Ms. Lawrence is responsible for overseeing North Dakota’s largest healthcare provider and employer, managing more than 10,200 employees. The network has clinics and critical access hospitals located in over 30 towns, ensuring that patients have access to primary and specialty care within their own community, thus reducing travel expenses and saving time. Ms. Lawrence works with her leadership team to help increase access to healthcare for these rural communities by opening new facilities, having specialty clinicians provide outreach services, adding virtual care options and more. She oversees and sets strategic goals for several primary and specialty facilities, as well as three acute care campuses. Ms. Lawrence has been with Sanford for nearly three decades, becoming president and CEO in March 2022. Since then, she has created a workplace culture that values recognition and open and honest communication. She also oversaw the merger with an independent orthopedic clinic in Grand Forks, N.D., the opening of a Roger Maris Cancer Center location at Perham Health, and the launch of the first medical clinic in Horace, N.D. She has held other leadership roles at Sanford, including vice president of finance.
