SUFFOLK
The Western Tidewater Free Clinic has announced that Ellen Harrison Saunders has joined its board of directors.

“Mrs. Saunders brings valuable expertise in the Clinic’s ninth years of operations to provide health care to uninsured, low income adults across the Western Tidewater region,” the Clinic said.

Saunders previously served as a board member on the clinic’s founding Steering Committee that led to the opening of WTFC in 2007. She joins current Clinic board members representing the Western Tidewater service area from varies backgrounds and professions.

Saunders received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Sweet Briar College and was the Director of Public Relations and Development at Obici Hospital for four years. Currently, she is the chairman of the board of directors of her family owned healthcare company, Harrison Senior Living.

In the past, Saunders served on the board of directors at Sweet Briar College and was a member of the administrative board of Main Street United Methodist Church. She also served on the boards of the United Way and the Foundation for the Preservation of Virginia’s Executive Mansion.

Saunders is a dedicated community volunteer and has been a board member of the Suffolk Council of Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, the Mental Health Association of Franklin County, PA, the Nansemond River Garden Club and the Garden Club of Virginia. She has also been a writer and host of “This Week in Suffolk,” a weekly television program cablecast on the local municipal access channel.

“As a career healthcare marketing and development professional and business owner, Mrs. Saunders brings many years of experience and knowledge of fundraising, marketing and communications that will directly benefit the Clinic and its patients,” the Clinic continued. “She and her husband, Whitney, live in Suffolk, have three grown children and two grandchildren.”