St. Mary's Health Care System has named Tamara Bourda to the newly created position of Vice President of Community Health and Well-Being and has promoted Jeff Brown to the position of Vice President of Support Services.

Bourda brings an extensive background in Catholic healthcare leadership to St. Mary's. She comes to Athens from Denver, Colo., where she served as National Director of Healthy Communities for Catholic Health Initiatives. In this role, she led system-wide strategic and administrative operations focused on social and community health services in 18 states and more than 100 hospitals within CHI.

Prior to joining CHI, Bourda held community benefit and public health positions with progressive levels of leadership in Philadelphia, Penn.,  and Houston, Texas.

She earned her bachelor's degree in chemistry with minors in business administration and biology from Xavier University of Louisiana, her master's degree in public health from Drexel University School of Public Health in Philadelphia, and her doctor's degree in management and policy sciences from the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston.

In her role at St. Mary's, she is leading community health and well-being strategies at all three St. Mary's hospital facilities: St. Mary's Health Care System in Athens, St. Mary's Sacred Heart Hospital in Lavonia, and St. Mary's Good Samaritan Hospital in Greensboro. Her focus is on maintaining and growing strong community benefits programs, strengthening existing relationships with community partners, and establishing new partnerships that bring enhanced health outcomes to the communities St. Mary's serves.

Brown joined St. Mary's in 2010 as System Director of Radiology and Cardiovascular Services. A native of Georgia and a veteran of the U.S. Navy, he received his radiologic technology degree from the Grady Memorial Hospital School of Radiologic Technology, followed by his bachelor's and master's degrees in Business Administration from Shorter University in Rome.

During his tenure at St. Mary's, Brown has established new service lines such as cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), cardiac computed tomography angiography (CTA), 3D mammography, 3D echocardiography, and most recently, St. Mary's neurointerventional radiology program, which includes mechanical thrombectomy and aneurysm coiling.

In the community, he has served as the advisory board chairman for the Athens Technical College School of Health Sciences and the ATC Radiologic Technology program. In February 2017, he earned his Fellowship with the American College of Healthcare Executives.

In his new role, Brown has responsibility for the development and support of a system-wide approach to performance excellence, is the accountable executive for St. Mary's conversion to the Epic electronic health record system, and has administrative responsibility for Environmental Services and Dietary Services.