Bill Hance and Carol Etherington Appointed to Metropolitan Board of Health
Hance Begins 3rd Term Serving as Board Chairman
Etherington a Registered Nurse Recognized for Distinguished Health Service
William ‘Bill’ Hance, J.D., and Carol Etherington, MSN, RN, FAAN, have been appointed to the Metropolitan Board of Health by Mayor Karl Dean. Both were confirmed by Metro Council to a five-year term. Hance, who currently serves as Board Chairman, begins his third term as a Board member.
Hance has been director of Vanderbilt Medical Center News & Public Affairs since 1986, directing a staff of 27 writers, editors, photographers and media relations experts and overseeing all Medical Center media relations and eight publications.
For 17 years, he worked as a reporter, columnist and city editor at the Nashville Banner newspaper where he was responsible for the coverage of Nashville news, including education, health care, religion, the police beat, state and federal courts, city governments and obituaries.
At the Nashville Banner he was routinely responsible for a staff of 15 reporters and three assistant city editors, and acted as managing editor in the managing editor’s absence, supervising a staff of 84. He also wrote regularly for the Gannett News Service, People magazine and Newsday.
Hance holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Western Kentucky University, where he also taught journalism for eight years, and a J.D. degree from the Nashville School of Law. He is a past member of Leadership Nashville and the East Nashville YMCA President’s Board.
Etherington serves as Director of Global Health Studies at Vanderbilt University’s School of Medicine, and is an assistant professor of nursing at Vanderbilt University’s School of Nursing.
She has received several prestigious awards for her years of extensive local, national, and international health service, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, the Florence Nightingale Medal from the International Red Cross, and the Clara Barton Award from the American Red Cross.
Etherington has worked nearly 30 years with international medical humanitarian agency, Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders). She serves as mental health coordinator for emergency shelters, designing and implementing outreach activities for victims, establishing emergency counseling clinics and/or working with health and social service management on long term post disaster planning.
For 20 years Etherington worked with the Metro Police Department. During that time she was Director of Police Advocacy Support Services for the Metropolitan Police Department. She initiated and became Director of the Police Department’s Victim Intervention Program.
She has a Master of Science in Nursing/Psychiatric Mental Health Specialty from Vanderbilt University, and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Catherine Spalding College in Louisville, Kentucky.
Ruth Stewart, M.D., Vice Chair, Samuel Okpaku, M.D., Ph.D., Secretary, Samuel Felker, J.D., Henry Foster, M.D., also serves as Board of Health members.
The role of the Board of Health is to administer and control public health for the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County.