BY PHILIP GURSKY
Los Alamos

I am pleased to be able to take this opportunity to endorse and recommend that on April 5, the Council appoint Keith Lepsch to fill the current vacancy on County Council.

I first met Keith about a decade ago, as board members on the Los Alamos Heart Council, of which I am president. Keith provided a welcome thoughtfulness, medical practice experience perspective and willingness to volunteer to get done whatever was necessary. 

Keith is currently a flight nurse for Classic Air Medical, the medical helicopter service here. He began working in Los Alamos in 2007 and moved here in 2012. He has a wife who is a nurse and is soon to complete her training as a nurse practitioner, and they have a 7 year old son. They enjoyed Los Alamos enough that, with the impending birth of their son, they encouraged his parents to move here, and they have too have become active members of the community.

Keith has a strong management and budget background as director of surgical services at Los Alamos Medical Center for 5 years, and director level positions at other hospital facilities before that, prior to going to Classic Air Medical. He has extensive experience in a team working environment as a paramedic, ICU nurse, on a post-operative surgical recovery team and in flight medical services. He has excellent collaborative skills in working to get things done. 

Keith will bring the perspective of a person with a family with a young child growing up here. He has a strong medical and health care background in a time where health services need to be seriously evaluated and upgraded. And, as someone who has worked in the private sector here in Los Alamos, has a fresh view of Los Alamos different from those whose careers are tied to Los Alamos National Laboratory.

I look forward to his wide ranging experience, love of Los Alamos and all it has to offer, perspective as a family with a young child and his openness to look at, with a view towards efficiency and transparency, all County operations. Keith Lepsch would be a credit to the County Council and the community if appointed to fill the current vacancy.