PeaceHealth announces this new head doctor for Northwest

PeaceHealth has a new chief medical officer for its Northwest hospitals.

Dr. Lorna Gober, a hospitalist and family medicine specialist, will assume her new post Wednesday, March 22, according to a statement from the company, a not-for-profit Roman Catholic health system with hospitals and clinics in the Western U.S.

Gober replaces Dr. Sudhakar Karlapudi, who in January was named as chief medical officer for the JPS Health Group in Fort Worth, Texas, after serving in Bellingham since May 2018.

Karlapudi, known affectionately as “Dr. K” to his colleagues, steered PeaceHealth’s local hospitals through the COVID-19 pandemic.

He championed the doctors, nurses and other workers who treated patients when protective equipment was sometimes in short supply, when little was known about the new respiratory disease and when a surge in cases threatened to overwhelm the system.

In addition, he advocated for vaccination and spoke strongly against pandemic misinformation.

Before joining PeaceHealth, Gober worked for Family Care Network in Bellingham, the Western Washington University Student Health Center and as a fill-in physician at Sea Mar Community Health Clinic and Nooksack Tribal Health.

“Dr. Gober’s well-rounded experience makes her ideally suited for the (chief medical officer) role,” said Charles Prosper, chief executive of PeaceHealth’s Northwest network.

“We believe that she will be an excellent leadership partner and mentor,” he said in an emailed statement.

A hospitalist is a specialized area of medicine that focuses on patients who are hospitalized.

Gober received her bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from the University of Oregon Honors College. She earned a doctor of medicine degree from the University of Washington and completed training at the Tacoma Family Medicine Residency Program.