Pre-Conference Day (Sept. 21)

8 a.m.-6 p.m.
Registration

8:30-11:30 a.m.
ACHE In-Person Education – Strategic AI Implementation for Healthcare Leaders:  Transformation Care Delivery and Operations
Attila J. Hertelendy, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, College of Business, Florida International University
In this seminar, you’ll be equipped with the strategic knowledge and practical frameworks needed to successfully evaluate, implement and govern artificial intelligence initiatives within your organization. Designed specifically for hospital executives and health system leaders, the course addresses the unique challenges and opportunities of AI adoption in healthcare settings, from clinical decision support to operational efficiency. You will learn to navigate regulatory requirements, build organizational readiness and develop sustainable AI strategies that improve patient outcomes while ensuring responsible implementation. Through case studies, group exercises and peer discussions, you will gain the confidence and tools necessary to lead your organization through the AI transformation in healthcare.
*Requires additional registration fee

12-1 p.m.
Pre-Conference Lunch

Main Conference Day One (Sept. 22)

8 a.m.-6:30 p.m.
Registration

8-9 a.m.
Networking Breakfast

9-10:15 a.m.
Opening General Session
Telling the Hospital Story – The Foundation of Effective Advocacy
Jenifer Sarver, Principal, Sarver Strategies
Before hospitals can advocate effectively, they must first be clearly understood. In an increasingly complex and polarized environment, telling a consistent, mission-driven story is essential to building trust with communities, policymakers, and stakeholders. This session explores how hospitals can strengthen their narrative—what to say, what not to say, and how disciplined communication lays the groundwork for meaningful influence. Attendees will gain insights into aligning messaging with mission, avoiding reactive communication pitfalls, and empowering leaders and stakeholders to reinforce a clear, compelling hospital story that resonates where it matters most.

10:15-11 a.m.
Networking Break

11 a.m.-Noon
Concurrent Breakout Sessions

• Hospitals in Action: Telling Your Story
  Elaine Bennett, MBA, Chief Executive Officer, Guadalupe Regional Medical Foundation; Chris Bryan, Vice President of Information Technology and Public Policy, Clarity Child Guidance Center, San Antonio; and Cory Edmondson, MBA, FACHE, President/CEO, United Regional Health Care System, Wichita Falls
  Learn how Texas hospital executives have leveraged personal, patient, and organizational stories to shape healthcare policy and influence key decision-makers. This session will explore storytelling as a powerful advocacy strategy tool, drawing on real-world examples of how hospitals and health systems have strengthened public perception, engaged stakeholders, and achieved meaningful policy outcomes.
  
• AI + Healthcare Communications
  Michael Mackert, Ph.D., Director, Center for Health Communication, Moody College of Communication & Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin
  This presentation explores how artificial intelligence can strengthen hospital and public health communication while emphasizing that AI should augment, not replace, evidence-based health communication practice and human expertise. It demonstrates practical applications of AI, alongside examples of effective prompting and customization. Finally, it highlights the importance of responsible AI use through organizational policies, human oversight, transparency, bias awareness, and ethical safeguards to ensure AI-generated communication is accurate, equitable, and trustworthy.
  
• Joint Commission Hot Topics – Accreditation 360 One Year Later
  Ken Grubbs, DNP, MBA, RN, Chief Nursing Executive and Executive Vice President, Accreditation and Certification Operations, Joint Commission
  This session will explore the impact of Accreditation 360 on hospital accreditation outcomes and survey experiences across Texas. Attendees will gain insight into key performance trends, including commonly identified strengths and vulnerabilities observed during Accreditation 360 surveys, and learn strategies to improve organizational readiness, sustain continuous compliance, and achieve accreditation success within the evolving Joint Commission framework.
  
• Legal Hot Topics – Tort and Liability (Livestream)
  Melinda Hamm, J.D., Vice President and General Counsel, Office of Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Midland Health; Brian Jackson, J.D., Co-Founding Partner, Jackson & Carter, PLLC, Austin; and Steve Wohleb, J.D., Chief Legal Officer, Texas Hospital Association, Austin
  This session will include a history and overview of the statutory framework and relevant court decisions that govern medical liability cases in Texas, including the Texas Medical Liability statute and the Texas Tort Claims Act. The panelists will also discuss the potential for those statutes to be amended in the 90th Legislature and the potential impact of changes to those statutes on liability cases, the delivery of care, and access to health care services in the state.

Noon-1:30 p.m.
THA Awards Luncheon
Join us as we celebrate this year’s THA award recipients during a special luncheon recognizing excellence and leadership across Texas healthcare.

