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WASHINGTON (April 28, 2025) – The ���������� Association (AHA) will present its highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, to Melinda Estes, M.D., the former president and CEO of Saint Luke's Health System based in Kansas City, Missouri. Estes will receive the 2025 award during a ceremony on May 5 at the AHA Annual Membership Meeting in Washington, D.C.

Estes retired at the end of 2023 as president and CEO of Saint Luke's Health System, wrapping up a nearly 35-year career in health care leadership. She spent two decades in various leadership roles, including as president and CEO of the University of Vermont Medical Center and at the Cleveland Clinic, including a two-year stint as CEO of Cleveland Clinic Florida, before taking the helm at Saint Luke’s starting in 2011. In this role, she fostered a culture of innovation and grew Saint Luke’s into a truly integrated system of care, improving the health of patients in urban, suburban and rural communities across the Kansas City region. Underscoring her commitment to her patients and teams, Estes postposed her planned 2021 retirement to see Saint Luke’s and its communities through the COVID-19 pandemic.  

“A physician leader with an unmatched and unshakable commitment to kindness and caring, Mindy has served her communities with dedication and led the health care field as AHA chair through incredibly challenging times, including the unprecedented COVID pandemic,” said AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack. “Mindy’s efforts to improve patient care and access have had a significant impact at the national, state and local levels, and leave a lasting legacy that will be felt for years to come.”

As the AHA Board Chair in 2020, Estes led the field with strength and clarity as it confronted the COVID-19 pandemic. She advocated for increased federal funding and greater regulatory flexibility to support hospitals in responding to the crisis and worked to give hospitals and health systems the tools and resources needed to navigate their new reality. Actively engaged with the AHA since 2009, in addition to her service as Chair of the Board, Estes chaired the Executive Committee, the Committee on Nominations, the Task Force on COVID-19 Pathways to Recovery, the AHA Physician Alliance Steering Committee, and the Center for Health Innovation Leadership Council in addition to serving on numerous other committees and groups.

Estes holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, and earned her medical degree from University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, where she also completed a neurology and neuropathology residency. She received a Master of Business Administration from Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management in 1995.

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About the AHA

The AHA is a not-for-profit association of health care provider organizations and individuals that are committed to the health improvement of their communities. The AHA is the national advocate for its members, which include nearly 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, networks, other providers of care and 43,000 individual members. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends. For more information, visit the AHA website at .