A health care professional is challenging a marketing specialist for her seat on the WhidbeyHealth Board of Commissioners.

Clinton resident Marion Jouas is facing off against Morgan Cooper, a Langley resident, in the race for Position 1 on the public hospital district board. Cooper was appointed earlier this year to the seat vacated by longtime hospital commissioner Grethe Cammermeyer.

The former vice chair for the Island County Republican Party, Cooper has only ever run for office one other time to be a precinct committee officer. She is currently the owner of Image Builders Marketing Services and the program director for a weight loss clinic in Oak Harbor. She has served as the clinic administrator for the bariatric program at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, and before that, the bariatric clinic director for North Valley Plastic Surgery in Phoenix, Arizona.

This year marks the first time Jouas has ever run for public office. She is a retired registered nurse with over 40 years of experience, 21 of which she spent serving in the Air Force. She’s worked in both military and civilian health care systems and has a degree in health systems management.

By joining the WhidbeyHealth Foundation, Jouas said, she has learned a lot about the hospital district from the inside. The foundation, which is a nonprofit organization, raises money for equipment and improvements for WhidbeyHealth. Jouas has served as the board’s president for the past three years.

She was also part of a levy lid lift committee for the hospital district in 2021. She is passionate about keeping quality, independent health care on Whidbey Island.

“I feel it’s incumbent upon us to keep that legacy going so that health care is on the island here for the next 50 years for our children and grandchildren,” she said.

She believes it is important for there to be a member with a medical background on the hospital district’s board of commissioners.

“Commissioners have been behind their desk a little too much over the last eight years that I’ve lived here, and I feel they need to be out in the public more and doing advocacy work and talking about the good things WhidbeyHealth is doing, the services they offer and almost more importantly, listening to the community’s concerns,” Jouas said.

Cooper said she is seeking election to continue the work she has been doing as part of the board.

“I want to help us move this rural hospital in a positive direction,” she said. “And I believe we’re turning that ship now.”

She is also no stranger to the health care system, and has helped build a practice from scratch in her past work.

“I’ve been active in establishing best practices, employee engagement, while managing quality care for patients for a very long time,” Cooper said.

As part of the hospital’s board of commissioners, she has served on finance and quality of care improvement committees, which she believes are equally important at WhidbeyHealth.

She said the board has been able to identify $9 million in funding that was not applied for during the COVID-19 pandemic that is available for the hospital.

The two candidates shared similar stances on some of the challenges the hospital district has faced over the previous few years, from inadequate finances under past CEO leadership to low insurance reimbursement rates to the board’s transparency.

Both women shared concerns about the high percentage of Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare users accessing WhidbeyHealth and costing the hospital district money due to low reimbursement rates.

In regards to the Open Public Meetings Act issues the board has faced in the past, Jouas suggested appointing one of the commissioners to act as the parliamentarian who is well versed in the rules and helps oversee meetings.

Cooper also agreed that transparency is important and said the board has been receiving training on this subject.

Marion Jouas