All members of America’s Essential Hospitals annually elect the chair and other officers of the association’s board.
These are the board chairs* of America’s Essential Hospitals since the association’s founding in 1981. Many of our accomplishments can be linked to the distinguished leaders recognized here.
| 1981 | Gordon Howe | Executive Director, Denver General Hospital |
| 1982 | Paul Drozd | Executive Director, LAC/USC Medical Center |
| 1982-1983 | Elliott Roberts | Senior Executive Director, Cook County Hospital |
| 1984 | Madeline Bohman | Executive Director, Bellevue Hospital Center |
| 1985 | Ray Newman | COO, Parkland Memorial Hospital |
| 1986 | Robert Johnson | President, St. Louis Regional Health Care Corporation |
| 1987 | Robert Sillen | Executive Director, Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital System |
| 1988 | Lorraine Tregde | Executive Director, Queens Hospital Center |
| 1989 | Daniel Couch | Deputy Executive Director, Truman Medical Centers |
| 1990 | Edward Foley | Administrator, LAC + Harbor/UCLA Medical Center |
| 1991 | Bernard Weinstein | Commissioner, Westchester County Medical Center |
| 1992 | Ron Anderson, MD | CEO, Parkland Health & Hospital System |
| 1993 | George McCoy | CEO, Governor Juan F. Luis Hospital & Medical Center |
| 1994 | Mark Finucane | Director, Contra Costa Health Services |
| 1995 | James Wright, Jr. | President & CEO, North Oakland Medical Centers |
| 1995 | Howard Cohen | Executive Director, Coney Island Hospital |
| 1996 | Richard Cordova | Administrator, San Francisco General Hospital |
| 1997 | Douglas Bagley | Executive Director, LAC Department of Health Services, North/East Network |
| 1998 | Patricia Gabow, MD | CEO & Medical Director, Denver Health |
| 1999 | Dan McLaughlin | Director of Health Strategy & Policy, Hennepin County |
| 2000 | Ed Renford | President & CEO, Grady Health System |
| 2001 | John O’Brien | CEO, Cambridge Health Alliance |
| 2002 | Frank Puglisi, Jr. | Executive Director, Contra Costa Regional Medical Center |
| 2003 | LaRay Brown | Senior Vice President, Corporate Planning, Community Health & Intergovernmental Relations, NYCHHC |
| 2004 | Margo Hilliard Alford, MD | Administrator, Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital, Harris County Hospital District |
| 2005 | John Benz | Chief Strategic Officer, Memorial Healthcare System |
| 2006 | Sandral Hullett, MD, MPH | CEO & Medical Director, Cooper Green Hospital |
| 2007 | Gene Marie O’Connell, RN | CEO, San Francisco General Hospital |
| 2008 | John Bluford III, MBA | President & CEO, Truman Medical Centers |
| 2009 | Lisa Harris, MD | CEO & Medical Director, Wishard Health Services |
| 2010-2011 | Kirk Calhoun, MD | CEO and Medical Director, UT Health Science Center at Tyler |
| 2012 | Stephen McKernan | CEO, UNM Hospitals |
| 2013 | Thomas Traylor, MBA | Vice President, Federal, State and Local Programs, Boston Medical Center |
| 2014 | William Walker, MD | Director and Health Officer, Contra Costa Health Services |
| 2015 | Johnese Spisso, RN, MPA | President, UCLA Health System; CEO, UCLA Hospital System; Associate Vice Chancellor, UCLA Health Sciences |
| 2016 | John Haupert | President and CEO, Grady Memorial Hospital |
| 2017 | Donna Sollenberger, MA | Executive Vice President and CEO, The University of Texas Medical Branch |
| 2018 | Joseph Scott | Executive Vice President of Health Care Transformation, RWJBarnabas Health |
| 2019 | Wright Lassiter, III | President and CEO, Henry Ford Health System |
| 2020 | Susan Ehrlich, MD, MPP | CEO, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center |
| 2021 | Steve Purves | President and CEO, Valleywise Health |
| 2022 | Eric Dickson, MD, MHCM | President and CEO, UMass Memorial Health Care |
| 2023 | Charlie Shields, MBA | President and CEO, University Health |
| 2024 | R. Jacob Cintron, MBA, MAcc | President and CEO, University Medical Center of El Paso |
* Institutional affiliation shown is that which was current at the time of the individual’s tenure.