May 2, 2021
Inspiration: Michele Fischer
Leader, listener, mentor & role model
When you ask Michele Fischer, Executive Director of Family Medicine, about her 29-year-career at CentraCare, she lights up when talking about her colleagues. For her, building relationships has been one of the best parts of her work and you could say she comes by it naturally. “When I was young, my parents started an excavating company and ran the business out of our home,” she said. “I saw how they interacted with and treated people so they really role modeled that for me. They were my inspiration and shaped who I am today.”
As Michele prepares for retirement (her last day is May 3), it’s those relationships that make it hard to say goodbye. “There have definitely been tears,” she said. But like her parents did for her, she hopes that during her nearly three decades at CentraCare that she has role modeled for others the importance of making connections and developing relationships. Knowing that her teams will continue that work leaves her feeling grateful.
“Michele has been the voice of Family Medicine for as long as I can remember,” said Joe Blonski, MD, Physician VP of Family Medicine. “She always focuses on doing the right thing for patients, our people and the organization. I will miss our conversations, the laughter, friendship, and her empathy.”
Empathy and building trust have always been important to Fischer. “We’re in a service industry that is so dependent on people,” she said. “When we work well together, our patients see it and feel it. And the same holds true when we don’t. We’re all very different, but we can benefit when we lean into each other and understand where we’re coming from.”
This approach brought joy to her work that includes collaboration on many expansion projects over the years. “I’ve been here long enough to see two building projects in Melrose, and three in Long Prairie,” said Fischer with smile. But, one of her proudest moments was the building of a new clinic in Albany. “I grew up in Avon and went to high school in Albany,” she said. “They struggled to keep providers and their facility needed an upgrade, so to see that project come to fruition was really rewarding.”
“Michele has had a huge impact on CentraCare, but an even bigger impact on the communities we serve,” said Bobbie Bertram, APRN, APP Practice Director. “Her dedication to expanding Family Medicine in communities that were challenged with access to care has been amazing. To many, it probably seemed like things just happened, but in reality Michele was constantly climbing mountains to move it all forward.”
To celebrate Michele’s last day at CentraCare, Libby Brever, MD, Family Physician at the Albany Clinic, collected messages from staff and created a tribute video that shows just how much Michele is loved. “Michele has left quite a legacy for the organization & for Family Medicine,” said Brever. While her teams are universally happy for her, she will certainly be missed.
Congratulations Michelle! You deserve it! I always enjoyed our visits as you would come out to Melrose clinic. Hope you enjoy your retirement greatly!
CONGRATS MICHELE!! ** I AM SO EXCITED FOR YOU ** I will always remember how friendly you were and it was always so nice to see you in Melrose. You brought a common sense approach to everything you did and I greatly appreciated that! May you enjoy your retirement and sleep in! May you be blessed with perfect health throughout your retirement and may you enjoy not having to go ANYWHERE in the winter, when it is snowing and blowing!! 😉
Congratulations, Michele! Enjoy your retirement — you deserve it!
Congratulations Michele! I will always remember you as being such a “real” person, always eager to talk and listen, always asking about my family. I will miss you. Enjoy your retirement.
Congratulations, Michele!! I hope that all of your years of hard work come back to you in years of enjoyment surrounded by family and friends!!
You have always been a joy to be around and listen, then respond with answers that are other than coined responses, which I have always appreciated.
Best wishes on your retirement! You have helped many times when I hit road blocks at work and I have always appreciated that. I have also appreciated your down to earth nature despite having a high ranking status within the CentraCare System, that is a rarity in our world today. Whether it was seeing you at a dance show or at Subway in Avon, you have always had time for a conversation! I hope you have a new chapter in life that is all you hope for, you deserve it. We will all miss you!
Congratulations Michele. You have led with consistency to your values and the patients/families truly at the center. You will be missed. Enjoy your retirement!
Congratulations, Michele. I always enjoyed working with you and learned much from your exemplary leadership skills. Wishing you all the best in retirement. Enjoy!
