Ten applicants are vying for two citizen-member positions on the Yakima Health District’s Board of Health.
The health board on Thursday finished its last round of interviews with the applicants and is expected to make final selections during a June 9 special meeting. Those selections will be finalized by Yakima County commissioners at a later business meeting.
The health board initially received 18 applicants but narrowed the pool to 10 last month.
Interest in the board was sparked by a new state law governing the composition of health boards. The new law requires an equal number of elected and nonelected members on health boards, including a representative from tribes within the district’s service area.
The Yakama Nation is within the Yakima Health District’s service area.
Currently, the health board is composed of three Yakima County commissioners, two City Council members and two nonelected members.
Board members are commissioners Ron Anderson, Amanda McKinney and LaDon Linde, Yakima City Council member Patricia Byers and Toppenish City Council member Naila Duval. Nonelected members are Dr. Sean Cleary and Dr. Dave Atteberry.
Under the new law, the health board must appoint two additional nonelected members who either have a background in public health or are a consumer of public health services, in addition to a Yakama representative who will be appointed by the American Indian Health Commission.
The health board is facing a July 1 deadline to comply with the new law that is intended to keep politics out of public health decisions.
Here are the applicants who were interviewed:
Daylene Ackerman, a retired registered nurse; Katrina Henkle, mortgage broker and executive director of Selah Downtown Association; Catherine Bambrick, administrator of Astria Toppenish Hospital; Randall Knapp, a consumer of public health; Dr. Nancy Hecox, retired pharmacist; Thomas Silva, former air pollution officer with Yakima Clean Air Agency; Stephanie Ahlgren, registered dietitian and nutritionist; Anthony Maldonado, former assistant professor of nursing at Heritage University; Kimberly Eglet, former food manager at Yakima Valley School; and Nat Wall, a math teacher whose wife receives treatment for a chronic illness.
