emphasis added by Jack Hickey
Kim Griffin elected Sequoia Healthcare District
Board President; Jerry Shefren Vice-president


REDWOOD CITY —Board colleagues elected Kim Griffin President of the Sequoia Healthcare District Board of Directors Wednesday, selecting her to succeed former President Don Horsley, who left the board in January to take on the challenge of newly-elected member of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.

Griffin, 53, is a registered nurse with 25 years of experience as a bedside nurse in acute care hospitals. She works as a pediatric cardiology nurse with her physician husband, Michael, at Children’s Cardiology of the Bay Area.

The Sequoia Healthcare District board is her first elective office. She outpolled incumbent Malcolm “Nappy” MacNaughton at election two years ago.

“I’ve been on the board for two years and have found it extremely challenging, yet satisfying in terms of what we have been able to accomplish,” she said.

“I want to continue to develop the Healthy Schools program, and I’m very proud of HeartSafe and the fact that we’re getting defibrillators and the Lucas devices out into the community. We’re going to save lives in the district and hopefully expand knowledge among residents about the use of CPR.”

The reference was to the district’s three-year, $4.5 million commitment to more than 23,000 public school students in four school districts. The Healthy Schools Initiative will put school nurses, wellness coordinators, health educators and physical education instructors on campuses in the Belmont-Redwood Shores, San Carlos and Redwood City elementary and Sequoia High School districts.

It was also to HeartSafe, which has placed more than 300 automated external defibrillators in schools, recreation centers and other public places throughout the district. HeartSafe also has helped train or certify more than 4,500 residents and emergency personnel in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.

She declared herself to be “really passionate about what I do. I hope I’m bringing something to the board in terms of experience as a healthcare provider, especially as a nurse. But I also learn from other board members. Individually, we all bring something unique to the board in terms of experience that hopefully we can use to develop programs.”

The board also elected new board member Gerald Shefren, M.D. vice-president and member Katie Kane Secretary-Treasurer.

Dr. Shefren was top vote-getter in the November election; he had served until 2003 as a member of the Sequoia Health Services board, which was a prior step in the healthcare district’s transition from operator of Sequoia Hospital to tax-supported entity focused on community healthcare.

Kane is a five-term member of the board and also a former board president. She has been active for many years in statewide healthcare associations and is Vice-President of the Association of California Healthcare Districts.

In other business, the board accepted the recommendation of its Grants Committee not to fund the San Mateo County Union Community Alliance’s $50,000 grant request. The Alliance came to the board in November with a request to fund its activities for the 2011 calendar year. Funding from other sources expired Dec. 31, according to Alliance representatives, and it needed grant funds to avoid closing its doors. District directors approved $8,000 in interim funding and referred the question to its community-based Grants Committee a determination. The committee concluded that Alliance activities focused on advocacy and community organizing and were outside the district’s primary focus on direct health services for district residents.