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La Clinica director says adios photo by Bob Pennell Rogue Valley health care professionals credit Polly Williams with much of the success of La Clinica del Valle during the past 11 years. She leaves Friday to work for the Carpenter Foundation. Polly Williams goes to work for Carpenter Foundation La Clinica del Valle will have to learn to get along without Polly Williams. Williams, 41, has led the clinic since its inception 11 years ago, but tomorrow will be her last day. In January she will become program officer for Medford's Carpenter Foundation. "In a certain respect I'll be working with a lot of the same folks and going to the same meetings that I already attend," Williams said, "but I'll be looking at it from a new direction." She will replace Sabra Hoffman, who retired. La Clinica organized in 1988 to serve the Rogue Valley's Hispanic community and migrant farm workers. It replaced financially troubled Clinica Azteca, where Williams worked as office manager. Her work in the failed clinic won the respect of doctors and other staff members. "The people who worked in Clinica Azteca wouldn't agree to be part of the re-formed clinic unless Polly was director," said Leslie Van Gelder, a member of La Clinica's board of directors. When Williams and La Clinica began, it had just one doctor and a 3,000-square-foot office to serve low income people, Hispanics and migrant farm workers. As she leaves, the clinic owns a debt-free 15,000-square-foot office that houses four doctors and two nurse practitioners. Total staff grew from 10 to nearly 50. "Polly made La Clinica what it is," said Tom Herod, president of the clinic's board of directors. "She kept working for what she thought we needed in this community." Herod and Van Gelder credited Williams' strong grant-writing skills for keeping La Clinica funded. The clinic competes for funding with some 900 federally-funded health-care clinics in the United States, and managers must document the need for services and justify expenditures in lengthy federal forms. "The federal grant application she has to do every year is probably the most demanding grant application you could ever take on,'' said Van Gelder. "To get a grant you have to document everything you do." A Missouri native, Williams came to the Rogue Valley in 1979 to study Spanish and sociology. As a student she taught English to Hispanic farm workers. That experience convinced her she wanted to work with people in the Hispanic community. Herod said Williams encountered some resistance at first from people who thought a Hispanic should be managing a clinic that served mostly Hispanics. Her fluency in Spanish and her management style gradually won over most of her detractors. "She was the best supervisor I ever had," said Herod, who worked at the clinic for four years and later became a board member. ``I'm not saying best female supervisor. I'm saying best supervisor. She left me alone to do my job." Williams said one of her most satisfying accomplishments has been helping the clinic build a permanent home. A fund-raising campaign gathered $2.3 million to build the clinic's office at 3617 S. Pacific Highway. "It was her vision and her work that got the job done," said Van Gelder. The new building allowed La Clinica to nearly double its client population. In 1993, in its old office, the clinic served about 3,600 patients. By 1999, in the new office, it handled about 16,000 patient visits and served about 6,000 people. As the clinic grew it expanded to provide health care for increasing numbers of non-Hispanics. "La Clinica's focus broadened because it had to," said Hank Collins, Jackson County's director of Health and Human Services. "There was no place else for people to go. "That's a real tribute to Polly," said Collins. "She was able to keep her eye on where the clinic needed to be." Her work attracted attention across Oregon and around the Northwest, and she served as a director on the state and regional associations of federally-funded health care clinics. "So much of Polly's work has been outside the clinic," said Peg Crowley, director of Jackson County's Community Health Center. "She's helped to educate legislators on the need for safety-net clinics." Williams said she decided to leave La Clinica now because she needs a break from the long hours and pressures of the job. "You can call it burnout or midlife change, or whatever," she said. "I feel a need in my life for less hours at work and less overall responsibility." Williams said working for the Carpenter Foundation will allow her to continue to work with nonprofit organizations like La Clinica. As the foundation's program officer, she will work with agencies and communities in Jackson and Josephine counties that seek support from the foundation. She said working with the foundation will fulfill a longterm dream. "I always said if I ever won the lottery, I'd start a foundation." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA