CARRIE MICHALSKI

President and CEO RiverView Health Crookston, Minn.

Carrie Michalski says she’s always been on the business side of health care. She has a bachelor’s degree in health administration from Concordia, is a licensed long-term care administrator and serves as president and CEO of RiverView Health in Crookston, Minn. “I wanted to do something in business. I really like the aspects of health care — healing.”

She knew she wanted to use her business savvy in the health care industry when she was 18, she says. Her grandfather suffered a major stroke that relocated him to a nursing home permanently. “It was very hard for my family. It was very hard for him. … That had a pretty significant impact on me.” At that time, nursing homes had semi-private rooms for their patients, so they were forced to live out their final years in the company of strangers, Michalski says. And she decided there must be a better way.

It’s that empathy that helps make her a good leader at RiverView, maintaining relationships with patients and the community. “That opportunity to connect with our customers keeps me fueled for some hard and challenging decisions we need to make on a business level.” Spending time with patients and customers is one of her favorite parts of her job, along with mentoring new leaders and working on succession planning.

She says there is no typical day in her line of work, which keeps things exciting. Her main goals are to keep the health system focused on its mission and never give up. “Make sure we never get comfortable with good enough is good enough.”

Michalski and her husband, Jay, who farms the family land near Argyle, Minn., are raising three girls — twins Danielle and Erin, who are 10, and Paige, 11. Michalski works with local charities and volunteers as a teacher in her church. In her free time, she loves to go ice fishing and snowmobiling, especially when it takes her out of cell phone range. “The type of work I do, I’m always on,” she says, adding that a break from the chaos sometimes is crucial. “It helps to refuel your soul and recharge.”

Michalski says she is flattered to be among this year’s Top 25 Women in Business and enjoys seeing women in nontraditional roles make the list, noting that hospital administrators are mostly male. It’s a big job to take on while raising a family, but Michalski says she has an abundance of support from her husband, mother and mother-in-law. That has been a major factor in her career success. “If things aren’t right and balanced at home, you can’t be an effective leader, in my opinion.”

Having access to excellent mentors has helped her succeed, as well, she says, but so has her hard work and determination. She has no plans to switch careers any time soon. “I intend to stay as long as they’ll have me, at least in the near term. … I really enjoy what I’m doing. I enjoy serving the community.”

Anita was recently named Chief Financial Officer at First International Bank & Trust. She also has the honor of being the first female to hold a C-level position at the Bank.

Anita has been with the Bank for 34 years, beginning in September of 1981. She began in Bookkeeping and has since worked in many different areas of the Bank. Most recently, she held the role of the Director of Accounting and Finance.

Anita Quale Chief Financial Officer

Chief Operating Officer

Kris Compton’s favorite part of her job as chief operating officer of Alerus Financial Corp., Grand Forks, N.D., is the satisfaction of helping customers reach their goals. “Knowing that we have been a part of helping a customer fulfill their dreams,” she says, adding that sometimes those dreams are exciting and sometimes they’re challenging. But that means Alerus gets to play an active role in overcoming those challenges with its customers.

Compton has been in her chief operating officer role for 16 years. She has bachelor’s degrees from the University of North Dakota in business and in social work. She says the business degree taught her the technical aspects of her career and the social work degree helped with the human aspect of business.

Compton started working part-time as a bank teller in college and decided to remain in the financial field. “It was really there that I fell in love with the business side of things.” Now, her job duties keep her mostly behind the scenes, helping teams of people collaborate with each other. “Making sure we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing for our customers,” she says. Having been on the front lines with customer service, as well as in the background supporting staff, Compton has gotten a well-rounded understanding of operations. “I can appreciate and I respect all aspects of the business.”

In her free time, Compton enjoys spending time with her family and is grateful to have her three grandchildren close by in Grand Forks. She and her husband, Michael, raised two daughters — Meghan, 32, Grand Forks, and Katie, 29, Minneapolis. She says raising a family while balancing a busy career was not always easy. “I always tell young women that are trying to raise a family, don’t expect too much of yourself and be easy on yourself because it doesn’t always go smoothly,” she says. She credits a solid support system that includes her husband and both sets of their daughters’ grandparents.

Some people might look at career moms and wonder how they pull it off so perfectly, but Compton says there are aspects of that heavy load that nobody sees. “They didn’t see the nights when I was at home very stressed out about how was I going to get the kids to where they needed to go the next day or a work project done. One day at a time.”

Beyond her career and family, Compton enjoys doing volunteer work in Grand Forks and around the region. She says she found out early in her career that there are three legs to her stool: family, work and community service, in that order. “I quickly found out that if I wasn’t involved in the community, I wasn’t satisfied, so I’ve always been very active in the local community and, in some cases, regional.” That includes board work, volunteering and more, she says. “That’s been a very, very important part of my life.”

Compton has no plans to make any big changes soon and says her future plans are to “Keep doing what I’m doing as long as I’m having fun and I’m healthy. And so far, so good.”

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PAYING IT FORWARD RECOGNITION HOW BELL OF YOU LEADERSHIP VOLUNTEERISM TEDX FARGO SPARE KEY GOLDEN RULE HAPPY EMPLOYEES! HAPPY CUSTOMERS! FAMILY ATMOSPHERE UNEQUALED PERSONAL SERVICE

PAYING IT FORWARD RECOGNITION HOW BELL OF YOU LEADERSHIP VOLUNTEERISM TEDX

FARGO SPARE KEY GOLDEN RULE HAPPY EMPLOYEES! HAPPY CUSTOMERS! FAMILY ATMOSPHERE UNEQUALED PERSONAL