Countywide : United Way Health Chairman Resigns

After five years of fighting to keep trauma centers open, expand prenatal care and improve medical care throughout Orange County, social worker Chauncey A. Alexander has resigned as chairman of the United Way Health Care Task Force to spend more time on his writing.

Alexander made the announcement at a task force meeting late this week. He could not be reached for comment Friday.

Replacing the 74-year-old activist from Huntington Beach is longtime task force member Mary-Evelyn Bryden, 68, who said Friday that she wants “to make the issue of health care in Orange County relevant to the business community.”

With “the cost of buying health care for employees rising, some of the burden on employers can be alleviated if there is more service provided by the county and the state,” said Bryden, who serves as a board member of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce. Bryden is also vice president of the Mental Health Assn. of Orange County and spent 20 years at the Orange County Transit District, retiring last year as government relations manager.

For all her experience, Bryden conceded that Alexander’s chairmanship “will be a very difficult act to follow. . . . I have none of the expertise he had. I am just a volunteer. He is a professional.”

In addition to his background in social work, Alexander was a former mental health worker, agency director and professional lobbyist. He also served 11 years as executive director of the Los Angeles County Heart Assn.

As a United Way volunteer, Alexander built a 50-member coalition of health care advocates that included community clinics, the county medical association and business leaders. Under his leadership, the group often battled county supervisors over proposed cuts in health care--and frequently won.

Among his victories were persuading supervisors to expand prenatal services to poor women, lobbying to retain an immigrant health program that was targeted for elimination this summer, and in 1987 publishing a report that said nearly one-fifth of county residents were not able to pay for medical care.