ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, April 19, 1996                 TAG: 9604190031
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER

PLANNED PARENTHOOD GETS SEASONED HAND

New Englander Amy Haselton is living in a motel and hasn't found a coin laundry yet, but she is quite at home in her new job as president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge Inc.

Haselton, 37, comes to the Roanoke-based agency with almost a decade of work in family planning clinics, most of it with Planned Parenthood. She has a degree in psychology from Colby College in Waterville, Maine, and a master's in public health from Boston University.

She most recently directed education and training for Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties, where she has worked since 1991.

Haselton succeeds Kathryn Haynie Parker, who has been with the Blue Ridge group since 1977 and directed much of its growth into a four-clinic agency with an annual budget of $2.3 million. Parker and Haselton will have about a week together before Parker leaves to join her new husband in Charlottesville.

"I can't be Kathy Haynie, but I hope that I can do for the affiliate what Kathy has done and more," Haselton said.

Charlotte Porterfield, president of the Blue Ridge board, said Haselton's extensive experience with Planned Parenthood was what attracted the search committee. The panel looked at more than 100 applications, narrowed them to four for personal interviews and offered the job to Haselton within a week of meeting her.

"Haselton was our first choice," Porterfield said.

The Roanoke position was ideal for Haselton's plans, too. She wanted to move back to the East Coast to be nearer to her parents, who live in Florida. Virginia was among the five states she was considering.

Not only did the agency position fit her plans to move forward with Planned Parenthood, she said, but the lower cost of living in the Roanoke Valley and its geographic location appealed to her. Haselton likes hiking, skiing and golf.

"Other directorships came up, and I didn't apply for them," Haselton said. "I would not have come here had I not felt confident that I could move the affiliate with alacrity into the 21st century."

LENGTH: Short :   48 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:   STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS/Staff Amy Haselton says she 
          ``can't be Kathy Haynie, but  I hope that I can do what Kathy has 
          done and more.''  color