Board of Visitors

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Mary Battle is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing with a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing. She earned a Master of Science degree in healthcare administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

For many years, Mrs. Battle worked in the healthcare industry, both in the clinical setting and for healthcare corporations that developed and managed physician provider networks, including the development of strategically significant relationships with payors, business, and industry.

Mrs. Battle was named to the Arthritis Foundation’s National Board of Directors in September 2014 and chaired the Arthritis Foundation Advisory Board in its Birmingham market. In addition, Mrs. Battle is active in fundraising activities for UAB’s efforts to develop more effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, and she currently serves on the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center Advisory Board and on the Patient and Family Services Committee. Mary is also a member of the Women of the Capstone, an organization that supports students, faculty members, and an endowed scholarship for women.

Most recently, she and her husband Bill co-chaired the initial fundraising activities for the Performing Arts Academic Center at the University of Alabama and are being inducted into the 1831 Society Inaugural Class at the University of Alabama.

Los Angeles, California

Thomas A. Blount is an architect, AIDS activist, re-developer of historical architecture, and arts patron with deep Alabama roots.

Born in Montgomery on VJ Day, 1945, Mr. Blount is one of five children of Winton M. Blount, who served as Postmaster General of the United States under President Richard Nixon and was a philanthropist and notable patron of the arts. The Blount Cultural Park in Montgomery is home to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, for which Mr. Blount serves as an executive board member. When he was in his mid-30s, his father commissioned him to design the theater, and he also master planned the 250-acre park that serves as its setting.

Mr. Blount divides his time between Key West, Florida, Los Angeles, California, and Rome, Italy. Now retired as an architect, he has launched several real estate and construction-related companies. In 2001, he produced The Trip, a film relating to social issues that interest him.

He is active in the LGBT community as a human rights and AIDS awareness activist. He routinely donates his time and money to such diverse groups as the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, African Parks Organization, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the ACLU, UAB’s 1917 Clinic, and Project Inform.

He attended Vanderbilt University and received his architectural degree from North Carolina State University, but considers his main education a lifelong interaction with diverse peoples and distant lands.

Carment, Indiana

Dr. Gail H. Cassell is Senior Lecturer, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Senior Scientist, Division of Health Equity, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston. She retired from Eli Lilly and Co. as Vice President for Scientific Affairs and Distinguished Lilly Research Scholar in Infectious Diseases.

A native of Goodwater, Alabama, she earned her bachelor’s degree in microbiology at the University of Alabama where, in 1993, she was selected as one of the top 31 female graduates of the University’s Centennial of the admission of female students. She earned her Ph.D. in microbiology from UAB and chaired its Department of Microbiology for 10 years, during which it ranked first in NIH research funding. Dr. Cassell is a key leader in policy and legislation related to biomedical research and public health. She has served as an advisor to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and as an invited participant in numerous Congressional hearings related to infectious diseases, anti-microbial resistance and biomedical research.

She has served on the advisory boards for the Directors of the NIH and the Centers for Disease Control, the Secretary of Health and Human Services Advisory Councils of Public Health Preparedness, and the FDA’s Science Board. She served a four-year term as a member of the NIH Science Management Board, the newly appointed NIH Board of Trustees, and the Advisory Councils of the Fogarty International Center of NIH and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. She served as a member of the Steering Committee of the U.S.-Japan Cooperative Medical Science Program. She was instrumental in establishment of the U.S./Russia Cooperative Medical Sciences and Training Program under the Bilateral Presidential Commission in 2009. She was elected in 2011 to membership on the U.S Council of Foreign Relations and is currently serving a second term on the Board of Governors of the American Academy for Microbiology.

Dr. Cassell has received numerous awards for her research in infectious diseases, including the CDC Honor Award in Public Health for exceptional leadership of the CDC’s Emerging Infectious Disease Plan; FDA Commissioner’s Citation as Chair of the review of science and technology at the FDA and senior author of FDA: Science and Mission at Risk 2008; the Emmy Klineberger-Nobel Award in 2008 by the International Organization for Mycoplasmology for lifetime research achievements; and the American Society for Microbiology/Federation of European Microbiology Societies Mäkelä–Cassell Exchange Program for pioneering international engagement for young scientists. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and has served two terms on its governing board.

