FARMINGTON ­— A highly experienced health care executive has been chosen to lead Franklin Community Health Network as its new chief operating officer.

Miriam Leonard, who has worked as a health care leader over a career spanning more than 20 years, will assume responsibility for day-to-day operations at the organization later this fall.

Timothy Churchill, CEO of Western Maine Health in Norway and the interim CEO at Franklin, appointed Leonard to the position and will continue in his role as interim CEO.

“We have made good progress working with Tim on setting a strategic direction for the organization, and it makes sense at this stage to keep some continuity and have Tim remain in this role,” said Clinton Boothby, chairman of the FCHN board of trustees. “But there is no doubt that we need an experienced executive leading the organization day to day, and we get that with Miriam’s appointment.”

Leonard works for MaineHealth at the system level where she is vice president of value improvement. In that role she leads the organization’s performance improvement efforts and assists MaineHealth members with similar initiatives.

Previous to that role, Leonard was at Maine Medical Center, the state’s largest hospital. Starting in 1993, she assumed executive positions of increasing responsibility at Maine Med. She was named vice president of operations there in 2001 and worked for a year in 2012 as vice president of special projects before joining MaineHealth at the system level in 2013.

Leonard holds a master’s degree in hospital and health administration from Xavier University in Ohio and a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy from the University of Georgia.

“Over the past several months, we’ve taken the steps necessary to put FCHN on firm financial footing,” Churchill said. “And at the end of the summer we completed a new, three-year strategic plan. Miriam is the right person to execute this vision.”

The plan includes building the organization’s primary care practices and focusing on services such as general surgery, women’s care, orthopedics and other initiatives aimed at meeting the needs of the community, he said.

“I’m excited to be stepping into this role at this time,” Leonard said. “Though rural health care organizations face challenges everywhere, I see so many strengths in this organization. I think it can become a model for the delivery of high-quality, cost-effective care and programming that improves the health of the entire community.”