Region's health board chose wisely
Unsuspecting prey can too easily get snapped up in a pandemic’s jaws.
Don Duffy? He’s neither unsuspecting nor anybody’s prey.
He’s the newly named director of Panhandle Health District, having outgrown the “interim” title he’d been toting around since the end of June. We have several thoughts on the appointment of Duffy to the helm of an agency whose importance to everyone in the five northernmost counties was probably underestimated until COVID-19 rocked the world.
Duffy has both the educational and professional background you look for in someone as the chief administrator of a health district. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees capped with an MBA, then launched into a sterling career in health care that included owning his own highly esteemed business.
He’s worked at PHD over the past seven and a half years, so he knows the organization and everybody in it intimately. Learning curve? Not for this guy. His understanding of PHD, its mission, its personnel, its public and the region as a whole is about as strong as it could be.
But what you can’t find on his website bio or LinkedIn profile are attributes that will serve him — and all North Idaho citizens — well.
Duffy is an outstanding listener. He’s a superb practitioner of Stephen Covey’s “seek first to understand, then to be understood” habit, naturally putting people at ease and feeling — correctly — that their message has been heard. Duffy also easily deflects credit to those with whom he works and absorbs the various layers of blame without flinching or getting defensive.
There’s a quiet integrity about the man that’s reassuring. There’s also a sense that he will treat everyone well, that he respects all backgrounds and viewpoints, and that he will perform efficiently and effectively without bias.
Want proof? Well, how many people do you know who earned degrees at Brigham Young University in the cradle of the LDS faith and finished with an MBA at Jesuit-enriched Gonzaga University? Who knows if he’s a Democrat, Republican or some other political flavor? For that matter, when BYU plays the Zags in basketball, who’s he rooting for?
The point is, Don Duffy is superbly equipped to help the region get through what we all hope is the last big battle against COVID-19, in part because he is a highly respected unifier, not a divider. We applaud the health board for his selection last week; they chose wisely.
Finally, we wish Don success, especially over the next few months, when COVID-19 could hit all-time highs. You should wish the best for him too, because the better he and his team perform, the sooner we can all get back to normal.