The Mississippi State Board of Health has two new members.

Appointed by Gov. Haley Barbour to serve through June 30, 2016, are Dr. Thad F. Waites of Hattiesburg and registered nurse Sammie Ruth Rea of Jackson.

Waites has been a practicing cardiologist at Hattiesburg Clinic since 1987. He is state governor and chairman-elect of the American College of Cardiology Board of Governors and is president of the Southeast and Mississippi affiliates of the American Heart Association.

Rea has been on the state Board of Health since July 2007, and began working at the Mississippi State Department of Health in 1985. She has been a surveyor for the Bureau of Licensure for 10 years, and for six years was a quality review nurse before retiring in 2000.

The 11-member state Board of Health governs the Mississippi State Department of Health.