CEO Message

Debbi Lehner has enjoyed her first two weeks as Greeley County Health Services’ permanent Chief Executive Officer (CEO), moving with her husband Mark from Juneau, Alaska. “I feel that GCHS is a system that fits my talents – team building, morale building and making a real positive difference in the community.”

Lehner was born in Connecticut and moved to central Florida when she was 14. “We moved there the year Disney World opened, so it was actually a rural area at that time,” said Lehner, who graduated from DeLand High School in Deland, Florida. She completed a two-year radiologic technology program in Sanford, Florida, received an Associate of Science in Radiologic Technology from Valencia Community College in Orlando, and then a BS degree in Health Services Administration and an Master of Business Administration, both from the University of Central Florida.

During this time, Lehner was also working her way up the career ladder, beginning as a diagnostic imaging technologist, then a CT Technologist, Imaging Services Director, Administrator of Ancillary/ Support Services, Vice-President of Ancillary Services and finally as Chief Operating Officer. “I always looked at my bosses’ jobs and said ‘I could do that.’ I have always wanted to grow in my career.”

During the three years in her most recent job as COO of Juneau’s Bartlett Regional Hospital, which is also a QHR (Quorum Health Resources) facility, she was operationally and financially responsible for the non-nursing ancillary services including radiology. dietary, lab, and physical therapy as well as a $64 million construction project.

“I knew I wanted to be a CEO and began working through QHR to find a CEO job. I interviewed in Greeley County and am very pleased to be here.

“Coming to Kansas is coming home for my husband, Mark,” said Lehner. “He was born and grew up on a farm near Canton, Kansas, in McPherson County. He graduated from Emporia State University and works remotely online and travels, doing implementation for a financial software company, so he can live anywhere.”

Lehner has three grown children. Richard is a deputy sheriff in Sebastian, Florida, and is the father of the Lehners’ three-year-old “star” grandchild. Daughter Missi works as a nurse in Wichita, where she is also a master degree student at Wichita State. Alex is a senior at Florida State University and has the unique job of being a performer in the Florida State Circus. Lehner is thrilled that she will be able to see him perform later this spring.

In any spare time available, Lehner loves to decorate and renovate, and she and Mark are hoping to apply their skills to a house here in Tribune. In addition, she loves theater and the arts and has served on the boards of the Arts and Humanities Council in Juneau and the Orlando Theater Proect, and is very active in local and regional chapters of the American College of Healthcare Executives. And, of course, she loves spending time with her children and grandbaby.

When asked about her initial goals as CEO of Greeley County Health Services, she said, “I would like to build trust and pride with the staff and in the community, and gain financial stability. My first big initiative will likely be the Information Technology system and engaging all staff and employees in that culture shift. Also, I haven’t had a Long Term Care unit before, and I am really enjoying that. I attended a family dinner the other evening and it was wonderful.

“Everyone in the community has been very welcoming to me, from shaking hands in Gooch’s grocery store to the helpful employees at Dixon Drug to the friendly reception at the lumber yard. For Mark, who was raised in a small town, this is very familiar. I enjoyed the community informational meeting and dinner the other night, with board members in gloves actually serving hamburgers and beans – you don’t see that everywhere and it tells me a lot about this community. We are very glad to be here.”