Published

Ex-West Virginia Cabinet Secretary Named Hospital Chief

Princeton Community Hospital

A former cabinet secretary in West Virginia has been named president and CEO of Princeton Community Hospital.

Karen Bowling currently serves as West Virginia University Health System’s executive vice president of government affairs, as well as president and CEO of WVU Medicine’s Braxton County Memorial Health System and Summersville Regional Medical Center.

Princeton Community Hospital entered into a management agreement and clinical affiliation with WVU Hospitals in December. It has 203 beds serving 10 counties in southern West Virginia and southwestern Virginia. It also provides behavioral health services as well as a 64-bed psychiatric hospital in Bluefield, and emergency care at the former Bluefield Regional Medical Center.

Bowling served as cabinet secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources under Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin.

“You would be hard pressed to find someone as dedicated to the people of West Virginia, especially those in the southern part of the state, as Karen Bowling,” WVU Health System President and CEO Albert L. Wright Jr. said in a statement. “Her passion is contagious and her efforts to improve patients’ access to healthcare are tireless.”