A Pledge to Serve, A Vision to Unite
I'm Dr. Crawford , nurse practitioner, healthcare provider, and longtime resident of Desert Hot Springs. I began my career as a home health nurse, caring for patients where they lived. I spent more than a decade after that as an emergency room nurse, where I saw firsthand what happens when care comes too late, or doesn't come at all.
I've held a newborn moments after birth, and I've held the hand of a stranger in their final moments in the emergency room. Both moments taught me the same thing: healthcare is never just about the body. It's about showing up for people when they need it most.
After years in the ER, I pursued my Doctor of Nursing Practice — not to leave that work behind, but to go further with it. Since then, my career has taken me through family practice, home health, and fertility care, working alongside OB/GYN teams to help families through some of their hardest and most hopeful moments. Across every setting, one belief has stayed constant: the best healthcare stops a crisis before it starts.
I grew up in Seattle, Washington, and came to the Coachella Valley in my early twenties to build a life and raise a family. Desert Hot Springs isn't just where I live — it's where I've built everything that matters to me. That gives me something no title can: a real, lasting stake in this community's health and future.
My career has taken me from patients' living rooms, to the emergency room, to family practice, to fertility clinics — caring for people at nearly every stage of life. Now I'm ready to bring that same commitment to the table where decisions about our community's healthcare get made.
Dr. Crawford, DNP priorities
A campaign built on unwavering foundations. These core values dictate every policy and community initiative we champion for the future of our district.
ACCESS
Too many families across Zone 2 , Desert Hot Springs, Garnet, Sky Valley, Indio Hills, Desert Edge drive further and wait longer for care than residents just a few miles away. That gap isn't an accident of geography; it's a policy choice, and it's one we can change. As a nurse practitioner who has worked ER, family medicine, home health, and skilled nursing across this valley, I've seen firsthand where the system breaks down for the people who can least afford it: the single parent who can't take a half-day off work for a specialist appointment 40 minutes away, the senior without reliable transportation to a follow-up visit, the family whose nearest urgent care doesn't take their insurance. On the Board, I'll push to expand services and hours where the need is greatest, invest in transportation and telehealth solutions that meet people where they are, and hold every funding decision to one standard: does this make care easier to reach for the residents who need it most, not just the ones closest to it already.
PREVENTION
Emergency rooms are where health problems become expensive — for patients and for the district. I spent over a decade in trauma and emergency nursing watching preventable conditions turn into crises because someone couldn't get in for a checkup, a screening, or basic education until it was too late. That's not just a human cost; it's a fiscal one, and it's backwards. Real healthcare leadership means funding the unglamorous work upfront — chronic disease management, maternal and child health, mental health access, nutrition and wellness education — so fewer of our neighbors end up in crisis in the first place. As a Board member, I'll advocate for resource allocation that treats prevention as infrastructure, not an afterthought, and for partnerships with local providers and community organizations who are already doing this work but need real support to scale it.
ACCOUNTABILITY
The Desert Healthcare District exists because voters decided healthcare access was worth funding directly — that's a serious responsibility, and it deserves serious transparency. Residents should be able to see clearly how their tax dollars are spent, understand why decisions are made, and know that someone on the Board is actually listening when they raise a concern. Too often, public institutions default to closed-door decisions and jargon-heavy reporting that keeps residents at arm's length from their own money. I'm running on a simple standard: clear public reporting, open channels for community input that actually shape outcomes, and decisions I can explain plainly to any resident who asks. Accountability isn't a talking point — it's the discipline of showing your work, every time, to the people you serve.