Lebanon
In his new role, Broderick will serve as an advocate for D-H among business leaders, community leaders and policymakers in an effort to “broaden understanding of the challenges faced and the opportunities offered by New Hampshire’s only academic medical center in a time of rapid transition in health care delivery and value-based payment models,” a D-H news release said.
“Dartmouth-Hitchcock has a rich and distinguished history of providing world-class, state-of-the-art health care to those in need in all corners of our state,” Broderick said in the release. “As senior director for public affairs, I look forward to working with many others across New Hampshire, Vermont and the region to advance Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s mission on behalf of the health and well-being of the people and communities it has so long served.”
Broderick for six years was chief justice of the state’s highest court, and afterward served as dean of the University of New Hampshire School of Law. He also has worked as an adjunct professor at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business.
He serves as co-chairman of Campaign to Change Direction New Hampshire, a group dedicated to changing cultural perceptions of mental health.
The campaign’s purpose, its website says, is to create a culture that “frees us to see our mental health as having equal value to our physical health … creates a common language that allows us to recognize the signs of emotional suffering in ourselves and others … (and) encourages us to care for our mental well-being and the mental well-being of others.”
“Everybody knows (Broderick),” John Kacavas, chief legal officer and general counsel for D-H, said in an interview Thursday. “I’ve known John for 25 years, and he’s been a tireless advocate for the Change Direction New Hampshire campaign, so his interest in changing the culture around mental health really is a wonderful platform to come and sort of broaden that cause to health care in general at Dartmouth-Hitchcock.”
Kacavas, who has operational responsibility for communications and government affairs, said Broderick will report to Josh McElveen, the new vice president for marketing and communications, who in turn will report to Kacavas.
D-H is trying to strengthen its position in the more populous southern tier of New Hampshire, and recently also hired McElveen, a former WMUR-TV news anchor and political director, to a top communications post.
“As Dartmouth-Hitchcock casts an eye toward the southern region, John will be invaluable in calling on his network of business leaders and policy makers to help them understand what Dartmouth-Hitchcock means to the state,” Kacavas said of Broderick.
Kacavas, a former U.S. Attorney for New Hampshire, said that Broderick’s responsibilities would overlap somewhat with the health system’s office of government affairs, but that the new hire wouldn’t necessarily be working as a legislative lobbyist.
Broderick will assume his new position on April 3, according to the release.
Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or at 603-727-3242.