NEW HANOVER COUNTY — Two new members have been added to the New Hanover Community Endowment board, after a request from N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein was made to balance racial equity and public-health knowledge among its 11 members.
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The board will oversee $1.25 billion as part of New Hanover Community Endowment — a nonprofit that spawned from the sale of New Hanover Regional Medical Center to Novant Health.
In October 2020, New Hanover County Commissioners chose five board members, three of which were tasked to review the hospital sale through a Partnership Advisory Group: Spence Broadhurst (PAG member), Dr. Virginia Adams (PAG member), Hannah Gage (PAG member), Stedman Stevens, Shannon Winslow. The then-restructured 17-member hospital board chose the other six members: Chris Boney, Bill Cameron, Cedric Dickerson, Michele Holbrook, Dr. Pat Maguire, and David Sprunt.
Before its completion on Feb. 1, N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein reviewed the sale and requested a variety of conditions be met before both parties proceeded. Among them was having 13 instead of 11 members on the endowment board, with the final two reserved for directors who bring experience in public health or offer support to underserved areas and populations. Specifically, the agreement noted, “[I]t shall take the interests of the community’s Latinx population into account.”
Earlier this week, the board’s appointment committee announced Dr. Khadijia Tribié Reid and Dr. Edelmira Segovia were chosen among 34 applicants reviewed over the last month. In a release, the committee noted it selected the two members by using “a structured, quantitative process to rate applicants against objective criteria.”
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“By focusing on the applicant’s experiences and their impact, supporting underserved populations, promoting racial equity and improving public health, we were able to target our selection discussions on the applicants that best fit our needs,” the committee’s chair, Michele Holbrook, said.
Dr. Reid is a pediatric medical director for MedNorth Community Health Center, located in the Brooklyn Arts District on 4th Street in downtown Wilmington. She also vice-chairs the New Hanover Regional Medical Center’s Department of Pediatrics and serves as the governor’s appointee to the board of directors for the North Carolina Partnership for Children. Her interest in public-health advocacy lies specifically in health equity, early-childhood education and adverse experiences, and integrated care.
“As a community member, parent, and pediatrician for hundreds of this community’s children, I am personally invested in New Hanover County,” Reid said in the release. “My genuine commitment to making this community a great place for all of its residents is driven by this personal sense of obligation and investment, and I look forward to serving on the endowment board to help create a community where everyone has the ability to be healthy.”
Dr. Segovia serves as UNCW’s director of Centro Hispano, as part of the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion. Segovia also co-chairs UNCW Latino Alliance of Southeastern N.C. and is a member of the Latin American Business Council of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce. She has been teaching and expanding opportunities in higher education to underserved areas of the Wilmington population for 22 years.
“I am grateful for this opportunity to create lasting, positive change for our fast-growing community,” Segovia said. “My personal and professional mission is to help individuals overcome challenges and to open doors to progress, particularly for under-served communities. And I believe the endowment is poised to help New Hanover County become a model community, in terms of sustainable improvements for all its populations.”
“We are honored to add these two outstanding new board members who bring years of experience and unique perspectives in supporting underserved populations in public health and racial equity,” board chair Spence Broadhurst said.
The board will hold its first meeting next week, Mar. 11.
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