The Nashville Health Care Council recently announced the appointment of new and renewing members to its 2016-2017 board of directors. C. Wright Pinson, MD, deputy CEO, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and CEO, Vanderbilt Health System, will serve as chairman of the board for a two-year term. Pinson, the board's former vice-chairman, succeeds William Gracey, former president and CEO, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, who served as Council chairman from 2015-2016, and who remains on the board as a director. R. Milton Johnson, chairman and CEO, HCA, was selected to begin a two-year term as vice-chairman of the board.

New and renewing at-large directors include, David L. Black founder, chairman and CEO, Aegis Sciences Corporation; Christopher A. Holden, president and CEO, AMSURG; T. Andrew Smith, president and CEO, Brookdale Senior Living; and Carl Whitmer, president and CEO, IASIS Healthcare.

Nine new directors are joining the board for one-year terms: James W. Bearden, CEO, Gresham, Smith and Partners; Darrell S. Freeman, chairman and CEO, Zycron; Jay Hardcastle, partner, Bradley; James E.K. Hildreth, MD, president and CEO, Meharry Medical College; Allen Moseley, general partner, Noro-Moseley Partners; Mike Musick, assurance office managing partner, BDO USA; Vincent P. O'Leary, senior vice president, healthcare private banking, Brown Brothers Harriman; Clay Richards, CEO, naviHealth; and Tammy N. Wolcott, CEO, W Squared.

Marc Watkins, MD, CMO, The Little Clinic, also has been elected to the board for a one-year term. He serves in a director seat for an outstanding alumnus of the Council Fellows initiative. In addition, Will Howorth, vice president, strategic business growth, HCA Urgent Care, and chairman of the Council's Leadership Health Care initiative, was elected to serve a one-year term on the board.