Mid-Valley Health Care Advocates Nonprofit Board of Directors

Mark Weiss – Board Chair

My wife, Terry, and I came to Corvallis in 1976, when I attended graduate school in counseling. After graduation I became director of Corvallis Community Day Care. In 1982 I became the counselor at Old Mill School, where I helped initiate multiple programs for pre-school age children. In 1989 I became a counselor at Linn-Benton Community College where my responsibilities included career counseling, academic advising, crisis counseling, parent education classes, and being a consultant to the college’s child care center. Now in retirement, I teach child development at LBCC, play a lot of music, and coordinate the Best Cellar Coffee House.

My work at LBCC peaked my interest in health care in three different ways: 1) viewing first hand the terrible cost to both students and our culture, when accessing needed health care becomes impossible, causing some to drop out, lose their dreams, and in some cases, lose their life; 2) Realizing that an employment-based system of health care can bring terrible expense to employers causing them to struggle financially and have fewer jobs (and lower paying jobs) for college graduates; and 3) In teaching child development, I came across the research that of 38 developed nations studied, the United States was 38th in infant mortality. We have the most expensive health care system on earth, but lose more children in the first year of life than all of the other countries researched.

These are the kinds of shocking revelations that caused me to join the struggle to create universal health care.

Michael C. Huntington - Board Vice Chair

Mike grew up in Southern California. He attended Oregon State University and the University of Oregon Medical School, now Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU). He was an Army flight surgeon in Vietnam in 1969. He received his residency training at OHSU, was a Radiation Oncologist for 35 years, and served as Medical Director of the Radiation Oncology Department at Samaritan Regional Cancer Center in Corvallis from 1984 to 2006.

Toward the end of his career he noticed that patients were delaying or avoiding care because they feared the costs of care. Some of them came to the emergency room in crisis because of an advanced cancer. He’s been fighting for universal health care since his retirement in 2006. He is currently Vice Chair of Mid-Valley Health Care Advocates in Corvallis and Secretary for One Payer States

Karen Nelles - Treasurer

Karen grew up in Northern California and attended the University of Oregon and Oregon State University. She completed her dietetic internship at the University of Nebraska.

In 2017 she retired from Western Oregon University (WOU) where she served as the Foodservice Director for 36 years. She was responsible for the budget of two dining locations, for setting meal plan rates, supervising 120 staff, and managing a major remodel of the Residential Dining Facility. During the years working at WOU, one of Karen’s concerns was the rising cost of health insurance for staff. Meal plan prices for residential students were increased yearly to cover the cost of these employee benefits. Karen’s interest in universal health care for all centers on the rising cost of health insurance. Her hobbies include nutrition, dancing, food science, cooking, canning, and sewing.

Cathy Soward - Finance Chair

Cathy grew up in Portland, has lived in Corvallis for 30+ years, alum of OSU and PSU, is retired from HP, where she primarily worked in Finance, married to Chris for 43+ years with two wonderful daughters and two also wonderful sons-in-law, one granddaughter and another grandchild on the way, and one son who has passed away.

Following a personal health crisis in 2016, Cathy's medical bills totaled ~ $343,000. Thankful to have insurance, Cathy was still haunted by thoughts of people that didn't have insurance, who in a similar situation, would essentially be left with only 3 options: death without treatment, lifetime debt, or bankruptcy. A simple door hanger left by an MVHCA volunteer prior to the 2016 general election introduced Cathy to universal health care. and MVHCA.

Karen Christianson - Legislative Chair

My interest in health care reform is directly related to my experience as a lawyer. I saw many clients whose fear was to “loose everything” because of medical and nursing home bills. I advised many small businesses who offered no health insurance to their employees because they simply could not afford it. Business owners frequently had “high deductible” $5,000 deductible policies for themselves. The system that we presently have is chaotic, unaffordable to many and is inequitable. In the seven years since retirement, I have seen improvements in Oregon, but they merely eat away at the fringe of the problem. I remain committed to working for better health care for more people for less money.

Fritz Stephens-Tiley - Outreach Chair

Fritz Stephens-Tiley, CHPF has worked in the Healthcare Industry since 1984 beginning with working through college as a Phlebotomist at Salem Hospital.  His experience in the Healthcare Industry includes ambulatory care facility administration (physician practice, physical therapy, ambulatory surgery center, and imaging center), revenue cycle operations, Long Term Care licensing, Medicaid case management administration, and investigations of abuse and neglect of elders in all Long Term Care environments.  His current role is a Data Scientist developing medical provider reimbursement methodologies in the Workers Compensation Industry as well as payer policy compliance at a national level.

Holly Bendixon — Communications Chair

I’ve lived in Philomath Oregon for 42 years after relocating from Alaska. I grew up in California since the age of three and went to college there to complete my degrees. I worked in the natural resources field in California and Alaska in biology and environmental education and thought and hoped that I could save the world.  I’ve been married to my husband Jon for 47 years and we have one son, Michael.

In order to stay in Oregon my career took a major pivot to engineering and I worked at HP for 35 years where for the last 10 years I managed a learning product and training development department. I retired in 2020.

Our son Michael, his wife Allison and their 5 year old son live in Portland.

I love the natural world, birding and the ocean where I feel peace. I also enjoy art, painting, making jewelry and appreciating the work of others.

I was drawn to MVCHA after battling cancer since 2020 and experiencing the horror of navigating our medical system and how it impacted my treatment.

Linda Krygier - at large

Linda has lived in the Willamette Valley since mid-1992 when she moved her family here from the Sacramento Valley in California. She raised her two daughters here and now lives in Philomath with her husband, Steve Krygier, a Corvallis native. Linda’s career spanned 40 years and included over 10 years as a business and technology consultant for financial institutions where she had the opportunity to work with organizations of all sizes, both for-profit and non-profit, to improve operational efficiency and outcomes. Before retiring in 2020, Linda worked for nearly 5 years with a health insurer, gaining valuable insight into the operations and challenges of health insurance.

Linda became interested in health care reform during the debates over the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Ultimately, the ACA had an enormous positive impact on the lives of Linda’s loved ones but also provided subsidies to an ever more profitable health insurance industry. Political developments along with increased awareness of inequities in health care, privatization of Medicare, and takeover of healthcare providers by venture capitalists and others seeking only profit created the urgency that has led Linda to her active involvement in MVHCA.

Carol Gold - at large

Carol moved here in 2012 from State College, Pennsylvania, where she and her husband Dick had raised their family, and where Carol worked as a Senior Research Associate on the faculty of the Dept. of Biobehavioral Health at The Pennsylvania State University.

Her research endeavors took her to Sweden over many years, where she witnessed firsthand an excellent universal healthcare system. In State College she had also worked for a Volunteer Health Clinic that provided free medical and dental care, along with social service assistance, to local residents who had no medical insurance (and who earned less than 2x the federal poverty level). Her experiences with these “working poor individuals”, and her long held beliefs that everyone should have health care available to them, led her to join MVHCA at one of the first Farmers’ Markets she attended in Corvallis. Dr. Carol Gold has been busy working with the Outreach and Communication Committees.

Marisabel Gouverneur - at large

Marisabel is a retired nurse midwife who grew up in Venezuela, and has conducted midwifery training at many countries around the world. She is very concerned about the vast disparities in health care within our country and is passionate about removing those disparities.