Dogwood Health Trust has announced three new board members.
“There is a wealth of talented leadership in Western North Carolina from which to select our directors, and these three are all great examples,” said Dogwood Health Trust Board Chair Janice Brumit.
Dogwood Health Trust was created to disburse the profits of the sale of Mission Health to for-profit HCA Healthcare in February 2019.
The Board has confirmed new members: retired Rear Admiral Richard Houck of Transylvania County, Fred Jones of Macon County, and Bishop José McLoughlin of Henderson County.
“Each of them brings a great deal of community knowledge, innovative thought, and demonstrated service to their roles, and we are delighted to welcome them to Dogwood’s board,” said Brumit.
Dogwood Health Trust must have representation on its board from across the region as part of the HCA-Mission Health deal with the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office. Here’s the agreement. Dr. John Ball’s term ended in December 2020 and he has rotated off the board.
Here are the new board member's bios from Dogwood Health Trust:
Richard Houck previously served on the Covenant Compliance Committee for Dogwood Health Trust. He is one of only 30 officers at the rank of Rear Admiral in the U.S. Coast Guard. In his time with the Coast Guard, his responsibilities have included defending and executing an $8 billion budget to support all Coast Guard missions, working as the executive director of the Coast Guard’s Transition Team to move the Coast Guard from the Department of Transportation to the Department of Homeland Security, commanding Coast Guard forces in the Pacific Northwest, and coordinating ground-breaking joint exercises between military, federal, state and local law enforcement forces following September 11, 2001.
Fred Jones is an attorney with Jones, Key, Melvin & Patton, P.A. in Franklin, North Carolina. His practice areas include civil litigation, mediation, real estate transactions, corporate law, and estate planning. Jones was a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, where he earned both a Bachelor of Arts in economics and philosophy, as well as a Juris Doctorate degree. He is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association and the North Carolina Advocates for Justice.
Bishop José McLoughlin, originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, previously served on the Nominating Committee for Dogwood Health Trust. He was consecrated as the seventh bishop, and first Hispanic, of the Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina on Oct. 1, 2016. Ordained in 2005, McLoughlin earned his Master of Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Central Florida. Prior to his call to the priesthood, McLoughlin worked in the criminal justice field serving as a police officer in Florida and in the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Bishop McLoughlin is committed to being fully engaged in the church’s ministry with youth, minorities, and underserved populations and is passionate about raising up a new kind of leadership for the church.
