The Ottauquechee Health Foundation Board of Trustees has named Sherry Thornburg as the new Executive Director of the Foundation. She replaces Deborah Heimann, who has been serving as Interim Director since Tom Roberts left the position in June of 2011. Thornburg will start in a full-time capacity on February 1st.

“Sherry stood out among other qualified candidates with her energy and passion for health care issues,” says Mark Melendy, President of the Foundation Board and Chair of the Search Committee. “We were also impressed with her ‘can do’ attitude to tackle whatever the challenge in front of her and are looking forward to bringing her on as the first full-time Executive Director of the Foundation.”

Thornburg brings 28 years of experience as a health administrator, research coordinator, and educator. Locally, and most recently, she has worked to coordinate a variety of research projects including on coaching and decision support at the Center for Informed Choice of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. She serves as Chair of the Board of Directors at the HIV/HCV Resource Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and as a Trustee of the Chewonki Foundation in Wiscasset, Maine.

“I am looking forward to collaborating with local health agencies, providers, and individuals to identify the current needs of the community in order to better support health care delivery and access,” says Thornburg. “I am really excited to work at the community level to address access to health and to help promote well-health throughout the OHF community.”

Prior to her work at The Dartmouth Institute, Thornburg served for many years as an educator and curriculum coordinator in Canaan, New Hampshire and Tokyo, Japan. She has held various positions in health administration, health education, and health research in Australia, Japan, and the state of California, USA. From supervising twenty-five clinical staff providing reproductive medical services to planning and teaching pre-natal birth education courses, from developing and authoring case studies in public health policy to coordinating medical and developmental case management for eighty individuals, Thornburg has extensive understanding and practice in collaboration and community engagement.

Thornburg is a May 2010 graduate of the Leadership Upper Valley Institute and has a Masters in Public Health (MPH) from the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales, Australia.

According to Lynn Peterson, former OHF Board President and member of the Search Committee, “Sherry will be an exciting addition to our community; she will be bringing to the helm of OHF not only her long-standing focus on public and community health, but also a background in health-related research and a Masters in Public Health.”