Macaluso and Carruth to Lead North Oaks Health System Board of Commissioners

The North Oaks Health System Board of Commissioners has named Ron S. Macaluso, JD, and Ann Carruth, DNS, RN, as officers for 2018, effective Jan. 23. Macaluso leads the board as chairman with Carruth as vice chairman.

A native of Hammond where he lives with his wife Pat, Macaluso owns Ron S. Macaluso Law Firm, LLC, in Hammond and is a practicing attorney. He is currently serving his first six-year term with the health system’s Board of Commissioners for which he is a past Building Committee chairman. The Tangipahoa Parish Council appointed him to the Board of Commissioners in 2013.

No stranger to leadership roles, Macaluso was the City of Hammond’s attorney from 1998 to 2002. He is a past president of the Twenty-first Judicial Bar Association and Florida Parishes Inn of Court, as well as a past chairman and vice chairman of The Judiciary Commission of Louisiana.

In addition, he is a past member of the board of directors for the Twenty-first Judicial District Court Public Defender Board, Hammond Downtown Development District, Hammond Historic District Commission and the Louisiana Children’s Discovery Center.

"I am honored to serve this community as a member of the North Oaks Health System Board of Commissioners," affirms Macaluso. "North Oaks is and has been an important health care provider and an intricate part to the viability and economic component of Tangipahoa Parish. The challenges faced by hospitals, physicians, nurses and supporting staff are enormous. With the contributions of my fellow commissioners and the North Oaks management team working together, we can assure our community that the health care challenges we face can be competently met."

Carruth, who has served as Board of Commissioners vice chairman since 2014, lives in Hammond with her husband Paul. She was first appointed to the health system’s board in 2012 by the Tangipahoa Parish Council to fulfill the unexpired term of Dr. Eleanor Wells. In 2014, she was reappointed for a six-year term.

She is dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences and a professor of nursing at Southeastern Louisiana University, where she has served in various teaching and administrative positions since 1990.

She belongs to the American Nurses Association and the Tangipahoa District Nurses Association for which she was president from 2007-2009. She is a 2014 inductee of the Louisiana Nurses Foundation Hall of Fame and was appointed by the Department of Health and Human Services in 2015 as a reviewer for the study section of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

“I moved to Hammond when I started nursing school, fell in love with this community and have been here ever since. I started my nursing career at North Oaks and am honored to not only serve as a member of the Board of Commissioners, but also to be elected vice chairman,” Carruth asserts. “This community should take great pride in the North Oaks team’s tremendous progress and proactive efforts to advance excellence in health care for our wonderful community.”

Other members of the North Oaks Health System Board of Commissioners include: Robert E. Barsley, DDS, JD, and Blake Daniels both of Ponchatoula; and Joycelyn M. Lee, RPh, of Hammond.

For more information about North Oaks Health System or the Board of Commissioners, contact North Oaks Public Relations at (985) 230-6647.