Michelle Lemming

Michelle Lemming is the founding President and CEO of the Texoma Health Foundation created through the sale of Texoma Medical Center in 2007. She is a recipient of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Leaders Award, and finishing her certification in Conscious Capitalism. Inspired and motivated by mental health struggles in her own family, she is on a mission to reinvent communities and our focus on mental wellbeing.

Michelle grew up in the small East Texas town of Kilgore. Soon after graduating from the University of Louisiana, Michelle served as a young executive director leading the first rural collaborative/network funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in Louisiana. She shares that the opportunity was instrumental in her ability to identify and connect to her passions. She quickly learned the skills and power of collaborative efforts, surrounded by servant mentors and leaders. Their work in Southern Louisiana would ultimately be modeled and replicated in rural communities across the nation.

Prior to serving in her current role, Michelle led the Health Services Recovery Council, created to move recovery efforts forward in nine rural parishes most devastated by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Throughout her career she has maintained and implemented a continued passion for equity and developed a devotion to creating a culture of mental wellness in rural populations.