Dr. Cassell is a former member of the board of Research!America and chair of the Burroughs Welcome Fund board. She has served on the Leadership Council of the School of Public Health of Harvard University, Executive Committee of Columbia University Medical Center Board of Visitors, Dean’s Advisory Council for Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, the Chancellor’s Advisory Cabinet for the University of Texas, and Advisory Council of the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health. She holds two honorary degrees (Doctor of Science, Thomas Jefferson University, Jefferson Medical College, and Doctor of Philosophy, Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico).

Dr. Cassell and her husband, Ralph H. Cassell, retired Regional Executive of PNC Bank (previously BBVA Compass Bank and former President of Compass Bank of Birmingham), have one daughter, Dr. Cynthia H. Cassell.

Mountain Brook, AL

Sheri S. Cook currently serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer for Altec, Inc. The Birmingham-based company is an industry-leading provider of products and services to the electric utility, telecommunication, tree care, lights and signs, and contractor markets. 

Mrs. Cook graduated summa cum laude from Vanderbilt University in 1989, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics and classical studies. She is also a 1993 graduate of the University of Virginia Colgate Darden School’s MBA program, where she received the Faculty Award. In 2018, she received a Master of Accounting degree from UAB’s Collat School of Business.

Prior to 2013, Mrs. Cook’s career was primarily focused on economics and finance. She has held various positions of increasing responsibility in business development and finance at Sonat, Inc., Protective Life Corp., and Altec, Inc. She also co-founded and served as managing partner for an energy project management and development firm, Kinetic Partners LLC. 

From 2014 - 2024, Mrs. Cook served on the board of First US Bancshares, Inc. (Nasdaq: FUSB), where she chaired the board’s Asset Liability Committee and served on the Compensation and Executive Committees.  In 2024, she joined the board of directors of Spire Energy (NYSE: SR) and now serves on the board’s audit and compensation committees.

She also serves on the boards of the McWane Science Center Endowment, the United Way of Central Alabama, the Junior League of Birmingham Community Advisory Board, and the UAB Heersink Medical School’s Board of Visitors. Previously, she co-chaired the Tocqueville Society Committee for the United Way of Central Alabama, served as President of the IPC Foundation, and held various leadership positions on the boards of the YWCA, Momentum, and the Junior League of Birmingham. She is a member of the Rotary Club of Birmingham and has also served as an elder and deacon at Independent Presbyterian Church.

Mrs. Cook and her husband Houston have a son, William, a daughter-in-law, Claire, and daughter, Sara Catherine.

Mountain Brook, AL

Stewart Mott Dansby was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, raised in Birmingham, and graduated from high school at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. He is a first-generation Birminghamian, his mother being from Flint, Michigan, and his father from Ozark, Alabama.

Stewart graduated from St. Andrews Presbyterian College with a B. A. in Environmental Studies with an emphasis in Biology. He later received an M.B.A. from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Stewart’s career has included working in the urban planning division of a Birmingham architectural firm, two years in Detroit with an investment counseling firm, and five years with the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce where he was Manager of the Public Affairs Department. He later co-founded a GIS consulting firm, American Cadastre, Inc., also known as “AmCad,” that advises clients on computerized mapping. In addition to the United States, AmCad did work in several countries including Russia, Armenia, Canada, Mexico and Kazahkstan. In 1999, the company was sold, and Stewart became the first Executive Director of the Vulcan Park Foundation. He later served as both president and chairman.

Stewart currently spends most of his time pursuing personal investments and nonprofit activities. He has served as chairman of the Global Network Foundation, a supporting foundation to the Society of International Business Fellows (SIBF). The foundation’s mission is to facilitate global philanthropy in partnership with foundations, institutions, corporations and individuals by leveraging the expertise of SIBF members to further global understanding. The Foundation focuses on projects that permit members to give of their time and expertise as well as their financial support.

Stewart serves on the boards of several institutions including the Board of Visitors of UAB’s Heersink School of Medicine, Emergency Assistance Foundation, Birmingham Landmarks, Inc., Susan Mott Webb Charitable Trust, Friends of Linn Park, and the Society of International Business Fellows. He is a former chairman of McWane Science Center, and is a past board member of the Ruth Mott Fund, the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, Alabama Humanities Foundation, Birmingham Historical Society, Lakeshore Foundation, the Advisory Board of the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, Alabama Symphony Orchestra Endowment, UAB Research Foundation, the Kerr L. White Institute, Mountain Brook City Schools Foundation, St. Andrews Presbyterian College, Advisory Board of the UAB School of Health Professions, City of Mountain Brook Design Review Committee, and as chair of the Aviation Committee of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce. He has also served on the board of directors of Long Island Water Corporation, Northern Illinois Water Company, Northwest Indiana Water Corporation, and St. Louis County Water Corporation. He is a graduate of Leadership Birmingham. In 1996, Stewart was named Outstanding Civic Leader by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. In 2021, he and his wife, Mallie, were honored to receive the Tocqueville Society Award from United Way of Central Alabama. In 2024, "The Vulcans Community Awards" bestowed upon Stewart its Legacy Builder Award.

