Angela Kennedy, professor and chair of the Health Informatics and Information Management program at Louisiana Tech University, has been appointed to serve as Chairman of the Board for the Commission on Accreditation of Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM). CAHIIM accredits over 200 associate, baccalaureate and master’s level degree programs throughout the country. “I am delighted to be appointed as a Commissioner for CAHIIM and to be elected Chairman of the Board,” said Kennedy.  “It’s a wonderful opportunity to work together with other academic professionals in the discipline to shape the future of Health Informatics and Information Management through teaching, research, and service.” As a professional discipline, Health Information Management serves as a bridge between clinicians, payors, regulators, patients, consumers and technology, with critical skills and competencies essential to building the nationwide health information network and health information exchanges. Kennedy says that as the federal government has made electronic health records a priority and the Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum receives $16 million in funding to develop a regional Health Information Exchange (HIE), it is imperative that she and her colleagues provide quality educational programs for the good of the medical community. CAHIIM is an independent accrediting organization whose mission is to serve the public interest by establishing and enforcing quality accreditation standards for health informatics (HI) and health information management (HIM) educational programs. “Insight into standards interpretation and the accreditation process provide the programs, faculty and students at Louisiana Tech with a leading edge in academic and professional HIIM communities,” said Kennedy.  “It’s a great incentive for academic leaders to serve CAHIIM.” Kennedy brings twenty years of professional experience to the leadership of CAHIIM, having also served a previous three-year term as commissioner.  In 2005, she was elected to a three-year term on the Board of Directors of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), serving a membership of over 51,000. Louisiana Tech’s Health Informatics and Information Administration (HIIM) program received the Louisiana State Board of Regents’ Commendation of Excellence, the highest recognition awarded to an academic program by this group.