AHA Names New Trustees to the Board

WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 2, 2022) – The American Hospital Association (AHA) has elected six new members to its Board of Trustees for three-year terms beginning Jan. 1, 2023. The Board of Trustees is the highest policymaking body of the AHA and has ultimate authority for the governance and management of its directions and finances.

In addition, Russ Gronewold, president and CEO of Bryan Health in Lincoln, Neb., was reappointed to a full term as a member of the AHA Board of Trustees and chair of Regional Policy Board 6. More information about Gronewold can be found HERE.

Incoming members of the AHA Board of Trustees include:

Schonay Barnett-Jones, trustee of Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., a children’s teaching hospital that also includes numerous other sites of care in D.C., Md. and Va.

Barnett-Jones has been associated with Children’s National Hospital for the past 17 years. Barnett-Jones is the immediate past chair of the Children’s National Hospital Board, past member of the Children’s National Parent Board and past co-chair of the Children’s National/Hospital for Sick Children (HSC) Health System Joint Committee.

Barnett-Jones is also a member of AHA’s Dick Davidson NOVA Awards Committee and a delegate of AHA Regional Policy Board 3.

She currently serves as a director for Bearacuda RE, the Children’s National Insurance Captive and the Make-A-Wish Mid-Atlantic Wish Ball committee. In addition, she is a senior director at Visa, Inc.

Barnett-Jones received a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Spelman College in Atlanta, a Master of Business Administration in management from Howard University in Washington, D.C. and a Master of Science in health care administration from the University of Maryland Global Campus.

Victoria Bayless, CEO of Luminis Health, a health system based in Annapolis, Md., which includes Anne Arundel Medical Center (AAMC) in Annapolis and Doctors Community Medical Center in Lanham, Md.

Most recently, Bayless led the newly-formed Luminis Health system through the complexity, uncertainty and volatility of COVID-19. She is passionate about Vision 2030 - Living Healthier Together, which focuses on overall quality performance, workforce development, and financial resiliency while improving access, advancing health equity and meeting community needs. AHA has recognized Luminis Health with two NOVA awards for innovations in community partnerships to improve community health. In addition, Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center was the recipient of the AHA 2019 Carolyn Boone Lewis Equity of Care award.     

Bayless has been an AHA commissioner on the board of The Joint Commission (TJC) since 2020 and serves on various TJC committees. She served as a delegate on AHA Regional Policy Board 3 from 2015-2017, and will be its chair starting in January of 2023.

Bayless previously served as the president and CEO of AAMC, which she joined in 2005 and advanced to president and chief executive officer in 2011. Prior to that, Bayless was vice president of clinical services at Washington Hospital Center/MedStar Health and held various positions there from 1993 to 2005.

She was named to CEO Connection’s 2021 “Most Influential Women of the Mid Market” — recognizing CEOs across key sectors. In 2016, Health Data Management named Bayless to their “Most Powerful Women in IT” roster, and Bayless was named the “Business Leader of the Year” by the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce.

Bayless received her Bachelor of Science from Tufts University in Medford, Mass. and her Master of Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

Mary Ann Fuchs, DNP, RN, vice president of patient care and system chief nurse executive for Duke University Health System and associate dean for clinical affairs for Duke University School of Nursing, both based in Durham, N.C.

Duke University Health System is a renowned academic health system comprised of 1,500 inpatient beds providing tertiary and quaternary services across many sites and services that span the full continuum of care. Fuchs leads the practice of nursing, ensuring consistency and a high standard of practice across the care continuum. In addition, she is responsible for core health system services, including home infusion, home care and hospice services, care coordination, accreditation and regulatory affairs. She led the Duke Graduate Demonstration Nurse Education Project, one of five funded by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) and previously served as the service line leader for Oncology. 

Fuchs was a member of AHA’s Task Force on COVID-19 Pathways to Recovery and previously served as the president and region 3 board member for the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL), which is a subsidiary of the AHA. AONL is the national professional association of more than 11,000 nurse leaders who manage and facilitate patient care in all settings across the care continuum.

She is a fellow in the Wharton Fellows Program in Management for Nurse Executives, a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow, the President of the Board of Directors for the Watts College of Nursing and served as the board chair for the Center for Child and Family Health in Durham, N.C. Fuchs was also inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 2011. 

Fuchs received a Bachelor of Science in nursing from the State University of New York at Binghamton, a Master of Science in oncology nursing, a post-master's certificate in education and a Doctorate in nursing practice from Duke University.

Lori J. Morgan, MD, MBA, president and CEO of Huntington Health, an affiliate of Cedars-Sinai, in Pasadena, Calif.

