Interim health chief picked for fellowship

The interim director of Clark County Public Health has been selected for a three-year national leadership fellowship through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Marni Storey was named one of 20 nurse leaders from across the country to participate in the foundation’s leadership development program. Storey intends to remain in her position with the county health department while participating in the fellowship, which is designed to enhance leaders’ effectiveness in improving the health care system. More than 100 people applied for the fellowship.

The program provides fellows with face-to-face and technology-assisted sessions and discussions; intensive coaching and mentoring from experts; development and implementation of team projects; and individual leadership activities and projects.

Storey said she was honored to be selected and looks forward to bringing innovative ideas and partnership opportunities back to Clark County.

“I hope to be able to connect with other national leaders, meet people I would not otherwise meet, and raise the profile of public health nursing,” Storey said in a news release.

Storey said she hopes to find ways to improve access to preventive care, emphasize community-based prevention and reduce health inequalities.

“Most of all, I want to strengthen public health nursing’s role in the implementation of health care reform,” she said in the news release.

Storey was named interim director of Clark County Public Health in April, when former director John Wiesman left the county to become Washington’s secretary of health.

In January, Storey will return to her position as deputy director of the health department when Dr. Alan Melnick, Clark County health officer, takes over the top administrator position.

Storey is also the 2013 chair of the Washington State Association of Local Public Health Officials.