HJNO Sep/Oct 2021

CORONERS ROUNDTABLE CHARLES “CHUCK” PRESTON, MD St. Tammany Parish Coroner HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  SEP / OCT 2021 21 DWIGHT MCKENNA, MD Orleans Parish Coroner GERALD “GERRY” CVITANOVICH, MD Jefferson Parish Coroner Coroner Charles “Chuck” Preston, MD, has served St. Tammany Parish since 2014 after retiring from clinical practice in 2013. He was an emergency physician certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine, and his clinical background includes working at Charity Hospital of New Orleans, where he was on the clinical faculty for the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans.There, Preston conducted clinical research, contributed papers to notable journals and co-authored a landmark study on guidelines for CT scans in patients with minor head trauma. As coroner, Preston established a sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) program that serves five parishes. He has also sought to improve the mental health division through involvement with the Safe Haven Project and speaking about suicide prevention. After four years as deputy coroner, Gerry Cvitanovich, MD, was elected coroner of Jefferson Parish beginning 2012. Cvitanovich began his career as an emergency physician,eventually joining EastJefferson General Hospital, where he served as medical director of the wound center as well as on the medical executive committee. Cvitanovich founded East Jefferson After Hours Urgent Care Centers and co-founded Millennium Healthcare. He has served on the physician’s advisory board of The Joint Commission and also on the board of directors of the New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau. Cvitanovich’s family founded Drago’s Seafood Restaurant in 1969 after immigrating to the U.S. from Canada. Cvitanovich attended Tulane University and earned a Doctor of Medicine from LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans. He completed a family practice residency at Earl K. Long Hospital in Baton Rouge. New Orleans Coroner Dwight McKenna, MD, studied at Xavier University and the University of New Orleans as well as the historic Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, where he earned a medical degree. After serving as a surgeon in the United States Army with the rank of major, he practiced in New Orleans as a general surgeon and general practitioner for more than 50 years. McKenna is executive publisher of The New Orleans Tribune that has served New Orleans for 32 years. He is also co-founder of The George and Leah McKenna Museum of African American Art and Le Musée de f.p.c. McKenna’s special mission as coroner has been to modernize the New Orleans Coroner’s Office through local, state and federal funding. ‘