Spotlight on Alliance Medical Center: Q&A with CEO Sue Labbe

The ribbon cutting of Alliance Medical Center’s Mobile Vision Van, a new initiative bringing essential vision care to underserved areas.

Alliance Medical Center plays a critical role in our community, ensuring that everyone—regardless of their insurance status—has access to affordable, high-quality healthcare. Their services are a lifeline for many families in our area. We recently sat down with their CEO, Sue Labbe, to hear how Healdsburg Forever’s support has helped them continue this important work, the progress they’ve made, and the challenges they’re navigating. Here’s what Sue had to share.

How has Healdsburg Forever’s grant helped Alliance Medical Center’s work?
The grant has been instrumental in helping to keep our essential services going, especially for those in our community who don’t have access to healthcare due to lack of insurance or documentation. It has allowed us to continue providing services like school-based health education, transportation, translation, and adult vaccinations—services that often don’t receive other funding. These are critical for ensuring that everyone, regardless of their situation, can receive the care they need.

What progress or successes have you seen this year with the help of the grant?
We’ve had some exciting developments this year! One of the biggest successes is our mobile vision van, which now operates four days a week and has already served over 500 patients in Healdsburg. Vision care is so important for low-income families, and this van is making a real difference, especially for kids who were misdiagnosed with developmental delays or behavior issues that were actually vision problems. We’ve also expanded our dental services by opening a new office in Windsor, and we’ve installed solar power at our Healdsburg clinic to ensure we can keep the lights on and keep seeing patients despite widespread power outages. On top of that, we’ve added three more bilingual therapists to expand access to mental health services, which has been a growing need.

What challenges have you faced this year?
Like many organizations, fundraising has been a challenge for us, especially since we lost a lot of the COVID-related funding that helped us through the past few years. We’re working hard to adjust and find new revenue sources, and we’ve hired a Director of Development to help with that. We’re also planning a benefit event to raise awareness and support for our mission. Another big challenge has been the increased demand for mental health services—even though patients may qualify for a higher level of care, those referrals are being denied because there aren’t enough services available elsewhere, especially for youth. This fuels our resolve to step up, innovate, and advocate. Together, we are working hard to bridge these gaps, creating a brighter future where everyone has access to the care they deserve.

What’s next for Alliance Medical Center?
We’re focused on building stronger connections with the community and making sure people understand how vital our work is—not just for our patients, but for the health of the entire region. We’ve started sending out a newsletter to keep our supporters updated, and we’re planning more outreach events. We’re also continuing to expand our mental health services, especially for young people, who’ve been facing a lot of challenges post-pandemic. Additionally, we’re strengthening our Community Health Worker programs to make sure we’re meeting the needs of the community in new and better ways.

For more information about Alliance Medical Center, visit https://alliancemed.org/.