Dennis Knox
President & Chief Medical Officer of MCMC
Dennis Knox has more than four decades of experience as a healthcare executive. He joined MCMC in 2017. Immediately prior to joining MCMC, Dennis served as the CEO and co-founder of Urgent Point, a national urgent care company, and previously was the CEO of Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster, California. His experience in healthcare includes over 35 years at the CEO level and has included for-profit and not-for-profit healthcare companies, including operating multi-hospital sites, academic medical centers and safety-net hospitals.
During his career, Dennis has established a reputation for successfully creating organizational cultures of performance, accountability and positive attitude throughout the hospital community as well as improved, sustainable bottom-line results in highly competitive environments. He also has a proven track record of establishing cultures of delivering high-quality and safety while leading financial and regulatory turnarounds.
Dennis is a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives and holds both a Master of Healthcare Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in management science from Duke University, which he attended on a football scholarship and was a three-sport letterman.
Robb Van Cleave
Chair, MCMC Board of Trustees
Robb Van Cleave was named Board Chair in 2022. He brings to this role extensive experience as a not-for-profit board leader at the state, national and international levels. His experience includes serving two terms as a gubernatorial appointment to the SAIF Corporation Board of Directors as well as serving on the Wounded Warrior Project national Board of Directors and the Society for Human Resource Management international Board of Directors.
He has held a wide variety of executive positions with organizations including Wasco County, Columbia Gorge Community College, Oregon’s Local Government Personnel Institute and the Association of Oregon Counties and is currently employed by Klickitat County. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Oregon State University.
Nolan Young
Vice Chair, MCMC Board of Trustees
Nolan Young was elected Vice Chair in 2022. He is a longtime resident of The Dalles and brings to the board four decades of experience in public administration. He has worked for five cities during his career: Milton-Freewater, Oregon; Clinton, Utah; Reedsport, Oregon; The Dalles, and he recently retired as the City Manager of Fairview, Oregon.
Nolan is currently volunteering as a Senior Advisor in Eastern Oregon for the International City Managers Association. He has a Master of Public Administration degree from Brigham Young University. Young and his wife, Geo, have three children who all graduated from The Dalles High School.
Paul Cardosi
Trustee
Dr. Paul Cardosi has been a member of the MCMC Board since 2007. He received his medical degree from Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and moved to Oregon to do his residency as the Chief Resident at OHSU’s Internal Medicine program. He is passionate about ensuring quality and comprehensive health care is available in the Mid-Columbia region making sure that this care is not only optimally available but is also of the highest quality. Dr. Cardosi and his wife Dr. Miriam McDonell keep very busy with their three children and enjoy the great outdoors.
Janet Hamada
Trustee
Janet Hamada was born and raised in Chicago but spent her childhood summers visiting her grandparents in the Gorge. She has a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Wesleyan University and her Master of Social Work from the University of Washington. Since 2007, Janet has been the Executive Director of The Next Door, Inc., the largest human services organization in the Gorge, which serves thousands of people annually in a seven-county region.
Bill Ketchum
Trustee
Bill Ketchum has been a member of the Board since 2020. He is the operations manager for Crestline Construction, a local heavy civil construction company, and has more than 25 years of construction experience in both heavy civil and vertical construction, specializing in the management of fast track, complex construction with limited resources. Bill’s brings to the Board significant knowledge in both construction and managing large complex projects with resource constraints. Bill and his wife Jodi, an elementary educator for North Wasco County School District 21, have four children. Bill was raised in The Dalles and is a graduate of Wahtonka High School and Oregon State University.
Suzanne Knapp
Trustee
A resident of Maupin, Suzanne Knapp recently served as Maupin City Councilor for two terms and is currently the chair of the board of directors for the White River Health District and Deschutes Rim Clinic Foundation where she is overseeing the capital campaign for and construction of a new clinic. She previously served on the board for the Mid-Columbia Economic Development District representing Wasco County cities.
A natural-resources professional, Suzanne has worked most of her career for the State of Oregon having served as a research project leader, Watershed District Manager, and a Natural Resource Policy Advisory in the Kulongoski Administration. She was the lead representative for Oregon in the Klamath River Restoration Agreement and co-lead in the state’s salmon recovery efforts. Suzanne earned a master’s degree from Eastern Washington University and bachelor’s degrees from Boise State University and The College of Idaho.
Victor Mondragon
Trustee
Victor Mondragon joined the Board in 2021. He was born and raised in The Dalles and grew up working with his parents in the local seasonal cherry harvests. After receiving his bachelor’s degree from Oregon State University in 2014, Victor returned to the Gorge with the goal of giving back to the same community that helped raise him. He brings to the MCMC Board a background in social services with expertise in serving sexual and domestic violence survivors in rural communities. Victor currently works at the Hood River County Public Health Department as an outreach and enrollment specialist for the Oregon Health Plan. He is also a volunteer for the Hood River County Migrant and Seasonal Workers Task Force COVID-19 response team.
Michele Spatz
Trustee
Michele Spatz is Community Engagement Coordinator for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM) “All of Us” initiative. NNLM is the community outreach arm of the National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine. Michele serves in the NNLM Pacific Northwest office located on the University of Washington campus, Seattle, and works remotely from her home in White Salmon. Prior to joining NNLM, Michele led an interdisciplinary approach to health literacy at Pacific University; consulted for Planetree, the international healthcare organization advocating patient-centered care of which MCMC is a member; and was founding director of MCMC’s Planetree Health Resource Center, a consumer health library, which she led for almost 20 years. Michele is the author of national publications on consumer health information, including Answering Consumer Health Questions: The Medical Library Association Guide for Reference Librarians and The Medical Library Association Guide to Providing Consumer and Patient Health Information. Michele and husband Dan have two daughters, both of whom are graduates of The Dalles High School.
Dr. Frank Toda
Trustee
Dr. Frank Toda was born and raised in The Dalles, Oregon. He earned a Bachelor and Master of Business Administration from the University of Portland, and a Master of Science in Systems Management the University of Southern California. He also earned his and PhD in Education at USC. Dr. Toda has excelled at a wide range of executive administrative positions including Air Force Colonel and Chief Operating Officer in Defense Contract Management. He recently retired from his position as President of Columbia Gorge Community College. In addition to serving as MCMC Board Trustee, Dr. Toda has served on the Mid-Columbia Health Foundation Board since 2003.