The Cherokee Nation’s new 469,000-square-foot outpatient and primary care facility is being built next to the existing W.W. Hastings Hospital in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. When completed in 2019, it will be the largest health center of any Tribe in the country.
The executive director of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) office for the Cherokee Nation has been selected to serve as general counsel of Cherokee Nation Health Services, the largest Tribally operated health system in the United States. Cherokee Nation Health Services sees more than 1.3 million patient visits per year in its eight health centers and W.W. Hastings Hospital.
Nikki Baker-Limore is a former State of Oklahoma prosecutor for 10 years who specialized in prosecuting child sexual abuse cases.
Baker-Limore will start her new role on July 27, in advance of the Tribe’s fall opening of the 469,000-square-foot outpatient health center on the Hastings Campus. The Tribe is additionally partnering with Oklahoma State University to open a medical school campus next year.
“Our health system continues to expand with new infrastructure and more than 850 new jobs coming. I believe Nikki Baker-Limore will serve as a tremendous asset in overseeing the business and legal operations of our growing health system,” Principal Chief-Elect Chuck Hoskin Jr. said. “When Nikki took the helm at ICW, she made an immediate and lasting impact. Cherokee Nation is fortunate that she has now answered the call to give our health system legal guidance as the department reaches new heights.”
Under Baker-Limore’s leadership with Cherokee Nation ICW and the One Fire Victims Service Office, she implemented department career ladders for employees to advance, developed Title IV-E certification for more funding, helped launch a Care Portal system for easy access to donate to children in the foster system, and implemented curriculum, including art therapy and equine therapy for Cherokee foster children.
She also wrote and received two grants to hire a life coach and cultural advocate for victims of abuse.
“I look forward to this opportunity and the exciting times ahead for our Cherokee Nation health system,” Baker-Limore said. “ICW will continue to do great things, and I am grateful to have been a part of it, and now I look forward to being part of another program that calls for new growth.”
Baker-Limore will start as Cherokee Nation Health Services general counsel on July 27. Lou Stretch, a long time member of the tribe’s ICW staff, will serve as interim executive director of ICW with Shawna Hill-Duch taking over Baker-Limore’s One Fire Victim Services Office duties on an interim basis.
