Margaret Wagner Dahl to Chair AHA's Committee on Governance

WASHINGTON – February 4, 2016 – The American Hospital Association (AHA) today announced that Margaret Wagner Dahl will be chair and Andrew M. Stern will be chair-elect for the AHA's 2016 Committee on Governance (COG).

The COG is a specialty committee of the AHA Board of Trustees. The committee is responsible for providing input for AHA’s policy development, leading effective involvement of the nation's hospital trustees in grassroots advocacy, providing advice on AHA’s trustee initiatives, and enhancing communication with and involvement of trustees in the AHA.

Dahl is a trustee at WellStar Health Network, an accountable care organization (ACO), in Atlanta. She previously served as board chair for the Athens Regional Medical Center. Dahl also served as a trustee on the Georgia Hospital Association and on the board of Project Safe, a nonprofit organization combating domestic violence.

Dahl is Associate Vice President for Health IT at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Enterprise Innovation Institute, where she leads a team devoted to the challenges of interoperability and integration in eHealth. She previously held positions with pharmaceutical companies Pharmacia and Organon Teknika, and co-founded two successful startup companies. She subsequently moved to academia where she focused on technology commercialization in roles at the University of Washington, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Georgia in Athens. Her degrees are in sociology and geography with honors from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.

Andrew M. Stern, trustee of Medical City Dallas Hospital in Dallas, will serve as chair-elect and will assume the role of chair in 2017. Fred P. Gattas, Jr., trustee of St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., is the immediate past chair. Kimberly A. McNally, trustee, UW Medicine in Seattle, serves as the AHA board liaison to the Committee on Governance.

Newly elected members serving three-year terms beginning January 1, 2016, include: Catherine Quencer, trustee, Samaritan Medical Center, Watertown, N.Y.; Ron Dodson, trustee, Southern Crescent Hospital for Specialty Care, Riverdale, Ga.; Waunita Delaney, trustee, Allegiance Health, Jackson, Mich.; Richard Evnen, board chair, Bryan Medical Center, Lincoln, Neb.; Rosemary Burns, board member, East Texas Medical Center Foundation, Tyler, Texas; David Brown, board chair, Billings Clinic, Billings, Mont.; Fran Roberts, board chair, Presbyterian Health Delivery System, Albuquerque, N.M.; and Sam McCreary, board chair, John C. Fremont Healthcare District, Mariposa, Calif..

The new committee members join current COG members: Marie O’Brien, board chair, Bristol Hospital, Bristol, Conn.; Durwood Dominy, board secretary, Colquitt Medical Center, Moultrie, Ga.; Connie Vitali, M.D., board chair, Rockford Health, Rockford, Ill.; J. Lynne Cannon, board chair, Robert Wood Johnson-Hamilton Medical Center, Hamilton, N.J.; Elizabeth Merry, trustee, LRGHealthcare, Laconia, N.H.; Vic Orler, trustee, Presence Health, Chicago; Sharon Rossmark, former board vice-chair, Sinai Health System, Chicago; Dan Schuette, board chair, St. Charles Health System, Bend, Ore.; Galen Wiser, board chair, Providence Medical Center, Wayne, Neb.; Joseph J. Fennessy, board chair, South Nassau Communities Hospital, Oceanside, N.Y.; James A. Hartley, board chair, Carilion Clinic, Roanoke, Va.; Edward L. Hatcher, trustee, Grinnell Regional Medical Center, Grinnell, Iowa; David B. Hyman, DDS, board vice-chair, Hartford HealthCare, Hartford, Conn.; Brenda Ireland, board chair, Woman’s Christian Association Hospital, Jamestown, N.Y.; Donna J. King, trustee, SCL Health System, Denver; Anthony Stanowski, trustee, Bon Secours Baltimore Health System, Baltimore; and Anthony G. Wagner, board chair, Sutter Health Bay Area Division, San Francisco.

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.