After five years as the clinical leader of Volunteers in Medicine, John Letovsky, MD, has announced his retirement as Medical Director. Executive Director, Kat Mastrangelo, says, “John has done an outstanding job leading our clinical team through growth and has been a champion for clinical safety and quality improvement. We value his service and commitment to our patients.  It has been an honor to work with him.”

 Says Dr. Letovsky, “I am pleased to announce Heather Laird, ANP will be replacing me as Medical Director. She brings many years of experience and has dedicated her career to serving the people in our community most in need, including through her work volunteering at VIM since 2013. She will be a fine addition to the VIM Team, and we look forward to her young, enthusiastic leadership for years to come.”

“It has been a pleasure working with our amazing, skilled volunteers, board members, and staff”, says Dr. Letovsky. “Without their commitment, we could not have provided for our patients. When I look at the work VIM has done over the years, I am humbled by the small role I have played compared to the contributions form the entire community who are so dedicated to serving the most vulnerable in Central Oregon. I am proud to tell our generous donors that we truly stretched every dollar to provide quality, caring healthcare to our patients.  Working at VIM has been an experience like no other, and a path I will continue as a volunteer provider. From my heart, I thank all of you who care about VIM and made my last five years such a joy.”

The VIM community welcomes Heather Laird ANP, MS as VIM’s new Medical Director, beginning April 18th. Heather has been involved with community medical care since first moving to Bend in 2013. She began volunteering as a nurse practitioner at Volunteers in Medicine that same year, while working her full-time job in telemedicine. Heather’s desire to work with patients in person led her to Mosaic Medical, first at the Madras clinic, and more recently at their East Bend location.

Heather is a graduate of Whitman College and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua, where she became fluent in Spanish. Through her Peace Corps experience, she developed a desire to learn technical skills to help her community, inspiring her to attend the University of Washington for a Masters of Science in Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, after which she obtained her Adult Nurse Practitioner degree from University of California at San Francisco. Heather says, “I am looking forward to harnessing my experience and education to help the underserved in Central Oregon through my role at Volunteers in Medicine.”

In her free time, Heather enjoys the company of her husband, two young children, and their pit-mix, Olive. They favor using bikes and skis to explore, and call themselves amateur gardeners, growing as many fruits and vegetables as the short Central Oregon growing season allows.

About Volunteers in Medicine Clinic of the Cascades

 Volunteers in Medicine Clinic of the Cascades (VIM) is a nonprofit clinic in Bend that provides free medical care to low-income, uninsured adults from working families in Central Oregon. Our mission is “to improve the health and wellness of the medically uninsured or critically underserved through the engagement of professionals, community partners, and dedicated volunteers.” VIM is the only clinic in Central Oregon that cares for the uninsured without charge. Patients receive primary and specialty medical care, medications, mental health care, surgery, physical therapy, lab work, medical tests, and education programs. All care is provided through medical and support volunteers. www.vim-cascades.org