Steven Perkins, chair of the Sanford Hospital Luverne Community Advisory Board in Luverne, MN, is the 2009 chair of the AHA's Committee on Governance, the association announced today. Perkins serves on the Minnesota Hospital Association board and was named MHA Trustee of the Year in 2006. Stephen Smart, a doctor of dental surgery and chair of the Medical Center of South Arkansas Board, is the committee's 2009 chair-elect. The COG is a specialty committee of the AHA Board of Trustees that involves the nation's hospital trustees in grassroots advocacy and AHA policy development, and provides advice on the AHA's trustee initiatives.