FARMINGTON – Tracy Harty has been appointed director of program development and research at Franklin Community Health Network, according to President Richard Batt.

Harty will be responsible for new initiatives in the areas of family health, international health, and public health. She has nearly 30 years of leadership experience in nursing and community health.

Harty began her nursing career eight years before joining Franklin Memorial Hospital as a charge nurse in the Intensive Care Unit in 1983. Over the next nine years she held a variety of positions at the Farmington hospital including clinical supervisor and education Instructor.

In 1992, Harty became executive director of the Healthy Community Coalition.

In 1999, she was director of nursing at Franklin Memorial Hospital.

Harty received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Conn., and later attended New York University, in New York, N.Y., in post graduate studies.

Tracy lives in Wilton with her husband, Kevin Howley. They are the parents of two grown children, Jeffrey and Annie.