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Gov. Tina Kotek has nominated three new members to the Oregon Health & Science University board of directors, and renominated two others.
As some current members reach the end of their terms, the appointments, if approved, would establish the partial new makeup of the 11-member oversight council at Oregon’s flagship medical institution following a period of internal turbulence and at a time of great uncertainty and budget strain in the health care space.
One new nominee is Betsy Johnson, a former Democratic state senator and fixture in state politics for decades who not long ago ran as an independent against Kotek for governor. The others are Chris Abbruzzese, senior vice president at the wealth management firm Robertson Stephens, and Sadhana Shenoy, who formerly chaired the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System board.
Kotek has also reappointed Susan King, a nurse who lead the Oregon Nurses Association, and Sue Steward, a leader with the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board.
Board members are eligible for two terms. The three set to term out are Ruth Beyer, Steven Zika and current board chair Chad Paulson.
In a phone interview, Johnson said she anticipates the new board will grapple with institutional budget challenges and major federal health policy changes, while overseeing the implementation of the “breathtakingly large” $2 billion gift Phil And Penny Knight recently pledged to the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, which the university has said is set to become a self-governing entity.
“It is a time of tremendous change at OHSU, and I think that the board of trustees needs to be very actively engaged in monitoring and managing that change,” Johnson says.
The board, she says, will also need to support the institution’s new president, Dr. Shereef Elnhalal. Elnahal takes on the role following the abrupt resignation last October of previous president Dr. Danny Jacobs, whose tenure was marked by scandal and extremely low staff morale.
Johnson served recently on the 25-member presidential search committee whose work preceded Elnahal’s appointment in June. She also served on the boards of Doernbecher Children’s Hospital and the OHSU Foundation.
Abbruzzese declined to comment as he acquaints himself with the media policies tied to the position. Shenoy, the other new appointee, could not immediately be reached for comment.
OHSU, a quasi-public entity with billions of dollars in annual revenue and thousands of employees, is overseen by a board of directors appointed by Oregon’s governor.
By statute, the board has 11 members. Seven serve four year terms—a cohort that is supposed to have experience in realms related to the university’s mission, such as higher education, health care or business development. Other board members include student, faculty and nonfaculty representatives who serve two-year terms, as well as the OHSU president.
The board typically meets four or five times a year in public session and is also empowered by law to meet in private session to discuss “sensitive matters,” according to the OHSU website.
The Oregon Senate is expected to consider Kotek’s appointments later this month. A spokesperson for OHSU says the new board members’ terms would begin Oct. 1.