Huntington Health is home to the largest emergency department and only level-II trauma center, as well as the only level III NICU, in the San Gabriel Valley in Southern California. Morgan’s leadership around the recent affiliation with Cedars-Sinai further strengthens Huntington’s ability to provide the community with accessible, coordinated, high-quality care, close to home. The affiliation enables many different types of collaborations between Cedars-Sinai and Huntington on clinical services, research, clinical trials and education.  

Morgan has also had a major focus on setting physician strategy and expanding clinical programs and led a major construction project for new operating rooms, cardiac catheterization labs and earthquake retrofitting. She is currently leading initiatives to expand diversity, equity and inclusion, and create and implement leading-practice caregiver wellness resources to address burnout and foster greater professional satisfaction.

Previously, Morgan spent nine years as a corporate vice president of Legacy Health in Portland, Ore. Prior to joining Legacy, Morgan served as a medical director of the Trauma Trust in Tacoma, Wash. for nearly a decade, where she developed a new adult Level II Trauma Center and Pediatric Trauma Service. She served as a co-director of the surgical ICU and was a trauma surgeon at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics between 1997 and 2000.

She has been a board member and now officer for the Hospital Association of Southern California as well as a board member of the California Hospital Association. Morgan will be the chair of AHA Regional Policy Board 9 starting in January of 2023.

Morgan received her Doctorate in medicine from the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle and her Master of Business Administration from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash.

Stephen Purves, president and CEO of Valleywise Health in Phoenix, Ariz.

Valleywise Health is Arizona’s longest serving public teaching hospital and health care system and includes the Valleywise Health Medical Center, the Arizona Burn Center, a level I trauma center, three inpatient behavioral health centers and a network of 12 Federally-Qualified Health Centers that serve Phoenix and Maricopa County.

Purves works with the publicly elected five-member Board of Directors who represent the Maricopa County Special Health Care District to provide executive leadership for the growth and development of Valleywise Health.

Purves is a member of AHA’s Strategic Leadership Group for Urban Hospital Sustainability and served various terms as a delegate for AHA’s Regional Policy Boards 4 and 8.

He serves as the immediate past-chairman of the board for America’s Essential Hospitals, and is on the board of the Arizona Hospital and Health Care Association, the Arizona State University Health Advisory Board and Health Futures Council, the Creighton University Arizona Health Education Alliance, Valleywise Health Foundation and the Arizona Chamber of Commerce.

Purves was awarded the U.S. Army Outstanding Civilian Service Medal in 2006. He was appointed as an honorary commander of the 161st Air Refueling Wing of the Arizona Air National Guard in 2020. He was the recipient of the 2020 Dean Conley award from the American College of Health Care Executives for his article “How Transparency Efforts Helped One System’s Financial Turnaround,” published in the spring 2019 issue of Frontiers of Health Services Management.

Purves received his Bachelor of Arts in health education from Springfield College in Springfield, Mass. and his Master of Science in health care administration from Trinity University in San Antonio.

Terika Richardson, chief operating officer of Ardent Health Services in Nashville.

Richardson oversees the operations and strategic growth of 30 hospitals and more than 200 sites of care across six states. She leads the company’s efforts to build consumer-focused regional health networks and scale clinical and operational best practices across the Ardent system.

Richardson was a member of AHA’s Center for Health Innovation Leadership Council from 2019-2021, a member of AHA’s Institute for Diversity and Health Equity Board from 2018-2020 and a delegate for AHA Regional Policy Board 5 from 2020-2021.

Previously, Richardson served as president of Advocate Aurora Health’s Central Chicagoland Patient Service Area, where she oversaw the operations of hospitals, clinics and ambulatory operations. Before joining Advocate Aurora in 2016, she was chief executive officer of Retreat Doctors’ Hospital in Richmond, Va., and served in various leadership roles for HCA Healthcare and Northwell Health.

She has been recognized as one of Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Minority Executives, among the Top 100 Women Leaders in Medicine of 2021 and Crain’s Chicago Business magazine’s 40 Under 40.

Richardson earned both Bachelor of Science degrees in biopsychology and cognitive science and a Master of Science in public health from the University of Michigan.

 

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Contact:        Colin Milligan, cmilligan@aha.org
                      Sean Barry, sbarry@aha.org

 

About the American Hospital Association
The American Hospital Association (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 advocates on behalf of our nearly 5,000 member hospitals, health systems and other health care organizations, our clinician partners – including more than 270,000 affiliated physicians, 2 million nurses and other caregivers – and the 43,000 health care leaders who belong to our professional membership groups. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides insight and 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.