Board of Trustees

Bill Himmelsbach brings to the Board of Trustees 36 years of leadership experience in the health care field, mainly with not-for-profit hospitals and multi-hospital systems, including academic medical centers, around the country. In late 2012 he retired as the president & CEO of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, a not-for-profit academic research organization based in New York City. He is currently a guest lecturer in the MHA program at MUSC and in the BSN program at USC-Beaufort. He also serves on the advisory boards of two small private health care companies. Mr. Himmelsbach holds a B.A. in labor-management relations from Penn State University and an MPH in health care administration from the University of Pittsburgh. He is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. He and his wife, Gail, are residents of Spring Island.

Steve Larson, a board-certified emergency medicine physician and the medical director of the Beaufort Memorial Hospital Pratt Emergency Center, joined Beaufort Memorial in 2003. Dr. Larson received his medical degree from Emory University and completed a residency in emergency medicine at Alameda County Medical Center in Oakland, Calif. Before coming to Beaufort, he served as medical director of the Department of Emergency Medicine at SSM DePaul Health Center in St. Louis. From 1992 to 2003, Dr. Larson practiced emergency medicine at Alta Bates Medical Center, in Berkeley, Calif. In addition to his extensive experience in emergency medicine, he has served on the hospital’s strategic planning committee. He lives on Hilton Head Island with his wife, Debbie, and their two sons.

Vernita F. Dore, a native Beaufortonian, has dedicated her life to serving others. Dore is the former United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development Deputy Under Secretary for Operations and Management. She brings more than 30 years of experience in the economic development of rural communities.

A graduate of the University of South Carolina, Dore also served as State Director of Rural Development. In this position she significantly increased economic opportunity and improved the quality of life for rural Americans by addressing the needs of communities in housing, water and environmental infrastructure, broadband and telecommunications.

During her tenure, she spearheaded the delivery of all agency products resulting in nearly $6 billion dollars invested in rural communities in South Carolina within six years.

Carolyn M. Banner, Ph.D., an experienced educational administrator and an expert in academic program development, joined the Beaufort Memorial Hospital (BMH) Board of Trustees in 2022. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Banner has spent time as a health educator and also worked extensively with diverse student populations. An adjunct professor at University of South Carolina Extended Campus, Coastal Region since 2008, she has also served in high-level administrative positions at the Beaufort campus, including as director of its Opportunity Scholars Program and of its adjunct faculty. Previously she was director of Student Services and Career Planning and Job Placement at Technical College of the Lowcountry in Beaufort. The St. Helena Island native holds a doctorate in education from Walden University in Minneapolis.

Board-certified interventional radiologist Dr. Eric Billig, a member of the hospital medical staff since 2006, graduated from Eastern Virginia Medical School and completed both his internship and residency at the Norfolk medical school. Following a fellowship in abdominal imaging at Emory University Hospital, he joined Beaufort Medical Imaging, the radiology group that provides all of Beaufort Memorial’s imaging services.

Tommy Harmon brings decades of healthcare governance experience to the BMH board. He spent nearly 15 years serving on the board of Southwestern Vermont Healthcare in Bennington, where he was finance committee chair before a five-year role as chairman of the board. He was designated Trustee Emeritus in 2022. Since that time, he has served as director of Broad River Healthcare and on Beaufort Memorial’s finance committee.

Mr. Harmon holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is the former owner, CEO and Chairman of the Board for Sonnax Industries, Inc., a leading supplier of transmission components for vehicles worldwide. The Mooresville, North Carolina, native spent nearly 30 years in Vermont before retiring to Spring Island with his wife, Diane, in 2023.

William F. Jessee, M.D., FACMPE, brings in-depth knowledge of hospital board, management and clinical staff responsibilities for patient-care quality and safety to the Beaufort Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees, which he joined in 2022 following his retirement in 2020 as senior medical advisor at A.J. Gallagher Integrated Healthcare Strategies. Earlier, he spent 12 years as president and chief executive officer of the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), gaining extensive experience in all facets of the management of well-run, cost-effective medical groups that are highly rated by both patients and physicians. Prior to his retirement, he was consistently ranked in Modern Healthcare’s Top 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare and Top 50 Most Powerful Physician Executives.

During his tenure with MGMA, he also served for nine years on the board of trustees of Exempla Healthcare, a three hospital system in Denver. Before joining MGMA, Dr. Jessee was vice president for quality and managed care standards at the American Medical Association. He has also served as CEO of a regional integrated delivery system in Louisville, Ky.; vice president of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; and corporate vice president for quality management at Humana Inc. From 1980 to 1986, Dr. Jessee was a full-time associate professor at University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, Chapel Hill.

An honors graduate of Stanford University, he received his medical degree at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and completed his residency in preventive medicine at University of Maryland Hospital, Baltimore. Prior to moving to Beaufort in 2018, Dr. Jessee’s family owned a home on Fripp Island where they regularly vacationed for more than a decade.

A longtime board-certified ophthalmologist and BMH Medical Staff member, Dr. Jane Kokinakis is the owner of Beaufort Eye Center. A graduate of Michigan State University, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Kokinakis completed her residency in 2000 at Metropolitan Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She practiced four years in Pennsylvania and three in Michigan before moving to the Lowcountry. She also served six years on the board of the American Osteopathic Board of Ophthalmology & Otolaryngology, writing and administering written and oral board exams.

A native of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Richardson attended Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, receiving a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English in 2006. In 2010, he graduated magna cum laude from the University of Mississippi School of Law. A partner with Hilton Head Island-based Finger, Melnick, Brooks & LaBruce, P.A., Mr. LaBruce holds memberships with the Hilton Head Island and South Carolina bar associations and is the former Chairman of the Beaufort Housing Authority. Mr. LaBruce lives in Bluffton with his wife, Jean, and daughter, Eloise.