Lancaster Medical Center Board of Directors

Deborah Addo was appointed interim chief executive officer on September 28, 2024. As interim CEO, Deborah Addo will maintain the system’s focus on growth, development and overall performance of the system, including its adult and pediatric acute care and specialty hospitals, as well as the continued expansion of Penn State Health Medical Group across the health system’s core counties of Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lebanon and Lancaster.

As president and chief operating officer for Penn State Health, Deborah Addo provides oversight to the health system’s hospitals, clinical service lines and acute care facilities to ensure their operational excellence.

Addo has more than 30 years of leadership experience in health care operations and management. She previously served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Penn State Health, as well as interim president of the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Prior to joining Penn State Health, she spent more than seven years as senior vice president of Inova Health System, first as CEO of Inova Mount Vernon Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia, and then as CEO of Inova Loudoun Hospital, Leesburg, Virginia, where she developed a track record of leading hospitals and physician groups through times of transition. Before joining Inova, she was chief operating officer and senior vice president of Meritus Health in Hagerstown, Maryland, the largest health care provider in Western Maryland.

She has been named multiple times by Becker’s Hospital Review as one of the “50 Great African American Leaders in Healthcare to Know.” Her areas of expertise include financial management, LEAN, organization reengineering, strategic planning, physician engagement and population health.

Addo earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and a master's degree in public health from Walden University. Reverend Addo is also a licensed minister ordained through the Church of God.

Dr. Allison Barrett is the director of bariatric surgery at Lancaster Medical Center. She specializes in bariatric, foregut and robotic surgeries. She is board-certified in general surgery.

Barrett attended Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, for undergraduate studies, followed by Boston University School of Medicine in Boston. She completed her internship and residency at New York University in New York City. Barrett spent an additional year in fellowship training in minimally invasive and bariatric surgery at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles.

She is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a member of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons. Barrett’s certifications include basic life support, advanced cardiac life support, fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery and fundamentals of endoscopic surgery.

Gene Clark is the chief executive officer of Clark Associates Inc., a Lancaster-based collective of companies leading the food service industry in equipment, supplies and service. Its businesses include the e-commerce site WebstaurantStore.com, 11 brick-and-click Restaurant Stores in the northeast, three specialty channels, Clark Food Service Equipment, 11400 Inc. and Clark National Accounts and three manufacturing companies, Noble Chemical, Regal Foods and Vertical Converting. Clark Associates has more than five million square feet of distribution centers and more than 7,000 employees in 17 states.

Clark is a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster. In 2019, he received the Foodservice Equipment Reports’ Young Lion Award, which recognizes rising leaders who have begun to have a meaningful impact in the foodservice industry. In 2020, he received the Foodservice Equipment Distributors Association Volunteer of the Year award.

Joseph Frank serves as regional hospital president for Penn State Health’s East Region, which includes Penn State Health Lancaster Medical Center and St. Joseph Medical Center, located in Reading, Berks County.

He provides executive-level leadership for the two hospitals, driving operations, growth and coordination across each region. He also focuses on developing and maintaining strong relationships with local referring physicians in private practice. 

Prior to joining Penn State Health’s senior management team in 2018, Frank held a variety of very successful leadership roles in both publicly traded and private equity health care companies. He was CEO of The Heart Group, a Lancaster cardiology practice acquired by Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, and CEO of Valley Forge Dental, where he developed and operated multispecialty dental practices in nine states. As senior vice president for Surgical Care Affiliates, Frank oversaw the company’s growth from a single surgery center in Lancaster to 79 facilities in 39 states.

Frank earned a master’s degree in public health from the University of Pittsburgh. In addition, he holds a master’s degree from West Virginia University and a bachelor’s degree from Shippensburg University.

As senior vice president and chief of staff at Penn State Health, Judy Hlafcsak advises on strategic transactions and affiliations. 

Before relocating to central Pennsylvania, Hlafcsak resided in Pittsburgh, where she served as general counsel for West Penn Allegheny Health System and its successor, Allegheny Health Network, a multi-hospital system owned by Highmark Health. Prior to that, she was a partner within the health care group of K&L Gates, an international law firm, where her work focused on nonprofit governance and health care mergers and affiliations.

Hlafcsak earned both a bachelor’s degree and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Daron Kahn is the medical director of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine for Lancaster Medical Center, where he also serves as head of internal medicine. Additionally, he is active on the medical staff at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

Kahn is board-certified in internal medicine, pulmonary medicine, critical care medicine and sleep medicine. He most recently completed additional training in obesity medicine through the Cornell/Columbia obesity medicine program at the Columbia University Institute of Human Nutrition and is board-eligible in this subspecialty. He is a member of the American Thoracic Society, the American College of Chest Physicians and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. He has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and has presented several abstracts and posters at both national and international meetings.

Kahn worked at DuPont in Wilmington, Delaware, in the Biobased Materials Department before starting medical school at Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Philadelphia. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. He then completed his subspecialty training in pulmonary and critical care medicine, followed by an additional year in sleep medicine at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. During that time, he was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society in recognition of exemplary service, integrity, clinical excellence and compassion. 

