It is important to continue to have qualified women’s voices on the EvergreenHealth board of commissioners and the qualified voice of Rebecca Hirt is one we need to retain.

I have been lucky to have had the opportunity to work with Rebecca Hirt on the Evergreen Community Advisors since 2007.

Rebecca brings a wealth of experience and solid judgment to her job and her background as a medical technologist provides the board with analytical skills and health industry background. This is one of the many reasons voters should choose to re-elect Rebecca Hirt to the EvergreenHealth board of commissioners.

Women are often the ones making the health care decisions for their families and so it is important that the hospital board is gender-balanced to closely match our community’s demographics. Of the five current commissioners, only two are women.

If challengers in positions 2 and 5 win, there would be no women at all representing our community on the hospital board. This election is our opportunity to keep that balance.

Rebecca has shown continued commitment to the hospital and community through a period of population growth and changes in technology that better serve the hospital patients. At a time when we have seen many local hospitals struggle financially, merge with private hospitals, and patients experience a subsequent loss of access to reproductive care, Evergreen has not needed to go down that path.

During Rebecca’s tenure as a commissioner, EvergreenHealth has weathered a very difficult economy while maintaining excellent quality of care and staying in great financial condition. Please vote to continue this excellent leadership and re-elect Rebecca Hirt.

Shelley Kloba, Kirkland City Council