He and his wife, Mallie, have 6 children and 15 grandchildren, all of whom reside in Birmingham.

Mountain Brook, AL

Dr. Nancy E. Dunlap completed her internship, internal medicine residency, and fellowship in pulmonary disease and critical care medicine at the UAB Heersink School of Medicine. She has provided expertise in diverse areas ranging from pulmonary medicine and epidemiology to healthcare administration and national healthcare policy.

A former Dean of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, she previously worked with the National Governors Association as Physician-in-Residence and on the Committee on Energy and Commerce in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow, where she worked on the reauthorization of FDA legislation and issues related to Medicare, Medicaid, public health, and insurance.

Dr. Dunlap also served for 10 years as the Chief of Staff, Vice President for the Alabama Department of Public Health Tuberculosis Program and previously held positions as chief of staff, vice president for Ambulatory Services, and chief operating officer of The Kirklin Clinic at UAB. Dr. Dunlap is currently a Professor Emerita in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at UAB and Scholar at the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy.

Nashville, Tennessee

Sara J. Finley, formerly served as senior vice president and general counsel of CVS Caremark Corporation (now CVS Health), a Fortune 10 New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) company and spent almost 20 years with CVS Caremark and predecessor companies before retiring from the company in 2015. Prior to its 2007 merger with CVS, Finley served as senior vice president, assistant general counsel, and corporate secretary of Caremark Rx, Inc., a Fortune 100 NYSE company based in Nashville, Tennessee. Finley is principal of Threshold Corporate Consulting, L.L.C., and serves on the boards of SonderMind based in Denver, Studio Bank based in Nashville, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center based in Nashville.

Finley has extensive nonprofit board experience, including her present board roles with The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, The Center for Nonprofit Management, Leadership Nashville, and the Vanderbilt University Law School Board of Advisors. She resides in Nashville and is a 2017 graduate of Leadership Nashville. Finley received her law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1985 after graduating from the University of Alabama in 1982. She began her career practicing law, first as an associate with Maynard, Cooper & Gale in Birmingham, Alabama, and later as an associate and partner with the national law firm, Kutak Rock LLP, based in Atlanta.

Birmingham, Alabama

T. Michael Goodrich II is the principal of First Avenue Ventures, LLC, a company focused on growing businesses in Alabama.  Mike serves as the chair of the board for Alabama Outdoors.  He also serves on the boards of Timberline, LLC, a family investment company, and Slate XP, a K-12 content monitoring software company.  He is on  the board of TIXiMED, Inc. and was a co-founder in that company.

Prior to First Avenue Ventures, LLC, Mike practiced law. Between 1997 and 2001, Mike worked in the Corporate and Securities Practice Group in the Birmingham, Alabama office of Bradley Arant Rose & White, LLP.  In 2003, he was an original founder of Goodrich Law Firm, LLC, which became the Red Mountain Law Group.  Mike is a 1994 graduate of Trinity University in San Antonio with Bachelors of Science degrees in both Political Science and Communications.  In 1997, Mike graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law with honors.

Mike is on the board of the University of Alabama Birmingham Athletic Association as well as other community committees.  He is chair of Woodlawn United, a purpose-built community network member, that takes a holistic approach to community redevelopment in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Birmingham, Alabama.  He is the former chair of the board of the Freshwater Land Trust and previously served as a member of the Board of Governors of Indian Springs School.  He is a member of the Leadership Birmingham Class of 2009-2010.  Mike has also obtained the rank of Eagle Scout.  He is married to Elizabeth Cole Goodrich.  They have three children: Catherine, Gibson, and Andrew.

