David R. Doerr, President and CEO
Union Hospital, Inc.
David R. Doerr has served as President and CEO of Union Hospital, Inc. since November of 1999.
He leads the Wabash Valley's largest healthcare system composed of Union Hospital in Terre Haute, Union Hospital Clinton, and more than 40 physicians through the Union Hospital Medical Group. Union Hospital, Inc., also known as Union Hospital Health Group, employs more than 2,200 people in locations throughout the area and has annual revenues of $848 million.
Doerr has held numerous positions at Union beginning as an administrative assistant in 1979. He was promoted to assistant administrator in 1980 and served in that capacity until 1982 when he became administrator of Mary Sherman Hospital in Sullivan, Indiana. He returned to Union Hospital in 1987 as vice president of business development. He was named senior vice president of Union Hospital in 1989 and chief operating office in 1995.
Doerr earned a bachelor of science degree in nuclear medicine technology from Indiana University School of Medicine. He also served in the United States Army and the Presidential Honor Guard.
He is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives and is past Chairman of The Greater Terre Haute Area Chamber of Commerce, United Way of the Wabash Valley and the Indiana Hospital Association. He also currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Terre Haute Boys and Girls Club, and Ivy Tech Community College and serves on the American Hospital Association Regional Advisory Board.
He is married to wife, Charlene, and has one son, Eric.
James R. Buechler, M.D.
Director Emeritus for the Richard G. Lugar Center for Rural Health.
Dr. Jim Buechler received his MD from the University of Illinois and did his residency at St. Joseph's Hospital in South Bend prior to settling down to private practice at Cork Medical Center in Marshall, Illinois.
Dr. Buechler started the Family Medicine Residency at Union Hospital iin 1972 and still serves as faculty physician for the residents. Under Dr. Buechler's leadership, the Clay City Center for Family Medicine and the Rural Training Track became a reality in 1993. The Clay City site received accreditation from the ACGME and is now selected by the majority of family medicine residents. It allows the residents to work out of the main site during their full three years of training while gaining rural experience at a federally-designated rural health clinic. Dr. Buechler served as Director of the Richard G. Lugar Center for Rural Health previously named the Midwest Center for Rural Health for 12 years prior to becoming semi-retired.
Dr. Buechler serves on many committees throughout Indiana and has membership in the AAFP, IRHA, and NRHA. His passion for teaching has always been a priority and in 1993 he was awarded the National Educator of the Year Award by the National Rural Health Association.
Dr. Buechler is highly regarded at Union hospital for his dedication and leadership toward patient care and advancement of healthcare.
The Honorable Duke Bennett
Mayor, Terre Haute, Indiana
Duke Bennett graduated from Ivy Tech Community College-Wabash Valley (formerly known as the Indiana Vocational Technical College) in 1980 with an Associate of Science in Telecommunications and from Indiana Wesleyan University in 2006 with a BS in Business Administration.
He served as Director of Operations for 12 years at Hamilton Center, a community mental health center with 32 locations serving a ten county area in west central Indiana. Originally hired as Director of Information Systems, Bennett was responsible for directing all corporate wide activities involving Capital Projects, Facilities, Safety and Security, Transportation and Purchasing.
Terre Haute citizens elected Bennett in November 2007. As Mayor, he leads a city with incredible opportunities ahead of it, and works hard to address its challenges. He believes in serving his community and sees public service as a venue for creating change and crafting solutions that will allow Terre Haute to continue to grow and encourage strong economic development.
Bennett works to generate a collaborative spirit between the city and county. One partnership established is with the Vigo County Corrections. This cooperative venture developed a keep Terre Haute clean' program whereby detainees collected over 320-tons of refuse from city alleys, empty lots and city streets. Bennett implemented and chairs the Terre Haute/Vigo County Railroad Re-Alignment Committee. This committee is comprised of city and county officials who work to develop long-range plans to mitigate railroad issues within the community.
Bennett is active in a number of community and civic organizations. He serves on the board of Western Indiana Community Action Agency (WICCA); the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce; and Vigo, Clay, and Owen County Solid Waste Management District. He is Chairman of the Metropolitan Planning Organization Transportation Policy Committee for West Central Indiana Economic Development District. Bennett also serves on the Executive Committee of the Terre Haute Economic Development Corporation.
Mayor Bennett and his wife Pam have two children, Suzanne and Ryan.
D. Craig Brater, M.D.
Dean and Walter J. Daly Professor
Indiana University School of Medicine
D. Craig Brater, M.D., is a native of Oak Ridge, Tenn. He attended undergraduate and medical school at Duke University, completed his internship at Duke, and his residency at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), followed by a fellowship in clinical pharmacology. There he, developed a research and clinical interest in diuretics that continues today. After a year as a junior faculty member at UCSF, Dr. Brater spent nine years on the faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.
Dr. Brater joined the faculty at the Indiana University School of Medicine in 1986, where he began the Division of Clinical Pharmacology in the Department of Medicine. Four years later he was selected to chair the Department of Medicine, the largest department in the School. In 2000, Dr. Brater was selected to be the ninth dean of the IU School of Medicine. As dean, Dr. Brater is responsible for 26 academic departments, a full-time faculty of more than 1,000 members, and nearly 2,500 medical students, residents and doctoral candidates on nine campuses throughout the state of Indiana. In 2006, Dr. Brater was appointed as a Vice President of Indiana University with responsibility for the life sciences.
Dr. Brater has published more than 100 research articles and 50 books or book chapters. These publications, for the most part, concern diuretics or the effects of non-steroidal inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) on renal function.
