Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke and Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger have formed the COVID-19 Joint Task Force to help coordinate the city and county’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Rae Young Bond, CEO of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Medical Society, will lead the task force, which will bring together medical and health care professionals to brief the mayors and offer recommendations for local response efforts.
Members of the task force will meet weekly and brief Berke and Coppinger on the latest developments regionally and nationally on COVID-19 testing and treatment and report activity in local hospitals, medical facilities and testing locations.
The joint task force will also provide medically-informed recommendations on how the local governments can support local hospitals and their staff and protect the public against the spread of COVID-19.
The task force is patterned after similar efforts in neighboring cities.
Meeting notes from the task force’s first meeting, which took place March 31, are available at cha.city/covid.
Task force members:
Dr. Kelly Arnold, founder and director, Clinica Medicos
Becky Barnes, Hamilton County Health Department administrator
Dr. Matt Gibson, president and CEO, Siskin Hospital for Physical Rehabilitation
Dr. Timothy Grant, chief medical officer, Parkridge Health System
Dr. Martina Suttles Harris, assistant dean of nursing and allied health, Chattanooga State Community College
Dr. Gregory Heath, Guerry professor of public health, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Dr. Keith Helton, CEO, One to One Health
Dr. William Jackson, President and CEO, Erlanger Health System
Dr. Robert Magill, chief of staff, Parkridge Health System
Angel Moore, vice president of population health and CEO, Erlanger Community Health Center
Tom Ozburn, president and CEO, Parkridge Health System
Janelle Reilly, CEO, CHI Memorial Hospital
Dr. Colleen Schmitt, president, Galen Medical Group
Dr. James Sizemore, chief of infectious diseases, medical director, infection prevention, Erlanger Health System
Dr. Christopher Young, vice chief of staff, Erlanger Health System
Source: Offices of the Mayors