November 15, 2006
Gene Peltola, YKHC President/CEO
Gene Peltola, President and CEO of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation, received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Alaska Federation of Natives convention on October 28 in Anchorage.
Born in Bethel and raised in Nyac, Peltola is the son of Ray Peltola and Kathryn Hoffman. He is married to the former Eirma Kaganak of Scammon Bay. The Peltolas have three children, Gene Peltola, Jr. of Fairbanks, Tiara Peltola of Anchorage and Shana Peltola of Bethel.
Peltola was hired as President/CEO of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation in 1990, having been president of the Association of Village Council Presidents and manager of Bethel’s ANICA grocery store.
Peltola assumed the reins of YKHC after a troublesome two years, which saw the near demise of the organization. Under his leadership, the organization was quickly turned around. Within 18 months of being hired he had positioned YKHC to assume management and operation of the Indian Health Service’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Regional Hospital. Once consolidation of the hospital into the YKHC structure was complete, all Indian Health Service programs and services were, for the first time, under control of the region’s stakeholders—the Alaska Native people.
“It is the employees of YKHC that have contributed to the success of this organization,” said Peltola. “It is my honor to work with individuals committed to working together to achieve the mission of YKHC and serve the people of the YK Delta.”
Under his leadership YKHC has continued to grow with expanded program services such as the Aniak, St. Mary’s, Emmonak and Toksook Bay subregional clinics. Annual Tribal Gatherings were initiated in the mid-1990s so that the corporation could hear directly from its customer/owners—the village tribal governments throughout the region—what service improvements and new programs were of highest priority. In response to these priorities, YKHC redesigned outpatient services at the Bethel hospital, improved medevac services, secured funds for new village clinics, and led efforts to improve village sanitation.
With the establishment of the Alaska Native Health Compact, constituent tribes gained control over how Indian Health Service dollars were spent, clearing the way for the implementation of programs more relevant to the healthcare needs of the population. Peltola’s leadership helped carry these efforts forward, not only in the Y-K Delta, but statewide as well.