Baylor Grad to Lead Baylor Health Care System Trustees

DALLAS -- Judge Ed Kinkeade, a graduate of Baylor University and Baylor Law School, has been named chairman of the board of trustees of the Baylor Health Care System (BHCS). He will serve a two-year term.

Judge Kinkeade, who was appointed to the federal bench of the Northern District of Texas in 2002 by President George W. Bush, earned his undergraduate degree in 1973 and his law degree in 1974 at Baylor University. He earned a master of laws degree from the University of Virginia. His wife, Melissa, also a Baylor University graduate, teaches reading in Irving. They have two children, Mandy and Brad, both Baylor University graduates.

Brad Toben, dean of Baylor Law School, said, "Judge Kinkeade epitomizes the concept of servant leadership. He has such a heart for helping people in whatever venue he finds himself and he has the natural gifts and talents of directed and visionary leadership. As chair of the Baylor Health Care System, the system will benefit from his impressive and rare abilities."

Judge Kinkeade was appointed to the Baylor Health Care System board of trustees on July 1, 1998. Baylor Health Care System, a not-for-profit health care provider based in North Texas, is a growing network of hospitals, primary care and specialty centers, rehabilitation clinics, senior health centers, affiliated ambulatory surgery centers and the Baylor Research Institute.

In a Baylor Health Care System press release, Joel Allison, BHCS president and chief executive officer, described Judge Kinkeade as a man of great integrity and judgment. "In his everyday life, he displays a commitment to Baylor's mission to serve all people through exemplary health care, education, research, and community service. We are honored that Judge Kinkeade and all our board members faithfully volunteer their time to help Baylor meet the growing health care needs of our community."

Kinkeade was in private practice as an attorney from 1974 to 1980, first with the firm of Dennis G. Brewer, Inc., and then he became a partner at the firm of Power and Kinkeade in Irving. In 1981, Kinkeade left private practice at the age of 29 when he was elected judge of County Criminal Court No. 10 in Dallas. Eight months later, he was appointed judge of the 194th Judicial District Court. After seven years on the district bench, Kinkeade was appointed to the Court of Appeals, Fifth District, in 1988 by then-Texas Gov. William P. Clements.

As an adjunct professor of law, Judge Kinkeade teaches legal ethics at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth. He has coauthored two books, Kinkeade & McCollochs Texas Penal Code Annotated and A Practical Guide to Texas Evidence: Objections, Responses, Rules and Practice Commentary, and numerous law review articles. In 2004, Texas Wesleyan University awarded Judge Kinkeade an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree, and that same year Dallas Baptist University awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Humanities degree.

In addition to his law career, Judge Kinkeade is active in his community, having served on the Baylor Medical Center at Irving board of trustees, the Dallas Mayor's Blue Ribbon Task Force on Alcoholism, the Baylor University Alumni Association, the Dallas Volunteer Center, the board of the Downtown YMCA, and as a charter member of the Board of Irving Schools Foundation.

He is a charter member of the Fellowship Church, which his family and other individuals started in 1989 as a mission of Irving's First Baptist Church. Fellowship Church now has five locations and an attendance near 22,000 each weekend.

As a volunteer, Judge Kinkeade trained his yellow lab Bo, as a pet therapy dog. He and Bo work with disabled patients at various Baylor Health Care System facilities in the area.