Photos: Dan Winkelman of YKHC tours Alaska villages

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Dan Winkelman, president and chief executive of Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp., talks in Kotlik on Sept. 25, 2014. He traveled with staff and YKHC board members to villages to explain the corporation's finances, hear village concerns, and engage with YKHC employees and tribal leaders.

BETHEL -- Dozens of remote health clinics staffed by aides but no physicians. Buildings damaged in storms and that settle unevenly on the tundra, jamming windows and doors. High turnover and high energy costs. A financial crisis that resulted in extensive layoffs and still affects operations.

No one said running the biggest rural health care organization in Alaska would be easy.

But approaching nine months in the top job, the new chief executive of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp. is holding forums and traveling with top managers and board members to villages to spread the message that the organization is turning around financially and to thank everyone for helping.

Dan Winkelman was with YKHC 13 years, including time as general counsel and vice president, before being named in January as president and chief executive officer of the health organization most just call "YK."

"Please tell your friends and family," he repeated at each village stop in late September. "Five months in a row we've had a profit."

Read more: Finances looking up at YKHC but rural needs remain big -- and expensive