Michelle, it’s been a pleasure to work with you throughout the years…24 in fact! You have certainly earned retirement. I hope you enjoy every minute with family and friends, slaying fish and watching the sunsets. We will continue to see your fingerprints in the organization for decades to come. God Bless!
Enjoy your retirement Michelle! I have enjoyed working with you since way back at the beginning!
Michele it has been a pleasure working and visiting with you over the years. Best of luck to you in your retirement, enjoy all your favorite things.
Congratulations Michele! Happy retirement!
Congratulations on your retirement. Thank you for all of your hard work. You are one amazing person and I am happy to call you my friend. Best of luck to you.
A great tribute to a well respected leader! Enjoy Michele!
Congratulations Michelle, have a great journey on your Retirement.
You gave a lot to Centracare, Thanks for all your hard work. Enjoy!!!!
Thank you Michele for your leadership. When I started my past role, I struggled to navigate my new role and to understand the structure of Family Medicine. You gave me the gift of feedback and nudged me in the right direction – thank you. You are the type of leader who sees potential in others, fosters a high-functioning team, and guides and serves others. Thank you for being a role model for so many others!
Michele,
It was a pleasure working with you. Thank you for all you did for CentraCare. I hope you and your family enjoy your retirement
Michele – Thank you for your leadership, your kindness, your attention to detail and your sense of humor. CentraCare and all who have worked with you have benefitted and have been blessed to have you as a leader in this organization. Blessings to you in your retirement! Wishing you the very best as you move onto this next adventure.
Hi Michelle, Wow, how exciting for you to be retiring. I first got to work with you when we were transitioning from the “old CPT” coding world to the “new/current Coding world”. I also worked with you some when you came to River Campus and worked on site there. I believe that was with SAGE and some of the other special programs we had going at that time.
Michelle, you have been nothing but gracious every time I spoke with you or passed you in the hallway. I often wondered, how you even remembered my name after not seeing you for several years and then seeing you in the hallway again. Your smile was always one of the first things I saw when I would pass you. You always had your smile on along with your name badge. Michelle, I wish you the happiest of retirement. I also see in the attached photos, you will probably be doing some fishing during your retirement. Enjoy to the fullest and blessings to you and your husband each and every day.
Michele, I wish you nothing but the absolute best as you start this new journey in your life! I appreciate the many things that I learned from you the years that we worked together. I will be forever grateful for crossing paths with you.
Michelle. You helped shepherd us (SCMG) into CentraCare. You made the transition (almost) seamless. Your gifts of listening and acting are remarkable. I wish you the very best in the next phase of life. Thank you Thank you Thank you for all you have done for Family Medicine in Central Minnesota!
Congratulations Michele! It was a pleasure working with you. Wishing you a wonderful retirement!
Congratulations, Michelle – what a tremendous career! Your generous spirit, strong leadership and commitment to excellence are all things we’re thankful (and better) for! Wishing you a fantastic retirement!
Congratulations, Michele! May you enjoy every moment of retirement, good health, and many memories to come with family and loved ones! Every interaction I’ve had with you and opportunity to work with you has been wonderful!
Congratulations Michele!! Best wishes on your next journey-ENJOY!!
Congratulations, Michele! Thank you for all your support of Integrated Behavioral Health! Wishing you the very best!!
Michele has been a role model for accountability, kindness, hard work, caring, leadership and thoughtfulness to name a few. She has made a big difference for CentraCare, the communities we serve and in the lives of all who had the opportunity to work with her along the way. Best wishes for a long, happy and healthy retirement! You deserve it! Congratulations!
Congratulations, Michele! All the growth and change you helped vision and execute is truly amazing. Your dedication to the health of our communities will be missed. Thank you!!
congratulations on your retirement!
In this life we get the chance to walk with many people who nurture and mold us and some of those people stand out amongst the many. You are one of “my people” and I appreciate the time I worked with you and grew because of you!! Best wishes as to go on to mold and nurture others along your life journey. God truly must be proud to see the purpose filled life you have led. All my love…
Congratulations Michele!! Thank you for all you did for us at the Albany Clinic and for going to bat for the lab in the transition. Have a great retirement.