Nashua Native Takes Helm At Valley View

A Nashua native has been named as the new administrator of Valley View Home in Glasgow. Kandi Svenningson, who was Kandi Carpenter when she was an aide at Valley View in high school during the 1970s, will go back as its chief, starting Feb. 11.

Svenningson is a nurse at Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital, with experience there as a charge nurse, an ICU care coordinator and a STAT Air nurse. 

She started nursing school at Montana State University, then lived in Ohio for 20 years, where she finished her degree. She was the administrator of a health care agency and did hospice work. More than eight years ago, she moved back to Glasgow and earned her B.S. while working at FMDH.

Her favorite aspect of nursing is its diversity, Svenningson said in an interview on Monday.

“You can do so many things, not just working on the floor. This will be a whole new side of things.”

The decision to move from the hospital to Valley View was a career move.

“It’s hard to advance your career (at FMDH),” she said. “The middle managers don’t leave until they retire.” 

While this is a good thing for the hospital, Svenningson was looking ahead in her life and wondering if she could do 12-hour shifts for 15 more years. She decided to try for the opening at the nursing home, where the administrator, Tom Klotz, resigned at the end of November after 20 years.

“I see this an an exciting opportunity,” Svenningson said. “It’s something new. I can use the experience I have in a different focus. Hopefully I can do great things for Valley View Nursing Home. It could be more and it should be. It could have the employee longevity of the hospital.”

Mike Slaats, the president of the Valley View Board of Directors, said the search committee had eight applicants and interviewed four.

“We felt Kandi met our needs. She is what we were looking for,” Slaats said.

For her new position at Valley View, Svenningson needs a nursing administration license. She plans to pursue  a master’s degree in nursing home administration or health care administration. She will be supervising about 90 full-time and part-time employees, who take care of 63 residents. Valley View, which opened in 1969, is licensed for 96 beds but since the facility went to all private rooms, its maximum occupancy is 79 beds.

Svenningson’s husband, Todd, is also a nurse at FMDH. They met and married after she returned to Glasgow. She has a 22-year-old daughter, Amy Newton, who lives in Nashua (no relation to the Newton family in Glasgow).