"We are delighted to have someone of Laura Bingham’s caliber to lead our philanthropy efforts," said Alan Guy, Covenant Health President and CEO. "She is a doer and a people person who brings a high level of expertise and energy to her new role. With her direction, Covenant Health will enhance our community partnerships and continue to improve the quality health care we provide." Covenant Health is a not-for-profit health care organization created through the consolidation of Knoxville’s Fort Sanders Health System and Oak Ridge’s Methodist Medical Center in late 1996.

Bingham comes to Covenant Health from Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia, where she has served as Vice President for Development and External Relations since 1992. At Hollins, Bingham orchestrated a five-year national campaign which generated gifts and pledges of $45 million, sixteen percent over goal. The college received an Award for Excellence in Education Fund Raising from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education in 1994.

Prior to her tenure at Hollins, Bingham was Director of External Relations for the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. At Duke she received the Shingleton Award for Distinguished Service, named for the physician who founded the Center, in recognition of her leadership of state legislation mandating insurance reimbursement of mammograms and Pap tests. A native of North Carolina, Bingham served in several legislative and executive government posts, including Assistant for Policy for former North Carolina Lt. Governor Robert B. Jordan.

"Over the past year and a half, the Fort Sanders Foundation Board has worked with a nationally prominent health care consultant, The Greenwood Company of San Francisco, California. The Greenwood Company was retained to make recommendations for a new structure and program elements that will carry health care philanthropic success for Covenant Health into the next century," says Ernest Youngblood, Fort Sanders Foundation Board Chair.

"Our programs, in a new corporate structure, will be carried out under the leadership of Laura Bingham, who in her own right is a committed and successful community leader," Youngblood continues. "She has a passion for putting people and resources together to accomplish great community good. Ms. Bingham has the energy, skills and focused commitment to make a difference in the philanthropic arena for our community." Youngblood joined the foundation board of directors in 1989 and has served since 1995 as its chair, succeeding Josephine D. Cochran and E. B. Copeland. Among the programs sponsored by the Foundation is the BellSouth/Patricia Neal Golf Classic, held each August to benefit the Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center. This year’s event grossed over $300,000 for the Center.

Bingham is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she received a bachelor of arts in political science and of Peace College where she received an associate of arts, served on the Board of Visitors and was named Young Alumna in 1990. She is currently a candidate for a master of arts in philanthropic studies at Indiana University, and holds a certificate in non-profit management from Duke University.