PORTLAND – Maine reminds Eileen Skinner of her hometown of New Orleans.
Since moving here to lead Mercy Health System of Maine in 2002, she’s been struck by the regions’ similarities.
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Both, for instance, have French influences (Cajun country was settled by French Canadians). And both economies rely on commercial fishing.
“There’s a lot of cosmic connections between New Orleans and Maine. It’s really not that dissimilar,” said Skinner, who left New Orleans to be Mercy’s president and CEO.
Skinner, 57, grew up in the Carrollton section of New Orleans, a neighborhood she described as friendly and safe. Skinner remembers spending free time as a kid biking with friends in the many canals that surround the city.
Skinner’s father worked as a bookkeeper and held three jobs to make ends meet, and her mother worked as a grammar school teacher.
She earned a biology and medical technology degree from St. Mary’s Dominican College in New Orleans and took a job as a medical technologist, testing blood.
Skinner earned a master’s degree in health administration from Tulane University in 1988 and took a job as assistant hospital director at the Ochsner Foundation Hospital, a 440-bed facility. Skinner moved up the ranks and was eventually named Ochsner’s CEO.
She left Ochsner after 18 years on the payroll in 2001 when the organization was going through a merger. Shortly after, a New Orleans-based search consultant invited Skinner to lunch to discuss a new opportunity: Mercy Health System in Portland, the consultant said, was hiring a chief executive.
Skinner had been to Maine only once before, but fell in love with Portland when she visited for her first interview.
While in town, she visited both Mercy Hospital and Maine Medical Center, and was impressed by the professionalism of the staff, many of them trained at hospitals in Boston.
Skinner also asked Portland-area residents — convenience store clerks and cab drivers — for their opinions of the hospitals and the area.
Skinner joined Mercy in 2002, and for three years traveled frequently back to New Orleans to visit her husband, John Skinner, a pathologist who could not immediately find work in Maine.
After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, John Skinner moved to Maine and took a job at Central Maine Medical Center. He’s now chair of the pathology department.
Skinner lives in Falmouth and has three children: Robert lives in New Orleans; Amanda attends the University of Maine; and Katherine graduated from Cheverus High School and is preparing to take college courses in Ireland.
When Skinner isn’t working, she travels with her husband to remote regions of the world. They have visited northern Alaska and Patagonia and traveled by icebreaker to Siberia.
On a trip to Greenland they traded MilkyWay candy bars for ox meat with local inhabitants.
“That’s what we like to do — hang out in these bizarre places,” Skinner said.
Jonathan Hemmerdinger can be reached at 791-6316 or:
jhemmerdinger@mainetoday.com
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