Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient for Department of Health Administration and Policy

Each year, the Office of Alumni Affairs at the Hudson College of Public Health awards an annual Distinguished Alumni Award and Young Alumni Professional Achievement Award to outstanding alumni from each Department within the College. Recipients of these prestigious awards are recognized for achieving professional and personal successes, and demonstrating exemplary service to their community and/or the University.

The 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award for the Department of Health Administration and Policy is Mr. Stephen C. Hanson, MPH, LFACHE, a 1976 MPH Alumnus.

Steve is an experienced healthcare executive with over forty years of service to nine hospitals and health systems in six states.  He began his career in strategy and then moved on to COO and eventually CEO roles including Baptist Kentucky/Indiana and Appalachian Regional Healthcare. He was Senior EVP at Texas Health Resources and also had C-suite roles in organizations which became part of IU Health, UnityPoint Health, Ascension and Kaleida/Buffalo.

During his career Hanson was also exposed to other sectors of the economy beyond healthcare as a bank board member and chair of two chambers of commerce and an area development corporation.

Since retiring as a system CEO five years ago, Hanson has focused on working with venture capital firms, a healthcare incubator and startup and early stage companies.  With individual companies, he has been a board member or strategic advisor and served as an interim CEO of a health communications startup.  He has also worked with the School of Public Health at Louisville and is a current adjunct faculty member with the health administration program at Florida Gulf Coast University.

Hanson remains active with the American Hospital Association and the American College of Healthcare Executives.  He is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma Hudson College of Public Health and Iowa State University.  He and his wife Joyce live in upstate New York and southwest Florida.  They have three adult children and three grandchildren.