George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, was sworn into office on January 20, 2001, and served as Commander in Chief for two consecutive terms. Before his presidency, he served for six years as Governor of the State of Texas. President Bush was born July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut, to Barbara and George H.W. Bush – later the 41st President of the United States. In 1948, the family moved to Texas, where President Bush grew up in Midland and Houston. He received a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University in 1968 and then served as a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard. President Bush received a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School in 1975. Following graduation, he moved back to Midland and began a career in the energy business. After working on his father’s successful 1988 Presidential campaign, President Bush led a group of partners that purchased the Texas Rangers baseball franchise in 1989.
On November 8, 1994, George W. Bush was elected the 46th Governor of Texas. He became the first governor in Texas history to be elected to consecutive four-year terms when he was re-elected on November 3, 1998. In Austin, he earned a reputation for his bipartisan governing approach and his compassionate conservative philosophy, which was based on education reform, limited government, personal responsibility, strong families and local control. As President, George W. Bush worked to expand freedom, opportunity and security at home and abroad. His first initiative as President was the No Child Left Behind Act, a bipartisan measure that raised standards in schools, insisted on accountability in return for federal dollars and led to measurable gains in achievement – especially among minority students. Faced with a recession when he took office, President Bush cut taxes for every federal income taxpayer, which helped lead to an unprecedented 52 straight months of job creation. President Bush also modernized Medicare by adding a prescription drug benefit that provided access to needed medicine for 40 million seniors and other beneficiaries.
President Bush implemented free trade agreements with more than a dozen nations; empowered America’s armies of compassion by creating USA Freedom Corps and the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives; promoted a culture of life; improved air quality and made America’s energy supply more secure; designated more ocean area habitats for environmental protection than any predecessor; transformed the military to meet the changing threats of the 21st century and nearly doubled government support for veterans; pioneered a new development strategy that tied American foreign aid to reform and good governance; launched global HIV/AIDS and malaria initiatives that have saved millions of lives; expanded the NATO alliance; forged a historic new partnership with India; and appointed Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The most significant event of President Bush’s tenure came on September 11, 2001, when terrorists killed nearly 3,000 people on American soil. President Bush responded with a comprehensive strategy to protect the American people. He led the most dramatic reorganization of the federal government since the beginning of the Cold War, reforming the intelligence community and establishing new institutions like the Department of Homeland Security. He built global coalitions to remove violent regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq that threatened America, liberating more than 50 million people from tyranny. Recognizing that freedom and hope are the best alternative to the extremist ideology of the terrorists, he provided unprecedented American support for young democracies and dissidents in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere. In the more than seven years President Bush remained in office following September 11, 2001, the United States was not attacked again.
Since leaving office, President Bush has returned to Texas, where he has focused his attention on the development of the George W. Bush Presidential Center at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, which opened in May 2013. The Bush Center encompasses President Bush’s presidential library, museum and archives, as well as the George W. Bush Institute. The Bush Institute seeks to improve the human condition, and its work is based on the principles that have guided President Bush throughout his life: freedom is universal; each human life is precious; to whom much is given, much is required; and the marketplace is the best way to allocate resources. President Bush has continued to promote these values through the work of the Bush Institute in economic growth, education reform, global health, human freedom, the Military Service Initiative and the Women’s Initiative. Through events like the Warrior Open Golf Tournament, a 36-hole competition that brings together patriots who volunteered to defend our Nation in the face of danger and were severely wounded in the War on Terror and programs such as Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon, an innovative partnership established to leverage public and private investments in global health to combat breast and cervical cancer in developing nations in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, President Bush continues his public service and advancing the policies he has championed throughout his life through the work of the Bush Institute.
In addition to his work with the Bush Center, President Bush published his memoir, Decision Points, a personal and candid account of the most defining decisions of his personal life and presidency in the fall of 2010. He is also the author Connecting You with the World's Greatest Minds of an intimate biography of his father, President George H.W. Bush, entitled 41: A Portrait of My Father. In the spring of 2017, President Bush will release another book entitled Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief’s Tribute to
America’s Warriors, a vibrant collection of oil paintings and stories by President Bush honoring the sacrifice and courage of America’s military veterans. President Bush partnered with President Bill Clinton in the wake of Haiti’s devastating earthquake to lead a major fundraising effort to assist the Haitian people. President Bush also serves as the Honorary Chairman of the First Tee, an organization that provides young people with character-building and life skills lessons using golf as the platform. President Bush is married to Laura Welch Bush, a former teacher and librarian whom he met at a friend’s backyard barbeque. They have twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna, a son-in-law, Henry Hager, and two granddaughters, Mila and Poppy Louise Hager. The Bush family also includes two cats, Bob and Bernadette.
