“You can take the girl out of the mountains, but you can’t take the mountains out of the girl,” declared Michelle Fuentes. Michelle grew up in south Aurora, and her life and career took her to other parts of the country until last year when she returned home to Colorado along with her family, finding the perfect house in The Village at Castle Pines.

Michelle is celebrating her one-year anniversary as president/CEO of AdventHealth Castle Rock, with more than 17 years of experience in the health care industry. Her first job out of college was working in the basement of AdventHealth in Orlando in finance; she was later promoted to finance director.

“Numbers and I get along pretty well,” Michelle said, which must have been noticed by the CEO who asked Michelle if she would become his COO. “I went from managing no one to having 1,100 people in the organization,” Michelle shared. She was 28.

Michelle and her husband, Edman, who is a physician’s assistant with Colorado Spine Partners, were college sweethearts at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska. Once their two daughters came along, priorities shifted. Michelle made the difficult decision to quit as COO and stay home with the girls. An operations job at an architecture firm proved to be a good way to “participate in the world and still be a good mom.” Coincidentally, the Orlando firm was designing AdventHealth Castle Rock at the time.

A few years later, the family headed from Florida to Sonora, California to enjoy small-town life. Michelle became COO of Adventist Health Sonora and later took over the CEO role. When a call came to come to Castle Rock, Michelle said the timing was right. “I feel that God has led us here and me to this role for a reason.”

On her management style, Michelle shared, “I can hold people accountable and lead an organization through kindness, grace and compassion. I try to find people who don’t know they have certain talents and put them in opportunities where they can blossom and flourish.”

Michelle’s daughters, Ella (16) and Lily (14), attend Mile High Academy, Michelle’s alma mater, and both are musically talented, singing in the choir and playing the flute and trumpet, respectively. Their baby photos adorn Michelle’s office credenza.

The family loves to watch and attend Broncos, Nuggets and Avalanche games. “I raised my kids correctly so even when we lived in California, we watched all the Denver teams,” Michelle explained. The family loves to travel together and have a summer trip planned to Austria and Italy.

Michelle was delighted when after only a few weeks of living in Castle Pines, her oldest daughter said, “I love it here.”

 

 

By Lisa Nicklanovich; photos courtesy of Michelle Fuentes