About Us
Board of Commissioners
Samaritan Healthcare (Grant County Public Hospital District Number 1) provides health care services for Moses Lake and the surrounding communities. The focus has been, and continues to be, to provide health care services that improve the well-being of the people of our community.
Our Board of Commissioners is a diverse collection of publicly elected citizens with an important goal in mind: to provide quality health care services that are in alignment with our mission, vision, and values. The five-person board of commissioners is an elected assembly with varying expertise. This compilation brings many viewpoints and provides an overall understanding of the health care field. Our board of commissioners meets monthly, as well as volunteering to attend various committees and community functions. They are an integral part of our community.
Katherine Christian, Board President
Katherine Christian has been the president of the board since January 2010. She held the position of board secretary from January 2007 through December 2009. Christian began serving on the Board of Commissioners in July of 2003. She grew up in Southern California and graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in developmental psychology in 1975. She completed her nursing training in 1978 and has worked in a variety of health care settings, including intensive care, home health, office nursing and teaching. She has been on the faculty of Big Bend Community College in the department of nursing since 2003, and completed her master’s degree in nursing education through the University of Phoenix in 2005. She became a certified nurse educator in 2007 and is currently the Director of Health Education Programs at Big Bend, overseeing the nursing programs and the Medical Assistant program.
Tom Frick, Secretary
Tom Frick has served on the Board since 1991. He was appointed to secretary of the board in April of 2010. He previously held the position of president of the board from January 2000 to January 2007. Frick grew up and lives in the northeast corner of the district, 11 miles south of Marlin and midway between Moses Lake and Odessa. He has farmed there since 1984, raising dry-land and irrigated wheat and barley. Before he began to farm, Tom earned a bachelors degree in aeronautics and astronautics from the University of Washington in 1974 and a masters degree in engineering mechanics from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1975. From 1975 to 1984, he worked as an engineering analyst at the applied physics laboratory of John Hopkins University.
Dale Paris, Member
Dale Paris was appointed to the board in August 2009 and ran in the November 2009 open election. Paris was born in Memphis, Tenn., and arrived in Moses Lake when his father was stationed at Larson Air Force Base in 1960. He received bachelors of arts degrees in business administration – personnel management (1974) and professional accounting (1989), both from Eastern Washington University. Dale worked for 30 years for the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, retiring in 2008. He held positions as auditor, regional audit supervisor, litigation specialist and legal manager for the Department
Alan White, Member
Alan White was appointed to the board in July of 2010. He was born in Minneapolis, Minn., spent some time in California and then lived in Boise, Idaho, before moving to the Columbia Basin in 1996. He received a bachelors of arts in education from Boise State University in 1979, and graduated from the University of Puget Sound Law School in 1982. Alan has practiced law for 28 years in Boise and Moses Lake. He has been in private practice and has worked for various government agencies as a prosecuting attorney and a public defender. His current practice emphasizes criminal defense and family law.
Julie Weisenburg, Member
Julie Weisenburg was appointed to the board in March 2011. Weisenburg was born in Yakima and moved to Moses Lake as a young child. She received her bachelor of arts degree in business administration with an emphasis on human resources and management from Washington State University in 1996. Weisenburg completed grad school and received her masters of business administration with emphasis on health care administration from Baker College in 2008. Weisenburg has worked in human resources in the health care setting for 15 years, 14 of which were here in Moses Lake, including three years at Samaritan Healthcare. Weisenburg accepted the position of human resources director with Moses Lake Community Health Center in the summer of 2000 and continues to work in this capacity. She has been an active member of the Samaritan Healthcare Foundation since 2006.