Tom Barnett

Vice President and Chief Information and Digital Officer

Tom Barnett is the Chief Information and Digital Officer for Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation. In this role, Tom is responsible for information technology, application services, as well as digital solutions and digital patient engagement for the 24-hospital health system, ambulatory physicians group, and Baptist Health Sciences University serving Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas.

Tom works with his talented team to focus on bringing value to Baptist through a collection of technologies that support clinical workflows, improve patient care, facilitate patient interactions, and drive business process automation.

He is a member of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and was named one of Computerworld’s Premier 100 Technology Leaders in 2016.

Tom holds a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems and a Masters of Business Administration from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.

Jason Little

President and Chief Executive Officer, Baptist Memorial Health Care

Jason Little, CEO, is the fifth president of Baptist Memorial Health Care. Under his leadership, Baptist has grown to a 24-hospital, $3.6 billion integrated health system in three states with over 20,000 team members and more than 5,000 affiliated physicians. He began his career at Baptist in 2002 after serving as an operations administrator at the Mayo Clinic. Prior to his role as president and CEO, Jason served as System COO and CEO of three different Baptist hospitals.

He is passionate about improving his community and the delivery of healthcare. He serves on the boards of the Greater Memphis Chamber, Memphis Tomorrow, the New Memphis Institute, the Tennessee Hospital Association, the Mississippi Hospital Association, the Healthcare Institute and the American Hospital Association’s Health Systems Committee. Jason also serves as a deacon and Sunday School teacher at Germantown Baptist Church.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in Health Administration from the University of Tennessee and master’s degrees in Business Administration and Health Care Administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Derick Ziegler

Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer

Derick Ziegler is the Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer of Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation. In this role, he is responsible for leading the ongoing and future transformation initiatives of the organization and guiding the synergy efforts of mergers and acquisitions across the System. Derrick also serves as the executive sponsor for Baptist's comprehensive telehealth program.

He has enjoyed a highly successful healthcare leadership career spanning over three decades. Rising to the rank of Colonel, he served as the administrator of some of the largest hospitals in the U.S. Army. After retiring from the military, Ziegler joined Baptist in August 2008, serving two years as CEO of Baptist Memorial Hospital Union City and for four years as CEO of Baptist Memorial Hospital Memphis. Later, he was promoted to Vice President of Affiliate Integration and the West Tennessee Market where he led numerous transitions, transformation projects, acquisitions, and mergers. Most notably, Ziegler helped lead the efforts to integrate Baptist Memorial Health Care and Mississippi Baptist Health System, realizing more than $209 million in synergy savings. In other comprehensive transformation improvement initiatives supported by both Navigant and Vizient he has helped Baptist capture significant year-over-year savings.

Sam Lynd

Chief Operating Officer, NEA Baptist

Sam Lynd is the Administrator and CEO of NEA Baptist, which serves the Northeast Arkansas and Southeast Missouri regions. He joined Baptist in 2011 as a Groner Fellow and has held multiple roles across the System. Prior to his current role as CEO, Sam served as Assistant Administrator at NEA Baptist, Assistant Administrator at Baptist-Union County, Administrator and CEO of Baptist Tipton and the Baptist Cancer Center, Service Line Administrator for Emergency Services, and as COO of Baptist Memphis.

Sam earned his Master's degree in Health Administration, an MBA from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Sam is most proud to be the husband of his wife, Chaney, and father to their two children, Copley and Henry.

Kimberly Young

Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Kimberly Young is the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Baptist Memorial Health Care. Prior to becoming CFO, she served as the Vice President of Financial Operations. Kimberly has served in various financial roles across the Baptist System for over 30 years. She has served as Chief Financial Officer for Baptist Medical Group, BMH-Desoto, BMH-Collierville, BMH-Women’s, and BMH-Tipton.

Before moving into the operational side of finance, Kimberly worked in managed care finance and system finance. Outside of work, Kimberly is an avid runner and CrossFit participant. She routinely participates in marathons and CrossFit competitions raising money for non-profit organizations. Kimberly has served on the board of Christ Community Health Services, LG&W Federal Credit Union, and the American Red Cross.

She earned her Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Business Administration degrees from the University of Memphis.

Chris Anderson

Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

Chris serves as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation. He has been with Baptist since March 2014 and served previously as Vice President and Market Leader for Mississippi (2017-2023), then for the Memphis Metro market (2023). From March 2014 to April 2017, Chris served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Mississippi Baptist Health Systems (MBHA). As President of MBHS, Chris was responsible for all operations for it and its subsidiaries. Chris has worked in healthcare for over 38 years. Prior to coming to Baptist, he served as the Chief Executive Officer for Singing River Health System for sixteen years.

