Press Release

AHA names new trustees to the board

The American Hospital Association (AHA) has elected eight members to its Board of Trustees for three-year terms beginning Jan. 1, 2017. In addition, the board appointed one member to fill a one-year vacancy. The Board of Trustees is the highest policy-making body of the AHA and has ultimate authority for the governance and management of its direction and finances.

Incoming members of the AHA Board of Trustees include:

Vanessa Ervin is the past chair and a current board member of the Onslow Memorial Hospital Authority, Jacksonville, N.C. Professionally, she is CEO of Carobell, Inc., a nonprofit health care provider in Jacksonville. Carobell is licensed by the state of North Carolina to provide residential, medical and educational services to individuals with cognitive and intellectual disabilities. She is an ordained minister. Ervin will chair Regional Policy Board 3, where she currently serves as a delegate.

She has served on the board of the North Carolina Hospital Association and was on the bylaws committee. She is a long-time Rotary member and recently served as district governor for a 51-county region in North Carolina.

Ervin earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New Mexico and a Master in Business Administration and a Master in Rehabilitation Administration from the University of San Francisco.

David Entwistle is president and CEO of Stanford Health Care in Stanford, Calif. Prior to joining Stanford Health Care, Entwistle served as chief executive officer of the University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics (UUHC) in Salt Lake City, a post he held since 2007. Entwistle also held leadership roles at health care institutions across the country, including senior vice president and chief operating officer of the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison, Wis.; and vice president of professional services and joint venture operations at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif. He earned a bachelor's degree in Health Sciences from Brigham Young University and a master’s degree in Health Services Administration from Arizona State University. Entwistle also completed a postgraduate administrative fellowship at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Entwistle serves on the boards and committees of many local and national organizations, including the Association of American Medical Colleges Council of Teaching Hospitals; the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education; and University HealthSystem Consortium, part of Vizient, Inc.

Entwistle has been active in the AHA and earlier this year served as an AHA Board member and chair of Regional Policy Board 8. He is currently the AHA’s liaison to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. He was elected to a one-year term to fill a vacancy on the Board.

Rodney Hochman, M.D., is president and CEO of Providence St. Joseph Health. He joined Providence Health & Services in 2012 and served as president and CEO. Prior to that he served as president and CEO of Swedish Health Services in Seattle. He also held executive positions with Sentara Health Care in Virginia, the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati and Guthrie Health System in Pennsylvania, and is on the board of the Coalition to Protect America’s Health Care. Dr. Hochman will chair Regional Policy Board 9. His AHA participation includes the Section for Health Care Systems governing council and AHA advisory committees.

His medical background is in rheumatology and internal medicine and he has served as a clinical fellow in internal medicine at Harvard Medical School and Dartmouth Medical School. He earned his medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine and his bachelor’s degree from Boston University. He is vice chair elect for the Catholic Health Association, and a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Rheumatology.

M. Michelle Hood is the president and chief executive officer of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems (EMHS) in Brewer, Maine. Prior to her role at EMHS, she was president and CEO of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health Systems, Montana region.

Hood is past chair of the AHA Section for Health Care Systems governing council and a past Regional Policy Board 1 member. She currently serves on the University of Maine System Board as the immediate past chair and on the Vizient (VHA) New England Board as the immediate past chair. Hood served as the chair of the Maine Hospital Association (MHA) for the 2013-2014 term and remains an active MHA board member.

She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University and a Master of Health Care Administration from Georgia State University.

Wright L. Lassiter, III is president of Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. He joined Henry Ford Health System in 2014. Prior to that he was CEO of Alameda Health System in Oakland, Calif.

Lassiter is a past chair of the governing council of the AHA Section for Metropolitan Hospitals.

He is a current 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.

Lassiter received his Master of Healthcare Administration from Indiana University and completed his bachelor's degree with honors in chemistry from LeMoyne College in Syracuse, N.Y.

David Molmen is CEO of Altru Health System, a vertically integrated tertiary health system based in Grand Forks, N.D. Altru comprises three hospital locations, 300 provider multi-specialty medical group, and an extensive network of clinical services serving northeastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota. Prior to that, he served as chief operating officer of Altru Health System. Molmen 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, VHA Upper Midwest board of directors, the Health Policy Consortium and the North Dakota Medical Group Management Association.

Molmen received a Master of Public Health from the University of Minnesota and Credential of Advanced Studies in Health Administration from the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Healthcare Finance from Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn.

Jason A. Spring is chief executive Provider Network Integration for Kalispell Regional Healthcare, Kalispell, Mont., a position he assumed in June 2016. Prior to that he was CEO of North Valley Hospital (NVH) in Whitefish, Mont.

He has been a member of the AHA Section for Small or Rural Hospitals governing council since 2014 and is currently on the Montana Hospital Association Board of Directors. Spring currently serves on Congressman Zinke’s Congressional Advisory Committee and he is vice chair of the Montana West Economic Development Corporation.

Spring is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and has served on various ACHE committees. He received a Master of Health Service Administration from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the Centenary College of Louisiana.

Allen S. Weiss, M.D., has been president and CEO of the NCH Healthcare System in Naples, Fla. for the past decade. Prior to that, he was president for more than six years. He is responsible for a 715-bed, two-hospital integrated health care system. Weiss also has led a physician hospital organization.

At the state level, Weiss chaired the quality committee of the Healthy Florida Foundation that shared recommendations for evidenced-based medicine to transform health care 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.

He is a graduate of Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed his training at both the New York Presbyterian Hospital and Hospital for Special Surgery of Cornell University. He is board certified in three specialties and is recognized both as a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and a Fellow of the American College of Rheumatology.

Joe Wilkins is vice chair of St. Joseph Hoag Health (Providence St Joseph Health) in Irvine, Calif. Wilkins has more than 35 years of experience in health care. After developing and managing biomedical services for Kennedy Health System in New Jersey, he spent 30 years of his career at Danaher-Beckman Coulter, a $60 billion health care conglomerate. He is currently a member of the executive team at Quest Diagnostics.

A current AHA Board member serving one term, Wilkins is an ex officio member of the AHA’s 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 Equity Board. He is board-certified in health care management as an ACHE fellow.

He received his Master of Business Administration from Argosy University and earned educational certifications in corporate governance from the University of Southern California and University of California, Irvine.

About the AHA

The AHA is a not-for-profit association of health care provider organizations and individuals that are committed to the health improvement of their communities. The AHA is the national advocate for its members, which include nearly 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, networks, other providers of care and 43,000 individual members. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends. For more information, visit the AHA website at www.aha.org.