`An important thing to be part of'; Obenauer helps guide rural North Dakota hospital through tough times.(Special Feature: Trustees of the Year 2008)(Christie Obenauer of Sakakawea Medical Center )(Occupation overview)

Modern Healthcare, February, 2008 by Wilson, Linda

Byline: Linda Wilson

Shortly after her first, tumultuous, five-hour board meeting in 2003 at then-struggling Sakakawea Medical Center in Hazen, N.D., Christie Obenauer discovered she was pregnant with her third child.

Obenauer, 35, who also is a vice president at Union State Bank in the town, wasn't sure she had the energy to stick with the hospital. She recalls, "A lot of nights you leave those long board meetings and go, `Why am I doing this? It is stressing me out.' ''

She not only stayed but also became board president in 2006. "Knowing how important-because I grew up here and was born in the hospital-that organization is to the health of the community ... I knew it was an important thing to be a part of.''

For her...

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