Fireside Chat with Rick Pollack, President and CEO American Hospital Association
THA CEO, John Hawkins, sits down with AHA outgoing President and CEO, Rick Pollack, to share leadership insights over his decades-long career with the American Hospital Association.

1:30-2:30 p.m.
Concurrent Breakout Sessions 

• Building a Better Relationship with Your Board
  Chris Benson, Managing Director, Juniper Advisory, Phoenix, AZ; and Todd Linden, MA, FACHE, Partner, Linden Consulting, Iowa
  Few relationships have greater impact on an organization’s success than the partnership between executive leadership and the governing board. Designed primarily for CEOs and other C-suite leaders, this session provides a practical look at how executives can intentionally build high-trust, high-performing relationships with their boards. Drawing on decades of hospital and health system leadership and national governance experience, Todd Linden and Chris Benson will share real-world insights on strengthening communication, clarifying roles, supporting effective strategic planning, and engaging boards as strategic partners. The session will provide practical approaches executives can use to strengthen governance, improve strategic alignment, and build more productive board relationships.
  
• Community Collaboration: Hospitals and Local Mental Health Authorities (Livestream)
  Lee Johnson, CEO, Texas Council of Community Centers; Marie Alvarez, Division President, Acadia Healthcare; Erika Ramirez Wright, Senior Director Healthcare Policy, Texas Hospital Association, Austin; Mike Taylor, MS, Deputy CEO/Chief Operating Officer, Tropical Texas Behavioral Health; and moderated by Vanessa Vale-Saenz, LPC, MA, Vice President of Behavioral Health Services, Behavioral Hospital at Renaissance
  As mental health needs continue to grow across Texas, no single organization can meet them alone. This panel brings together hospital, community, and state leaders to explore how cross-sector collaboration can close gaps in care and improve outcomes for mental health patients. Attendees will hear actionable approaches for building partnerships that strengthen the continuum of care for patients navigating mental health crises.
  
• Live-Audience Podcast Experience: Texas Talks
  Panel moderated by Bradley Swail, Executive Producer for Pipeline Studios, Founder of CYN Consulting, Media Director for Searle Strategies, Podcast host/producer, radio host
  Join us for a live recording of Texas Talks, featuring conversations with influential leaders from across the state on healthcare and leadership. Hosted by Bradley Swail, a veteran media producer, this session brings the energy of a studio recording directly to our audience. Expect candid, unscripted dialogue and fresh perspectives on the issues shaping healthcare in Texas today.
  
• What Comes Next: Designing Business Models for a Changing Healthcare Environment
  Leslie Wainwright, Ph.D., Partner and Senior Strategist, Do Tank, Chicago
  Healthcare organizations are facing unprecedented pressure to rethink how they create value. Workforce shortages, financial constraints, AI, changing reimbursement, and new competitors are exposing the limits of traditional business models and challenging leaders to think differently about growth, partnerships, and care delivery. This session explores practical approaches for evaluating where current models are under strain, identifying new opportunities for value creation, and making strategic decisions in the face of uncertainty. Drawing on principles of human-centered design and real-world healthcare examples, participants will leave with actionable ideas for building more resilient, adaptable organizations prepared for what comes next.

2:30-3:15 p.m.
Networking Break

3:15-4:15 p.m.
Concurrent Breakout Sessions

• Strategy is Not a Retreat: Leading the Future While Delivering Today
  Craig Deao, Managing Director, Huron
  Many strategic plans quickly become static documents or are reduced to next year’s goals. Too often, “strategy” often defaults to incremental improvement on a steady-state set of assumptions. In today’s environment, that’s no longer sufficient. The challenges facing healthcare organizations are dynamic and increasingly existential. This session focuses on what happens after the plan is created: how to revisit it meaningfully, adapt it as conditions change, engage the board, and hold leadership accountable over time. It also introduces longer-horizon strategic lenses such as visioning, future-back thinking, and dual transformation to help leaders address more fundamental questions about the future size, shape, and direction of their organizations.
  
• Continuum of Care: Children’s Mental Health Landscape
  Christine Bryan, MBA (Moderator), Vice President of Technology and Public Policy, Clarity Child Guidance Center, San Antonio; Israel Liberzon, M.D., Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Texas A&M University Health; Luanne Southern, MSW, Chief Behavioral Health Strategist, Office of Behavioral Health Strategy, Department of Family and Protective Services; and Jason Isham, LMFT, Vice President for Behavioral Health, Children’s Health
  Meeting the needs of mental health patients requires coordinated care that spans providers, systems, and stages of life. This panel examines what a true continuum of care looks like in practice, from early intervention and clinical treatment to long-term support and protective services. Attendees will gain a fuller picture of how research, clinical care and policy can work together to support patients at every stage of their mental health journey.
  
