About the conference

The Annual Leadership Conference is an exclusive CHA member event and the premier conference for children’s hospital executive, administrative, strategy, finance, policy, physician, and nursing leaders.

This year, pediatric hospital leaders will gather in Phoenix to learn, inspire, and share their experiences guiding projects that are making a meaningful impact on child health.

Submit a proposal by April 3 demonstrating:

Enterprise strategies amid uncertainty

• Scenario-driven enterprise decisions: Examples of how state/federal shifts triggered real strategic pivots.
• Capital and resource prioritization: Frameworks that align investments with access, risk mitigation, and long-term sustainability.
• Operational excellence with AI embedded: Measurable redesign and standardization efforts, including practical AI integration.
• Resilience and crisis readiness: Cybersecurity and disaster readiness and lessons learned that changed the organization.
• Leading through uncertainty: Proven leadership strategies that are applicable at all levels and lead organizations through change.

Future-proofing the pediatric workforce

• Care model redesign to expand capacity: New staffing/coverage models, integrated care approaches, and strategies that address subspecialty gaps while protecting quality.
• Workforce productivity and burden reduction: Operational or technology-enabled strategies to reduce friction and improve team effectiveness.
• Culture, safety, and belonging: Interventions that improved staff safety, retention, engagement, inclusion, and resilience across generations and roles.
• Workforce readiness and leadership development: Mentoring, succession, and cross-sector development that strengthen long-term workforce stability.

Partnership strategies that scale impact

• Community-level partnerships that expand access and build the workforce pipeline: CBO, school, behavioral health, public health, and cross-sector partnerships that improve reach, improve access, support upstream prevention, and create pathways into pediatric health care careers.
• Strategic partnerships and integration: Actionable lessons on governance, cultural alignment, integrating operating models, and strengthening cost position.
• Collective advocacy and shared positioning: Coordinated approaches that strengthen regional influence, payer engagement, and the children’s hospital value proposition.

View the presenter agreements.