Leadership Awards

2024 – Catherine Jacobson

2024 Recipient Catherine Jacobson, former chief executive officer of Froedtert ThedaCare Health, Inc., Milwaukee.

2023 – Dr. Melinda Estes

Melinda L. Estes, MD2023 Co-Recipient Melinda L. Estes, MD, is president and CEO of Saint Luke’s Health System, the only locally owned, not-for-profit, faith-based, aligned health system in greater Kansas City. The health system includes 14 hospitals and campuses in the metro and its surrounding rural communities; renowned heart, neuroscience, cancer, and rehabilitation institutes; home care and hospice; behavioral health care; more than 100 physician practices and retail clinics; senior living communities, and more.

As a board-certified neurologist and neuropathologist, Dr. Estes is a champion of strengthening physician engagement. In 2020, she served as chair of the Board of Trustees for the American Hospital Association (AHA), and previously served as the chair of the task force that created the AHA Physician Alliance. Dr. Estes is a past member of the AHA Metropolitan Hospital Council, Committee on Health Professions, and Advisory Committee on Health Care Reform.

In 2022, the Missouri Hospital Association presented Dr. Estes with its highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award. In 2020, Modern Healthcare included her on its prestigious lists of “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare” and “50 Most Influential Clinical Executives.” She was included in the 2018 and 2019 “Power 100,” a guide to the most powerful people in the Kansas City business community, as well as Ingrams’ “2022 Healthcare Heroes of Kansas City,” in the category of Lifetime Service. Since 2012, she has consistently been named to Becker’s Hospital Review’s lists of leaders to know, including “Women Hospital and Health System Leaders to Know” and “Physician Leaders of Hospitals and Health Systems.”

Dr. Estes earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, and her medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, where she also completed her neurology residency. She completed a neuropathology fellowship at Cleveland Clinic and special training in pediatric neuropathology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She also earned an MBA from Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management.

Dr. Estes speaks regularly at regional, national, and international health care conferences; and a frequent guest columnist for industry publications, including CEO Circle, the American College of Healthcare Executives newsletter.

2023 – Jim Skogsbergh

2023 Co-Recipient Jim Skogbergh, is CEO of Advocate Health, the third largest nonprofit health system in the U.S., created from the combination of Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health. 

He most recently served as President and CEO at Advocate Aurora Health, one of the 12 largest health systems in the country. Before that, he spent 16 years leading Advocate Health Care, a predecessor organization and the largest health system in Illinois.

Named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare nine times, Skogsbergh is a leading voice on health care transformation and innovation; national health reform efforts; quality, cost and high reliability initiatives; patient safety; and health care providers’ commitment to serving their communities. Under his leadership, Advocate Aurora has been recognized as a national leader for its clinical successes, technological innovation, workplace culture and safety excellence.

Skogsbergh is a former member and past chair of the American Hospital Association (AHA) Board of Directors. He also is a former chair of the AHA Section for Health Care Systems Governing Council and a member of Regional Policy Board 5. In 2021, Skogsbergh completed a two-year term as Chairman of the AHA’s Political Action Committee. He is a member of the World Business Chicago Board of Directors and is a past chair of Chicago United and the American Cancer Society’s CEOs Against Cancer and the World Presidents Organization. Additionally, Skogsbergh is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE) and a past chair of the Illinois Hospital Association’s Board of Trustees.

He is the recipient of the American Hospital Association’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, as well as the ACHE Career Achievement Award, the American Heart Association’s 2023 Heart of Gold recognition, the 2015 Chicago United Bridge Award and B’nai B’rith’s 2013 National Healthcare Award.

Skogsbergh received a master’s degree in health administration from the University of Iowa and a bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University.

2022 – Eugene A. Woods, M.B.A, M.H.A., FACHE, president and chief executive officer of Atrium Health, was named NCHL’s 2022 Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award recipient. For more than 16 years, this award and celebratory event honors a healthcare leader whose commitment, values, and contributions have improved the health of the public through leadership and organizational excellence. The Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award was named in honor of Gail L. Warden, founding chairman of NCHL, president emeritus of Henry Ford Health System, and one of healthcare’s foremost leaders. This distinction recognizes his remarkable accomplishments as an innovator in healthcare delivery, community wellness, and health policy, and as a mentor and inspiration to future generations.

