Hospital foundations play important roles in health care organizations. Board members often serve as liaisons between their communities and the hospitals they represent. They also assist in keeping administrators tuned in to the needs of their constituencies and, in turn, often serve as unofficial spokespeople for the organizations themselves. Perhaps most importantly, they utilize their positions within their communities to connect with fundraising sources for vital capital projects that may fall outside the purview of annual budgets.
In the case of the AdventHealth Gordon Foundation, AdventHealth Murray Foundation and AdventHealth Redmond Foundation, board members serve yet another purpose — to help fulfill AdventHealth’s broader mission of focusing on the whole health of its patients, team members and community members. Over the next few issues, we would like to feature community members who serve on the AdventHealth Georgia Foundation as they work together to advance excellence in health care in our respective communities.
Jennifer Scott | AdventHealth Redmond Foundation
For Jennifer Scott, serving on the board of the AdventHealth Redmond Foundation is the intersection of several areas of personal interest and experience. Prior to becoming one of the board’s inaugural members last year, Scott had spent years volunteering for a variety of local charitable organizations, including Open Door Children’s Home, where she has 14 years of board service, Young Life, where she has been involved since high school and Restoration Rome, a group that provides support services to foster families.
Her experience with Restoration Rome, plus previous familiarity with the foster-care system, led her and her husband — Ryland Scott, MD, a local surgeon — to become foster parents eight years ago. In addition to their own triplets, the Scotts opened their home to three sisters. Suddenly, they were parenting six children under the age of 12.
“A lot of our draw to foster parenting is for the kids, but it’s also about creating space for the adults in their lives to get whole and heal so they can take care of their children again,” Scott explained. “I was very attracted to the AdventHealth mission of treating the whole person and recognizing that when someone is sick, they are vulnerable.”
Through her work with yet another charitable organization, South Rome Alliance, Scott connected with Jake Hager, foundation director of the AdventHealth Georgia Market. With her triplets headed off to college, she saw service on the AdventHealth Redmond Foundation board as a timely opportunity.
“Knowing I had a heart for our underprivileged neighbors, Jake thought it might be a good fit for me,” Scott says.
One of the AdventHealth Redmond Foundation’s early priorities has been utilizing the hospital’s Grateful Patient Program to help grow its Cardiac Care Fund, a relatively new initiative that focuses on supporting AdventHealth Redmond’s cardiac services. Components include bridge grants for indigent patients and improving community access to and awareness of blood pressure screenings and cholesterol checks.
Now that the Scotts are empty nesters, they spend a lot of time visiting their triplets, who recently completed their freshmen year at three different universities. Scott refers to herself and her husband as “weekend warriors” who enjoy spending time outdoors. She also runs an Instagram microblog geared toward encouraging women in the “trenches of life,” as she puts it.
“It takes an authentic look at life through the lens of faith and encouragement,” she said. “I like staying busy with things that matter.”
Matt Hibberts | AdventHealth Gordon Foundation
Matt Hibberts grew up in Northwest Georgia, and except for the years he spent attending college in Atlanta, he has called Calhoun home.
Those deep community roots are precisely what made him an ideal candidate for the AdventHealth Gordon Foundation board. Hibberts was approached to serve by AdventHealth Georgia Foundation President Garrett Nudd in 2019.
“I think Garrett was familiar with my involvement in the community, with me having been born here and having so many ties to Calhoun,” Hibberts said. “I’ve met a lot of people through my business and know a lot of people here.”
For the past 15 years, Hibberts has been the owner of Momon Construction, a Calhoun-based commercial contractor that oversees projects in fields as diverse as health care, municipal government and private education.
“In my business, we deal with reps who serve as intermediaries between the property owners and us, the contractor,” he said. “I see the AdventHealth Gordon Foundation as serving a similar function. Just as a building foundation holds up the structure, a hospital foundation can be a key asset to promote that hospital. We’re the boots on the ground who hear things and learn how to help the hospital.”
Hibberts adds that the foundation he serves on has recently been focused on projects that benefit the working environment of the hospital team, including on-site amenities such as a coffee bar and an on-campus walking trail. He also cites a memorial fund that the foundation oversees to make facility improvements as well as scholarship programs for AdventHealth Gordon team members.
“I’ve been blessed, and now I’m at a period in my life where I’m feeling more philanthropic and wanting to give back to my community,” he said.
In addition to being an avid golfer, who previously played for his high school and college teams, Hibberts helps raise cattle on his family farm and is very involved in his local church. Coincidentally, his father was a minister who once served as the chaplain at AdventHealth Gordon.
He and his wife, Maleah, have three children ranging in ages from 17 to 21.
Valerie Pennel | Advent Health Murray Foundation
AdventHealth Murray Foundation board member Valerie Pennel considers herself a cheerleader — of sorts. She likens foundation work to being on a cheerleading squad for the hospital, supporting its mission and promoting the positive impacts that AdventHealth has in Murray County.
The position came as a welcome opportunity for Pennel, a full-time mother of three who was looking for ways to connect with the community after relocating from suburban Atlanta to Murray County with her husband, Chad, in 2020.
“Chad grew up here and knew he always wanted to come back,” Pennel said. “We wanted that for our family. It was probably one of the best decisions we made, and we never had any regrets about it.”
Pennel learned of a position on the new AdventHealth Murray Foundation board from a friend whose father was serving on the AdventHealth Gordon Foundation board. It was a good match for Pennel, who went to work at York Hospital in York, Pennsylvania, after graduating from college with a degree in communications.
“I always enjoyed health care,” she said. “That was one of my favorite jobs I ever had, dealing with so many types of people and seeing how all the cogs of the operation worked together.” She would later transition into doing work with nonprofit organizations before starting a family.
As a new entity, the AdventHealth Murray Foundation is still in the organizational phase and solidifying its vision for what it wants to accomplish in the market. Pennel expects the future to include fundraising opportunities that will assist the hospital in obtaining new equipment, among other goals.
Pennel and her husband have three children — two boys and a girl ages 13 to 18. The entire family is heavily involved in Boy Scouts of America, both as scouts and as leaders. They also enjoy traveling together and visiting national parks throughout the country.
Another of Pennel’s passions is spending time at Broken Heart Ranch, a nonprofit organization in Chatsworth that provides horse-riding opportunities for children with special needs.
“It’s a therapeutic thing for me,” she said.