• AI and Technology Trends Shaping the Future of Nursing
  Amy McCarthy, DMP, RNC-MNN, NE-BC, CEMP, Chief Nursing Officer, Hippocratic AI
  AI is advancing at an exponential pace, and the next 3-5 years are poised to reshape healthcare more dramatically than most leaders anticipate. This session opens with a wide-lens look at where AI is headed and what that trajectory means for hospitals and health systems, then narrows to its impact on nursing practice and the professional, ethical, and workforce implications for the profession. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of nurse leaders’ evolving role in guiding AI integration, advocating for their teams, and protecting patient-centered care amid rapid change.
  
• Beyond Benchmarking: Payer and Provider Price Transparency Data Usage Strategies (Livestream)
  Alicia Faust, Principal; and Beth Mullins, Principal, Forvis Mazars
  The session will explore practical applications of payer price transparency data for rate benchmarking, pricing strategy, and underpayment identification. Attendees will learn about key data challenges and the solutions that transform complex information into business-ready insights for hospitals. By the end of the session, participants will have a stronger understanding of how to leverage price transparency data to develop defensible pricing strategies.

4:30-5:30 p.m.
Afternoon General Session Featuring Keynote Mark Cuban, Co-Founder Cost Plus Drugs (Livestream)
Mark Cuban is a serial entrepreneur, investor and healthcare innovator best known as a longtime investor on the Emmy Award-winning Shark Tank and the former majority owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, leading the franchise to its first NBA Championship in 2011. He has built and invested in numerous successful companies throughout his career, focusing on practical innovation with measurable impact.

Most recently, he co-founded the Cost Plus Drug Company to make prescription medications more affordable and pricing more transparent by eliminating many traditional middlemen in the pharmaceutical supply chain. This approach is helping patients, employers, and healthcare organizations better understand and significantly reduce the cost of prescription drugs. A passionate advocate for healthcare affordability and transparency, Cuban continues to challenge conventional industry practices and champion innovative solutions that improve access to care and lower costs for patients nationwide.

5:30-6:30 p.m.
Welcome to Fort Worth Reception

Main Conference Day Two (Sept. 23)

8-11:30 a.m.
Registration

8-9 a.m.
Networking Breakfast

8-9 a.m.
Leadership Fellows Alumni Breakfast (Invitation Only)

9-10 a.m.
Concurrent Breakout Sessions

• Nurse Leadership – Workplace Violence Prevention
  Michael Dunning, Founder & Principal Consultant, Dunning Healthcare Readiness Consulting
  Workplace violence remains a growing concern for hospitals, with rising incident rates and evolving regulatory requirements demanding attention from leadership. This session will examine current trends and regulations, and outline what it takes to build an effective WPV prevention infrastructure – one grounded in cross-discipline collaboration, particularly with frontline staff. Attendees will leave with tools and mitigation strategies to strengthen safety for both patients and staff at their organizations.
  
• Hospital Finance – Medicaid Update (Livestream)
  Anna Stelter, Vice President of Policy, Texas Hospital Association, Austin
  This session will provide an overview of recent developments in Texas Medicaid financing and supplemental payment programs, including the current status of negotiations between the state and federal government. Participants will gain insight into the outlook for key federal and state funding sources and explore how ongoing fiscal and funding challenges may affect the delivery, accessibility, and sustainability of health care services across Texas.
  
• Legislative Update – Preview of the 90th Texas Legislature
  Carrie Kroll, Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Public Policy; William Holleman, Vice President, Advocacy and Public Policy; Benjamin Williams, Vice President of Advocacy and Public Policy
  As Texas prepares for the 90th Legislative Session, hospitals and health systems need to know what’s ahead. THA’s advocacy team will break down the issues expected to have the greatest impact on healthcare and outline THA’s policy priorities heading into the session. Attendees will leave with a clear picture of what to watch, what’s at stake, and how to prepare their organizations to engage.
  
• Leadership Fellows Capstone Presentations
  The capstone project aims to reinforce the mission and purpose of the Fellows program: to create change agents who drive improvement and innovation and have the confidence to be advocates on behalf of their hospital, community, and the hospital industry. Presenting capstones include:
  • Bolstering Healthcare Workforce in Texas
  • Healthcare Access and Coverage in Texas

10:15-11:30 a.m.
Closing General Session (Livestream)
What’s Your Pink Cadillac?
Ryan Campbell, Founder of the JoyAudit and one of the world’s leading mental health and resilience keynote speakers
Despite record investment in workplace wellness, burnout, disengagement, and disconnection are only rising. We’re spinning our wheels chasing balance instead of prioritizing what actually fuels performance: joy. Ryan Campbell, the youngest person to fly solo around the world, learned this firsthand after a plane crash left him with a paraplegic diagnosis and an unlikely muse: a 1960 Pink Cadillac named Flo. Through his JoyAudit™ framework, Ryan makes a counterintuitive, research-backed case for why joy isn’t a “nice to have” but the most powerful driver of resilience, wellbeing, and results.

