Rhonda Mason, Chief Nursing Officer: As a registered nurse for over 30 years, I have spent the majority of my carrier in management and all of it in the hospital setting.  My career started in Seattle, Washington. I quickly discovered I enjoyed being a generalist, never really specializing in any clinical area. Over the first 10 years of my career, I worked in Seattle and Honolulu trying out many different departments as well as middle management and House Supervisor roles.

The big city was my life until 3 small children and my “small-town” husband brought me to rural Washington state where I enjoyed 18 years as the Quality Director and then CNO of a busy critical access hospital. I learned to love rural healthcare and when I felt it was time to make another change, rural Arizona was exactly the right place.  I have been the CNO at Cobre Valley Regional Medical Center, in Globe, for just over 2 years.

I am inspired by people who choose to serve rural, and quite often, social-economically challenged communities.  I have found a new home that professionally pushes me to think “outside the box” and this gives me great satisfaction. Rural healthcare allows me to be closer to patients and staff, feeling that I have a greater impact on the care we provide to our community.