After eight years at the helm of San Luis Obispo’s Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center, Candace “Candy” Markwith will retire in September.

Markwith, who has been head of the 164-bed hospital since March 2005, announced her upcoming retirement on March 25. With 772 employees, Sierra Vista is the largest employer in the city of San Luis Obispo.

“Candy Markwith has been the major force behind the developments that have allowed Sierra Vista to be so successful in recent years,” Jeff Koury, senior vice president of operations of the California region for the hospital’s parent company, Tenet Healthcare Corp., said in a news release. “Her leadership and vision has shaped Sierra Vista’s award-winning quality programs and provided the community with an outstanding medical institution.”

After growing up in San Luis Obispo County and graduating from Paso Robles High School, Markwith went on to become a pharmacist. She began her career as a pharmacist working weekend shifts at Twin Cities Community Hospital in Templeton, and eventually spent seven years as its chief operating officer. Markwith then spent four years in the same position at Doctors Medical Center of San Pablo and Pinole. Before landing at Sierra Vista in 2005, she was CEO of Suburban Medical Center in Los Angeles and then Redding Medical Center.

Sierra Vista is currently searching for a new CEO, according to a news release from the hospital.