Randall Kowalke - Interim Chief Executive Officer
Randall Kowalke has recently been a Matanuska Susitna Borough Assembly member representing District 7 which encompasses 18,500 square miles of the West Virginia sized Borough (70% of the Borough land mass).
Randall is a highly respected and accomplished Alaskan whose friends describe as loyal, confident, and engaging. His professional relationships have earned him accolades for an award- winning film on ANWR development and his unique representation of the Alaska Oil Industry to Congress and other national audiences. Randall was also selected by two different Alaskan governors’ to be part of their international trade delegations (the Russian Far East and more recently China).
Randall and his wife Karen originally came to Alaska in 1975 when he was part of an engineering firm that had the design and construction management contract for the water and sewage treatment facilities for ARCO and BP on the North Slope. Randall’s early career included stops at an iconic Alaskan enterprise, Alaska Industrial Hardware (AIH) and a number of oilfield service companies. At AIH he excelled as the general sales manager and adeptly improved the businesses profitability. Later, as a project manager for the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation and then Vice President of a multi-million- dollar oilfield service contractor, Randall demonstrated his ability to see complex projects through from beginning to completion and made his mark on helping to build the backbone of Alaska’s developing resource infrastructure.
Randall has helped a number of companies in leadership roles such as vice president, marketing manager, general manager, and project manager. Each of these dynamic and essential positions enabled Randall to improve the effectiveness and performance of companies he worked for in international oilfield services, sports equipment manufacturing, forest products and business communications technology (which included a fiber network, several internet service providers and a small rural phone company).
Randall has served in a number of governmental and governance roles and it is his intention to bring that experience to the board of the Sunshine Community Health Center. Additionally, it is his desire to help build on the efforts of those who have so diligently served before him.
William Frantz, DDM - Chief Dental Officer
Valera Brickel - Chief Finance Officer
Ms. Brickel was born and raised in Alaska. She came to the Matanuska Susitna Valley as a teen and graduated from Palmer High School. In 1984 she began work in purchasing at Valley Hospital in Palmer a small nonprofit hospital. She continued with the hospital moving to a staff accountant position in 1989 experiencing the growth and merger with a for-profit corporation and construction of MatSu Regional Medical Center. After 23 years of employment at the hospital, Ms. Brickel moved north to Talkeetna and joined the staff of Sunshine Community Health Center as an accountant in November 2007.
As chief staff accountant for SCHC, she quickly became the “go-to” person when questions arose during the implementation of the new Practice Management System/ Centricity EMR Program. Valera’s attention to detail, tenacity in solving problems, and keen knowledge of the fiscal operation made her the prime candidate for advancement when the CFO left in April 2009. In filling the role of Finance Director with payroll, accounting, and patient billing under her direction she has expanded her knowledge with both online and conference training.
She received a Hospital Accounting Certificate from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. She has completed NWRPCA’s CFO Skills series.
Stephanie Stanley-Harrell - Chief Human Resources Officer
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