Carilion Clinic CEO receives American Hospital Association’s highest honor

At the American Hospital Association’s annual membership meeting in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Carilion Clinic CEO Nancy Howell Agee received the Distinguished Service Award, the association’s highest honor. 

The AHA released a video of Agee winning the award, which recognizes “significant lifetime contributions and service to health care.” In the video, AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack noted that when Agee chaired the nonprofit organization’s board of trustees in 2018, her “visionary leadership” pushed the organization to “tackle value, affordability and disruptive innovation.” 

Agee has been active for more than two decades with the AHA, which advocates for member hospitals, health systems and health care organizations as well as health care providers and leaders, according to a news release about the award. Currently, she chairs the board of the Coalition to Strengthen America’s Health Care, an organization co-founded by the AHA that represents the interests of American hospitals and their patients. 

“With a nurse’s heart, you always ensure a patient’s perspective is at the center of every discussion and decision,” Pollack said of Agee in the video. 

In a release about the award, the AHA noted that under Agee’s leadership, Carilion went from “a collection of hospitals” to a “patient-centered, physician-led organization.” The group also noted her role in establishing a relationship with Virginia Tech to open the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine.

The AHA video opens with images of Roanoke’s sprawling Riverside Center complex, which workers began building in the late 2000s and now includes the medical school and the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC as well as numerous doctor’s offices. 

“All of these things are a result of Nancy’s leadership, “ said James A. Hartley, chair of Carilion’s board of directors.

Launching her career as a nurse, Agee went on to become the lead administrative director of a National Institutes of Health oncology grant in Roanoke. She was later promoted to a series of leadership roles at Carilion, becoming chief operating officer in 2001, a post she held for a decade before being named president and CEO in 2011. 

Carilion’s board named Steve Arner president and chief operating officer of Carilion Clinic in May 2023, while Agee remains CEO. 

A 2021 study found only about 15% of CEOs of health systems are women. 

Jeanne Armentrout, executive vice president and chief administrative officer at Carilion, noted in the video that Agee’s management style is serving others. “She reaches out and mentors leaders regionally and even nationally and many times those leaders are women,” Armentrout said. “She really cares about mentoring women.” 

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, Virginia’s junior senator, also appeared on the video to congratulate his “great friend” on her award. “The last few years have been pretty tough for our hospitals, but you’ve continually risen to the challenge ensuring Virginians receive quality care,” he said to Agee. 

In the video, Agee said that the AHA honor doesn’t feel like an award given to her.

“It’s an award for all the people I get to stand up with, whether they’re colleagues all across the country or my own folks at  Carilion,” she said. “It’s an award that recognizes the incredible work that all of us in health care do. And what motivates us, what inspires us, what brings us to this hard work is the work we do to take care of patients to improve the health of the people that we serve.”