LIBERTY- Karen Holden has been named acting director of Sullivan County’s Office of Public Health, a role she assumed on March 3rd.
Holden graduated from the former Narrowsburg High School (now part of Sullivan West) as salutatorian and spent the next four years earning her bachelor’s in nursing at St. John Fisher College in Rochester.
Holden began her career as a nursing assistant and then registered nurse at Wayne Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania. She spent nearly two decades with Garnet Medical Center-Catskills (then known as Community General Hospital of Sullivan County and Catskill Regional Medical Center), first as a charge RN in the emergency room, then as director of Staff Development, Education and Training, as administrator of Quality Management, Performance Improvement and Risk Management, and finally as an educator at and director of the hospital’s well-regarded 64-bed Skilled Nursing Unit. During that period, she also was an infection preventionist and created the hospital’s Bariatrics Program.
“I always wanted to help people, to give them the dignity, respect and compassion that they deserve,” said Holden. “It’s incredibly humbling when you have an ability to change lives for the better.”
Holden joined Sullivan County Public Health in 2018 as its coordinator of Quality and Training. Just a few months later, she became the director of Patient Services, then the Supervisor of Epidemiology – on March 13, 2020, the day the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns began. In February 2022, Holden was named deputy director of Public Health.
“Karen is the kind of leader that draws people to her because she’s always invested in their well-being,” said County Manager Josh Potosek. “The County is fortunate to have her leading Public Health at this time.”