He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians and has been awarded mastership in the American College of Physicians. He has been or is currently president of the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, the Association of Professors of Medicine, the Central Society for Clinical Research, and the United States Pharmacopoeia. He is a member of the board and the executive committee of BioCrossroads, an Indiana consortium of business, industry, and academic organizations dedicated to economic development through advancements in the life sciences. He serves on the boards of directors of Clarian Health Partners, BioCrossroads, and the Riley Children's Foundation. In 2000, his alma mater awarded him the Duke Medical Alumni Award in recognition of his contributions to academic medicine. In 2005, Dr. Brater became a member of the Ethics Committee of the United States Olympic Committee.
Dr. Brater and his wife Stephanie have one daughter Aimee, who lives in Florida. The Braters are actively involved in the Indiana University-Moi University Faculty of Health Sciences exchange Program in Kenya and have made several trips to the area. Through this program, they met their “Kenyan son” Michael, who is now a graduate student at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
Daniel J. Bradley
President, Indiana State University
Daniel J. Bradley became Indiana State's 11th president on July 31, 2008after serving as president of Fairmont State University in West Virginia for seven years. He previously held a variety of positions at Montana Tech of the University of Montana, including vice chancellor for academic affairs and research, dean of engineering and head of the petroleum engineering department.
During Bradley's tenure at Fairmont State, the institution grew substantially. More than $100 million in construction projects were completed, computing infrastructure was upgraded, a robust distance education program was developed, and graduate programs were launched in education, business and social sciences.
Born in Portage La Prairie, Monitoba, Bradley immigrated with his parents to California when he was 7.
A veteran of the US Army, Bradley holds a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Michigan State University, a master's degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Tulsa and a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering from Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology. During graduate studies, he spent two years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory performing his research. After graduate school, he was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Berkeley in the Chemistry Department before joining the faculty at Montana Tech.
Bradley and his wife, Cheri, have three grown children and three grandchildren.
Jeff L. Pittman
Chancellor of Ivy Tech Community College, Wabash Valley Region
Jeff L. Pittman is Chancellor of Ivy Tech Community College, Wabash Valley Region. He is also Vice-Provost for Distance Education for the Ivy Tech Statewide System. In addition to these roles, he has served the College as the Executive Dean at the Sellersburg Region, Dean of Academic Affairs for the Bloomington Campus, and Department Chair of Manufacturing Technology and Industrial Trades at the Columbus Campus.
Dr. Pittman earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business from Indiana University at Bloomington, a Master of Science Degree in Technology from Indiana State University, and a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership, Administration and Foundations from Indiana State University. He is a member of Phi Kappa Phi Chapter from Indiana State University and of Phi Theta Kappa, Alpha Rho Sigma Chapter.
Currently, Dr. Pittman serves on several community boards, including the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce, the Regional Workforce Board, the Terre Haute Economic Development Corporation, where he previously served as Board Chair and is currently on the Executive Committee, and the United Way, where he served as Campaign Chair in 2006. Dr. Pittman is currently the Board Chair of the Indiana Higher Education Telecommunications System, a technology consortium of Indiana's public and private higher education institutions, k-12 education institutions, public libraries, and public broadcasting stations.
Dr. Taihung Peter Duong
Assistant Dean & Director, Indiana School of Medicine
Dr. Taihung Peter Duong received his B.A. in Biology from Whittier College and his Ph.D. in Anatomy from UCLA. He joined the faculty of the Indiana University School of Medicine – Terre Haute (IUSM-Terre Haute) in 1991, where he has been teaching Medical Anatomy. Dr. Duong served on the IUSM Academic Standards Committee and the Admissions Committee. He has also served as grant reviewer for the National Institutes of Health and the Alzheimer's Association. He was appointed Associate Center Director in 2002 and became Assistant Dean and Director of IUSM-Terre Haute in 2008.
Steve Witt
President, Terre Haute Economic Development Corporation
As President of the Terre Haute Economic Development Corporation, Steve Witt works closely with his Board of Directors, his THEDC colleagues, local elected officials and many others to formulate and implement the City of Terre Haute/Vigo County’s economic development efforts.
Mr. Witt has worked in the economic development arena in Terre Haute and Vigo County for over 20 years. Prior to coming to the Terre Haute Economic Development Corporation in January, 2005, Steve served as Executive Director of the City of Terre Haute/Vigo County Department of Redevelopment. During his tenure at the Department of Redevelopment, Steve implemented City and County government’s business attraction and retention efforts and also oversaw the implementation of the City of Terre Haute’s Community Development Block Grant program.
Major industrial employers that Steve Witt has helped attract to his community include Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN), LLC’s cold roll steel processing facility; Staples Corporation’s Midwest distribution center; Aisin Brake & Chassis’ automotive brake manufacturing plant, ThyssenKrupp Presta’s automotive steering column manufacturing facility, CertainTeed Corporation’s fiber cement board manufacturing facility and Boral Bricks’ clay brick manufacturing plant. Steve has also been involved in numerous expansion projects throughout the community including those at Applied Extrusion Technologies, Sony DADC and Pfizer Corporation to name a few.
Since 1994, Steve has also served as the manager of the 1,500 acre Vigo County Industrial Park. Since the first tenant entered the park in 1995, over 1,400 jobs have been created within the park with a total private sector investment of nearly $500 million.
In addition to his work with the Terre Haute Economic Development Corporation, Steve serves on a number of boards of directors including those of the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce and the Workforce Network, Inc. Steve is also the current president of the Terre Haute Board of Sanitary Commissioners.
Steve earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics from Indiana State University. He is also a graduate of the University of Oklahoma’s Economic Development Institute. Additional information on the Terre Haute Economic Development Corporation can be found at www.terrehauteedc.com.