Photo by Jill Schramm Stephanie Everett, foundation director at Mountrail County Medical Center, stands next to foundation plaques June 24 in the clinic lobby at the medical center. She also is public relations and marketing director and administrator-in-training.

STANLEY – Stephanie Everett’s enthusiasm for the Mountrail County Health Foundation’s latest project to impact youth mental health is matched only by the energy she pours into her work to support the local medical center.

“I believe in this facility,” she said. “I firmly believe that we could be one of the best health centers in North Dakota.”

Everett, who has been director of the foundation in Stanley for six years, also wears the hat of public relations and marketing director and more recently added administrator-in-training for Mountrail County Health Center to her title.

When the previous administrator – the third CEO in five years – announced his retirement last October, Everett grew serious about taking the administrator training. She hopes that by sinking her roots back into her home area she might bring continuity.

She graduated from Stanley High School and attended the University of North Dakota, earning a degree in marketing and public relations. She and her husband, a chiropractor, spent time in Minneapolis and Texas.

“So I lived half my life away from here,” she said. “We moved back here because we wanted to be around family. We wanted to raise our boys in North Dakota. This is my home.”

Commuting from Minot while building a house in Stanley, Everett juggles family and the three different aspects of her job. She expects to complete her project-based, 480 hours of administrative training through the National Long-term Care Association by the end of the year. She trains under her preceptor Dan Kelly, CEO at McKenzie County Health Center in Watford City, and Ben Bucher, CEO at Towner County Medical Center in Cando. Bucher comes to Stanley about four times a month as interim CEO for the health center.

“I have two of the best administrators in the state to train under, so I am really lucky,” Everett said.

In addition, Mountrail County Health Center and its foundation both have a lot on their plates these days.

Rosen Place, a new assisted living center, is to open in August. Then planning will start on a new 48-bed nursing home to replace the aging, existing facility. Ground-breaking could happen in about two years, Everett estimated.

She and her husband both had grandparents who had lived in the Mountrail Bethel Home, so she understands the significance of having a modern, home-like environment for residents.

“That’s what our community deserves to have,” Everett said.

The foundation has raised $10 million in five years toward projects that have included an emergency room remodel, enclosed ambulance bay, CT scanner suite, chapel expansion and assisted living center. It expects to raise millions more for a new nursing home and independent living center.

The foundation also looks to help fund and coordinate an initiative to address suicide and mental health issues among young people in the health center’s service area. Everett said a community survey and community meetings revealed this past year that mental health is a priority concern.

“We already had been kind of diving into mental health,” she said. “The foundation helped bring in a counselor for the school year, and then the school board has gotten involved, and they’ve actually have gotten some grants to bring in telemedicine to the school for mental health.”

This past school year, the foundation supported an event in the five schools in its region at which Jeff Yalden, a mental health and motivational speaker, met with staff and students. The foundation will be bringing Yalden back this fall.

Representatives of the health center, schools, Trinity Health, state Department of Public Instruction, Mountrail County state’s attorney’s office and others had met with Yalden this past spring to begin planning a mental health strategy.

“Once this breaks loose, it’s going to be a beast, but I want it to be a beast,” Everett said. “In order to make it what we want it, we’re not going to go in with a pinky in the water. We are going to just jump right in, feet first and go.

“I also thank foundation board that they’ve allowed me to be really outside the box, and they’ve allowed me to just go. It will be a lot of work, but it’s worth it,” she added.

Foundation president Wade Enget said when mental health concerns rose to priority level, it was a wakeup call for the foundation board to look outside its facility walls.

“Stephanie was a big driver in that. It’s not only her passion but her ability to pull people together, set time lines, follow up and deliver the product. I think it’s admirable and something that stands out,” Enget said.

He added Everett isn’t afraid to bring up new ideas and have frank conversations with the foundation board even while respecting the board’s decisions. She also has a knack for getting people behind projects and gently reminding them of commitments, ensuring that, at the end of the day, projects come to fruition, he said.

“She has a lot of energy,” he said, “but she brings a passion for the area. She brings a passion for service. She also is a person that doesn’t mind facilitating things, especially that are new and kind of on the edge of what we normally would just sit back and do.”

Everett said the direction taking shape around mental health is a hub-and-spokes approach. One of the spokes is a youth leadership program in the schools, which is currently being written specifically for area schools by a Minneapolis consultant. Another spoke is professional mental health services.

“As a medical center, we know that we have to address it, and we have to figure out how to take care of our own county,” Everett said. “We as a medical center need to train our providers, inside of our building, to help our our patients, because there’s just not enough mental health specialists.”

The foundation expects to play a role in funding and coordination of efforts to improve mental health outreach and access in the region.

The foundation is in the process of hiring a coordinator who can work on the mental health initiative, coordinate events at the health center and also assist with marketing and public relations. Although she welcomes the help, Everett has no plans to hand over any job titles, even once licensed as an administrator, because she believes having a hand in each of the areas brings cohesiveness to the effort. Besides, she’s enjoys it too much to not be involved.

“I am going to keep it all, because I love my current job,” she said.

(Prairie Profile is a weekly feature profiling interesting people in our region. We welcome suggestions from our readers. Call Editor Mike Sasser at 857-1959 or Regional Editor Eloise Ogden at 857-1944. Either can be reached at 1-800-735-3229. You also can send email suggestions to msasser@minotdailynews.com.)