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Honestly Local
Carol Burrell retiring as NGHS president, CEO
BY JEFF GILL
jgill@gainesvilletimes.com
Longtime health care leader
Carol Burrell is retiring from
Northeast Georgia Health System.
Burrell, 67, will continue serv
ing as president and CEO “until a
successor is identified and there's
a clean handoff,” she said in a
press release. “It will be business
as usual for me and our team while
the board starts its succession
planning process."
Burrell, who has been NGHS'
top leader since
2011, started her
career as a medi
cal technologist
in the late 1970s
and later received
her master's
degree in health
care administra
tion from Central
Michigan University.
After serving as a vice president
at St. Vincent's Health System
in Jacksonville, Fla., the Barrow
County native returned to Georgia
in 1999 to lead NGHS' network
of primary care clinics. She was
named chief operating officer in
2004.
Under Burrell's leadership,
NGHS has grown from one hos
pital in Hall County — Northeast
Georgia Medical Center — to five
hospitals across the region, includ
ing Northeast Georgia Medical
Center Braselton, which opened
in 2015.
The system now includes one
of the state's five Level 1 trauma
centers; the sixth largest multi
specialty physician group in the
state, Northeast Georgia Physi
cians Group; a heart and vascular
program, Georgia Heart Institute;
and a graduate medical education
program.
The system has more than 850
beds and 1,300 medical staff mem
bers representing more than 60 spe
cialties, according to the release.
NGHS' estimated annual impact
on the state and local economy
has grown from around $1 billion
in 2011 to more than $4 billion in
2021, the release states.
Burrell also closely monitors
political issues that impact health
care, such as the certificate of need
issue now in the Georgia legislature.
“We're responsible for provid
ing services that are not profitable
— going to the emergency room,
trauma, graduate medical educa
tion,” she said Tuesday, Jan. 30, at
the Greater Hall Chamber of Com
merce's Annual Small Business
Economic & Political Forecast.
See Burrell 13A
Burrell
Man sentenced
in New Year’s
Eve robbery
BY NICK WATSON
nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com
‘Best birthday present we could give her’
Scott Rogers The Times
Former Governor Nathan Deals reads a book to Riverbend Elementary fourth-graders Thursday, Feb. 1, on his late
wife Sandra’s birthday.
Former Georgia Gov. Deal reads to Hall students on late wife’s birthday
BY BEN ANDERSON
banderson@gainesvilletimes.com
Former Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal
spent Thursday morning reading to
students at Riverbend Elementary and
White Sulphur Elementary as a way of
honoring his late wife's love of literacy
on what would have been her 82nd
birthday.
Former first lady Sandra Deal died at
age 80 on Aug. 23, 2022, after a battle
with breast cancer that metastasized to
her brain.
An elementary school named in her
honor will open in August. Riverbend
and White Sulphur will consolidate, and
students will transfer to the new $41.8
million school. At 133,000 square feet,
Sandra Dunagan Deal Elementary will
have 66 classrooms and enough room for
1,025 students. It is located near the inter
section of White Sulphur and Ramsey
roads.
As first lady, Sandra Deal earned a rep
utation as a tireless advocate of children's
literacy, having read to more than 250,000
students at more than 1,000 schools in all
159 of Georgia's counties.
“Literacy was her primary project as
the first lady of Georgia,” Nathan Deal
told The Times after reading to a class at
Riverbend Elementary. “We're reading at
the two elementary schools that will be
consolidated... into the new Sandra Dun
agan Deal Elementary School that will
open for the next school year. So that's
the reason we're doing it. She believed in
literacy, and I think it was one of the most
important things that any first lady could
ever do.”
“It is emotional, it really is,” he said.
“But to do what she would do herself on
her birthday, I think, is certainly the best
birthday present we could ever give her.”
Sandra Deal was a Gainesville native
and a pillar of the Hall County commu
nity. She graduated from East Hall High
School and taught in the county school
district for 15 years, including at Tadmore
Elementary, North Hall High School and
North Hall Middle School.
See Deal 13A
A Gainesville man pleaded guilty to two dif
ferent armed robberies, including his part in
stealing phones, jewelry and money at a 2022
New Year's Eve party.
Daniel Tamayo, 18, entered a plea Tuesday,
Jan. 30, on two cases charging him with armed
robbery and other offenses. He was sentenced
by Superior Court Judge Jason Deal to 40 years
with the first 15 years in prison and remainder on
probation.
See Election 13A
Scott Rogers The Times
Daniel Tamayo was sentenced Tuesday,
Jan. 30, in Hall County Superior Court for
two armed robberies.
BY BRIAN WELLMEIER
bwellmeier@gainesvilletimes.com
Seven locations throughout the county
will be open for early voting in the
upcoming presidential primary from Feb.
19-March 8.
See Election 13A
Dates, times,
locations set
for early voting
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