LUNGevity Foundation has strengthened its leadership with the addition of Jason Bernhard to its Board of Directors while the experienced banker simultaneously expands his governance role at Acadia Healthcare. The dual appointments underscore growing cross-sector interest in advancing lung cancer research, care and advocacy.

Jason Bernhard joins LUNGevity most recently known as Managing Director and Global Chief Operating Officer of Financial Advisory at Lazard, where he has built a nearly three-decade career advising health care clients on complex transactions. His appointment to LUNGevity follows a broader move into nonprofit and corporate boards, including a recent seat on the board of Acadia Healthcare, the Franklin-based behavioral health services provider.

LUNGevity leadership highlighted Bernhard’s strategic acumen and deep healthcare expertise as timely assets for an organization focused on improving outcomes for people with lung cancer. According to LUNGevity’s president and CEO, his investment banking background and commitment to impact will support the foundation’s efforts to expand research funding, enhance patient care initiatives and strengthen advocacy.

Bernhard said he is motivated by a personal and professional commitment to advancing solutions in lung cancer and intends to help accelerate LUNGevity’s work to make lung cancer a survivable disease. His advisory record at Lazard encompasses domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, restructurings and capital raises, with extensive experience in contested situations and strategic transactions across the healthcare sector.

At Acadia Healthcare, Jason Bernhard brings similar financial and capital markets expertise at a time of intensified investor scrutiny. His election to the Acadia board increases the group to eight members and arrives after an activist investor disclosed a roughly seven percent stake and signaled engagement on measures to maximize shareholder value. Management has indicated strategic options are under review, including potential divestiture of the company’s UK operations.

Bernhard’s educational background includes a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Wharton. Observers say his dual roles at a leading health nonprofit and a public behavioral health company position him to influence both patient-centered initiatives and corporate strategy, bridging philanthropic and market-driven approaches to healthcare challenges.