Annual Meeting - 2021

You can visit our online portal to fill out a pre-application. This pre-application offers a place to share ideas and plans and initiate the process of working with the Dogwood Health Trust Impact Team.

We recognize that there will be partners within our four strategic priority areas who will need capacity support to help achieve common goals. We are working internally to determine how we will define “capacity building” and how we will invest in the capacity of our partners within the context of our work toward our four strategic priorities.

Every strategic priority will have a number of specific goals and metrics, which we will identify early in 2021. Some will be shorter term, and some longer term. For example, we might choose to identify a minimum number of affordable housing units created in a certain timeframe or a percentage decrease in those experiencing food insecurity. We will share those goals and metrics and work with partners who also commit to achieving them. We will hold ourselves and one another accountable and adapt our work as needed to achieve them.

Always. Listening and learning are critical to our ongoing work. As the world around us changes, the needs of communities will change. New ideas will spring forth. New opportunities and assets will present themselves. In order to dramatically improve the health and wellness of our region, we must stay in constant communication. We will share what we learn as we go along, and we will continue to seek and gather ideas and recommendations from our partners and communities. We may not be able to respond to every individual inquiry, but we will always listen with respect.

Within our four strategic priorities, we seek to create a WNC where every generation can live, learn, earn and thrive with dignity and opportunity for ALL. No exceptions. We will strive to ensure that each of our four priority areas is inclusive of everyone and make special efforts to ensure that inclusion occurs.

As our staff began to grow in 2020, we considered how to accommodate the need for more space. Our first plan was to lease an additional floor in our current office building at 890 Hendersonville Road in Asheville. However, when the opportunity to purchase the entire campus presented itself in late summer, we conducted a financial analysis and realized that we could purchase the campus for only slightly more than we’d pay to rent two floors of space. The entire campus includes four acres and five floors of office space in two buildings. We also recognized that this might eventually allow us to create an easily accessible gathering and convening space for nonprofit organizations, which was a need we have heard frequently from those throughout the region. We are currently renovating the space.

As we’re sure everyone can understand, we cannot discuss specifics of personnel matters. However, we are happy to share the news of new arrivals, such as of our Interim CEO, Dr. Susan Mims. Selecting Dr. Mims as an Interim CEO gives our organization time for reflection before beginning the search for our next CEO. Our board will work to design a thoughtful and intentional search process in 2021, and we will provide more information as that effort gets underway. We are also delighted to welcome a new Senior VP of Impact, William Buster, and we will continue to share news as other senior leaders join our team.

Although Dogwood Health Trust was formed from the proceeds of the sale of the assets of Mission Health System to HCA, Dogwood Health Trust itself has very limited areas of influence over HCA’s actions. Our oversight is restricted to 15 commitments HCA made during the sale of Mission Health System. We work with an Independent Monitor to fulfill that oversight role and report our findings to the North Carolina Attorney General. There are a number of other organizations that oversee hospital quality, care, and cost in North Carolina.