Samaritan Regional Manager Named to Arts Center Board February 17, 2022 Samaritan’s Myranda “Mandy” Clark has been named to the board of directors at The Arts Center in Corvallis, which has provided art services to the region for 59 years. “I feel so excited,” said Clark, who believes her management experience with Samaritan will provide significant help on the board. “They’re trying to standardize processes and we are always working on standardization here at Samaritan,” she said. Clark, who currently serves as the Patient Access Regional Manager over Albany and Corvallis, credits CEO Doug Boysen with her budgeting abilities. “One of my friends said to me ‘budgeting is boring,’ and it made me laugh because that’s exactly what I want to do,” said Clark. “I love being a financial steward, especially right now in this leadership role. We’ve learned how to budget, how to improve and make process changes.” Clark can trace her love of art to growing up in an art-driven family in the rural Linn County farming community of Shedd. As a child, she had a passion for creative writing, drawing and playing the piano. As an adult she writes short fiction and poems and creates pillows, which she has sold online and at local craft markets. Currently, Clark has set aside her pillow work to concentrate on creative writing in a style called Flash Fiction. “I think it’s because word choice is so important to me,” Clark said. “I believe that there’s been times where somebody may have read a piece, either poetry or flash fiction or something, and it resonated so much that it made them happier, even just for that one day. I think that’s what art does.” The Arts Center provides services on behalf of the City of Corvallis Parks and Recreation Department. On their website the group says their mission is to inspire creativity and contribute to community well-being through equitable access to and engagement with the visual arts. Clark agreed to serve a three-year term on The Arts Center board because of their focus on justice, equity and transparency. “And I think that is a good fit,” said Clark. Along with her interest in the arts, Clark is a member of the LGBTQ community. This will allow her to bring diversity and a different perspective to her board service while helping to reinforce Samaritan’s strategic priority of creating strong community partnerships to help achieve its mission of building healthier communities together.
