Lynda S. Tanner, RN, MSN
President and CEO
VNA Health
Lynda Tanner is the President and CEO of VNA Health, an organization of more than 370 employees providing hospice, home health, palliative and personal care service programs to more than 12,000 people annually across Santa Barbara County.
After successfully pressing for legislation to increase end-of-life inpatient beds, in 2011 Ms. Tanner oversaw the organization’s opening of a new state-of-the-art inpatient hospice facility, Serenity House. She also directed the acquisition of Community Home Health which increased VNA Health’s delivery of home health services by 35%, and successfully obtained branch status for a satellite location in Santa Ynez. In 2012, Ms. Tanner oversaw a move to a new location in downtown Santa Barbara with more space to house the growing organization. Since 2014, Ms. Tanner has participated in the organization’s annual PHorum: Perspectives in Healthcare, providing leadership on key healthcare priorities in Santa Barbara. In late 2017, after five years of diligent work, Ms. Tanner announced that VNA Health had achieved Level 4 of the We Honor Veterans, a program of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization in collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs. VNA Health is the only hospice organization in the Tri-County area (Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo) to have achieved this level.
Ms. Tanner is active in many professional, service, business and community organizations and currently serves as: Chair of the PAPA Committee on the Board of Directors for California Association for Health Services at Home (CAHSAH); Finance Officer on the Board of Directors for CenCal Health; Member of the Council of Leaders for the Alliance for Living and Dying Well; and Chair of the Audit/Compliance Committee for the Board of Directors for Casa Dorinda. In 2017, the Pacific Coast Business Times named Ms. Tanner the “Grand Champion of Healthcare” and VNHC as one of the Top 25 Best Places to Work; and the Santa Barbara News Press awarded VNHC the “Reader’s Choice Award for Senior At Home Services.”
Ms. Tanner received her bachelor’s degree in nursing and a master’s degree in nursing administration from the University of Idaho. She has more than 30 years of experience working in homecare, including working as a consultant and a surveyor for the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and as Chief Clinical Executive at Sutter VNA and Hospice. In her free time, she enjoys horseback riding, quilting, and spending time with family.