LUNGevity Foundation has strengthened its leadership ranks with the appointment of Jason Bernhard to its Board of Directors, underscoring the nonprofit’s drive to accelerate advances in lung cancer research, care, and advocacy. Bernhard joins LUNGevity from Lazard, where he serves as Managing Director and Global Chief Operating Officer of Financial Advisory, bringing nearly three decades of investment banking experience and deep healthcare sector expertise.

Bernhard’s career spans senior roles at Lazard, including Global Co-Head of Healthcare Investment Banking, head of healthcare for North America, and membership on the firm’s Investment Banking Committee and Global Executive Committee. Since joining Lazard in 1997, he has advised on complex domestic and cross-border transactions across mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, leveraged buyouts, capital raises, and contested situations. His earlier experience includes work in Merrill Lynch’s Mergers & Acquisitions Group in New York, London, and Hong Kong. He holds a B.A. cum laude and an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and The Wharton School.

LUNGevity leaders emphasized that Bernhard’s strategic financial acumen and healthcare insight will support the foundation’s mission to transform lung cancer outcomes. His appointment complements a board composed of executives and experts from business, medicine, law, and advocacy, intended to expand the organization’s strategic depth and impact.

Concurrently, Bernhard has been added to the board of Acadia Healthcare, increasing that board’s membership to eight. The Franklin-based behavioral health services company named Bernhard amid heightened investor scrutiny following a 7.3 percent stake disclosed by P2 Capital Partners, which signaled intent to engage management on measures to maximize shareholder value. Acadia has also been evaluating a potential divestiture of its United Kingdom operations, a business acquired in 2016 for approximately 1.1 billion dollars.

Acadia’s leadership characterized Bernhard’s arrival as timely, citing his healthcare investment banking perspective and capital markets experience as assets for pursuing strategic priorities and sustainable shareholder value. Shares of Acadia, traded under ticker ACHC, have experienced recent volatility, including a late-summer slide exceeding 20 percent followed by a gradual recovery. Bernhard’s dual board roles position him at the intersection of nonprofit advocacy and corporate strategy in healthcare finance.