An appointed member of King’s Daughters Medical Center’s Boardof Trustees has been named the top hospital board member in thestate just months before her six-year membership comes to aclose.

KDMC board member Sherra Smith was named the MississippiHospital Association’s 2009 Trustee of the Year at theorganization’s 78th Annual Leadership Conference in June, adistinction she earned for her leadership of the Brookhavenfacility through some of its most troubling and triumphant years.Smith was selected over more than 100 other trustees in theassociation and became the first woman ever to win the 11-year-oldaward.

“I feel honored and unworthy, because our board is a team and wework together,” Smith said. “It just was such a nice honor, I neverthought I would be nominated or that I would be selected.”

Smith was first appointed to the 11-member board by the WillingHearts Circle in 2003 and served as the board president from 2005until last year. Her tenure has seen some of the most radicalchanges KDMC has ever experienced, including leadershipreplacements, a massive construction project and pitched politicalbattles in Jackson with millions of dollars at stake.

Smith’s presidency began with an extreme high that was almostimmediately followed by an extreme low – hospital officials brokeground on the ongoing $12 million expansion and renovation projectand longtime chief executive officer Phillip Grady resigned inJanuary. Interim CEO Glenn Davis also called it quits less thanthree months later.

Smith directed the management search that eventually led tohospital management company Quorum Health Resources providingcurrent CEO Alvin Hoover in July. She said the six-month absence ofpermanent leadership was an involved and trying time that requireddaily attention, especially with $12 million on the line.

“It was a challenge that took a lot of thought and a lot ofprayer,” Smith said. “Policy decisions were being made that affectso many people in our community and the surrounding area, those whouse and work in our facility. It’s a selection process thatrequires reviewing many, many resumes and narrowing it down to justa few to bring onsite. It’s a huge responsibility.”

With leadership in place, the construction project went aheadsuccessfully, as Brookhavenites have witnessed.

The building job began under Smith’s leadership has resulted inan all-new Intensive Care Unit and an expansive new emergencydepartment which have increased KDMC’s capacity to 122 beds.Smith’s tenure also saw the recruitment of new physicians and theformation of physicians groups, the expansion of women’s healthservices and several technological and medical additions to thehospital.

Not all the hard work is in the big decisions, Smith said. Shesaid one of the biggest challenges a board member faces is theconstantly-changing field of medicine, which requires much work andresearch from board members to make sure the hospital is employingthe latest practices and technology.

“It’s on your mind all the time,” Smith said.

There’s room in the job for fun, too, Smith said. For her, thesatisfaction comes from working with her peers.

“Seeing the board grow, the board members and physicians cometogether to get what’s best for out hospital,” she said. “We have aboard dedicated to the community.”

Smith’s last meeting as a member of the KDMC Board of Trusteesis in September, and then her rotation ends.

But she will not be totally cut off from the hospital – she’sstill a member of the Willing Hearts Circle and will stay abreastof hospital events. The rest of her time will be divided among hercommunity services – the reason she believes she was picked toserve as a trustee in the first place – like her membership in theBrookhaven Junior Auxiliary, Parents for Public Schools and herwork with Heuck’s Retreat Baptist Church.

She said she would also spend more time with her fourgrandchildren and her husband, Hamp.

“There won’t be any time slots that need filling,” Smith said.”It’s my heart, to volunteer – I’m a Christian, and I care aboutBrookhaven and Lincoln County. It’s been a highlight of life,serving the board and being actively involved in our hospital. Ifeel confident the board will continue to make the right decisionsfor KDMC to serve Brookhaven and Lincoln County.”

In his recommendation of Smith in a letter to MHA, KDMC ChiefExecutive Officer Alvin Hoover called her “exemplary in every way,”and a “calm, sustaining force in the midst of challenging andtumultuous times.”

“She is a woman of great faith, and has represented King’sDaughters Medical Center and the Willing Hearts Circle withdignity, courage, integrity and wisdom,” Hoover said.

Hoover said Smith’s award also brings further great recognitionto KDMC, which already this year has been named No. 5 on theBaptist Healing Trust’s Top 10 Healing Hospitals in America.

“When you recognize a trustee from your hospital in front of allof Mississippi, it speaks well of all the operations that go onthere,” he said. “It’s just a reflection of the quality of theorganization we have when a trustee a recognized like that.”