Welcome Address:
Charlie Shields, MBA
President and CEO
Univerity Health

Barry R. Freedman Leadership Lecture Keynote:
Ozan Varol is a rocket scientist turned award-winning professor, #1 bestselling author, and internationally acclaimed speaker. He is one of the world’s foremost experts in creativity, innovation, and critical thinking. He helps industry-leading organizations reimagine the status quo with moonshot thinking.

President and CEO Address:
Bruce Siegel, MD
President and CEO
America’s Essential Hospitals

Chair’s Address:
Eric Dickson, MD, MHCM
President and CEO
UMass Memorial Health Care

Keynote Speaker:
Anushay Hossain is a bestselling author and speaker whose writings on gender, politics, and race are published in Forbes, USA TODAY, Newsweek, Daily Beast, and more. Hossain’s first book, The Pain Gap: How Sexism and Racism in Healthcare Kill Women, was released by Simon and Schuster in 2021. It was excerpted online in Vogue.

America’s Essential Hospitals advocacy leadership shared what to expect from Congress and the administration for the second half of 2023.

Jason Pray
Vice President for Legislative Affairs
America’s Essential Hospitals

The Chicago Story: A Collaborative Approach to Fostering Health Equity

The South Side Healthy Community Collaborative is a major, state-funded transformation initiative working to achieve health equity for residents of the Windy City. It focuses on innovative, digitally connected partnerships that will engage the community as it expands primary and specialty care access, ensures care coordination, and links residents to needed social supports.

The panel discussion featured speakers from essential hospitals UChicago Medicine and St. Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center, as well as the Chicago Family Health Center and the umbrella South Side Healthy Community Organization. The panelists discussed their journey so far and the future of community-integrated health care in Chicago.

Brenda Battle, MBA, BSN, RN
Senior Vice President for Community Health Transformation and Chief Equity Officer
The University of Chicago Medicine

Kimberly Hobson, MBA
CEO
South Side Healthy Community Organization

Charles Holland, MA
President and CEO
St. Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center

Sherry Pace, MBA
CEO
Chicago Family Health Center