Lara D. Wilson, MHA, has been named Director of External Affairs and Community Liaison for University of Maryland Shore Regional Health (UM SRH), effective May 5, 2025. UM SRH is a member organization of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS).
Wilson has served UM SRH since 2021 as Director of Rural Health Care Transformation and, from January to August of last year, as Interim Vice President, Rural Health Care. She has a wealth of experience in hospital, non-profit and community health settings, as well as skills in organizational leadership, population health, strategic planning, project management and business development.
Wilson’s focus in this newly-created position will be to develop, maintain and strengthen strategic relationships with key external stakeholders around the five-county region served by UM SRH. This will include responding to and initiating local legislative, regulatory and public policy changes that support the mission of UM SRH and UMMS.
During her tenure with UM SRH, Wilson has acted as liaison and facilitator of rural health care transformation projects; led the Age-Friendly Health System initiative across the System; and overseen the creation and implementation of community health programs with an emphasis on the aging population. She also engaged in collaborative relationships with local, regional and state agencies in support of rural health care transformation and UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown.
“Lara’s focus on rural health transformation over the past few years will serve her well as Director of External Affairs and Community Liaison,” said Ken Kozel, MBA, UM SRH President and CEO. “In her new role, Lara will help us act on our mission of commitment to our community by strengthening existing collaborations and developing new partnerships with local and state officials, and with non-profit, civic and business organizations throughout our five-county region.”
Prior to joining UM SRH, Wilson served six years as executive director of the Maryland Rural Health Association, a state-wide education and advocacy organization. She also has presented on rural health care topics at local, state, and national conferences, and guest lectured on health care management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Maryland School of Public Health.
Wilson earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park, and her MS in Health Systems Administration from Georgetown University. She holds multiple specialty certifications in the field of health care management, and in 2021, she was honored as recipient of the Maryland Rural Health Advocate of the Year Award.
A resident of Centreville, Md., Wilson is active in professional and community organizations, serving on boards and committees for the Queen Anne’s County Economic Development Commission, the Mid Shore Local Health Improvement Coalition, and Centreville Methodist Church, among others.
About University of Maryland Shore Regional Health
A member organization of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), University of Maryland Shore Regional Health (UM SRH) is the principal provider of comprehensive health care services for more than 170,000 residents of five counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore: Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot. UM SRH consists of approximately 2,000 team members, including more than 600 health care providers on the Medical Staff, who work with community partners to advance the values that are foundational to our mission: Compassion, Discovery, Excellence, Diversity and Integrity. For more information, visit https://www.umms.org/shore.
About the University of Maryland Medical System
The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) is an academic private health system, focused on delivering compassionate, high quality care and putting discovery and innovation into practice at the bedside. Partnering with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and University of Maryland, Baltimore who educate the state’s future health care professionals, UMMS is an integrated network of care, delivering 25 percent of all hospital care in urban, suburban and rural communities across the state of Maryland. UMMS puts academic medicine within reach through primary and specialty care delivered at 11 hospitals, including the flagship University of Maryland Medical Center, the System’s anchor institution in downtown Baltimore, as well as through a network of University of Maryland Urgent Care centers and more than 150 other locations in 13 counties. For more information, visit www.umms.org.
Clara Rankin says
Congratulations, Lara! Well deserved!