Stanford, California

Dr. Harry Greenberg is the emeritus Joseph D. Grant Professor of Medicine &
Microbiology & Immunology at Stanford University Medical School. He was the Director
of the NIH-funded Stanford Clinical and Translational Science Center for over a decade.
His research career focused broadly on pathogenic viruses that infect the human gastrointestinal tract, lungs and liver with an emphasis on rotaviruses, pathogenesis, immunity, and vaccines. He has published over 500 primary research articles, reviews, and book chapters and was a co-inventor of the first licensed rotavirus vaccine. He was also part of the team that developed the Indian ROTAVAC vaccine now widely used in many countries. His research included basic and more translational studies of Noroviruses, Hepatitis B and C Viruses, and Influenza Virus. Dr. Greenberg received his M.D. from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, completed residency training in internal medicine at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, and a GI fellowship at Stanford University. He served as a medical officer in the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases at the NIH for nine years before joining the Stanford faculty in 1983. Dr. Greenberg served as Chief of the Stanford Division of Gastroenterology, as Associate Chief of Staff for Research at the Palo Alto VA Hospital, as Acting Chair of the Department of Medicine on two occasions and as the Senior Associate Dean for Research at the Stanford School of Medicine for almost two decades. Dr. Greenberg was elected to several scholarly societies, such as ASCI and AAAS. He is a past president of the American Society of Virology, served as the chair of the FDA Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biologics for several years, and as the Chair of the Medical Sciences Section of the AAAS. He was the Chief Scientific Officer at Aviron (later Medimmune Vaccines) during a leave of absence from Stanford. During that time, he helped develop and license a live attenuated influenza vaccine.

Birmingham, Alabama

Maryam “Mimi” Birjani Head is Chairman and Majority Owner of Ram Tool & Supply Company Inc., which provides construction products for commercial projects ranging from concrete slabs and rebar to products that a company would need at the very end of a job, such as brooms and Windex. She also serves as Chairman and CEO of Giles and Kendall Corporation, a manufacturer of aromatic cedar wood products with plants in Alabama and Missouri.

A native of Iran, she received her bachelor’s degree in political science from Western College for Women at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Mrs. Head spent 15 years doing volunteer work, then became a marketing officer at National Bank of Commerce before she purchased Ram Tool and Supply in 1984. At that time, the company was doing approximately $1.5 million to $2 million in sales each year. In 2007, after almost a quarter of a century under her leadership, the company surpassed $178 million in revenue and was the 33rd largest private company in Birmingham. It remains one of the nation’s largest woman-owned businesses.

In 2008, Mrs. Head told the Birmingham Business Journal that her strategy has been to try to instill a sense of urgency in the company, particularly in regard to customer service. “If you do the right thing, your business will succeed,” Mrs. Head said. That culture — as well as some strategic planning — helped the company experience sustained growth throughout its history. From one office in Birmingham with 12 employees, it has grown to 32 warehouse distribution centers and more than 700 employees across the eastern United States from Texas to Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

She served on the Board of Directors for the Birmingham Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta from 2004 to 2011, and currently serves on the board of the UAB Health System. She is a past board member of the EyeSight Foundation of Alabama and is a member of Downtown Rotary. In 2003 she was inducted into the Alabama Hall of Fame for women business owners.

Mrs. Head and her late husband, Beverly Pierce Head, III, have two adult daughters, Hillery Head Perkins and Maye Head Frei, both of whom serve in leadership roles with Ram Tool. A son, Barton Head, passed away in 1983.

Dothan, Alabama

Mary Heersink is an internationally known food safety advocate and the author of E. Coli O157: The True Story of a Mother’s Battle with a Killer Microbe. In it, she recounts the harrowing experience of her son Damion, who in 1992 at the age of 11 ate contaminated hamburger meat at a Boy Scout outing and spent six-and-a-half weeks near death in pediatric intensive care. Despite Damion’s ultimate victory over E. coli O157:H7, Mrs.Heersink found her confidence in our food safety systems shaken. Her encounters with ineffective government agencies led her to co-found S.T.O.P. (STOP Foodborne Illness), a national grassroots organization dedicated to preventing illness and death from foodborne pathogens. STOP is widely credited as being the driving force behind the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011, the most sweeping food safety legislation passed in 70 years.

Mrs. Heersink has served on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. She has also testified before the U.S. Congress and is frequently asked to present at scientific meetings, both nationally and internationally. She again serves on the Board of Directors for STOP Foodborne Illness which is launching a Consumer-Industry collaboration to fully implement and enforce food safety policy.

