Financial progress, personnel transitions, and skin care—specifically, “Dermatology Innovations and Skin-Care Secrets”—were on the agenda Tuesday, May 10, when the Baylor Health Care System Foundation board held its quarterly luncheon meeting at Dallas’ Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center.
After attendees like Ken Schnitzer, Shannon Skokos, Tom Dunning, Jill Smith, Barry Andrews, Aileen Pratt and Richard Holt took their seats in the center’s big meeting room, Foundation Chair Margo Goodwin got right down to business by noting that the FY 2016 Board Giving Campaign, which wraps up Thursday, June 30, had reached 85 percent of its goal. “It’s not the size of the gift,” Margo pointedly reminded the board members, “it’s the fact that 100 percent of our board will give.”
She then turned over the podium to Baylor Scott & White Holdings Board Chair Jim Turner, who gave a detailed update on the process to find a successor to Joel Allison. Joel, who’s CEO of Baylor Scott & White Health, announced previously that he would step down officially on February 1, 2017. Turner told the board about the hiring of Witt/Kieffer, an executive-recruiting firm whose Atlanta-based practice specializes in CEO searches for healthcare firms. A search committee has also been named, Turner said, and its members would be interviewing a number of hospital “stakeholders” to create the “ideal CEO profile.”
Once that profile is completed, Turner explained, Phase Two of the search would kick in. First, Witt/Kieffer will review both “internal and external” candidates through July. A select group of those candidates should be selected by the end of August, Turner said, and, ideally, finalists would be ready for official consideration by the middle of September. Turner is aiming to have a candidate to take to the board for their consideration by Saturday, October 1, with the finalist hired and “on board by October 30.”
That timetable would give the new CEO time during the transition period to learn the ropes from Allison, who will “step into his role as adviser to me by February,” Turner concluded.
Then it was time for Foundation President Rowland “Robin” Robinson to talk about another sort of transition: new members replacing “old” ones on the foundation board. “Rolling off” the board on Thursday, June 30, would be Glenn Callison, Dunning, James N. Miller, William F. Miller III, Beverly Nichols, Wade Reed, John Tolleson and Terry Worrell.
Then a third sort of transition was addressed: the replacement of Dr. Alan Menter as chairman of the Division of Dermatology at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas with incoming chairman Dr. Clay J. Cockerell, who will assume his new duties on Friday, July 1. Cockerell and the legendary Dr. Menter were joined in a panel discussion titled “More Than Skin Deep” by Dr. Catriona Ryan, vice chair of Dermatology, Dermatology Residency Program at the Baylor University med center.
Cockerell said his goal is to “double the size” of the dermatology program over the next five years. Menter, who’s had a longtime focus on improving psoriasis treatment, said that despite stepping down as dermatology chairman, he would continue practicing after July 1. Ryan explained that Baylor has “upped what we do” for melanoma patients at the hospital. Asked by an audience member “what to do for crow’s feet,” Ryan stressed the importance of a skin-care regimen, using sunblock every morning, and applying Retin-A at night. Finally, all three doctors warned against the use of tanning beds, citing studies showing that 95% of women who developed skin cancer in their 20s and 30s had used tanning beds at some point.
The foundation’s next board meeting will be on Tuesday, September 20.
* Photos provided by Baylor Health Care System Foundation