Kahn has special interests in the treatment of complex sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea, insomnia, excessive daytime sleepiness, narcolepsy and restless leg syndrome. He was in private practice for six years in Wyomissing after completing his medical training. He also served as the program director for the Sleep Medicine Fellowship at Tower Health Reading Hospital in West Reading. 

Dr. Ben Lazarus is a founding member of US Digestive Health, a 300-person provider medical practice located in the Northeastern U.S. It is the third-largest gastroenterology practice in the country. He is a clinical instructor of medicine and involved in the training of medical students and residents. Board-certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology, he also serves as the chief of endoscopy and gastroenterology at UPMC Lititz. 

Lazarus received his medical degree from the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed his internal medical residency and gastroenterology fellowship at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Jefferson Stratford Hospital in Stratford, New Jersey. He was also a visiting fellow at the Graduate Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. 

Lazarus has served as a board member for both the Lancaster Museum of Art and the Lancaster City & County Medical Society.

Liz Martin, a Lancaster County native, has dedicated her career to serving the community while running two successful businesses. After graduating from Penn Manor High School and Elizabethtown College, she successfully ran Martins Hatchery Poultry Farm for eight years. Later, she became the fourth-generation owner of Martin Insurance Agency after purchasing the business from her uncle. She grew the business from $500,000 to over $11 million in premium volume through organic growth and by purchasing six other agencies. In 2022, she merged her agency with Enders Insurance.

Martin continues to oversee the operation of her family’s all-natural grass-fed beef and equine-boarding farm, Ironstone Spring Farm, in Manor Township.

A past president of the Lancaster Rotary Club and of the ASSETS Lancaster board, Martin is also a past board member and current member of the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce. She is a board member of the Hourglass Foundation, an organization dedicated to protecting and enhancing Lancaster County’s unique character and quality of life, board chair for the Economic Development Company of Lancaster County, and a member of Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture. She is also an active supporter of many county-based nonprofit organizations and foundations.

Martin has received a number of prestigious leadership and service awards including the Small Business “Person of the Year” in 2011 from the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the “25 Women of Influence Award” presented by the Central Penn Business Journal in 2016.

A central Pennsylvania native, Dr. Michael Reihart has provided emergency medical care in Lancaster County for more than 25 years. In addition to his role at Lancaster Medical Center, he also serves as the regional director of the Emergency Health Services Federation, chairs the medical advisory committee to the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s Bureau of Emergency Medical Services, and serves as the medical director and member of the Lancaster County Special Emergency Response Team.

Board-certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine and a fellow in both emergency medicine and the subspecialty of emergency medical services, Reihart received his medical degree from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed his residency in emergency medicine at Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia. He has a strong interest in the integration of prehospital care of acutely ill and injured patients with leading-edge, in-hospital resuscitation strategies and procedures.

Prior to joining Lancaster Medical Center, Reihart was associate medical director for emergency medical services at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital, where he had also served as an attending physician since 1997.

In 2020, he was honored with the Distinguished Service Award, presented by the American Trauma Society, Pennsylvania Division. He was named Pennsylvania Emergency Physician of the Year in 2007 by the Pennsylvania Emergency Health Services Council, Pennsylvania Department of Health and Bureau of Emergency Medical Services.

As the executive vice president, finance and chief financial officer for Penn State Health, Paula Tinch oversees all financial operations for the health system, including reporting, revenue cycle operations, supply chain services, treasury and cash management, reimbursement, managed care contracting, budgeting and business planning, as well as oversight of the financial leaders who support the local Penn State Health facilities and Medical Group practices.

Prior to joining Penn State Health, Tinch spent 11 years at Rochester Regional Health in Rochester, New York, where she most recently was the health system’s senior vice president of finance and chief financial officer for Rochester General Hospital, the flagship site. In this role, she was responsible for all core financial operations of five hospitals, many long-term care facilities, two ambulatory surgery centers and more than 2,500 employed and affiliated physicians. Before joining Rochester Regional Health, Tinch spent 11 years in various corporate finance roles within Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, serving upstate New York.

Tinch is a member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association and has served on several committees and in leadership roles for the Rochester Chapter. A member of the American Institute of Certified Professional Accountants, she is a certified public account licensed in New York, and is a certified professional in the Academy for Healthcare Management. She earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting from Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York.

As executive vice president and chief medical officer for Penn State Health, Dr. Kenneth Wood provides oversight of clinical care standards, scope of practice, medical staff credentialing and overall quality, safety and value of care across the health system.

A veteran health care administrator, educator and researcher, Wood has three decades of clinical experience across diverse settings, ranging from community hospitals to large, integrated academic medical centers. Most recently, he served as chief clinical officer for Lifespan, a comprehensive, integrated, academic health system with The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Wood also served the University of Maryland Medical System, Baltimore, as the associate chief medical officer, chief clinical officer for the University of Maryland Medical Center and director of the Maryland Critical Care Network. In addition, he was chief medical officer for Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, and held a number of leadership roles at UW Health, the integrated health system of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Board-certified in internal medicine and critical care medicine, Wood earned a bachelor’s degree in biology at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, before completing his medical degree at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed an internal medicine residency at Jefferson Abington Hospital in Abington, and a fellowship in critical care medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey.