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Rocking Horse Community Health Center Chief Executive Officer Chris Cook will leave his position at the end of the month.
Cook has served in his job since April 2014, replacing former CEO Dana Engle. He’s leaving for a position with the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Division.
A Kenton Ridge High School and Wright State University graduate, Cook previously served as the Miami County health commissioner for three years.
“It’s going back into public health where I started and spent 12 years,” Cook said. “It was a hard decision. I had a lot of nights with my wife Jill talking about it trying to decide what the next step is for our path. When it came down to it, we just felt it was in the best interest to make the move when it presented itself.”
Over the past two years, Cook and his staff have added more than $1 million in new funding to the health center, said Rocking Horse Board President Gus Geil, including a $650,000 grant to open a new facility inside the Madison County Health Partners Free Clinic on the campus of the Madison Health hospital in London. It has provided more than 1,500 medical visits since it opened.
“Chris came in and changed the culture of the organization and provided the style of leadership that we needed at the time,” Geil said.
Rocking Horse will begin seeking a replacement for Cook in the coming weeks, said outgoing board President Rob Baker.
“Replacing Chris will be very difficult. He has contributed a great deal to the organization and the community,” Baker said. “We will be seeking someone to carry on the rich history and mission of Rocking Horse Center. That’s what our patients deserve.”
Rocking Horse, which opened in 1999, currently has 140 employees at its four locations in Clark County and Madison County, including offices at Keifer Academy and the Mulberry Terrace apartment complex. In 2013, the organization completed an $8 million expansion at its facility near downtown Springfield. The Rocking Horse Center serves more than 12,000 patients annually and provided about 51,000 doctor visits last year.
The number of visits is expected to increase by 20 percent this year, Cook said, which will likely be the largest in its history. They’ve also applied for a grant to provide dental services, which, if approved, could begin later this year.
“It’s going to be a huge advancement for the community and some of the things that were identified as big needs that were identified by the community health assessment,” Cook said.
The staff at the Rocking Horse has been the best part of his time in Springfield, Cook said. They will continue to live out the mission to serve the community, he said.
“I was amazed when I came here two years ago of the passion present here,” Cook said. “They’re the biggest asset to the community, the people working here.”
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