Main Conference Day One (Sept. 22)

9-10:15 a.m.
Opening General Session
Telling the Hospital Story – The Foundation of Effective Advocacy
Jenifer Sarver, Principal, Sarver Strategies
Before hospitals can advocate effectively, they must first be clearly understood. In an increasingly complex and polarized environment, telling a consistent, mission-driven story is essential to building trust with communities, policymakers, and stakeholders. This session explores how hospitals can strengthen their narrative—what to say, what not to say, and how disciplined communication lays the groundwork for meaningful influence. Attendees will gain insights into aligning messaging with mission, avoiding reactive communication pitfalls, and empowering leaders and stakeholders to reinforce a clear, compelling hospital story that resonates where it matters most.

11 a.m.-Noon
Legal Hot Topics – Tort and Liability
Melinda Hamm, J.D., Vice President and General Counsel, Office of Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Midland Health; Brian Jackson, J.D., Co-Founding Partner, Jackson & Carter, PLLC, Austin; and Steve Wohleb, J.D., Chief Legal Officer, Texas Hospital Association, Austin
This session will include a history and overview of the statutory framework and relevant court decisions that govern medical liability cases in Texas, including the Texas Medical Liability statute and the Texas Tort Claims Act. The panelists will also discuss the potential for those statutes to be amended in the 90th Legislature and the potential impact of changes to those statutes on liability cases, the delivery of care, and access to health care services in the state.

Noon-1:30 p.m.
THA Awards Luncheon
Fireside Chat with Rick Pollack, President and CEO American Hospital Association

1:30-2:30 p.m.
Community Collaboration: Hospitals and Local Mental Health Authorities (Livestream)
Lee Johnson, CEO, Texas Council of Community Centers; Marie Alvarez, Division President, Acadia Healthcare; Erika Ramirez Wright, Senior Director Healthcare Policy, Texas Hospital Association, Austin; Mike Taylor, MS, Deputy CEO/Chief Operating Officer, Tropical Texas Behavioral Health; and moderated by Vanessa Vale-Saenz, LPC, MA, Vice President of Behavioral Health Services, Behavioral Hospital at Renaissance
As mental health needs continue to grow across Texas, no single organization can meet them alone. This panel brings together hospital, community, and state leaders to explore how cross-sector collaboration can close gaps in care and improve outcomes for mental health patients. Attendees will hear actionable approaches for building partnerships that strengthen the continuum of care for patients navigating mental health crises.

3:15-4:15 p.m.
Beyond Benchmarking: Payer and Provider Price Transparency Data Usage Strategies
Alicia Faust, Principal; and Beth Mullins, Principal, Forvis Mazars
The session will explore practical applications of payer price transparency data for rate benchmarking, pricing strategy, and underpayment identification. Attendees will learn about key data challenges and the solutions that transform complex information into business-ready insights for hospitals. By the end of the session, participants will have a stronger understanding of how to leverage price transparency data to develop defensible pricing strategies.

4:30-5:30 p.m.
Afternoon General Session

Main Conference Day Two (Sept. 23)

9-10 a.m.
Hospital Finance – Medicaid Update
Anna Stelter, Vice President of Policy, Texas Hospital Association, Austin
This session will provide an overview of recent developments in Texas Medicaid financing and supplemental payment programs, including the current status of negotiations between the state and federal government. Participants will gain insight into the outlook for key federal and state funding sources and explore how ongoing fiscal and funding challenges may affect the delivery, accessibility, and sustainability of health care services across Texas.

10:15-11:30 a.m.
Closing General Session
What’s Your Pink Cadillac?
Ryan Campbell, Founder of the JoyAudit and one of the world’s leading mental health and resilience keynote speakers

Despite record investment in workplace wellness, burnout, disengagement, and disconnection are only rising. We’re spinning our wheels chasing balance instead of prioritizing what actually fuels performance: joy. Ryan Campbell, the youngest person to fly solo around the world, learned this firsthand after a plane crash left him with a paraplegic diagnosis and an unlikely muse: a 1960 Pink Cadillac named Flo. Through his JoyAudit™ framework, Ryan makes a counterintuitive, research-backed case for why joy isn’t a “nice to have” but the most powerful driver of resilience, wellbeing, and results.