People

Tavonna Harris Askew was promoted April 1 to chief of staff for the Health & Hospital Corporation of Marion County. Askew has worked for the corporation for eight years, including the past three as general counsel. She received a bachelor’s degree and law degree from Indiana University.

Bryan Yamamoto has been named chairman of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, starting July 1. Yamamoto is coming to IU from the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences, where he has chaired the department of neurosciences since 2008. Yamamoto will succeed Theodore Cummins, who has served as interim chairman of the department since the 2013 retirement of Michael Vasko. Yamamoto earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a doctorate in neurobiology from Syracuse University.

John Short, a board member of Anthem Inc., died April 10 in a plane crash in Idaho. Short, the former CEO of St. Louis-based RehabCare Group Inc., was a close friend and fly-fishing buddy of Anthem CEO Joe Swedish. “To me, John was an excellent advisor who brought his deep knowledge of operational performance to a variety of issues that have been critical to the transformation of our company. He was both a colleague and a friend and he will be sorely missed,” Swedish said in a prepared statement. Short had been an Anthem board member since September 2013.