The Department of Veterans Affairs has appointed a new director of the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks. The Fayetteville-based medical center announced in late February the hiring of Martha Smith, who has been serving as the interim executive director since June 2025.
Smith's journey into the world of the armed forces is a bit atypical. Her educational background began with a bachelor's in dietetics from Michigan State University, then a master's in hotel and restaurant management from Eastern Michigan, and eventually a doctorate in education leadership from Eastern Michigan as well. She says her time working in higher education and university-connected healthcare facilities first introduced her to veterans and active duty members.
Martha Smith: So at the young age of 42, I did join the military. And because of my years of experience at this point, I was able to go in as an officer. So I joined the U.S. Army and really did my first duty assignment. I went to the state of Washington, where we set up an internship program and I had an assistant professor role with Baylor University. And I had to take my first class of interns that were second lieutenants in the Army. And I came in as a senior captain, and I had to basically do rotations with them, teach them the nutrition classes, set up all their sites that they would be doing rotations at throughout different facilities. So I was kind of doing what I was doing back at Eastern, but with a uniform on. And so in that summer of 2008, I had just finished up my doctorate. I got married and I joined the military. So I had three major life events in the summer of 2008, which was pretty remarkable.
From there, I did the internship with the students for approximately four years. And then the Army had my next duty assignment ready for me and they said, well, we know you can teach, you can keep doing that, but we really need to send you into the operational side of the house. So they gave me the opportunity to either go to — I think it was Fort Sill, Oklahoma — or to go to South Korea. And of course, I chose South Korea because — nothing against Oklahoma — I was like, I'm on an adventure. Let's see what this will take me to go do. So I went to South Korea and it was a really fascinating experience to learn about the culture, work amongst — of course, not just active duty military members, I was active duty myself — but I was loving my career as a dietitian still. I was chief of nutrition then.
And it was around 2015 where the writing became apparent on the wall. I was going to be getting older and realized that at the age of 60, at year 18, if they wanted to — I had to sign a waiver when I came in that maybe the military would not have needed my services anymore. And at 18 years, I could have been discharged from the military just for age limit reasons. And I just said, you know what, I think I need to really look at this again. I really loved working in the VA. I want to continue my service working with veterans. So what I did is I made the choice in 2015 to be discharged from the military — honorably, of course — and I was able to buy back the seven years of active duty that I did so that I could still earn a retirement once I hit my 20-year mark. So that's kind of what the push was for me to get out. I loved being part of the military and I still wanted to be part of it in some fashion.
And so I was so fortunate that when I made that decision, I started interviewing for positions within the VA. I started my VA career back in the late '80s, and I'm going to be ending it there. So I got my first position as chief of nutrition in Salisbury, North Carolina, and came back, and that's where I just said, OK, I can be a chief of nutrition, but I still know that I want to be an executive. I didn't always go for a title so much as I just knew I wanted to be in leadership positions. I still enjoy coaching and mentoring and working with people. And every time I've moved to that next position, people will reach out to me and say, oh my gosh, it's been great working with you. I wish you much success. And I've had a lot of great mentors along the way. So in 2021, I got my first executive role, and that was with the Shreveport VA Medical Center. And I was there from 2021 until just recently. And that is pretty much the span of my life.
Matthew Moore: When it comes to a change of leadership, especially at a level as high as this — is there much that a new director can do to provide changes or to provide opportunities for growth for the area? When you come into this position, even on an interim level, what are things that you're seeing that you say, I wish we could do this better, or maybe I can help to reframe what we're prioritizing?
Smith: Yeah, great question. I think for me, I'm always willing to listen and to learn. And when I'm listening to people, I want to hear what ideas they have of ways to grow — if it's a program, for example, or if it's a process that we've not tried before at this facility. I'm very fortunate to have some wonderful employees that have been here, some not very long at all, and some have only been at this facility and they don't know how another VA has worked. Because I've worked at quite a few VA's and I did a lot of details. I've seen different approaches, and I try to take a little bit from everywhere I've been and incorporate it. And like I said, I've had some great mentors and coaches. So it's not like all of a sudden one day you wake up and you're the executive director and you have to run a facility. I've had tremendous help in a lot of classes that I've taken for leadership development.
But the priorities are not just ideas from me alone. They're from my employees, but they're also driven by our presidential directives or our undersecretary for health. We really focus on those priorities, especially right now. And there are at least five priorities that we're always focusing on.
Moore: Yeah, I think that would be helpful.
Smith: OK. So one of the main priorities is that we deliver timely access to care and benefits for every eligible veteran or their family member or caregiver and their survivor. I mean, that's our mission overall. So if you've raised your right hand and given up basically your life to defend our country and to have our freedoms, then every veteran deserves the care that they've earned. And so timely access is a big part of that. Our goal in primary care is to see our veterans within 20 days of requesting an appointment. And in specialty care areas, it's 28 days. And if we don't meet those or we can't meet those, then we do offer community care, and the veteran is also able to choose if they want to go to community. The main thing is that they are getting care.
What we find is our veterans here — we have a very high trust score — our veterans really do love coming to the care that we offer in our system here in the Ozarks. And so I'm proud of that. And when we say, you can go get care in the community if you're eligible, sometimes the wait time there might be just as much as it is at the VA. And so they'll usually say, well, I'll just stay at the VA and wait for my appointment.
We're also looking at trying to reach every veteran that's at risk of homelessness. There is currently an apartment building being built very close to the VA in downtown Fayetteville, specifically for homeless veterans. And I'm really excited for when that opens up, especially for those that have had no contact yet with the VA. We currently service around 60,000 veterans within our catchment area of Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri. But there are 100,000 veterans in the area, so that's leaving around 40,000 that we have not gotten enrolled in our system. So we want to improve our community outreach. I think that's a huge priority for us as well — to get out to that community and really say, hey, we're here for you. You deserve this. Come enroll and get the care that you need.
Moore: You mentioned that being here in the Ozarks is a place that you hope to — or intend to — retire, that this is a place where you may be settling down after this. What do you think that means to other leaders that you work alongside, when they hear you say this is a place that you plan on being until you're done working?
Smith: Yes. Thank you for saying that, because I really do believe that I hope to retire here. And when I say retire, it doesn't mean like, oh, this is my last stop, I'm out in two years. I think I have many years to still provide leadership to this community. We've been under a lot of change within the VA in the last year. And just being a stable person here — there's been a lot of flux. And so I'm trying to let our employees know that I'm here to stay. I'm not an interim. There's not going to be somebody else coming in right behind me. And I think that does give a sense of stability for a lot of people.
Martha Smith is the medical center director of the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks. We spoke last week.
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