Kalahar named DCMH manager of marketing and education

Patti KalaharPatti Kalahar is Delta County Memorial Hospital's new marketing and education manager, replacing 29-year veteran hospital employee Kathy Sramek, announced Jason Cleckler, the hospital's CEO and chief clinical officer.

Kalahar brings 35 years of professional marketing and communications expertise to the position.

For eight years she was the director of community relations for Holy Cross Hospital in Taos, N.M., which is a rural, 49-bed, not-for-profit hospital with many similarities to the community hospital in Delta.

"I feel I have some huge shoes to fill as Kathy Sramek has an exceptional reputation of successful outcomes, and she had a great deal of responsibility," Kalahar said. Kalahar will be responsible for the hospital volunteers, volunteer chaplain program and the hospital foundation, in addition to public relations, marketing and education for the hospital.

Kalahar started her professional career as a member of the print media working for the Evergreen Canyon Courier as a sports reporter during high school, and at the Fort Collins Coloradoan newspaper during college at Colorado State University. Following graduation with a B.A. in technical journalism, she worked in Shelby, Mont., for a weekly newspaper in advertising, the Record Stockman livestock weekly newspaper as an associate editor and the Nebraska Stock Growers Association in Alliance, Neb., as the communications director. For five years she was the director of marketing and recruitment at Colorado Northwestern Community College in Rangely. She has owned a marketing and communications consulting firm in the Denver metro area serving clients such as engineers, architects, contractors, and attorneys.

Kalahar grew up around Orchard Mesa in Grand Junction and attended elementary school in Rifle. As a Colorado native, she commented that she feels like she is coming home to the Western Slope.

"We are enthusiastic about the professional marketing background Patti Kalahar brings to Delta County Memorial Hospital and are looking forward to hearing some fresh marketing ideas from her," Cleckler said.

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