By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

Don Kashevaroff, who is involved in several leadership entities of Alaska Native medical services, will succeed Paul Sherry beginning June 1 as chief executive officer of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.

Sherry, who has held the post for a decade, is stepping down to focus on development of key consortium initiatives as a health system strategist. Among those initiatives are deploying electronic medical records systems in all Alaska Native medical facilities, and a system for exchanging health records in a secure, confidential manner between health care providers, Sherry said.

Lincoln Bean of Kake vice chairman of the consortium board, will fill Kashevaroff's post as chairman and president of the consortium until the board meets to select Kashevaroff's successor in mid-June.

The consortium offers statewide services including medical care, water and sanitation, community health and research, distribution of medical supplies, information technology and statewide recruiting for health care services.

Kashevaroff is currently the president of the Seldovia Village Tribe on the Kenai Peninsula, and chairs the Seldovia Native Association Inc., an Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act corporation with land, resource and tourism ventures. His career experiences include strategic planning, grant writing, business planning and management consulting.

Kashevaroff currently serves on the Alaska Native Health Board, the Denali Commission's health steering committee, the information systems advisory committee of the Indian Health Service, and the Alaska Native Medical Center joint operating board. He also chairs the IHS Tribal Self-Governance Advisory Committee.

Sherry has served as chief executive officer of the consortium since its formation in February 1998. Prior to that he worked with the Tanana Chiefs Conference Department of Health Services in Fairbanks from 1974 until 1993, then became the deputy director of the Alaska Native Health Board in Anchorage from 1993 until 1997.

Sherry said he felt the transfer of the Alaska Native Medical Center from a U.S. Public Health Service facility to Alaska Native ownership was among his major accomplishments.

He also oversaw a major multi-year initiative to replace village clinics and hospitals, improve education for village health care providers and get dental therapists into the villages. From 2000 to 2006, the consortium worked on a $30 million telemedicine project in cooperation with federal health officials.

Sherry said several Alaska Native corporations are now getting involved in the services of long-term care, skilled nursing facilities, assisted living homes, hospice and home health care.

“They will always try to accommodate the larger needs of the community,” he said.

A lot of Alaska Natives currently go to non-Native providers in urban areas. New Native health facilities are being built in Kotzebue and Bethel, and there are plans for more in Anchorage, he said.

In his new post, Sherry said he will organize providers with common interests to move forward as teams. He also plans to keep working on expanding village-based health care, behavioral health and dental health.

Sherry said one of the greatest unmet needs is sufficient resources to keep up and maintain the medical program in place.

“We need to sustain the services that we have,” he said.

Other needs are a continued investment in the environmental health infrastructure for villages and improving personal health, he said. The last includes programs to help people stop smoking, improve health and nutrition, and for swimming and bicycling safety, “all to help people live in a healthy way,” he said.

“The system pays for people to be repaired,” he said. “It doesn't pay for people to stay healthy.”

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.