Mrs. Heersink currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Masters of Global Heath Programme, a joint initiative between McMaster University in Canada, Maastricht University in the Netherlands, Manipal University in India, Thomassat University in Thailand, The University of Southeast Norway, and Universidad del Rosario in Columbia. She has served on Boards of Directors for numerous nonprofit and civic organizations in the Dothan area, including Boys and Girls Clubs of Dothan, the Wiregrass Museum of Art, Houston Academy, and Landmark Park.

Mrs. Heersink has been married for 40 years to Dr. Marnix Heersink, an ophthalmologist in Dothan. (Mrs. Heersink’s father, Dr. Marshall Parks, is widely considered “the father of pediatric ophthalmology.”) Trained as a visual artist, she is illustrating the next generation publication to Dr. Parks’ Atlas of Strabismus Surgery, collaborating with one of his trainees, Dr. Irene Ludwig.

The Heersinks have six children – including two ophthalmologists, a dentist, and three current medical students – and eleven grandchildren. Mrs. Heersink splits her time between Dothan and Velp, The Netherlands, where the couple renovated a 16th-century castle in collaboration with a historical preservation foundation.

Santa Monica, California

Gordon J. Lee is Founder, President & CEO of Princeton Credit and Princeton Ventures LLC. For well over three decades, he has been actively engaged in counseling and representing a wide range of public, private, government, corporate and individual clients, in an array of financing and advisory transactions. He has been involved in managing over $7 billion dollars of publicly and privately placed financings. Gordon has significant expertise with transactions involving healthcare organizations, tax exempt institutions (state/federal government entities, school districts, higher education, and 501c3 nonprofits), technology-based startups, real estate, and has represented clients in a diverse universe of industries.

Gordon has a wealth of experience and deep commitment to healthcare advising. For over 30 years, he has served on the Board of Advisors for the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. He has served on the UCLA Hospital Audit, Finance, Operations & Strategy Committee for over 20 years, advising the CEO on the complex challenges facing this renowned multi-billion-dollar health enterprise on a quarterly basis.

In 2019, Gordon was selected by former University of California President Janet Napolitano to serve as a founding member of her 20-person Fiat Lux Alliance advisory council. The committee has since advised President Michael Drake, current President JB Milliken, and UC leadership on an assortment of initiatives vital to the advancement of the university’s priorities across its 10 campuses, 6 medical schools, 5 hospitals and 3 national laboratories.

As an advisory board member to RAND’s Social and Economic policy division, he is involved in enabling global decision makers to solve pressing policy issues in defense, health, education, and infrastructure.

Aside from his enjoyably hectic life, you can find him at the gym six days a week in a strength conditioning or Cycle exercise class. Spending quality time with his two adult sons or feverishly over the stove with one of his 100’s of cookbooks. He shuttles continuously between Los Angeles and Atlanta where his beloved is the Dean of the School of Medicine at Emory University. He’s a patron of the arts, paddle tennis/pickleball player, weekend golf hack, foodie and wine enthusiast.

Sonoma, California

A native of Huntsville, Alabama, Dr. Ted Love holds a B.A. in molecular biology from Haverford College and an M.D. from Yale Medical School. He completed his internal medicine and cardiovascular fellowship training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He served as Chief Executive Officer of Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT), an early-stage biotech company focused on severe blood-based diseases, the most advanced of which is sickle-cell disease.

Prior to joining GBT, he was Executive Vice President of Research and Development and Technical Operations at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., from 2010 until 2012. Before that, he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Nuvelo, Inc., from March 2001 to January 2009, having been appointed President and Chief Operating Officer in January 2001. He joined Nuvelo from Theravance, where he served as Senior Vice President of Development from February 1998 to January 2001. Prior to that, he spent six years at Genentech, Inc., holding senior management positions in medical affairs and product development.

He served for six years on the 29-member California Independent Citizens Oversight Commission, which oversees the $3 billion allocated to stem cell research authorized by California Proposition 71. Dr. Love currently serves as a director of Kalobios, Oncothyreon, and Amicus Therapeutics.

He and his wife, Joyce, have two daughters.

Los Gatos, California

Dr. George D. Lundberg is Editor in Chief of Cancer Commons and the blog Curious Dr. George in Mountain View, California. He is also Editor at Large at Medscape, a Clinical Professor of Pathology at Northwestern University, and President and Chair of the Board of Directors of The Lundberg Institute. Dr. Lundberg has 41 years of combined experience as Editor in Chief of The Journal of the American Medical Association, 10 AMA specialty journals, American Medical News, Medscape, The Medscape Journal, e-Medicine from WebMD, and MedPage Today from Everyday Health. In 2018, he was Chief Medical Officer of Self Care Catalysts in Toronto, Canada.

