Mary Pawlikowski, MA, MEd, Chief Operating Officer of Vanderbilt Behavioral Health, has been named interim president of the Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital (VPH), succeeding Jameson Norton, MBA, in the role he has held since 2016.

Roland “Ron” Eavey, MD, SM, Guy M. Maness Professor and chair of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, will be stepping down from his position as the department’s leader at the end of the academic year.

Leaders of Vanderbilt University Medical Center announced plans to purchase Tennova Healthcare-Shelbyville and Tennova Healthcare-Harton hospitals from subsidiaries of Community Health Systems Inc. (CHS). At the same time, VUMC will acquire minority ownership in CHS’s Tennova Healthcare-Clarksville hospital.

Visionary — someone who thinks about the future or advancements in a creative and imaginative way, a person who is ahead of her or his time and who has a powerful plan for change in the future. Such a person is William “Bill” Stead, MD, Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Chief Strategy Officer, McKesson Foundation Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Professor of Medicine.

This year’s effort by Vanderbilt University Medical Center to protect its people from influenza will be the most important in a century. With COVID-19 already prevalent, consuming precious health care resources, endangering lives, and so far, killing more than 170,000 Americans, this is not the year to shun getting a flu vaccine.

After serving as interim chair since Jan. 1, Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, Cornelius Abernathy Craig Professor of Medicine, has been named chair of the Department of Medicine in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief for the Vanderbilt University Adult Hospital and Clinics.