Steele is a past chairman of the American Board of Surgery and serves on several medical journals' editorial boards. Steele is a member of various medical organizations, including the New England Surgical Society, the American College of Surgeons, the American Surgical Association and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Steele serves on numerous not-for-profit and for-profit scientific advisory boards. In addition Steele is a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences and is a member of the Commonwealth Fund's Commission on a High Performance Health System.

Phyllis Wingate-Jones is the senior vice president for Carolinas Medical Center-Mercy, a full service, community acute care hospital, and Carolinas Medical Center-Randolph, a freestanding psychiatric hospital. Both hospitals are a part of Carolinas Healthcare System in Charlotte, N.C. and provide the full range of inpatient and outpatient services.


Wingate-Jones has been an active leader in state hospital associations throughout her career including associations in Virginia, Maryland and recently North Carolina. She has served as chairwoman for the governing council of the AHA Section for Metropolitan Hospitals and currently serves as an AHA commissioner to The Joint Commission. In addition to her role with the AHA, Wingate-Jones is also currently a member of the VHA Central Atlantic Performance Improvement Council. She is a fellow of ACHE and recipient of the ACHE Maryland Regent's Award for Excellence.

Crystal L. Haynes, CEO of Saint Louis University Hospital, Saint Louis, Mo., has more than 25 years of experience in the health care field and was previously chief operating officer of the George Washington University hospital in Washington. Haynes will serve as chair of the AHA's Regional Policy Board (RPB) six.

She is currently chair-elect of the Missouri Hospital Association (MHA) board of trustees, and was awarded MHA's 2006 Visionary Leadership Award for her contributions to improving the health of her community. Haynes was honored by the St. Louis Business Journal as one of the "Most Influential Businesswomen in St. Louis" and Tenet Healthcare Corporation named her to the company's 2003 Circle of Excellence. Haynes is a member of ACHE.

J. Thomas Jones is president and CEO of West Virginia United Health System, the largest healthcare system in West Virginia. Previously, he served as CEO of the Genesis Hospital System in Huntington, Va. Jones will serve as chair of the AHA's RPB three.

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