Dec. 21—GRAND FORKS — When trying to think of his favorite part of working at the Center for Rural Health, Director Brad Gibbens came up empty-handed. On the cusp of his retirement, he wants people to know he’s just retiring from UND, and not retiring from rural North Dakota.
In his time at the center, he’s worked multiple roles and interacted with communities across the state. He has hardly ever felt bored.
“I had a number of days where I’d think about it in the morning, about what my day was going to be, what I was going to do,” he said. “Whenever I’m doing something, I might be, ‘Oh, I’m doing health policy today, this is the most fun thing I do,’ and then if I’m going out to a rural community, to facilitate a discussion, ‘No, this is the most fun thing I do.’ That’s frequently what I’ve encountered, is that almost everything I do, I go, ‘Well, this is the most fun,’ so I’ve enjoyed it.”
Gibbens will officially retire from the Center for Rural Health on Jan. 3 and will spend his time as a board member of the North Dakota Rural Health Association and a board member of Communities Acting Together for Change and Hope, which focuses on helping rural communities welcome foreign-born families to their area.
Jacob Warren
has been hired to take over as acting director; Gibbens said he has a strong background and will do a good job.
A retirement reception was held for Gibbens on Dec. 11 at the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences, which turned out bigger than he expected. The founding director of the Center for Rural Health, Kevin Fickenscher, attended, as well as a former Center for Rural Health director, Mary Wakefield, and Joshua Wynne, vice president for health affairs and the dean of the School of Medicine & Health Sciences.
Gibbens received gifts from Center for Rural Health staff such as art, a quilt and a cross-stitch, all featuring imagery befitting Gibbens’ rural and farm background.
“It was just so warm and wonderful,” he said.
Gibbens has been working at the center for 39 years, starting in September of 1985 after graduating from graduate school. He began as a physician recruiter, but his ability to write moved him into helping with assessments, which turned into him working directly with communities by facilitating meetings and interviews.
Gibbens grew up in rural North Dakota, on a durum wheat farm outside of Cando. Connecting with other rural communities allowed him to work with and try to help those he grew up with. He has served in a directorial role multiple times, including as associate director and deputy director. The past four or five years of being acting director have probably been the most rewarding, he said.
When asked why he chose to retire, Gibbens said, “You kind of reach the stage where you go, ‘It’s just time.’ “
“A lot of my fingerprints are all over the place,” he said. “And you need to have new people come in because, as I’ve said too many times to people, just because I did it this way doesn’t mean it has to always be done this way. And sometimes the best way to create change is for you yourself to leave.”
Gibbens said he has confidence in the center and its leadership, and he’s looking forward to spending his time with NDRHA and CATCH. Ahead of his retirement, he’s been working on finding additional funding, finishing a paper on the 340B Drug Pricing Program and something related to health equity.