Amanda Martin North is the Executive Director of the Center for Rural Health Innovation (CRHI) located in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. As Executive Director, she covers a wide range of duties: from day to day operations to program design and implementation, but she is happiest when she can make spreadsheets and budgets work to improve access to healthcare.
Too squeamish to be a medical provider, but wanting to work in the healthcare field, Amanda studied at Georgia Tech in Atlanta and University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where she completed the Executive Masters in Healthcare Administration in 2016. She has extensive experience in the healthcare industry; working in the medical device field with ETHICON, a Johnson & Johnson Company, as well as managing a rural private practice in western North Carolina. Amanda first served CRHI as a founding board member in 2010 before becoming the Executive Director.
Amanda’s talents lie in the leadership and finance area of rural healthcare. Under Amanda’s leadership, CRHI has established and grown a school-based telemedicine program (Health-e-Schools) from three pilot sites to a 100+ site program in eleven school districts, which she now supervises. She manages a growing and evolving team of clinical and operations professionals who deliver healthcare and care coordination to thousands of rural North Carolinians every year.
Amanda has served on the Advisory Board of the Mid Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center (MATRC) since 2011. She is the Vice President of the NC School-Based Health Alliance and on the Executive Board for PATH, a non-profit organization that identifies opportunities to improve the health of children and families in Mitchell and Yancey counties. She is active in her church, keeps a big garden and loves to cook. She lives in the small mountain town of Spruce Pine, NC with her husband, four children, and three dogs.
