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Health For All officials said they are re-evaluating the role a director will play in the nonprofit clinic before initiating a search for a permanent replacement.
Former Director Phil Haas resigned in November after about 15 months at the Bryan clinic, which serves residents who don't have health insurance.
Officials said last week that a new director should reflect the significant changes that have occurred in the past year and respond to current difficult financial times.
"We're trying to fine-tune exactly what we want our new director to be," board president and local mortgage broker Debbie Davis said.
In the past year, officials said the clinic has hired its first full-time doctor and a part-time medical director. Those are giant steps, Davis said, for an agency that has relied on volunteer doctors for most of its history.
The new director will oversee fewer of the clinical aspects of the clinic and do more fundraising and public relations.
Former Health for All patient coordinator Michelle Heath is serving as interim director.
Board member Chrissy Hester said Heath is a long-term clinic volunteer and was an obvious choice for a short-term replacement.
"We went to her immediately," she said.
Davis said Heath has a "great rapport" with staff and patients.
Hester said trustees were "very surprised" when Haas informed them he was leaving in November.
Officials said Haas left Health for All to return to his previous employer, a nonprofit agency near Houston that requested his return after Hurricane Ike.
"It was just an offer he couldn't refuse," Hester said, adding that the parting was amiable on all sides.
Agency officials said Haas was a "transitional figure" in the nonprofit clinic's history. Trustees declined to attribute the many changes that took place at Health for All during Haas' short tenure directly to him, saying many were initiated before Haas arrived.
"[Haas] happened to be at the right place at the right time," Hester said.
Hester and Davis emphasized that Health for All is stable, despite the change in leadership.
Although a committed group of volunteers and staff hold the clinic together, Hester said, the main reason Health for All must remain open is the large number of people who need its help.
"Those people aren't going away," Hester said.
Davis said that in planning next year's budget, the board intends to spend more money on clinics and medical tests in anticipation of an influx of patients.
"I think as Americans lose their jobs, we will be seeing more and more people who do not have benefits. I think more and more of our money has to be shifted to our medical care," she said.
