Jolissaint Named Chair, Lester Vice Chair of AAPL Board

Three others were named to the board. All were introduced during the AAPL Physician Leadership Summit in Boston.

BOSTON, Mass. — The American Association for Physician Leadership on Sunday introduced James Gregory Jolissaint, MD, MS, CPE, FAAPL, and Mark Lester, MD, MBA, CPE, FAANS, FACS, FACPE, as the new chair and vice chair, respectively, of the association’s board of directors.

Jolissaint, on the association’s board since 2015, succeeds Alan P. Marco, MD, MMM, CPE, FAAPL, who remains on the board as past chair. Lester, on the board since 2016, replaces vice chair Daniel A. Lace, MD, CPE, FAAPL, whose four-year board term expired.

The appointments were announced during the 2018 AAPL Physician Leadership Summit, taking place at the Sheraton Hotel in Boston.

Gregory Jolissaint, MD, MS, CPE, FAAPL, addresses those attending the CPE convocation luncheon in Boston. | AAPL

Two current board members were appointed to the executive committee: Byron Scott, MD, MBA, CPE, FACEP, FAAPL, and Lisa Laurent, MD, MBA, CPE. Others on the committee are Jolissaint, Lester, Marco and association CEO and president Peter Angood, MD, FRCS(C), FACS, MCCM. Scott is deputy chief health officer for Simpler Consulting, a company of IBM Watson Health. Laurent is president of Advanced Radiology Consultants and medical staff president-elect of Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois. This is the second year on the board for Scott and Laurent.

Jolissaint, who is board certified in family medicine, is vice president for military and veterans health for Trinity Health, where he has worked since October 2017. Headquartered in Livonia, Michigan, Trinity is a faith-based health care system with member hospitals in 22 states. Jolissaint is co-located with Trinity Health’s Holy Cross Health Care System in Silver Spring, Maryland. His leadership career includes 28 years of active service in the U.S. Army, more than four years’ service as a clinical defense contractor with General Dynamics Information Technology, and almost three years of successive clinical leadership positions in the Veterans Health Administration. He also serves on a variety of national and community boards and commissions. He has been an AAPL member since 2008.

Mark Lester

Lester is executive vice president and a regional clinical leader for Texas Health Resources, one of the country’s largest faith-based, nonprofit health care systems. His previous roles there include interim system chief quality officer and vice president/chief operations officer at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. He led the creation of THR’s physician leadership development program, engaging independent and employed physicians across the system. Previously, Lester worked as chief medical officer for Ascension Health’s St. Mary’s of Michigan, chief of neurological surgery and vice chair of surgery department operations at Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and as clinical associate professor of surgery at Penn State University. He has been an AAPL member since 2004.

In addition to those appointments, AAPL announced the election of three new members to the board: Linda L. Lawrence, MD, FACEP, CPE; Ash R. Gokli, MD, FACEP, FAAPL, CPE; and Gregg E. Davis, MD, MBA, FAAFP. They fill vacancies left by the departures of Lace and Napoleon Knight, MD, MBA, CPE, FACEP, FAAPL. Like Lace, Knight’s four-year term expired.

Lawrence is a regional president for Ohio-based U.S. Acute Care Solutions, leading care delivery for more than 1.3 million patients annually across 32 emergency departments. A retired Air Force colonel, she served more than 24 years as an emergency physician and physician leader. As a recognized leader, academician and clinician, she has held a variety of roles, including associate professor and commandant at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, CMO at the David Grant Medical Center and CEO of the 31st Medical Group. She has been an AAPL member since 2009.

Gokli is CMO for California-based Sutter Health’s Valley Area division, where he oversees 10 acute-care facilities, the Sutter Medical Foundation and the Sutter Gould Medical Foundation. His 25-year leadership tenure includes positions as chair and vice chair at St. Mary Mercy Hospital in Michigan; and CEO and CMO roles within the Sutter Health system. He is board-certified in internal medicine and emergency medicine, holds numerous leadership certifications, and is a fellow of AAPL and the American College of Emergency Physicians. He has been an AAPL member since 1997.

Davis is CMO of the Illinois Rural Community Care Organization and medical director of the Community Care Alliance, which provides medical care in rural Colorado, California and Washington. A board-certified family physician, he practiced in rural Illinois for 36 years. He also has served as interim CEO and board member of Perry Memorial Hospital, a critical-access facility in Princeton, Illinois. He has been honored by the Illinois Rural Health Association, the Illinois Senate, and the Illinois House of Representatives. He has been an AAPL member since 2004.

They were selected from a field of 33 candidates nominated by their peers. The association’s board is composed of experienced and distinguished physician leaders whose collective knowledge, skills and experiences support the association’s mission, vision and values. A slate of candidates is brought before the membership during an online election in the first quarter of the year.