Community Health Center Advocate Retires
Kathy Sather, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Family Health Care (FHC), headquartered in Baldwin, Michigan, recently announced her plans to retire effective September 1, 2020.
“I have enjoyed my time as CEO and will always treasure the fond memories of this organization and the great work staff does here every day, especially during this recent pandemic challenge,” said Sather. “The mission and vision of Community Health Centers and specifically FHC is what makes them successful in overcoming challenges and reaching so many successes in treating our communities’ health issues.”
Sather, a Registered Nurse licensed for over 45 years, retires with 32 years of experience in Community Health Center work and served as Family Health Care’s President and CEO since January of 2011. Prior to that time, she served as the Chief Operations Officer of Cherry Street Health Services, a Grand Rapids-based Federally Qualified Community Health Center. Sather has served on various boards such as the State of Michigan’s School-Community Health Alliance (SCHAMI) and Michigan Primary Care Association (MPCA) in earlier years as a clinical advisor as well as holding an officer seat as the board secretary and a member of the Executive Committee. She began her career in a community health center with experience in migrant health as a nurse manager of clinical services in Sparta, Michigan. She earned her master’s degree in business at Davenport University and a bachelor’s degree in nursing at Grand Valley State University.
“We will certainly miss Kathy’s leadership, and are grateful that she and her Leadership Team have positioned the organization to further a safe environment for both staff and patients and that patients will continue to receive the quality care they need,” said Bob Fisher, Chair of the FHC Board of Directors.
Plans are in place for Julie Tatko to join FHC on August 7, 2020, to help with the responsibilities of CEO. Julie most recently has been the Chief Operations Officer (COO) at Cherry Health in Grand Rapids. Her duties there included the administrative and operational oversight of the organization with an emphasis on medical and behavioral health programming.
“It has been a pleasure working with the staff at FHC. And I’m confident Julie will do a great job leading the organization one step at a time toward further accomplishments while our Board searches for a new CEO,” continued Sather.
For the month of August, Tatko will be working with Sather on a part-time basis as an Administrative Consultant. Julie has many years of experience with the operations of Community Health Centers. Before joining Cherry Health, she was director of operations and enabling services at (MPCA).
She has a Master in Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Bachelor of Arts from Wheaton College.
Upon Sather’s retirement, Tatko will assume the role of Interim CEO while the Board of Directors makes further search decisions.
