The two trustees who served on both the University and Medical Faculty Associates’ boards resigned from one board following the groups’ February decision to separate the two governing bodies, officials confirmed.
The decision led then-GW Trustee Pam Lawrence to step down from the University’s board with less than four months left in her term to remain on the MFA’s board and Board of Trustees Vice Chair Mark Chichester to resign from the MFA’s board to retain his position on GW’s. The move preceded GW’s October announcement that officials entered a preliminary agreement with Universal Health Services — GW Hospital’s owner and operator — to co-fund the MFA as both parties negotiate a deal to end GW’s financial support for the debt-ridden medical enterprise.
Officials didn’t publicize the move in February, only confirming the move in response to The Hatchet’s questions regarding Lawrence’s removal from the Board’s website before her term was up. They declined to comment on what benefits GW and the MFA saw from having trustees sitting on both boards before they opted to disentangle the two bodies, which had been the case since fiscal year 2019 when GW or the MFA underwent a restructuring that gave GW the right to appoint board members as well as a slew of other governance responsibilities.
“As GW prepared to take meaningful steps to address the operating losses at MFA, in February of 2025 the decision was made that each entity should operate with an entirely independent Board,” officials said in an email. “At the same time, areas of expertise and continuity of leadership from those familiar with the history of MFA’s relationship with GW and UHS was considered important.”
The MFA doesn’t publicize who sits on the board, though it is required to report the trustees annually on the organization’s Form 990 tax forms, which show GW brought Lawrence and five other trustees onto the board in FY2019 during the restructuring — bringing the trustee count from 10 to 16 members between FY2018 and FY2019. The MFA’s FY2023 forms are the first to report Chichester’s position on its board.
Lawrence joined GW’s Board in May 2021 with a four-year term as trustee, according to a University release announcing her election. Chichester has served on the board since 2013 according to his LinkedIn and was expected to finish his tenure on GW’s top governing body this year after serving the maximum 12 years before trustees updated the Board bylaws last year to add a clause that allowed the term of an officer to be extended for an additional year under “extraordinary” circumstances.
Officials said each trustee’s areas of expertise and continuity of leadership from those familiar with the history of the MFA’s relationship with GW and UHS were “considered important,” to the parties as they moved forward with the decision. Lawrence does not have a LinkedIn profile, but a 2021 University press release announcing her appointment to the Board described her as a “health care management leader.” Web archives show that while GW typically specifies employers for most trustees, it listed Lawrence only by that designation.
Officials removed Chichester’s position and employer from the Board’s website this summer, web archives show, but they’d previously listed his job as principal of Aegis Group and executive director of Aegis Institute. Chichester’s LinkedIn states he ended the position in September 2023 and joined the Department of Veterans Affairs as the senior adviser to the under secretary of health, a role he ended in June 2025.
“Both boards continue to engage with each other to achieve the best possible outcome for their stakeholders,” officials said.
