Your path: Barker Named PR Director
Gina Barker Named PR Director for Northern Montana Hospital
Excerpt from an article by Tim Leeds in the Havre Daily News, July 8, 2008.
Northern Montana Hospital is showing a new face for public relations. Kathie Newell, after 18 years in the hospital's position, has left her job as marketing and public relations director. Gina Barker has taken over in that position.
Barker, who grew up in Southern California and moved to the Seattle area in 1979, moved to Whitefish in 1990 with her family after they vacationed in that area. Most recently, she spent two years publicizing the opening of North Valley Hospital in Whitefish and as public relations consultant for the City of Whitefish.
In Bremerton, Wash., and in Whitefish, Barker worked for some 20 years as an administrative assistant and project manager for a family-owned contracting business, which she says gives her many experiences similar to what she now does for Northern Montana Hospital. After her sons left home, she went back to college and received a bachelor's degree in public relations and marketing from Marylhurst University.
She said her work with the public will include letting people know about the health care providers at Northern Montana Health Care — "not just their services but as people" — and about new and existing services at the hospital, including the Sletten Cancer Center, scheduled to be completed this fall.