SARASOTA — Today, the Sarasota County Public Hospital Board, which governs Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, elected its new officers for 2022. The new chair of the Board is Sharon Wetzler DePeters, an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) who has represented the Hospital Board’s at-large Seat 1 since 2016.
A longtime nursing educator and leader, DePeters served for 12 years as an associate professor at the State College of Florida Manatee – Sarasota, in the school’s Associate Science in Nursing Program. Currently working as a research coordinator at the Cardiovascular Center of Sarasota, she also volunteers with the Medical Reserve Corps of Sarasota. She spent 21 years as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, retiring as a major, and was stationed at Andrews Air Force Base, where she served in the OR, Post Anesthesia Recovery Unit and ICU. She also served in the Surgical ICU at the VA Medical Center in Buffalo, NY. She received her Bachelor of Nursing and Master of Nursing degrees at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
DePeters succeeds Jim Meister, who served as chair of the Board since March, 2020. His two-year tenure as chair was marked by incredible growth, outstanding accomplishments and unprecedented challenges, as SMH staff navigated the global pandemic while constructing and opening several landmark facilities, including Sarasota Memorial Hospital – Venice and the new Oncology Tower and Radiation Oncology Center, the first two phases of SMH’s expanding Brian D. Jellison Cancer Institute.
Meister remains on the Board and will serve as assistant secretary for 2022. The other Board officers installed on Monday include:
1st Vice Chairman: Britt Riner
2nd Vice Chairman: Sarah Lodge
Secretary: Gregory Carter
Treasurer: Joseph J. DeVirgilio, Jr.
Assistant Treasurer: Darryl Henry
The nine-member Board also includes Tramm Hudson and Richard Rehmeyer, MD.