CRHL Alumni Spotlight - Julie Leonard

CRHL Alumni Spotlight - Julie Leonard

Julie Leonard, CFO of Cabinet Peaks Medical Center in Libby, Montana, exemplifies what it means to lead in rural health. Her hospital sits in a frontier region – more than 90 miles from the nearest tertiary care center – but is remarkably robust, offering cardiology, labor and delivery, rehabilitation services, and more.

Julie’s path to rural health care wasn’t one she ever expected. When asked if she thought she’d one day be a rural hospital CFO, she laughed and said, “No!”. She began her career in real estate, working for a company that developed subdivisions, then moved into finance at a large manufacturing firm before finding her way into health care. She loves the mental challenge of hospital financial accounting and shared that her work is “never boring.”

Her passion for rural hospitals has only grown since transitioning into health care. Julie recalled once driving a 180-mile round trip to bring a loved one to Cabinet Peaks for care. This experience reinforced the importance of local access in rural areas. She shared that “it’s personal in rural”, because staff know their community, and the community knows them. Julie shared that this sense of connection makes her work even harder, knowing how much her community relies on the hospital.

Julie was part of the inaugural NRHA Rural Hospital CEO Certification Cohort that launched in February 2020. Although a CFO by training, she pursued the program to better understand her CEO’s perspective and strengthen their partnership. During that time, she was asked to serve on an advisory board to help create NRHA’s Rural Hospital CFO Certification Program. Her insight and experience made her the natural choice to later lead the Program.

Reflecting on both her time as a participant and her current role as a program leader, Julie shared how much she valued connecting with and learning from other rural leaders. She remembers how relieving it was to learn “everyone had the same questions… and more importantly there was no shame in asking them.” Julie still keeps in touch with members of her CEO Cohort and sees the same level of trust and rapport be built with every new group of CFO Program participants.

Julie continues to recommend NRHA’s Certification Programs to her staff, board members, and colleagues, describing them as “here and now,” offering practical, relevant insights that reflect the ever-changing nature of health care. Among the many modules she’s completed, she highlighted the Physician Engagement module from the CEO program and the Insurance module from the CFO program as particularly valuable.

When asked what leadership advice she would share, Julie said “To be a leader, you have to be a listener. Listen to your people, listen to what they want. Listen.”