Coalition for Health AI (CHAI) Announces Three New Board Members

Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Nadja West, Dr. Chris Lindsell and Dr. Tina Hernandez-Boussard bring expertise in healthcare leadership, clinical research, and AI evaluation to the Coalition

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Coalition for Health AI (CHAI), a nonprofit organization founded by clinicians to advance responsible health AI, announced the appointment of three new members to its Board of Directors:

• Dr. Nadja West, retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General and 44th Army Surgeon General
• Dr. Chris Lindsell, Vice Dean for Data Science and AI at Duke University School of Medicine
• Dr. Tina Hernandez-Boussard, Associate Dean of Research at Stanford University School of Medicine

Together, these new board members bring key perspectives to the CHAI community as it works to advance responsible, safe, and trusted AI in health. The appointments come at a time when health systems across the US are increasingly focused on governance, deployment, and monitoring of AI tools to better patient outcomes.

"Building trust in health AI requires both rigorous evidence and an understanding of how healthcare organizations make decisions, how evidence is established, and how technology affects different populations," said Dr. Brian Anderson, MD, President and CEO of CHAI. "Nadja, Chris and Tina have spent their careers on those topics. Their valued perspectives will help guide CHAI's work in making responsible AI practices accessible and actionable for organizations across the healthcare system. We are delighted to welcome them to the board."

Dr. Nadja West brings three decades of experience leading complex healthcare organizations and seeing technology change how care is delivered. As the 44th Army Surgeon General and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Medical Command from 2015 to 2019, she oversaw medical care and readiness for soldiers and their families. Prior to that, she served as Joint Staff Surgeon and principal medical advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, coordinating issues including operational medicine, force health protection, and readiness. Her board service includes Tempus AI, Tenet Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson and Nucor Corp, bringing a corporate governance perspective that spans healthcare delivery, medical innovation and AI.

"Throughout my career, I've seen technology relieve administrative burdens so clinicians can focus on caring for their patients. AI has the potential to accelerate that progress exponentially," said Dr. West. "However, that progress hinges entirely on trust. We must ensure every community benefits, especially those historically underserved by our healthcare system. I look forward to working with CHAI to help leaders put responsible AI principles into practice, ensuring the people they serve remain at the center of every decision."

Dr. Chris Lindsell brings extensive experience connecting clinical research, data science and healthcare delivery. Trained in mechanical and biomedical engineering, he built his career designing research in emergency and critical care, developing clinical research infrastructure and using electronic health record data to evaluate and improve care. At Vanderbilt University Medical Center, he helped develop a learning health system that embedded research into routine clinical practice. He then joined the Duke Clinical Research Institute to advance data-enabled clinical research and subsequently moved into Duke University School of Medicine's dean's office to help the institution navigate the changes AI brings to research, education and care delivery.

"Responsible AI starts with asking what problem we need to solve for patients and communities, then determining whether the technology actually helps," said Dr. Lindsell. "Patients are already bringing AI into their healthcare journeys. CHAI has an important opportunity to help health systems respond to that reality and make decisions about AI that reflect the needs of the people they serve."

Dr. Tina Hernandez-Boussard brings expertise in the development, evaluation, and responsible implementation of AI in healthcare, with a focus on patient safety, clinical effectiveness, and health equity. In addition to serving as Associate Dean of Research, she is a Professor of Medicine, Biomedical Data Science and Surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine, with a courtesy appointment in Epidemiology and Population Health. In her leadership role, she advances research  infrastructure for the rigorous evaluation and responsible deployment of clinical AI, including a clinical sandbox for real-time evaluation. Her research develops computational methods and evaluation frameworks to assess AI performance, reliability, and safety across populations and clinical settings, with a growing emphasis on generative and clinical AI systems.

"AI must be evaluated with an understanding of the different patients, populations and settings where it will be used, and today that means evaluating entire systems of AI agents, not just single models," said Dr. Hernandez-Boussard. "I look forward to helping CHAI bring together the people deploying these tools so every healthcare organization can understand where AI improves outcomes and where gaps still need to be addressed."

About CHAI
CHAI was started by clinicians. The coalition's mission is to build the broadest possible consensus across the health ecosystem to help ensure health AI is trusted, secure and safe. The CHAI membership is open and rapidly expanding. Today, we consist of more than 3,000 members including health systems, patient advocacy groups, academia, and a wide range of industry start-ups and incumbents. CHAI is committed to convening and dialogue to achieve consensus. There are no limits to who can join and participate. Learn more about CHAI membership at chai.org/membership.

Press Contact
Press contact for CHAI: [email protected]

SOURCE Coalition for Health AI