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Dogwood Health Trust Announces New Rutherford County Board Member

Lilly Knoepp
Dogwood Health Trust became operational after the sale of Mission Health System's assets to HCA Healthcare.

The Dogwood Health Trust Board has announced Jackie Godlock of Rutherford County will join the board of directors. This brings the total board to 12 including Vice Chair Jack Cecil and Chair Janice Brumit.

Dogwood Health Trust Foundation was created as the result of Mission Health's sale to HCA Health at the beginning of February.The sale was finalized after NC Attorney General Josh Stein recommended a number of changes to the deal. Many of those changes centered on Dogwood Health Trust in order to make sure the foundation’s board fairly reflects the diversity of Western North Carolina. According Stein's changes, no more than four members of the 15-member board can be from Buncombe County by January 1st, 2021 and that the board can not include any members from the Mission board.

The organization will give funding to local nonprofits as well as the legacy foundationsof the six rural Mission hospitals that were a part of the deal. Dogwood Health Trust has already begun hosting listening sessions in the region to determine what social determinants it will focus on in Western North Carolina.

Stein also stipulated that two members needed to be added to the board from the Burke, McDowell, Polk and Rutherford region by January 1, 2020 - making Godlock the first addition to comply with the new changes.  She is the first board member from Rutherford County.

 

Godlock has served more than 15 years as a Business Relations Representative to cover a four-county region for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

 

"Having a board that represents and reflects the diverse perspectives and interests of the entire Western North Carolina region is vital to establishing Dogwood Health Trust as an organization that will partner with and support other groups who are doing vital work in our community," said Dogwood Trust Board Chair Janice Brumit in a press release.

A 13th member is expected to be added according to the press release.  No members from the Dogwood Health Board have stepped down.

Lilly Knoepp is Senior Regional Reporter for Blue Ridge Public Radio. She has served as BPR’s first fulltime reporter covering Western North Carolina since 2018. She is from Franklin, NC. She returns to WNC after serving as the assistant editor of Women@Forbes and digital producer of the Forbes podcast network. She holds a master’s degree in international journalism from the City University of New York and earned a double major from UNC-Chapel Hill in religious studies and political science.
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