Southwestern Health Resources, formed in October by Texas Health Resources and UT Southwestern Medical Center, appointed a leadership team to oversee the new network, which aims to streamline services and better serve patients through a continuum of care.
Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, president of UT Southwestern, and Barclay Berdan, chief executive of Arlington-based Texas Health, are co-chairmen of the board for Southwestern Health Resources.
Dr. John Warner, CEO of University Hospitals for UT Southwestern since 2012, has been named senior executive officer of the joint operating company that oversees the new network’s three main Dallas hospitals: William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital, Zale Lipshy University Hospital and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. A cardiologist, Warner led the planning and construction of William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital
Dr. Dan Varga, chief clinical officer and executive vice president of Texas Health, has been named senior executive officer of Southwestern Health’s physician network. Varga is board-certified in internal medicine and has 24 years of combined experience in patient practice, medical education and health care administration.
Dr. Mack Mitchell, a gastroenterologist, serves UT Southwestern as associate vice president for population health, professor and executive vice chairman of internal medicine and as chief medical officer for UT Southwestern’s Accountable Care Network. He will work alongside Varga as chief medical officer.
Dr. Bruce Meyer, executive vice president for Health System Affairs at UT Southwestern, will be the senior executive of Southwestern Health’s population health services company, which will track data about outcomes and costs of care. Meyer holds the T.C. Lupton Family Professorship in Patient Care, is executive director of the Faculty Practice Plan and is a professor of obstetrics and gynecology.
Southwestern Health Resources comprises 27 hospitals, 300 clinics and more than 2,000 physicians and spans a 16-county service area.
Boards & Organizations
The North Texas Commission added new members to its board. In addition, Liz Beauchamp, director of public affairs for Atmos, joined the executive committee. The new members are: Rick Callahan, city of Dallas; Ed Dolanski, – Aviall, a Boeing Co.; Jaime Grassi, Slalom; Cathy Kenworthy, Interactive Health; and Michael Peterson, AT&T.
The new Tarrant County advisory board for Leadership ISD includes: founding board Chairman Todd Ritterbusch, managing director for commercial banking, J.P. Morgan Chase and former chairman of the Fort Worth Independent School District Education Foundation; Rev. Bruce Datcher, pastor, Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church; Ramon Guajardo, president, Ramel Co. and former assistant Fort Worth city manager; Kelly Allen Gray, District 8 councilmember, city of Fort Worth; Marilyn Jones, executive vice president, community development and chief impact officer, United Way of Tarrant County; Nancy Jones, president/CEO, North Texas Community Foundation; Cynthia Miller, vice president for workforce development and education, Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce; Bill Koehler, adviser, Sid Richardson Foundation; Patricia Linares, former interim superintendent, Fort Worth ISD; Elva LeBlanc, president, Tarrant County College Northwest Campus; Mattie Parker, chief of staff to the Fort Worth mayor and City Council; and Larry Tubb, executive director, the Center for Children’s Health, Cook Children’s.
AZZ Inc. appointed Venita McCellon-Allen to its board. McCellon-Allen has been the president and chief operating officer of Southwestern Electric Power Co. since 2010. Previously, she was executive vice president of AEP Utilities East (2009-2010), executive vice president of AEP Utilities West (2006-2009), and senior vice president for shared services of AEP (2004-2006). From 2000-2004, she was senior vice president, human resources for Baylor Health Care Systems, and from 1995-2000 had various leadership roles at Central and South West Corp. She is a member of the strategic planning committee of the Southwest Power Pool.
Theresa Meadows, senior vice president and chief information officer at Cook Children’s Health Care System, has been appointed to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Care Industry Cybersecurity Task Force.
Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Rona Stratton Gouyton and Christy Jack to the governing board of the Texas Civil Commitment Office for terms to expire Feb. 1, 2017, and Feb. 1, 2018, respectively. Gouyton is the sales and office manager for Complex Printing. She is a founding member of Victims of Violence and Families of Murder Victims and served as a member of the Pardons and Paroles Victim Advisory Board. Gouyton received the Courage Award from the Council on Sex Offender Treatment and the Mitch Poe Public Service Award from the Tarrant County Sexual Abuse Advisory Council. Jack, a partner at Varghese Summersett PLLC, was an assistant criminal district attorney for Tarrant County. She is a member of the State Bar of Texas and chairman-elect of the Criminal Justice Section. She is also a member of the Tarrant County Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and a past member and past training chairman of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association.
