AHA appoints new members to board

The American Hospital Association board of trustees has elected eight members to serve three-year terms on the board beginning Jan. 1. In addition, the board recently appointed two new trustees to serve partial terms. The elected trustees are:

Vanessa Ervin, past chair and current board member of the Onslow County Hospital Authority, Jacksonville, N.C., is CEO of Carobell Inc., a nonprofit health care provider in Jacksonville, N.C. Ervin, an ordained minister, will chair Regional Policy Board 3, where she currently serves as a delegate.

Rodney Hochman, M.D., is president and CEO of Providence St. Joseph Health. Hochman will chair Regional Policy Board 9. His AHA participation includes the Section for Health Care Systems governing council and AHA advisory committees. 

M. Michelle Hood is president and CEO of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems in Brewer. She is past chair of the AHA Section for Health Care Systems governing council and a past Regional Policy Board 1 member. She serves on the University of Maine System board as immediate past chair and on the Vizient (VHA) New England board as immediate past chair. Hood served as chair of the Maine Hospital Association for the 2013–14 term and remains an active MHA board member.  

Wright L. Lassiter III is president of Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. He is a past chair of the governing council of the AHA Section for Metropolitan Hospitals. He is a member of the AHA Board Task Force on Ensuring Access to Care in Vulnerable Communities. Additionally, he served on the executive committee of the boards of the California Hospital Association and America's Essential Hospitals. 

David Molmen is CEO of Altru Health System, a vertically integrated tertiary health system based in Grand Forks, N.D. He will serve as chair of Regional Policy Board 6, where he is a current member. Molmen has served as the chair of the North Dakota Hospital Association, the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences Advisory Council, the VHA Upper Midwest board of directors, the Health Policy Consortium and the North Dakota Medical Group Management Association. 

Jason A. Spring is chief executive of provider network integration for Kalispell (Mont.) Regional Healthcare. He has been a member of the AHA Section for Small or Rural Hospitals governing council since 2014 and is on the Montana Hospital Association board of directors. Spring serves on U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke’s Congressional Advisory Committee and is vice chair of the Montana West Economic Development Corp.  

Allen S. Weiss, M.D., is president and CEO of the NCH Healthcare System in Naples, Fla. Weiss chaired the quality committee of the Healthy Florida Foundation and is immediate past chair of the Florida Hospital Association. He is also chair of the Vizient Upper Midwest board. He has served on AHA’s Regional Policy Board 4. 

Joe Wilkins is vice chair of St. Joseph Hoag Health (Providence St. Joseph Health) in Irvine, Calif. He is a member of the executive team at Quest Diagnostics. An AHA board member serving a one-year term, Wilkins is an ex officio member of the Committee on Governance and serves as chair of the Governance Forum of the California Hospital Association. He also serves on the California Department of Public Health, Health Office of Health Equity board.

David Entwistle, president and CEO of Stanford (Calif.) Health Care, has been appointed to a one-year term to fill a vacancy on the board. He served as an AHA board member and chair of Regional Policy Board 8 before moving to California. He is the AHA’s liaison to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

Judith Rich is president and CEO of Tucson (Ariz.) Medical Center Healthcare. She served as the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association board chair from 2012 to 2015 and has been a member of its board since 2008. In addition, she has served on numerous local, state and national boards and committees. Rich’s term on the AHA board began in June and runs through Dec. 31, 2018.