Mike Nagowski took something of a nostalgic leave Tuesday from Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, where he has led the healthcare system for the past 18 ½ years as its chief executive officer.
He left with mixed emotions.
“I’d be telling a tale if I didn’t look at the last day with a little bit of sadness,” Nagowski said. “But, you know, everything comes to an end at some point.”
He has walked every corridor with a passion about what healthcare should and can be for patients and families who entrust their hope and faith in a health system from Cumberland County to hospitals in Bladen, Columbus, Hoke, Harnett, Johnston, and Robeson counties. counties.
Nagowski, 61, announced his retirement on January 30. Dan Weatherly, 59, chief operating officer at the health system since 2016, was selected as Nagowski’s successor on March 25 by the health system’s board of trustees.
Weatherly knows he has big shoes to fill in following Nagowski, whose fingerprints can be seen all over Cape Fear Valley Medical Center (circa 1956), with the opening of Health Pavilion Hoke on March 9, 2015, LifeLink Aire on August 30, 2017, the first residency class of students out of Campbell University in 2018, partnership with Harnett Health on March 9, 2021, christening of the Center for Medical Education & Neuroscience Institute in January of 2023, the medical center’s Valley Pavilion in 2025 and the Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine, which welcomes its first class of 64 students on July 20.
Nagowski has been the centerpiece of it all.
“We get a lot of accolades for the facilities and the buildings,” he said. “You build a new building and add new floors and beds, and believe me, I mean that’s all great, but the most important things that we’re most proud of are the people who work there and what they are accomplishing.”
A Health Crisis of His Own
Nagowski was 12 years into the role of the health system administrator when he suffered an intracranial cerebral aneurysm at age 54 on October 12, 2019, at his Gates Four Country Club subdivision home.
He was airlifted to Wake Medical Center for emergency surgery and endured a 35-day medical ordeal that included a second procedure to treat fluid on the brain before fully recovering and returning to work.
“I remember very little of it,” Nagowski said. “I had these little glimpses that I believe happens, but as soon as I woke up on the morning of November 18, I just wanted to get back to work. We decided I would come back to work before the holidays.”.
He survived his own medical crisis.
He counted his blessings.
“The good Lord prevailed,” he said.
Three months later, the coronavirus pandemic arrived in Fayetteville, and the health pandemic stunned the world, the nation, and this community.
“It’s horrible how many people lost their lives because of COVID,” Nagowski said about the coronavirus, “but at the same time, that’s when health care institutions are supposed to step up and be there for their community. When everybody else was going home, our teams were going to work. Our teams were showing up. I’ll never forget our role in the COVID pandemic, and how residents lined up in the rehab conference area out the door and down the streets to get the vaccinations. It was not a good time, but if you think about it, it was the time where the health system really stood tall.”
Mike Nagowski is an optimist.
From the Center for Medical Education & Neuroscience Institute to the medical center’s Valley Pavilion, to leading the way to save Bladen Hospital, to the Campbell University residency program, to the Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine to address what he describes as hope to address “doctor desserts” throughout Southeastern North Carolina, Nagowski has been the healthcare leader who always looked ahead.
“If the team believes what we’re doing will improve healthcare,” he said, “it is my responsibility.”
But Nagowski said Cape Fear Valley Health never has been about him, but about the physicians, nurses and healthcare employees who have made a difference.
“This team has always delivered,” he said.
So has Mike Nagowski, who was the choice of the health system’s board more than 18 years ago from Buffalo, New York, where he was president of Buffalo General Hospital in the town where he grew up.
‘He’s the Right Man’
John Henley and Rakesh Gupta led the way in bringing Nagowski to this community.
“He’s the right man,” Henley, a county commissioner and then a health system board member, said with assurance in 2007.
Henley never has changed his mind.
“When you look back over the last 50 years in Cumberland County, he will certainly be in the top four to five people who really made a huge difference in the community,” said Henley, a retired otolaryngologist who now resides in Chapel Hill. “He was the best at dealing with his staff, improving nursing care and ancillaries.”
Henley said Nagowski believed in the partnership of Cape Fear Valley Health with the Campbell University Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine, just as Nagowski believed in the Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine.
“He’s been in the middle of everything,” Henley said. “He’s guided a lot of this, and none of this would have happened had he not been supportive. You can have universities who would like to develop medical schools, but if the CEO of the primary hospital does not want to be involved with all of the details involved in establishing a quality medical school, it’s not going to be successful.”
Nagowski’s vision for healthcare, he said, has transformed healthcare in Southeastern North Carolina.
“His goal was to retire at age 55,” Henley said. “We were lucky we had him for six additional years.”
