New CEO for Llano Regional Hospital
Linda Walker is the new CEO of Llano Regional Hospital. She started the job May 19, 2025. Courtesy photo
Linda Walker is the new chief executive officer of Llano Regional Hospital as of Monday, May 19. Her hiring is the latest in a series of major changes for the hospital, which recently transitioned from a private to public operation.
Walker was offered the job following the resignation of former CEO Hatch Smith Jr., who accepted another position in mid-April. Smith was instrumental in bringing Mid Coast Health System to Llano to run the hospital in 2021 and also helped facilitate the transition from private to public after Mid Coast left and the Llano County Hospital Authority Board assumed control of the county-owned facility in March 2025.
As CEO, Walker will oversee the operation of the hospital and collaborate with its Board of Directors and the Llano County Hospital Authority Board as the facility re-establishes itself as a public entity.
“I appreciate the trust the board and hospital authority have placed in me at this critical juncture for the hospital,” she said in a May 19 media release from the Llano hospital about her hiring. “There’s never been a more challenging time for rural hospitals, and I relish the opportunity to work with this dedicated team of community leaders and staff to make sure the Llano region has the healthcare system and access it deserves for generations to come.”
Walker previously served as CEO of Val Verde Regional Medical Center in Del Rio from 2019-23. Before that, she held various senior leadership positions at Uvalde Memorial Hospital from 2008-17.
According to an Oct. 13, 2023, article from The 830 Times, a Del Rio online news publication, Walker was asked to resign in 2023 by Val Verde’s board of directors amid accusations from employees that she created a “hostile work environment.” This action was listed as an agenda item on the board’s Oct. 12, 2023, agenda.
Walker took the resignation offer, which included six months’ pay. According to The 830 Times story, board members had mixed feelings about her leaving, and the compensation was “a professional courtesy out of respect for all of the good things Walker had done,” board member Dr. Lee Keenen told reporter Joel Langton.
DailyTrib.com reached out to Llano County Hospital Authority Board President Pat McDowell and asked if Walker’s resignation from Val Verde Regional was considered before her hiring.
“We did a diligent job looking into that,” McDowell said. “We fully vetted her, and we checked into that every way possible. She spent a lot of her career (at Uvalde Memorial Hospital), and they loved her. We didn’t find anything we were concerned about.”
David Willmann, president of the Llano Regional Hospital Board of Directors, voiced his full support of Walker.
“We couldn’t ask for a better person to take on this leadership role,” he said in the hospital’s May 19 media release. “Linda is a veteran of rural healthcare. She understands rural healthcare’s challenges and opportunities and shares our vision for a thriving local healthcare system.”