LITTLE ROCK – Melony Williams Goodhand has been named vice chancellor for finance and chief financial officer for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).

Goodhand is a certified public accountant with more than 25 years of experience in the health care field. She comes to Little Rock from Milford, Mich., where she was vice president for finance and chief compliance officer at Genesys Health System.

Goodhand holds a Master of Science degree in health care administration and business and has extensive business law education. She has 15 years of experience as a financial consultant for hospitals across the country, during which she spent eight years with major national accounting firms.  She spent the last five years in executive positions at hospitals. A native of Brownsville, Tenn., Goodhand is also a trained process improvement facilitator and a former physician’s assistant in Memphis.

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with five colleges, a graduate school, a comprehensive medical center and a statewide network of regional centers. The school has about 2,170 students and is the state’s largest public employer with almost 9,000 employees. UAMS has an economic impact in Arkansas of about $3.8 billion a year.

UAMS Medical Center includes the Arkansas Cancer Research Center, Harvey and Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Center on Aging, Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy and Jackson T. Stephens Spine and Neurosciences Institute.