Matthew R. Foster, MD, MMM, named president, CEO of Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center, Valley Regional Hospital

Matthew R. Foster, MD, MMM
Matthew R. Foster, MD, MMM

Matthew R. Foster, MD, MMM, has been appointed CEO and president of Dartmouth Health members Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center (MAHHC) and Valley Regional Hospital (VRH). He makes this transition from Johnson Health Center in Lynchburg, VA, where he has been the interim chief medical officer since March 2024.  

Before his role at Johnson Health Center, Foster served as senior vice president and chief physician executive at Centra Health, an independent health system with over 550 hospital beds. At Centra Health, he managed clinical integration and service line development for the system’s four hospitals, long-term acute care hospital, regional standalone emergency department, regional cancer center, Centra College of Nursing, and Piedmont Community Health Plan.

In this new combined role, Foster will provide leadership across a range of diverse organizational operations and strategic initiatives, including promoting patient service and safety, regulatory and legal compliance, financial management, and employee, patient and community relations across MAHHC and VRH.  

From 2002 through 2021, Foster served as a pathologist, full partner and owner at Pathology Consultants of Central Virginia. In 2005, he took on a variety of administrative roles at Centra Health, including serving as associate medical director, and later cancer medical director, at the Alan B. Pearson Regional Cancer Center. 

Foster was recently elected to the Board of Governors of the College of American Pathologists. 

Foster received his medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, followed by a residency in anatomic and clinical pathology and surgical pathology fellowship, both at Vanderbilt University. He also completed a cytopathology fellowship at the Medical College of Virginia, later obtaining his master of medical management from Carnegie Mellon University. 

Foster’s tenure begins this month. 

About Dartmouth Health

Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and largest private employer, serves patients across New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,300 providers in nearly every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH. Its network of hospitals, outpatient centers, clinics and home care facilities, spans a broad geographical area. Year after year, DHMC is named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is consistently recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, northern New England’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and one of less than than 60 total nationally; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital (Children’s Hospital at DHMC/CHaD) and more than 20 locations around the region; eight member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont, Hampstead, and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Dartmouth Health Home Care; Dartmouth Health Connected Care Center for Telehealth, serving patients as far away as Texas; and more than 30 primary and multi-specialty clinics across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its partnership with Dartmouth College, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and the White River Junction VA Medical Center, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials with international impact. Dartmouth Health and its more than 16,000 employees are committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in the communities it serves and to providing every patient with exceptional, state-of-the-art, personalized care. Learn more at dartmouth-health.org.

About Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center

Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center (MAHHC), a member of Dartmouth Health, is a not-for-profit community-based, critical access hospital in Windsor, VT. It also includes the Historic Homes of Runnemede, a senior residential care campus in Windsor, as well as the Ottauquechee Health Center in Woodstock, VT. MAHHC provides primary care and a comprehensive suite of specialty services, along with 25 inpatient beds, a therapeutic pool and an acclaimed, fully modernized 10-bed acute rehabilitation center. MAHHC is dedicated to improving the lives of those it serves, and is at the hub of a wide network of community resources that have partnered to cover gaps in services and improve overall population health. Learn more at mtascutneyhospital.org.