Khrista Boster has served as Woodlawn Health’s chief marketing officer since September 2022. Photo provided by Khrista Boster.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

AKRON — When Khrista Boster was growing up in rural Ohio, a boy slightly older than her died after being hit by car while he was riding a bike.

That incident helped motivate her to advocate for rural health care.

Boster, of Akron, serves as Woodlawn Health’s chief marketing officer.

She noted the area where she was raised in Ohio, between the small towns of Gomer and Rimer, didn’t have a hospital. When the boy was hit, the ambulance “took 30 minutes to (arrive).”

She said she wondered “what would have happened if (there was) an ambulance that was able to get out there faster and we had a hospital that was closer.”

She tells Woodlawn employees now that “we show up for those circumstances everyday (to enable) equal access (to health care).”

Though Boster said “health care fascinated (her)” when she was younger, she didn’t consider going into health care administration “because that’s not a side that many people get to see.”

Boster graduated from Temple Christian High School in Lima, Ohio.

As she liked to write, Boster got her Bachelor of Arts in professional writing from Taylor University in Fort Wayne.

She also obtained her Bachelor of Science in marketing and communications from Taylor after discovering she had a talent in those areas.

She also has her Master of Business Administration from Bluffton University, with an emphasis in health care administration.

“My first real marketing job out of college was at a nursing home and so that kind of started me on the health care path,” said Boster.

She worked for seven years in senior care, afterward working for four years for the nonprofit Project Mercy, which helps people in Ethiopia with health care.

She got her job with Woodlawn Health in September 2022.

In her role, Boster has “created a strategic marketing program, one that … was able to give back to our community.”

That partly influenced her to become Akron Chamber of Commerce secretary.

“It’s something that I would have personally wanted to do too,” said Boster. “I really believe in helping the smaller towns be viable because there’s competition (from larger towns).”

“I also live in Akron, so I want to leave it as a better place,” she added.

A third hat Boster wears is helping her husband, Kyle Boster, with the youth group at Akron United Methodist Church, where he is youth pastor.

“I really enjoy pouring into younger teenagers (especially younger girls), being the bridge between a parent and a friend,” she said.

Boster and Kyle have been married for almost 10 years. They have a six-year-old son, Kollin.

In her spare time, she enjoys reading, working out and gardening.