The woman who helped guide the growth of Northeast Georgia’s largest healthcare system is stepping down. Tracy Vardeman, the chief strategy executive for Northeast Georgia Health System, is retiring after 31 years. Her last day will be December 31.
Prior to joining NGHS, Vardeman served for five years as the director of marketing and communications at Lanier Park Hospital in Gainesville. Over the last three decades, she molded the shape and trajectory of NGHS through her work, first as the director of planning and then as chief strategy executive.
“Very few people have had an impact on the health of our entire region like Tracy has,” says NGHS President and CEO Carol Burrell. “From leading a campaign to get state approval to bring heart surgery to Gainesville in the early 2000s, to pushing the vision of what is now the NGMC Braselton campus throughout the 2010s, to uniting community leaders in the fight against COVID-19 in the 2020s – she has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to improve the lives of many she’ll never meet. And, in true Tracy fashion, she didn’t retire until we had a clear plan to keep the work going.”
Melissa Tymchuk is succeeding Vardeman in her position and will now serve as chief strategy executive in addition to her current role as chief of staff. Tymchuk worked in the Strategic Planning and Marketing division as executive director of strategic marketing before becoming chief of staff in 2017. She has also served in additional interim roles as needed – including as NGHS chief human resources officer and chief development officer of the NGHS Foundation.
Vardeman’s departure is not the only major shift in NGHS leadership. The system welcomed a new president for its flagship hospital earlier this month. John Kueven most recently served as a senior vice president with Atlanta-based Wellstar Health System, where he oversaw its Cobb and Paulding hospitals. Prior to that, he served as the chief operating officer of Memorial Hermann Katy Hospital, just outside of Houston, Texas.
In his role as president of NGMC Gainesville, Kueven oversees the hospital’s operations, its New Horizons long-term care centers and mental and behavioral health services provided through Laurelwood.
NGHS this year also welcomed a new chief of human resources officer. Diane Poirot took over the job in August after a national search. Poirot most recently served in the same role at Yuma Regional Medical Center in Arizona. Prior to that, she served in human resources leadership with several health systems, including CHI St. Luke’s Health and Harris Health System, both in Houston, Texas.
Poirot also has human resources experience in industries outside of health care, such as Travis County Government in Austin, Texas, The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, and USDatalink in Baytown, Texas.
