Nursing leadership: Giving a voice at every level

The recently announced leadership structural changes offer more opportunities for us to build stronger bonds with our frontline staff as well as nurses in other roles.

As you’re now aware, Asante leaders will have a greater presence in our hospitals. This includes redefined roles for me and Staci Sparks. Staci has accepted the role of chief nursing officer for Asante Three Rivers along with her current duties overseeing nursing operations for the system. She will maintain an office in Grants Pass and report to the hospital’s future chief executive with a dotted line reporting to me.

In turn, I now serve as chief nursing officer for Asante Rogue Regional and Asante Ashland in addition to my newly named role as chief nursing executive for Asante. I will maintain oversight of Nursing Professional Development. My office will be located inside ARRMC and I will spend time in Ashland every one to two weeks. In this role, I report to ARRMC Chief Executive Win Howard and system CEO Tom Gessel.

Staci and I welcome these changes and look forward to having assigned facilities, which allows us to be accessible, visible and present with clinicians. While we refocus on facility-based leadership, we will still carry forward Asante’s shared nursing policies, practices and philosophy.

For nurses who are new to the organization, Staci and I have included our brief biographies below.

Staci Sparks, RN

Building a high-caliber, collaborative nursing culture amid difficult times has been Sparks’ challenge since she first assumed a leadership role in June 2022. Known for staying calm and focused under pressure, her leadership style is direct, honest, respectful of differing opinions and oriented toward decisions that are best for nurses and for Asante.

Sparks was born at Asante Rogue Regional and was the first woman in her family to graduate from high school. She started her career at Asante 16 years ago as a certified nursing assistant in the Family Birth Center. After earning her bachelor’s in nursing from OHSU, she worked as a staff nurse and charge nurse in the ICU. Later, she received her master’s in nursing from Gonzaga University with an emphasis in health system leadership.

She has held progressively challenging leadership roles at Asante and was a director at ARRMC for five years before moving into larger roles, first as vice president of Nursing for the system and now as chief nursing officer for ATRMC.

Amanda Kotler, RN

As chief nursing executive for Asante, Kotler’s passion is giving nurses a voice at every level, be they RNs, LPNs or CNAs. Her heart-forward leadership approach is to listen, empathize, build trust, collaborate and find solutions that best serve all those at the table within the resources available.

She began her journey with Asante 17 years ago as a registered nurse in the Heart Center at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center, where she served in a variety of roles for five years. Since 2011, she’s been a clinical manager, director of Inpatient Nursing Services and vice president of Nursing, during which she was given oversight at Asante Ashland and Nursing Professional Development.

In May 2022, Kotler was named chief nursing officer for the health system and in November, system chief nursing executive and chief nursing officer at ARRMC and AACH.