HVO announces new board chair

Health Volunteers Overseas announced Richard Fisher, MD, is succeeding Julia Plotnick, RN, MPH, FAAN, RADM, USPHS (ret), as the new chair of their board of directors. Plotnick has served since 2009 and who will continue to serve as Chair Emeritus.

Fisher is an orthopaedic surgeon who has served as a Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO) board member since 2009 and as chair of Orthopaedics Overseas until this past February, according to a press release. He has served as a volunteer in Bangladesh, Peru, Bhutan, Ghana and Vietnam and as country director for HVO’s USAID-funded rehabilitation project in Mozambique.

A member of the Technical Advisory Group for HVO’s Vietnam Rehabilitation Project and Fulbright Fellow in Sri Lanka in 2007, Fisher is also a member of the WHO Expert Panel for Clinical Technology, a participant of the Who Global Initiative for Emergency Essential Surgical Care and co-editor of the WHO publication Surgical Care at the District Hospital.

“Julia Plotnick has worked tirelessly to raise recognition of HVO’s work as we celebrated our 25th anniversary. I look forward to continuing that work with Dr. Fisher in his new role as board chair,” Nancy Kelly, executive director of HVO, stated in a press release. “He brings a wealth of HVO experience to the position, having served as a volunteer and a staff member in the field. I look forward to working with him to take HVO forward in to the next 25 years of service.”