Forty Under 40: Mark Bethell

Mark Bethells heart has always been in health care. He attended Lynchburg College in Virginia in 1988 to play basketball but soon quit the team to volunteer as an EMT with the local fire department. He graduated in 1992 with a sociology degree and worked for a while as a case manager and drug counselor in Washington, D.C.

Bethells father, a priest on the board of St. Lukes Episcopal Hospital in Austin, Texas, steered him toward a graduate program for Health Services Administration at George Washington University, from which Bethell graduated in 1998.

Bethell has worked for several different hospitals during his career, including South Austin Hospital where he proposed and received approval for a $50 million hospital expansion project.

Bethell, who serves as a board member for the Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce and the newly formed Northwest Arkansas YMCA, feels a responsibility as a hospital administrator to lead in community activities. He is especially proud to have contributed to the development of Northwest Medicals heart program, which he cites as a perfect example of a concerned team of administrators, doctors, nurses and vendors coming together to help the community.