Gretchen Milligan has been elected to chair the volunteer board of directors of the nonprofit Cottage Health System. She succeeds J. Robert Andrews, who had served in that position for the past three years and who will remain a board member.
Milligan first joined the Cottage board in 2006 and has been an active member on several committees, most notably as chairwoman of the Foundation Committee. She and the other board members serve without pay to guide the Cottage hospitals in their mission of providing quality medical services to their communities.
Other board officers include vice chairmen Edward Birch and Robert Nakasone; Dr. Jeffrey Kupperman, secretary; and treasurer Fred Gluck.
Milligan, who has more than 30 years of experience in nonprofit leadership, is the founder of Board Focus, a consulting firm for community nonprofits and independent schools. Early in her career, she was associated with Wells Fargo Bank in a variety of management positions in San Francisco, Orange County and Ventura. She recently was elected to a three-year term on the Santa Barbara Foundation’s board of trustees. She is a past board member and board president of Crane Country Day School, and she is currently on the board of Marlborough School in Los Angeles, where she led the board for three years. She also serves as a member of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Advisory Council.
Milligan received her undergraduate degree from Stanford and her M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business. She and her husband, Marshall, are the parents of two daughters, Lucy and Claire.
— Maria Zate is communication director of Cottage Health System.