “I’ve worked with a fabulous team, then the AHS people are absolutely incredible.
“I’ve had an awful lot of people who made me look good, but it’s not about me – it’s really been about the whole organization and the community.”
.png;w=120;h=80;mode=crop)
