Frank Principi, a Woodbridge Supervisor, has announced that he has stepped down as the Executive Director of the Greater Prince William Community Health Center after seven years of service.
According to Paul Moessner, president of the health center’s board, Principi’s role as director was always meant to be a temporary one.
“We had a sit-down conversation about the things he’s looking to do, and things that [the center] is looking to do…[he] was brought on as a short-term rescue mission to decide whether or not we could be successful and go forward…and that was seven years ago. So we have moved significantly past that, and Frank has been just an absolute wonder…but it was time to move on,” said Moessner.
Moessner recalled the time when Principi first came on board, and how the center was struggling at that time.
“We worked very hard at [building the center] and I think structurally we had most of the right choices made, but we didn’t have the right [director] and at that time we were looking at scarce resources and were finding a difficult place to settle in…4 or 5 of us sat around my family room on a couple of weeks going, ‘Is this the week we have to close because we’ve run out of money,’” said Moessner.
Principi agreed that the director role was always meant to be temporary.
His job was initially to close the center, but after working with the patients, he decided to turn things around and make the health center a success.
“It’s been one of the most rewarding things I’ve done in my professional career. Seven years ago, I was asked to come in and close the center…walking through the waiting room every day on that short-term assignment, and looking at the faces of the people of our community…seeing those faces, I went to the board and asked them to change the assignment from closing the center to going to plan ‘B’ [to save the center],” Principi commented.
Principi said that over his time leading the Greater Prince William Community Health Center, they have seen enormous growth and success in the community.
“We’ve gone from 75 square feet of medical office space to 30,000 at two different locations. We’ve gone from 5 employees seven years ago, to 64 employees today. We served 800 patients in the first year of operations, and we’re anticipating that we’ll serve 16,000 patients. We have fought back valiantly, we’ve told our story in the community…and quite frankly after seven years, my job is done, and I’m looking to move on to bigger challenges,” Principi stated.
According to Principi, he is currently weighing his options professionally, but stated that he plans to stay in the non-profit world.
“I have a few opportunities that [I’m] exploring, and once that due diligence is complete I will be making an announcement publicly, but I will say I’m staying in the non-profit industry, and I’m going to be helping many larger numbers of people in our community,” commented Principi.
Paul Moessner said that the health center has launched a search for a new director, and the current interim director is Mary Ellen Bond, who is the operations director for the center.
“We had an announcement out for candidates for the Executive Director’s position…we have a number of people who have submitted [resumes]. Our board will sit down and make a selection from that. We’re not worried about being able to get a person with lots and lots of experience,” Moessner said.
Moessner commented that a decision for a permanent director would be made in the coming weeks.
