Health Care Hall of Fame Past Inductees

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Inducted in 2022

Hospital leaders were struggling from the onslaught of COVID-19 in mid-2020 when C. Duane Dauner, the retired longtime president and CEO of the California Hospital Association, died in a car accident that July.

His loss reverberated throughout the country, said Carmela Coyle, who succeeded Dauner upon his retirement in 2017. Since then, many healthcare leaders facing unprecedented challenges have asked themselves, “What would Duane do?”

Dauner’s 32-year career with the CHA left an indelible mark on healthcare in California, Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the AHA, said in a letter nominating Dauner for the Hall of Fame.

“Duane was clearly a master of understanding not only healthcare policies but understanding the implications of those policies,” Brown, past AHA chairman and a 2014 Hall of Fame inductee, wrote.