FAYETTEVILLE -- Bryan Matthews is leaving as director of the Fayetteville-based Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks, a post he held for two years.
Matthews takes over the Biloxi, Miss.-based system on Monday. He will leave a four-star operation, which serves veterans in Arkansas and Missouri, in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' five-star rating system. The system's performance prompted a June visit from David Shulkin, the secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Matthews will not be around to see the opening of a 20-bed substance-abuse and mental-health treatment facility in the late spring or early summer or the expansion of the Ozarks system's health clinics and other projects he oversaw during his stay as director.
Matthews took over in Fayetteville on Dec. 27, 2015. He has previously served as director of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Associate director Kelvin Parks will take over until a replacement is named, Matthews said.
"As an Army brat and then with a 22-year career in the Air Force who moved somewhere new every two or three years, I think I have some credibility when I say that this is one of the best places I've ever been at," Matthew said of Northwest Arkansas. Matthews met with reporters Wednesday morning.
The Ozarks system expects to see the opening of two clinics in Missouri, in Springfield and Joplin, and the relocation and expansion of its clinic in Fort Smith this year.
"I'm leaving a lot of things, but am confident they are on their way to fruition," Matthews said.
Mayor Lioneld Jordan of Fayetteville praised Matthews' cooperation with the city. "He has always shown great compassion for our veterans. He was also a great partner to the City. He was very easy to work with on projects such as the Moving Wall Vietnam Veteran Memorial, creating a VA bikeway route through the VA medical center campus and the many veteran events hosted at the hospital," Jordan said.
The Biloxi system recently gained a two-star rating after many years as a one-star system, Matthews said.
Metro on 01/18/2018