Born in Florida, he grew up in rural Silverhill, Alabama, and did his undergraduate work at North Park College and the University of Alabama before attending medical school at the University of Alabama School of Medicine (now UAB). He completed a clinical internship in Hawaii and a pathology residency in San Antonio, then served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War in San Francisco and El Paso, leaving as a lieutenant colonel after 11 years.

Dr. Lundberg was then Professor of Pathology and Associate Director of Laboratories at the Los Angeles County/University of Southern California Medical Center for 10 years, and for five years was Professor and Chair of Pathology at the University of California-Davis. Dr. Lundberg has worked in tropical medicine in Central America and Forensic Medicine in New York, Sweden, and England. His major professional interests are toxicology, violence, communication, physician behavior, strategic management, and health system reform.

He holds earned and honorary degrees from North Park College, Baylor University, the University of Alabama, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the State University of New York, Syracuse, Thomas Jefferson University, and the Medical College of Ohio.

A past president of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, he is a frequent lecturer and video guest as well as a member of the National Academy of Medicine. In 2000, the Industry Standard dubbed Dr. Lundberg “Online Health Care’s Medicine Man.”

He and his wife, Dr. Patricia Lundberg, have five children, 11 grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

Mountain Brook, AL

Emmett McLean retired in 2023 from Medical Properties Trust, Inc., a publicly traded healthcare real estate investment trust (NYSE: MPW) where he was a Co-Founder, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Secretary. The company has been a major supporter of several significant UAB fundraising campaigns. Prior to joining Medical Properties Trust in 2003, Mr. McLean worked in the health care services industry serving in senior financial positions. Before 1992, he worked in investment banking and corporate finance with Dean Witter Reynolds (now Morgan Stanley) and Smith Barney (now Citigroup) handling corporate financings, public offerings, and mergers and acquisitions. He began his career in 1977 in the commercial banking industry with Trust Company Bank (now Truist Bank).

Mr. McLean earned a B.A. in economics from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1977 and an MBA from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business in 1984.

Mr. McLean has been active in fundraising activities for UAB involving its Athletic Facilities and programs, the UAB Comprehensive Diabetes Center, and the UAB Collat School of Business. Currently he serves as a member of the Board and Executive Committee of the UAB Athletics Foundation, the Corporate Board of UAB Arts, and the Board of Visitors of the UAB Heersink School of Medicine. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Alabama, United Way of Central Alabama, The Mike Slive Foundation, the Rotary Club of Birmingham Foundation, Shoal Creek Golf Club, and the Advisory Board of the Greater Alabama Council-Boy Scouts of America.

Throughout the years Mr. McLean has also chaired numerous charitable fundraising campaigns and events in the greater Birmingham metro area. Most recently, in 2024 he along with his wife, Catherine, served as Hosts for the Alabama Symphony Orchestra Maestro’s Ball where he had previously served as a Board member from 2015 to 2023. During 2022 Mr. McLean served as Chair of the Annual Campaign for United Way of Central Alabama raising over $39 million. He also served for several years as a Board member of The World Games 2022 which were held in Birmingham, Alabama.

He and his wife, Catherine, have three grown children and four grandchildren. He enjoys golf, traveling, and spending time with his family.

Derica W. Rice was formerly the President of CVS Caremark, the pharmacy benefits management business of CVS Health, and Executive Vice President of CVS Health. Prior to that time, he was employed in various executive positions at Eli Lilly and Company since 1990, most recently serving as Executive Vice President of Global Services and Chief Financial Officer from 2006 to 2017. Mr. Rice was a member of the Board of Directors of Target Corporation from 2007 to January 2018. Mr. Rice will contribute to the mix of experience and qualifications the Board seeks to maintain through his experience in various positions at CVS Health and Eli Lilly and his other public company board experience. Mr. Rice led the pharmacy benefits management business of CVS Health and had extensive experience in the financial function at Eli Lilly, including serving as Eli Lilly’s chief financial officer. As such, he brings practical knowledge of executive management of complex, worldwide businesses, and extensive experience in a wide range of financial and accounting matters including management of worldwide financial operations, financial oversight, risk management and the alignment of financial and strategic initiatives.