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Dr. Nazhat Parveen Sharma is seeking to return to the San Benito Health Care District Board after a 10-year absence. She is challenging Devon Pack, who was appointed to the board in 2022 and was elected the same year.
Zone 2 encompasses the west area of the county including San Juan Bautista and parts of Hollister primarily between Union Road, Buena Vista Road and Line Street.
The Zone 2 race will be among those featured at BenitoLink’s 2026 General Election Forum set for Sept. 17 at 6 p.m. at the Granada Theater.
George W. Devon Pack
Pack, 47, is a tax preparer. He was born and lived his early years in the district. He has also lived in the district since 2012 after returning from law school. Before being elected to the San Benito Health Care District, he served on the San Benito County Planning Commission from 2021 to 2022.
BenitoLink: Which of your qualifications enable you to lead the health care district?
Pack: I have legal and fiduciary training, with an associate’s in paralegal studies and a law degree from Lewis and Clark Law School, and I have worked as a paralegal on matters of property and contract law. More recently, I have been working as a certified tax preparer. I have also served as the treasurer for several community nonprofit organizations, most recently the San Benito County Bar Association. I also possess a Master’s in Urban Planning degree from San Jose State, and I have worked as a research assistant at the Stanford School of Business. It is this combination of experience in working on budgetary issues and in reviewing and analyzing contracts that qualifies me for the position.
Reports, including a recent district survey, have found we are experiencing a healthcare worker shortage. How would you help the board to close the demand-supply gap?
On the matter of healthcare worker recruitment: Hazel Hawkins faces a persistent problem in that we are located near one of the most competitive labor markets for healthcare workers in the country. As such, we face significant inflationary pressure in compensation. To be competitive in recruitment, we need to emphasize the non-tangible aspects such as quality of the workplace environment, excellent colleagues, and a good life-work balance. I am also a firm advocate for expanding and further developing our partnerships with nursing programs such as those at Gavilan Community College, and our partnership with the career technical education program at Hollister High School. I believe there is great potential for developing Hazel Hawkins as a “career starter hospital”—a friendly, relaxed environment that provides a pleasant beginning (and also ending) for medical careers.
According to a 2024 report by the Seniors Council, San Benito County had California’s third highest growth rate in the 65-to-84-year-old age group since 2010. What will you do to ensure this group’s medical needs can be met by providers within the county?
We need physician- and nurse-driven development in the direction of services sought by our community. That needs to be focused toward the urgent needs of the public, based on needs of accessibility. Expansion of our ability to cover for more cardiology and stroke treatment procedures could be part of this, as could developing more in terms of our endocrinology and nephrology services.
We are also looking forward to developing on-campus pharmacy services, which will make it easier for patients to pick up their medications. But all of this development requires funding, and for that we need a leadership team that knows how to quickly and smoothly apply for and receive all of the grants that Hazel Hawkins Memorial can qualify for.
Also, we need to engage with the public in a candid dialogue about our community’s comfort for public bond revenue. In a perfect world, I would love to see an urgent care center, a dialysis center, a cardiology center, a stroke center, and an oncology department. But the conversation that our county needs to have is about which priorities the public is willing to support. I have been dedicated to openness and communication with all sides during a troubled time at Hazel Hawkins, and that willingness to seek dialogue will be an essential component for helping our community to plan the future path forward for our hospital.
Dr. Nazhat Parveen Sharma
Sharma, 84, is a physician who has lived in the county since 1988. She was previously elected to the San Benito Health Care District in 2008 and 2012.
BenitoLink: Which of your qualifications enable you to lead the health care district?
Sharma: I am Dr. Nazhat Parveen Sharma, MD, a physician, longtime Hollister resident, and former elected member of the San Benito Health Care District Board.
Clinical and boardroom perspective: As a practicing physician, I understand care from the bedside—patient safety, quality, staffing, and what it takes to deliver care in a small, rural system. As a former board member of this District in 2016, I have also governed the same system we are entrusted to protect: a full-service, 25-bed not-for-profit hospital providing exceptional healthcare to San Benito County and a network of rural health clinics and other facilities across the county.
Fiscal stewardship in hard times: I served during financially challenging periods and understand the district’s responsibility as a special district. The district operates the 25-bed Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital and a number of other rural health care facilities across San Benito County, and it filed for Chapter 9 to reorganize and address persistent deficiencies of operating cash. I bring the discipline to ask hard questions about budgets, contracts, and long-term sustainability while keeping patient care at the center.
Community accountability: I live and practice here. My patients are my neighbors. My commitment is to keep high-quality, local control of our hospital and to govern with transparency, medical ethics, and respect for every employee, patient, and taxpayer.
Reports, including a recent district survey, have found we are experiencing a healthcare worker shortage. How would you help the board to close the demand-supply gap?
San Benito County continues to undergo a healthcare provider shortage as the community grows in population. This is not abstract for us—it means longer ER waits, delayed clinic appointments, and burnout for our existing staff.
As a board member, I would focus on three actions the board can directly influence:
- Grow our own pipeline: Strengthen formal partnerships with Gavilan College, Hartnell, San Jose State, and UCSF/Stanford residency rotations for clinical placements at Hazel Hawkins. Create paid CNA-to-RN, LVN-to-RN, and medical assistant apprenticeship tracks with guaranteed interviews for local graduates.
- Recruit and retain with practical support: In a high-cost county, salary alone is not enough. I would advocate for:
- Aggressive use of National Health Service Corps and state loan repayment for primary care, behavioral health, and nursing
- Workforce housing assistance, childcare support, and retention bonuses tied to service
- Competitive wages and safe staffing ratios developed with our nurses and frontline staff
3. Use staff smarter: Expand telehealth for specialty follow-ups to reduce pressure on local providers, cross-train teams to work across our clinics, and invest in scribes and workflow support so clinicians spend more time with patients and less on paperwork.
The board does not hire staff, but it sets the budget, culture, and priorities that make people want to come and stay.
According to a 2024 report by the Seniors Council, San Benito County had California’s third highest growth rate in the 65-to-84-year-old age group since 2010. What will you do to ensure this group’s medical needs can be met by providers within the county?
The data is striking: San Benito County has the third highest growth rate (67.2%) for the 65-84 population among all California Counties since 2010. These are our parents, neighbors, and longtime ranchers and farmworkers—and they need to get care here, not drive an hour over Pacheco Pass.
My plan for senior care in-county:
Primary care and geriatrics first: Recruit and retain primary care physicians and advanced practice providers with geriatrics training for our rural health clinics. Embed chronic disease management for diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and dementia screening into every clinic visit.
Senior-focused services at Hazel Hawkins: Strengthen orthopedics, cardiology, urology, ophthalmology, and emergency services that seniors use most, plus expand our existing palliative care, physical/occupational/speech therapy, and rehabilitation services. Protect and improve the Mabie Skilled Nursing Facilities for post-acute and long-term care.
Bring care closer to home: Partner with the Seniors Council, Area Agency on Aging, Jovenes de Antaño, and County Health and Human Services for home health, fall prevention, medication management, and transportation to appointments. Expand daytime geriatric clinic hours, telehealth check-ins for homebound seniors, and care coordination so a senior sees fewer referrals and more follow-through.
Preventive and Medi-Cal aware planning: With more seniors becoming Medi-Cal eligible, we must plan for reimbursement realities while never turning away based on payer. Early screening, nutrition, and social support keep seniors out of the ER and living independently longer.
In short: I want San Benito County to be a place where you can grow old and still get excellent, compassionate care right here in Hollister.
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