Excela Health Board of Trustees Welcomes New Members

GREENSBURG, PA, November 7, 2011 … Excela Health welcomes four new members to its Board of Trustees. They are Aster Assefa, MD, Barbara C. Hinkle, Brother Norman W. Hipps, OSB, and Nir Kossovsky. Speaking on behalf of the Board of
Trustees, James R. Breisinger, board chair, said, "our newest trustees bring diverse
skills, talents, and experiences that enhance the Board's ability to provide the best
possible stewardship, oversight, and governance to Excela in today's turbulent health
care environment." Noting that all the trustees share a deep commitment to high
quality, value-driven community health care, Breisinger said
the board embraces Excela's core values: We put patients first; We have a passion for
quality; We work as a team; We act with the highest levels of integrity and honesty, and
We are good stewards of our financial and community resources. Likewise, the trustees
support the health system's mission and vision, and the senior leadership team's
strategy for achieving them.

Aster Assefa, MD, a family medicine physician, has been in practice for more than
15 years. Since 2002, she has served the Mount Pleasant area, with privileges at
Excela Frick Hospital.

“I have a true passion and commitment to improving the quality of health care by
sharing the patients' and physicians' perspectives with my colleagues,” she said.
I also have the eagerness to learn and work with the other very accomplished board
members and members of the health system’s management team. In doing so, I hope
to help Excela Health remain a viable and leading health care system in western
Pennsylvania, despite the many challenges ahead of us.”

A graduate of the UPMC McKeesport Family Medicine Residency program, the
North Huntingdon Township resident received her medical degree from Martin Luther
University, Hale-Wittenberg, Germany, where she worked as a general practitioner in
Frankfurt prior to emigrating to the United States. Board-certified in Family Medicine, she is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the PA Medical Society, and the Westmoreland County Medical Society. Within the Excela Health Medical Staff, Dr. Assefa has served as a member of the Professional Practice Evaluation Committee, the Strategic Planning Committee, Frick Hospital’s physician advisory committee, and as part of a special project to address the prevalence of diabetes in Excela Health’s service area.

Barbara Hinkle is Vice President for Enrollment Services and the Registrar at
Seton Hill University in Greensburg. She has been employed at Seton Hill for 35 years and served as Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science prior to her present position. She worked previously as the computer systems analyst for the West Virginia University Library and as an adjunct mathematics instructor for various colleges. Her formal education includes Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science degrees in mathematics from West Virginia University and postgraduate studies in advanced topology and computer languages.

"Public service is important to me, something I consider as my duty,” noted
Hinkle. “Excela Health has offered me an opportunity to serve in providing an essential community resource, its health care system, and I am eager to participate."
Hinkle served on the Greensburg Salem School District Board of Directors from
1981 through 2009, including 16 years as its president; and on the Greensburg
Recreation Board and the Westmoreland Intermediate Unit Board for a number of
years. She also previously served Excela health on a governing board for subsidiary
operations that has since been absorbed into the trustee areas of oversight.
"I will work diligently on the Excela board to make sure Westmoreland County is
served in the best way possible to meet the health care needs of every resident."

Brother Norman W. Hipps, OSB, president of Saint Vincent College, Latrobe,
approaches his role as health system trustee from many vantage points. He is the
fourth president of the college to serve in this capacity: Father Cecil G. Diethrich, OSB, Father John Murtha, OSB, and James Will were all members of Excela Latrobe
Hospital’s board of directors during their tenure.

“I am proud of the leadership role they took in providing for the health needs of
our community and pleased to continue the tradition,” he noted. For Brother Norman, a portion of that community is easily defined: 100 monks, 500 employees and 2,000
students on the Saint Vincent campus – for whom he is responsible. “Any role I can
play in seeing to their health care both now and in the future is valuable.”

