The Nominating Committee, a committee of AcademyHealth, is tasked with receiving nominations for Directors and developing and recommending candidate slates for Board approval. The Committee meets in the spring, reviews the nominations, and assesses the expertise needed on the Board. The Committee also evaluates the long-term leadership needs of the organization.

Each year, five new Directors are elected. Two candidate slates are developed, one for election by the Board and one for election by the membership. In order to give the Nominating Committee greater flexibility in creating the candidate slates that meet the diverse needs of the Board, the number of Board and Member-elected Directors alternates each year. In 2019, the Board will elect two Directors and the membership will elect three Directors.

The Nominating Committee recognizes its critically important role in shaping the leadership of AcademyHealth. Accordingly, the Committee puts a great deal of thought into developing the Board-elected and Member-elected slates and encourages nominees for either category. Typically, the Committee begins with a list of at least 50 nominations from a variety of sources. Over the course of a day, the nominations are discussed in the context of certain criteria, described below, whose purpose is to promote the strongest and most diverse leadership for AcademyHealth. Candidates then are slotted for Board election or Member election.

The Committee will place a candidate on the Board-elected nomination slate for one or more of the following reasons:

  1. Based on board discussions, the Committee believes that a particular expertise is needed (for example, a candidate with finance background or an individual with expertise in leading a public health agency);
  2. There is a highly qualified candidate who may be less-recognized by the membership; and
  3. The Board and Committee are seeking to assure greater Board diversity than might be achieved through member election alone.

The Nominating Committee submits the slate of Board-elected Candidates to the full Board for its approval and election. The Board also ratifies the slate of Member-elected Candidates. This slate is presented to the membership for election.