Dan Yunker is new CEO of Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council, and other news makers

Dan Yunker has been named CEO of the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council effective Sept. 30.

Yunker, 45, has been with the coalition for almost 10 years. Most recently he has served as CEO of the group's health information exchange and CEO of the group's Land of Lincoln Health, a not-for-profit, consumer-governed health insurer that was started with $160 million in seed money from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Land of Lincoln, the only co-op insurer in Illinois and one of 23 across the country, has struggled to enroll members on the state's insurance exchange. Like other co-ops nationally, Land of Lincoln has had difficulties competing with well-established insurers.

Yunker will replace Kevin Scanlan, 65, who is retiring.

White House CIO Steve VanRoekel is returning to the U.S. Agency for International Development to work as chief innovation officer for the agency's Ebola response team.

USAID is a government organization that provides global health improvements, education and humanitarian assistance following disasters. “Technology is not the solution to this extremely difficult task, but it will be a part of the solution,” VanRoekel said in a written statement.

VanRoekel led USAID digital communications efforts in 2011 during a famine in the horn of Africa before he was appointed by President Barack Obama as the second U.S. CIO in August 2011.

Dr. Brian Seppi has been elected president of the Washington State Medical Association.

Seppi, 51, an internal medicine physician who practices in Spokane and is part of not-for-profit Providence Health & Services, said in a release his main priorities over the next year will be addressing physician shortages, and funding medical education and behavioral health.

He replaced Dr. Dale Reisner, a maternal-fetal medicine physician who will stay involved with the association as a committee chairman.

Washington state saw an influx of low-income people enroll in Medicaid in the past year, as part of the program's expansion under the Affordable Care Act. About 300,000 state residents gained Medicaid coverage. But now officials are looking to see if there are enough primary-care doctors in the state to handle the increased patient volume.

Robert Probst has been named CFO at Ventas, a real estate investment trust working with healthcare organizations.

Probst, 46, will oversee the financial operations of Chicago-based Ventas starting in October. Ventas, one of the largest healthcare REITs, owns the properties of more than 1,500 senior-living facilities, skilled-nursing facilities, medical office buildings and hospitals, as of June 30. And it's primed to be getting even larger. The REIT is waiting to finalize its $2.6 billion acquisition of American Realty Capital Healthcare Trust, expected to close by year's end.

Probst previously served as CFO of Beam, parent company of several hard-liquor brands such as Jim Beam bourbon. He also worked in the healthcare industry as VP of Baxter International's medication delivery business line.