Two physicians join CoxHealth boards

Last edited 12:14 p.m., Nov. 2, 2017

The CoxHealth Board of Directors and Lester E. Cox Medical Centers board appointed two of the health system’s physician leaders to serve as members.

Dr. Abe Abdalla and Dr. Staci Niemoth joined the separate boards on Oct. 26, according to a news release issued this morning. Abdalla is on the CoxHealth board and Niemoth is on the Lester E. Cox Medical Centers board, said spokeswoman Kaitlyn McConnell.

A CoxHealth employee since 2000, Abdalla became medical director of CoxHealth's Hulston Cancer Center in 2013. The radiation oncologist, who was a member of Springfield Business Journal’s 2016 class of Men of the Year, was born and raised in Syria and came to the United States to pursue higher education.

In 2014, Niemoth became the first medical director of women’s services at CoxHealth. She joined CoxHealth in 2008 as a physician at Ferrell-Duncan Clinic Obstetrics and Gynecology.

“CoxHealth is the place it is because of the people who build it and its culture,” President and CEO Steve Edwards said in the release. “Dr. Abdalla and Dr. Niemoth are two examples of people who make a difference every single day here for our patients.”

The CoxHealth Board of Directors comprises 30 members, including faces familiar in the business community such as Jack Henry & Associates Executive Chairman Jack Prim, Great Southern Bank CEO Joe Turner, J. Howard Fisk Limousines Inc. owner Howard Fisk and Evangel University President Carol Taylor, according to the CoxHealth website.