Prior to being named college president in July 2010, he served as Executive
Vice President; Dean of The Herbert W. Boyer School of Natural Sciences,
Mathematics, and Computing, and Associate Professor of Mathematics. As Dean,
Brother Norman established partnerships with Excela Health to offer a Master’s
Program in Health Sciences, including advanced degrees in Nurse Anesthesia and
Health Care Leadership; and the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins
University to introduce a major in Bioinformatics and a Biotechnology Outreach Program for local high schools.

“The Excela Health School of Anesthesia provides an excellent opportunity for
our faculty to teach beyond the undergraduate level,” he said. “And its reputation is
attractive to prospective students, with 250 candidates applying for 35 slots.”
The Kennametal Center for Operational Excellence (KCOE) at Saint Vincent is
another area in which the college and Excela Health collaborate. The health system
has adopted the continuous improvement methodology espoused by KCOE, and
regularly utilizes the KCOE expertise to advance these principles across Excela Health.

Practicing what KCOE advocates, Brother Norman served as the Chair of the
Steering Committee for the Monastery Run Improvement Project, stream restoration and environmental education initiative for southwestern Pennsylvania, and on the Steering Committee for the Loyalhanna Mine Drainage Coalition, a collaboration of more than 70 members dedicated to improving abandoned mine drainage in streams of the Loyalhanna Watershed. In addition, he served as the Higher Education Team Leader of the Math Science Partnership of Southwestern Pennsylvania, a seven-year, (2003-2010) $18 million program funded by the National Science Foundation that focuses on the improvement of student (K-16) achievement in mathematics and science.

Brother Norman has served as Principal Investigator for a project Saint Vincent
The college has undertaken with the National Science Foundation through its Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program to increase the number of students who enroll and successfully graduate in the fields of biochemistry, bioinformatics, biology, and biotechnology by providing scholarship assistance and ongoing academic support.

A member of the faculty since 1972, he has held many administrative roles at the
college including Provost, Academic Dean, Director of the Opportunity Program,
campus minister and director of Project Headway.

He has been involved with a number of community outreach programs, including
the Small Business Development Center, Drug and Alcohol Prevention Projects and
BRIDGES, a college-school-business partnership to improve mathematics and science education. Many of these programs also have been in partnership with Excela Health.

Brother Norman is a 1961 graduate of Saint Vincent Preparatory School. He
received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Saint Vincent College in 1966.
He holds both a master’s and a doctorate in mathematics from Northwestern University and is a member of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America.

Nir Kossovsky, MD, is an authority on business process risk, reputation, and
enterprise value. He is chief executive at Steel City Re, LLC in Pittsburgh, a provider of headline risk mitigation solutions. He is also executive secretary of Intangible Asset
Finance Society, the premier organization for operations executives, and edits the
Society’s Mission: Intangible blog. A seasoned speaker, he is widely published, having authored more than 200 articles and several books on topics ranging from reputation, risk finance, and intellectual property licensing to bioengineering, medical devices, and neuroanatomy.

He served on the boards of Patent & License Exchange, and Littlearth, Inc.; was
a consultant to FDA’s medical device advisory panels; and is featured in case of studies from Harvard and Darden Schools of Business.

“Excela Health has embarked on an ambitious five-year plan to deliver world-class community-based health services,” noted Dr. Kossovsky. “I am honored that
Chairman James Breisinger and the other Trustees have invited me to contribute to this effort my expertise in-process controls, quality and reputation management.”

Dr. Kossovsky graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in
Philosophy. He completed medical school at the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine with continuing study in Pathology at Cornell University Medical Center and New York Hospital. He is also a Fellow of the American Cancer Society, having trained at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Dr. Kossovsky was a tenured member of the faculty of the UCLA School of
Medicine, Chief of the UCLA Medical Center’s Autopsy Service and a Deputy Coroner
in Los Angeles County. During this time, he earned an MBA from the University of
Southern California.

A 2002 graduate of the US Navy War College, he also served as a captain in the
US Navy Reserve until his discharge in 2006.