Chris is a graduate of Mississippi State University, a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives, and has been a Certified Public Accountant since 1986. He has served in numerous professional and civic organizations, including service on the Board of Directors of the USA International Ballet Competition, Board of Directors of the Mississippi Museum of Art, the Mississippi Hospital Association Board of Directors, and the Mississippi Economic Council.

Lia Lansky

System Director of Wellbeing

Lia Lansky serves as the System Director of Wellbeing for Baptist, where she channels her lifelong commitment to fitness into empowering others to achieve healthier lifestyles. A former collegiate swimmer, Lia has a deep-seated passion for fitness that began in the swimming pool and continues to drive her professional mission. Before joining Baptist in 2018, she spent over 15 years in Arizona where she held various roles in the wellness sector such as an exercise physiologist and fitness director.

She holds a master's degree in Exercise Physiology, a master's in Health Care Administration, demonstrating her comprehensive understanding of both the scientific and administrative aspects of health and wellness. Lia is also a certified exercise physiologist through the American College of Sports Medicine, where she gained recognition as one of their emerging leaders in 2022.

At Baptist, Lia's goal is to inspire individuals to adopt sustainable lifestyle changes that positively affect not just themselves, but also their families and future generations.

Deirdre Mylod, PhD

Executive Director, Institute for Innovation & Senior Vice President, Research & Analytics; PressGaney

Dr. Deirdre Mylod has spent over 25 years at Press Ganey researching the patient experience and how it relates to cross domain outcomes of engagement and clinical quality. She is the architect of Press Ganey’s Patient Suffering model and has extended her work to create additional conceptual frameworks that describe the work experience of clinicians and caregivers, identify Hope as a target outcome for patients, and help organizations to operationally define culture transformation.

Dr. Mylod joined Press Ganey in 1997 and currently serves as the executive director of the organization’s Institute for Innovation and senior vice president of Research & Analytics. In this joint role, she is responsible for advancing the understanding of the entire patient experience, including patient perceptions of care, clinical process and outcomes. Through the Institute, Mylod partners with leading health care providers to study and implement impactful processes for improving the patient experience.

Since July 2020, Dr. Mylod has co-led Press Ganey's Equity Partnership. Through this work she has surfaced national patterns of patient and workforce experience segmented by race, ethnicity and other aspects of identity, and has created best practices in data management and data visualization to support equity work.

Mylod holds a master’s degree and a PhD in psychology from the University of Notre Dame.

Kristy Gay

Chief Experience Officer

Kristy Gay is the Chief Experience Officer for Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation. In this role, she is responsible for making strategic improvements to Baptist’s patient experience, employee experience, and provider engagement and collaborates with system and entity leadership teams to identify, prioritize, plan, and oversee improvement efforts. Additionally, she works closely with engagement leaders to identify best practice and opportunity for teams and partners with physician leaders to provide insight and coaching to hospital providers, including joint ventures. Kristy is also responsible for re-framing existing evidence based practices to better align with current healthcare processes.

Prior to joining Baptist, Kristy served as a Senior Advisor with Press Ganey for seven years. During her tenure at Press Ganey, she worked with organizations to present integrated approaches to employee and physician engagement and patient experience.

Kristy earned her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Henderson State University and masters in Healthcare Administration from Ohio University. Kristy serves as a STEM mentor with the American Heart Association and was named as a Woman of Impact in 2022.

Nancy Averwater

Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer

Nancy Averwater is the Senior Vice-President and Chief Human Resource Officer for Baptist. She began her career at Baptist as a per-diem Registered Nurse in the Intensive Care Unit. Since that time, her career has evolved into a variety of leadership roles within the organization. Prior to becoming CHRO, Nancy served as the administrator and CEO of several Baptist entities, including Baptist System Home Care & Hospice, Baptist Home Medical Equipment, Medical Alternatives Home Infusion Pharmacy, Baptist Minor Medical Centers, and the CONCERN Employee Assistance Program.

She earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Harding University and a Master of Health Administration from the University of Memphis. In 2012, Nancy was awarded the Health Care Heroes Award for Administrative Excellence by the Memphis Business Journal for her work in advancing end of life care in the community and for establishing the area’s first residential hospice and comprehensive grief center, the Baptist Reynolds Hospice House and the Kemmons Wilson Family Center for Good Grief. In 2013, the Memphis Business Journal recognized her as a Super Women in Business. In 2017, the University of Memphis’ Lowenberg College of Nursing recognized her as one of 50 leaders in 50 years for innovation in health care.