Susan Carbon chosen for Samaritan Healthcare commission

MOSES LAKE — Susan Carbon has been selected to fill the vacant position on the Samaritan Healthcare board.

Board members voted 4-0 to appoint Carbon to the seat through the end of the current term in 2021. Carbon replaces Joe Akers, who resigned in May after moving out of the area.

Carbon said she would run for the seat in 2021.

The vote came after the two candidates, Carbon and Allison Russell, were interviewed and the board held an executive session.

Carbon is a member of the Samaritan Healthcare Foundation board and part of the community committee working on the new Samaritan hospital. She retired from her job as a math teacher at Moses Lake High School at the end of the 2019-20 school year, she said. She had been teaching at MLHS for 12 years.

Before her retirement, she was chair of the MLHS math department, and in that role she had to ensure everyone was heard, she said. That is, in her opinion, part of the job of a hospital commissioner, to ensure hospital employees and hospital district patrons are heard and made to feel the hospital supports the community.

She advocated more health education and additional partnerships with community organizations. Being out in the community, promoting the district and its services, she said, are among the most important things commissioners can do.

Carbon said she would like to see the hospital expand its service offerings, citing the pulmonary rehabilitation services as an example. Prior to its opening, patients had to go out of town to get similar services.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.