Dr. Kees Kolff joined the Hospital District Board in 2016. He and his wife moved to Jefferson County in 1997 where he has served as president of Jefferson Land Trust and as founding chair of the Jefferson County/Port Townsend Climate Action Committee. He spent 4 years on City Council, served 2 years as Mayor, and is currently president of the Jefferson County ReCyclery. Kees and Helen founded and live in the Port Townsend EcoVillage. They have a daughter Adri who lives in Seattle with her husband Randy and 2 children, Adam and Cora. Kees (pronounced “Case”) is the Dutch nickname for Cornelis. He was born in the Netherlands where universal healthcare has worked well for 100 years. He and his family immigrated when he was 5 and his high school senior speech was on the need for a single-payer healthcare system.
Kees obtained an MD and a Masters in Public Health from Harvard and his Pediatric training at Seattle Children’s Hospital and the University of Washington. He served 2 years with the Centers for Disease Control in Puerto Rico and was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at UW. In 1978 he joined the newly forming Sea Mar Community Health Centers in Seattle, where he served as Medical Director until 1995, helping establish clinics for under-served populations in numerous western Washington counties.
“I believe that healthcare is a right – for everyone. I will work to maintain a fiscally strong district where the providers and support staff offer quality, continuity care. I will help develop and implement Community Health Improvement Plans that create partnerships to address the 4 major health priorities in our county: 1. access to medical and dental care, 2. access to mental health and substance abuse care, 3. immunizations and 4. healthy eating, active living and chronic disease prevention. Ultimately, the only way we can provide healthcare for all is if we join the rest of the developed world and establish a universal healthcare system. I will do what I can to help bring about such a system at the state and/or the national level.” Commissioner Kolff’s current term expires 2027.