“Gene often says he is inspired by the passion and dedication of our teammates and would be the first one to defer this recognition to what they have been able to accomplish – especially over the past few years amid the challenges of the pandemic,” said Edward J. Brown, chair of the Atrium Health Enterprise Board. “But this recognition truly reinforces what we also know: Gene’s unwavering leadership and impact extend beyond just Atrium Health and is helping to reshape how we approach healthcare across the entire nation. I am extremely proud of Gene and can think of no one more deserving to receive this honorable award.”

Woods is president and chief executive officer of Atrium Health, one of the largest non-profit and leading academic health systems in the United States, with over 70,000 teammates serving patients at 40 hospitals and more than 1,400 care locations across five states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia and Alabama. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Atrium Health provides care under the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist name in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, as well as Atrium Health Navicent and Atrium Health Floyd in Georgia and Alabama. Atrium Health recently announced a strategic combination with Advocate Aurora Health in Illinois and Wisconsin, and once approved by the FTC, Woods will become the chief executive officer of the combined entity after 18 months.

Woods joined Atrium Health in April 2016, and during his tenure, Atrium Health has been recognized as one of the Best Employers for Diversity, for New Grads and for Women by Forbes; number one on the list of Best Places to Work for Women & Diverse Managers by DiversityMBA; one of the 150 Top Places to Work in Healthcare by Becker’s Healthcare; and the number one military-friendly employer in the country. In addition, the organization has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report, Leapfrog Group and the American Nurses Credentialing Center as among the very best in the nation and was honored by the American Hospital Association with the Equity of Care Award and one of the first-ever Quest for Quality honors for its Rehabilitation Hospital. Atrium Health was also recognized by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a CMS Health Equity Award recipient for its dedication to health equity by reducing disparities and enabling communities to achieve the highest level of health.

One of today’s most prominent leaders in healthcare, Woods served as past chair of the American Hospital Association board of trustees in 2017 and the Nominating Committee and is currently a member of the Health, Strategy and Innovation Committee. Additionally, Woods is chair of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and the upcoming vice chair of the 2022 Conference of Chairs executive committee for the Bank.

Woods has 30 years of healthcare leadership experience, and his career is decorated with many honors, including his most recent recognitions as #4 of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare and one of the Top 25 Minority Executives in Healthcare – as well as being one of only five “Luminaries,” honored for their career-defining work in reshaping the industry– by Modern Healthcare.

2021 – Maureen Bisognano, President Emerita and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), was named the 2021 Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award recipient.

Ms. Bisognano previously served as IHI’s President and CEO for five years, after serving as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for 15 years. IHI ​has used improvement science to advance and sustain better outcomes in health and healthcare across the world for more than 30 years. She is a prominent authority on improving healthcare systems, whose expertise has been recognized by her elected membership to the National Academy of Medicine (IOM), among other distinctions.

“Ms. Bisognano is a selfless leader who has encouraged and inspired countless number of healthcare leaders through her leadership and work in the area of quality and patient safety.” LeAnn Swanson, NCHL CEO said. “She has changed the quality journey as we know it for healthcare organizations in the US and abroad. Ms. Bisognano epitomizes the very essence of this award as demonstrated through her commitment to advancing patient-centered care, influencing the development of women in healthcare leadership, and transforming the patient safety movement across the world. She is most deserving of NCHL’s highest honor and I am thrilled she has been selected as this year’s recipient.”

Ms. Bisognano advises healthcare leaders around the world, is a frequent speaker at major healthcare conferences on quality improvement, and is a tireless advocate for change. She is also an Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a Research Associate in the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities.  Additionally, she chairs the Advisory Board of the Well Being Trust, co-chairs the Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care with Dr. Atul Gawande, and serves on the boards of the Commonwealth Fund, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Indiana University Health and Nursing Now.

Prior to joining IHI, Ms. Bisognano was Senior Vice President of The Juran Institute, where she consulted with senior management on the implementation of total quality management in healthcare settings. Before that, she served as CEO of the Massachusetts Respiratory Hospital in Braintree, MA, where she participated in the National Demonstration Project, the precursor to IHI.