Geeslin, who serves as executive director of the Texas Dental Association, was one of two candidates announced as finalists March 28. The other was Vanetta Abdellatif of Portland, Oregon, who is the executive director of integrated clinical services at the Multnomah County Health Department.
Central Health will now begin negotiations with Geeslin, who was picked following a search process that began in October after previous CEO Patricia Young Brown announced she would leave the position by the end of 2016. Young Brown has since become chief executive at Austin’s Thinkery museum.
Mike Geeslin[/caption]Neither Geeslin nor Abdellatif attended Friday's meeting.
Central Health hosted two "meet the candidates" events this week to let community members ask the finalists questions.
“Public service is a tremendous opportunity," Geeslin said during an event Monday. "If you look at what is happening here, just in terms of the transformation, but also what we’re doing to not just bring care to the uninsured or the low-income but changing the way it’s done, to me, it’s just a fabulous opportunity.”
Geeslin, who lives in Austin, also served as Texas Commissioner of Insurance from 2005-11. He earned a bachelor's degree in speech communications from Texas A&M University.
Central Health's board of managers selected B.E. Smith, an executive leadership placement company with headquarters in Lenexa, Kansas, to assist the search process back in October.
Laura Musfeldt, a vice president with B.E. Smith, said Friday her company looked for candidates that had leadership and executive experience with publicly funded organizations, public-private partnerships and public-academic partnerships.
Musfeldt said B.E. Smith leveraged its contacts in the health care industry to find candidates and made an effort to target Hispanic and African-American prospects. She said 200 people showed interest in the position.
Central Health selected members of the community to join a stakeholder group to provide input in December.
In March, a Central Health search committee comprising board managers Charles Bell, Katrina Daniel, Sheri Greenberg and Guadalupe Zamora interviewed seven candidates identified by B.E. Smith. The committee then named Abdellatif and Geeslin as finalists, Musfeldt said.
Daniel, who serves as board chairperson, said Friday she was pleased with the candidates brought forward by B.E. Smith.
"This is one of the most important decisions we'll make as Central Health board members," Daniel said in a statement released by Central Health following Friday's meeting. "We had many qualified candidates apply for this position, which shows how many people share our passion for making Travis County a model healthy community. In the end, we agreed Mike was the right choice at this time to lead Central Health into the future."
Austin resident Ofelia Zapata, one of two people who spoke during the meeting’s public comment period, said she did not think Central Health did enough to engage community members in the search process. Zapata said she believed there were other qualified people in Travis County who would have made better finalists.
“I don’t think there was real conversation with the community that’s going to be represented,” Zapata said.
Central Health did not release the names of any candidates besides Abdellatif and Geeslin, citing a need for candidates to keep their interest secret to protect their current employment.
The board deliberated in executive session Friday for about three hours before announcing a decision.
If Geeslin accepts the CEO position, he will take leadership of a public agency with a $240 million budget and tasked to provide health care for Travis County residents who lack adequate health insurance.
He will also take on oversight of Central Health's plan to redevelop the 14.3-acre University Medical Center Brackenridge campus in downtown Austin into a mixed-use district that could include commercial and residential development with a focus on health care service and research.
UMCB, which opened in 1970, will close once the new Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas opens May 21. The new teaching hospital is built on Red River Street property owned by UT, leased to Central Health and subleased to Seton Healthcare Family, which has covered the facility's $310 million development cost and will be the hospital's operator.
Geeslin will also lead Central Health's partnership with UT's Dell Medical School.
Travis County voters approved a ballot measure in 2012 to raise Central Health’s tax rate by 5 cents to 12.9 cents per $100 of assessed property value with the goal of improving local health care and supporting the medical school's creation.
Beginning in 2014, Central Health began sending the school $35 million in annual increments. That financial arrangement has come under criticism, although Central Health and Dell Medical School officials have defended the relationship as beneficial to local health care services and in line with Central Health's mission as Dell Medical School makes progress in supporting indigent care in Travis County.
On Monday, Geeslin said the partnership is "an important investment" but one that will require careful and continuous assessment.
“The way I look at it is you’ve got some tangibles that you’re going to be able to see in terms of the doctors that are going to be out in clinics treating people and transforming the way health care is delivered," he said.
