Conway-Welch, Dolan named to Hall of Fame

Two industry leaders who devoted their careers to education and transformation will be inducted into the Health Care Hall of Fame this spring.

This year's honorees are Colleen Conway-Welch, former long-tenured dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in Nashville, and Thomas Dolan, former president and CEO of the American College of Healthcare Executives, based in Chicago.

Conway-Welch served as a professor and dean at the Vanderbilt School of Nursing for nearly 30 years, from 1984 to 2013. She pioneered in creating a curriculum that allowed college graduates in other fields to obtain a master's degree in nursing. That innovation was quickly adopted by other nursing schools across the country.

She also was active nationally and abroad in advocacy for public health and safety issues such as HIV/AIDS, bioterrorism and emergency preparedness.

Dolan led the ACHE for 22 years, from 1991 to 2013. But before joining the association he already had a distinguished career teaching healthcare administration and management at several universities.

He dedicated his career to improving the quality of leadership throughout healthcare. Dolan also worked to bring greater diversity to the top ranks of healthcare leadership. Early in his tenure he called for a thorough study of racial comparisons in career advancement. The findings helped propel adoption of diversity initiatives at the association and the establishment of the Institute for Diversity in Health Management, a collaborative effort between the ACHE, the American Hospital Association and the National Association of Health Services Executives.

While the ACHE helm gave Dolan a national stage to advocate for change in the industry, he also held leadership roles at a variety of organizations nationally and globally, including the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award board, the International Hospital Federation and Association of University Programs in Health Administration.

This year's inductees will be honored at a gala March 26 in conjunction with the ACHE's 2017 Congress on Healthcare Leadership, set for March 27-30 in Chicago. They also will be profiled in the March 27 issue of Modern Healthcare and online.