Board of Trustees appoints three to Medical Center board

University Park, Pa. -- Penn State's Board of Trustees announced today (May 16) the appointment of Cynthia Baldwin and Edward R. Hintz Jr. and the re-appointment of Rodney A. Erickson to the Board of Directors of Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Each appointee will serve a three-year term through June 30, 2011.

Baldwin and Hintz will fill seats vacated by Marian U. Barash Coppersmith and Donald M. Cook Jr., whose terms expire this year.

Baldwin is a partner of the law firm, Duane Morris LLP.  She  is a former Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and was elected the first African-American female judge of the Allegheny Court of Common Pleas. 

Erickson is executive vice president and provost of Penn State, the University's chief academic officer, and serves as chief executive officer in the University president's absence.

Hintz is president of HHR Asset Management LLC, a private money management firm specializing in investment management for individuals, which he founded in 1974. He is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts.

In May 2000, the Board of Trustees approved the establishment of the corporation "The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center," a nonprofit organization charged with employing personnel, owning equipment and holding the hospital and other licenses necessary to provide health-care services.

The Board of Directors of the Medical Center consists of 15 members. Nine directors are appointed directly by the Board of Trustees, while four are considered independent contractors, all with three-year staggered terms. The senior vice president for health affairs -- who also serves as dean of the College of Medicine and chief executive officer of the Medical Center -- serves ex officio as a director. One physician who chairs a clinical department also holds an ex officio appointment to the board.

Together these 15 members are responsible for governance of the Medical Center. They are subject to the authority of the University's Board of Trustees to appoint and remove members.