Vanderbilt Health’s Board of Directors has elected a new chair. On Jan. 1, 2027, Sara J. Finley will succeed longtime Board Chair Edith (Edie) Carell Johnson.
In recognition of her many years of distinguished service, Johnson will be designated as Immediate Past Chair and will continue to serve on the board until June 30, 2027, when her term ends.
Vanderbilt Health’s Board of Directors is the organization’s fiduciary board that provides oversight and counsel to help the Medical Center achieve its business and organizational goals.
Finley, who currently chairs the board’s Management Development and Compensation Committee, will assume leadership of the 12-member board composed of individuals with diverse leadership experience and talents including academia, academic medicine, banking, capital financing, law, the hospitality industry and other disciplines. The board’s experience reflects the totality of Vanderbilt Health’s mission as an academic medical center.
“I am incredibly grateful to Edie Johnson and all those who have served on our board. Edie’s steadfast support, wise counsel and generous gifts of time and expertise have been invaluable,” said Dr. Jeff Balser, President and CEO of Vanderbilt Health and Dean of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “Her phenomenal leadership will have a lasting impact on Vanderbilt Health.”
“We are very fortunate to have Sara Finley as our next board chair. Her leadership career in the health care industry and her deep commitment to the Nashville community make her ideally suited to lead the board and guide our next CEO, Dr. David Miller.”
In addition to prior years of service as a member of the Vanderbilt Health Board of Directors, Finley previously served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of CVS Caremark Corporation (now CVS Health).
Currently, Finley serves on the boards of Studio Financial Holdings Inc. and its affiliate Studio Bank, and on the board of SonderMind, a Denver-based mental health care company. Previous public company board service includes Tivity Health based in Franklin, Tennessee, and Preferred Apartment Communities Inc. based in Atlanta. Her nonprofit board service includes the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Leadership Nashville, and Vanderbilt Law School Board of Advisors. She previously served on the boards of Alive Hospice, Center for Nonprofit Excellence, Land Trust for Tennessee, and The Nashville Food Project. She is a 2017 graduate of Leadership Nashville.
Finley received her law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School after earning an undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama.
In 2015, as Vanderbilt Health was in the process of legally and financially separating from Vanderbilt University, Johnson agreed to leave the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust and serve as the first chair of the Vanderbilt Health Board of Directors. On April 30, 2016, Vanderbilt Health became an independent entity, and through the board’s guidance has sustained a decade of phenomenal growth across all mission areas.
In addition to her service as Chair of the Vanderbilt Health Board of Directors, Johnson, a civic leader, community volunteer and philanthropist, serves as an executive officer and legal counsel for the Carell Family LLC, a private investment firm.
She is the daughter of the late Ann Carell and the late Monroe Carell Jr., for whom the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt is named. She and her sisters have continued the family’s support for the hospital with a lead gift to the hospital’s “Growing to New Heights” expansion campaign that added an additional four floors and 160,000 square feet of new space to the facility.
Johnson was elected to the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust in 2007 and became Secretary of the Board in 2014. She served the University as Chair of the Medical Center Affairs Committee from 2012 until 2016 and served on the University’s Executive Committee and Athletics Committee.
“It has been an honor to serve as board chair of Vanderbilt Health and work alongside our dedicated board members,” said Johnson. “I want to express my deep appreciation to Jeff for his many years of dedication to the Medical Center’s growth and success. His commitment to excellence and contributions as a leader will continue to impact generations of our patients and their families now and into the future.”
Johnson currently serves on the Wake Forest University School of Law Board of Visitors.
She is the recipient of the 2020-2021 Distinguished Service Award from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and is a recipient of the Women United in Giving’s “Spirit of Giving Award.” She is the former Chair of the Board of Trustees at Harpeth Hall School and is also a former member of the Board of Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and Museum of Art and has served on the boards of the Nashville Zoo and McNeilly Center for Children.
Johnson graduated from Centenary College with BA and BS degrees and received her law degree from Wake Forest University School of Law.
Other members of Vanderbilt Health’s Board of Directors are John F. Stein, Jeffrey R. Balser, Lucinda M. (Cindy) Baier, William F. Carpenter III, Daniel Diermeier, Bruce R. Evans, John R. Ingram, Colin V. Reed; Gail Carr Williams, and Makeba Williams.