‘He Leaves an Incredible Legacy’
Rakesh Gupta is a retired gastroenterologist and served as chief of medicine from 1996 to 1998 at the medical center. He, too, believed Nagowski was the right man to lead the health system.
“Mike Nagowski was young and energetic when he interviewed with us and came to CFV in 2008,” said Gupta, who then was the board chair. “The hospital was in the red. He quickly made an impact with his vision for growth in order to gain market share and provide critical access services in Bladen County and specialty services in Hoke County.
“Since then, we have continued to grow and now we are in multiple counties around us providing primary care access through hospital clinics, specialty care services such as cancer care in Harnett county, and advanced cardiac care and trauma services at the main flagship hospital. We have an ever-expanding residency program at Cape Fear Valley and now the new MUCFVH medical school is really a capstone. He is incredibly visionary and as Dr. Don Maharty said at his retirement event, that his strength and his heart is the basis for his success.
“He leaves an incredible legacy for years to come,” Gupta said. “Our community is incredibly grateful for his tenure as a CEO.”
A Tireless Leader for Charitable Giving
Sabrina Brooks is vice president of philanthropy and marketing for the Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation.
“I watched Mike embrace our charitable mission and become an integral part of working with donors to help them meet their philanthropic goals while also making a transformational impact on healthcare in this region,” Brooks said. “He was always present at our events, actively participated in our board of directors meetings, and often spoke about how supporters of Cape Fear Valley Health help improve patient care, increase access to services and support our friends and neighbors at some of the most vulnerable times in their lives.”
Brooks said foundation assets have grown from $2,761,290 in 2008 to $15,459,869 at the end of 2025. In the past 18 years, the foundation has raised $61,710,000
“Those funds have supported families in need, cancer patients coping with treatments, expanded services across all areas of care, provided much needed enhancements to patient care, renovated care areas to provide the best healing environment possible, created endowments to insure patient care programs continue into perpetuity, built the Center for Medical Education, the Cancer Center in Harnett County, two adolescent behavioral care units, and created a medical school—all led by Mike’s vision and support of the impact philanthropic investments can have on healthcare across the region we serve,” she said.
“Last Wednesday, Jessica Kouba, foundation board president, said at his farewell reception on June 24, ‘At his core, Mr. Nagowski truly cares about people. His energy and leadership are a bright light whose rays will continue to change and impact our community and region for generations. We have a very strong health foundation due to his focus and passion. I am sad to see him go but I want him and all of you to know how much the health foundation appreciates him and all he has done for us.’
“His open and genuine approach with people inspired others to support Cape Fear Valley Health,” Brooks said. “His efforts and the impact they have had on healthcare in this region will truly be felt for generations to come.”
Today, Dan Weatherly sits behind the CEO desk overlooking the front lawn and entrance of Cape Fear Valley Medical Center on Owen Drive.
He feels Mike Nagowski’s presence.
“Mike has taught me to build a great team,” Weatherly, 59, said. “He taught me to always hire people who bring a skill set that may fill gaps in your own. He taught me to be sure to create an open and fun environment so that your team feels comfortable with each other and looks forward to coming to work every day. He taught me to help people grow so that you develop a strong bench for the future. He taught me that if you help people meet their goals, they will help you meet yours. He also showed us all the importance of hallway discussions with staff and to be sure to be present during those conversations, so people feel heard. He taught me that to always compare yourself with the best; not the average. He taught me that trust is vital, but relationships are key. And he taught me never to pass up ice cream.”
One Last Day
Mike Nagowski is stopping by the medical center today for a few last goodbyes of gratitude.
“It will be a little difficult,” he said. “There will be two feelings. One is bittersweet. I’m very proud of where the health system is and the team in place. It’s been a big part of me the last 18 years. It’s going to be a loss for me, but I’m very excited about this next chapter with my wife Kim and our family, and I’m looking forward to that. Still, I catch myself thinking about what we’re doing at the hospital. I have to stop those decisions. They’re not mine anymore. It’s the team’s and the board’s now. I really do feel like we’ve managed to accomplish some things. I wish I could have accomplished more. But I think we’ve left it a little better than we found it and to make sure that it’s taken care of for the future.”
Epilogue
Something else you should know about Mike Nagowski.
You were not just a patient at the medical center along Owen Drive. You were someone’s father, someone’s mother, someone’s grandparent, someone’s brother or sister, or someone’s child. Your loved one mattered to Mike Nagowski. His compassion and heart for others in a health crisis is larger than most would ever know.
“He’s the right man,” John Henley told me in 2007, and he told me and this community right.
Mike Nagowski was the right man to lead Cape Fear Valley Health, and we may never again see another healthcare leader like Mike Nagowski pass our way.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