Honors & Awards
Sedrick Huckaby, a University of Texas at Arlington assistant professor of art, is one of seven winners of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2016 hosted by The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. Huckaby earned a commendation for “Sedrick, Sed, Daddy,” a self-portrait painting. Huckaby’s painting and 42 works by the six other winning artists will be in the museum’s exhibition, “The Outwin 2016: American Portraiture Today,” which runs through Jan. 8 at the gallery in Washington, D.C. The competition and exhibition will travel to three other museums, including the Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi from June 8-May 14, 2017. In addition, one exhibiting artist will win the People’s Choice Award, which will be announced Sept. 20. In this part of the competition, visitors to the exhibition, both online and in the gallery, can vote for their favorite.
Huckaby, a Fort Worth native, joined the UT Arlington Department of Art and Art History in 2009. He has won numerous awards, including a Joan Mitchell Foundation Award and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. Recently, his work was added to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. His work can also be found in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University.
Amanda Alexander, an assistant professor in the UT Arlington Department of Art and Art History, received the National Art Education Association’s 2016 Western Region Higher Education Art Educator of the Year Award. Alexander worked in marketing for several years, completed Peace Corps service from 2002-2005, worked for both the Ohio Arts Council and the Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission, taught with Upward Bound and taught at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. As the area coordinator for the department’s art education program, Alexander serves on many interdisciplinary advisory boards at UT Arlington and with statewide, national and international arts/art education organizations.
Gabriel Valdez, a teacher at the Fort Worth Independent School District’s Rosemont 6th Grade Center, received the International Teacher of the Year Award from the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth.
Manufacturing & Distribution
Eklund’s Inc. added Matt Garner as project manager. Based in the firm’s corporate office in Southlake, Garner will manage elevator cab interior projects from booking to completion. He informs customers of job progress throughout the design, manufacturing and installation process. Previously Garner had a dual position as project manager and estimating manager for a national stone manufacturing company.
TTI Inc. hired Phil Gallagher as a corporate officer and senior vice president. Gallagher also is president, sales and marketing, for the Americas. He comes to TTI from Avnet, where he spent 32 years in sales, marketing and strategy. He was vice president of global business development for three years before his promotion to president, electronics marketing for the Americas. Most recently Gallagher was president of Avnet Technology Solutions. He is a past president of the Electronic Components Industry Association and is a member of the Global 50, a forum of the world’s top global general management executives.
Nonprofit Organizations
Erika Beltran, most recently the regional director for Leadership for Educational Equity in Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio, is the new Tarrant County program director for Leadership ISD. A native of Fort Worth, Beltran has worked in education for more than a decade, starting her career as a Teach for America corps member. She spent a year at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, working on efforts to expand access to early childhood education. She spent five years as a senior education policy analyst at the National Council of La Raza in Washington, D.C., and returned to Texas in 2012 to work at the Teaching Trust. She is an elected member of the State Board of Education.
LiftFund named Nikki M. Miller as the vice president of advancement for the North Texas region. With more than 15 years of experience in nonprofit management and fundraising, Miller will create and lead strategic fundraising. She most recently was the major gifts officer for the Catholic Diocese of Dallas. Before that, she was the development director for Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic School. Prior to joining the nonprofit industry, Miller worked in technology sales.
Real Estate
Paul Vernon has been hired as executive vice president and head of Henry S. Miller Brokerage’s retail division. Vernon will oversee the brokerage services, including landlord and tenant representation, retail and land development and property disposition as well as income properties and land sales. Vernon has more than 30 years of commercial real estate experience, beginning his career with Evans, Birmingham, Williamson. Most recently he was executive vice president at John T. Evans Co. and director of retail development at Crest Commercial Real Estate.
Tourism, Entertainment & Leisure
In support of the city’s growing sports market, the Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau created a new department, Fort Worth Sports Marketing, led by Josh Dill, director of sports marketing. He joined the bureau in 2013 from Lubbock Sports. He represents Fort Worth on the Stadium Events Organizing Committee for major events at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
Send newsmakers to Betty Dillard at bdillard@bizpress.net