Nancy Howell Agee has served as president and CEO of Carilion Clinic, an integrated healthcare organization in Roanoke, Va., since July 2011.
Nancy Howell Agee serves as CEO of Carilion Clinic. As president and CEO, Ms. Agee oversees a multi-specialty physician group, eight hospitals, the Jefferson College of Health Sciences and a joint ventured medical school with Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va.
Ms. Agee began her career in healthcare as a nurse for Carilion Clinic. She has served in various management roles over the past 20 years. In 1996, she was appointed as vice president of medical education. In 2000, she became vice president of the organization. She was quickly promoted to executive vice president and COO in 2001, a position she held until her appointment as CEO.
Outside the health system, Ms. Agee participates in many professional and community activities. She is a member of the boards of the Roanoke Gas Company, HomeTown Bank, Solstas Lab, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, the Mill Mountain Theatre and Center in the Square.
As the President and CEO of Philadelphia-based Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, Stephen K. Klasko, MD, MBA, is bridging the art and science of medicine and healthcare transformation. He has championed transformation of American health care as university president, dean of two medical colleges, and CEO of three academic health centers. He is author of 2016’s We CAN Fix Healthcare in America, and editor in chief of “Healthcare Transformation.”
Since 2014, Jefferson Health has grown from a three hospital urban academic medical center with annual revenues of $1.8 billion to a major regional academic medical center. Currently an eight-hospital system, resulting from the merger of Jefferson with Abington Health, Jefferson Health will expand to an 11-hospital system with the proposed partnership mergers with Aria Health and Kennedy Health. Jefferson has the largest tele-health network in the region, the NCI-designated Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, and an outpatient footprint that is among the most technologically advanced in the region.
Upon completion of the proposed merger with Philadelphia University — creating a comprehensive university with a forward-thinking education model — Jefferson will have combined annual revenues exceeding $4.8 billion, more than 28,000 employees, 7,800 students, 6,000 physicians/practitioners and 4,000 faculty.
Through a unique four pillar model, academic-clinical-innovation-philanthropy, Jefferson has attracted venture capital and transformational gifts. Under Dr. Klasko’s leadership, Sidney Kimmel donated $110 million to Jefferson on June 18, 2014, the largest gift in the University’s history. Philanthropy and innovation have also resulted in the addition of the Brind-Marcus Center of Integrative Medicine, nationally recognized for its modern medical and integrated therapies.
Dr. Klasko’s research and experience led to his 1999 book: The Phantom Stethoscope: A Field Manual for an Optimistic Future in Medicine. His new book, We CAN Fix Healthcare in America, posits a future with “twelve disruptors of the demise of the old healthcare.” He has been an international speaker on changing the DNA of health care through physician leadership.
Previously, as CEO of USF Health and Dean of the Morsani College of Medicine at the University of South Florida, Dr. Klasko built an “assessment of technical and teamwork competence” center known as CAMLS (Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation). He also led a partnership with the country’s largest retirement community (The Villages) to create “America’s healthiest hometown,” an innovative primary-care-driven, patient-centric, Medicare-based accountable care model.
Lloyd H. Dean is a nationally recognized leader within and beyond the field of health care. He is Chief Executive Officer of CommonSpirit Health, one of the largest nonprofit health system in the United States, focused on creating healthier communities and transforming health care delivery for millions of Americans. Located in 21 states, CommonSpirit Health is composed of 150,000 employees, 25,000 physicians and advanced practice clinicians, 700 care sites and 142 hospitals.
As Chief Executive Officer of CommonSpirit Health, which has a combined revenue of $29.2B, Mr. Dean is responsible for all of the system’s complex hospital and clinical operations, financial strategy, and human resources. On an annual basis, CommonSpirit Health provides $4.2B in charity care and community benefits, and unreimbursed government programs.
Currently, Mr. Dean serves on the Board of the McDonald’s Corporation and has been appointed to its Board Audit and Finance Committee and Board Compensation Committee. He is Co-Chair of the California Future Health Workforce Commission, an organization composed
of senior leaders from California’s leading health philanthropies focused on deploying a workforce addressing the health care delivery system of tomorrow. In 2019, Mr. Dean was appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom to the Future of Work Commission, whose aim is to create long-term economic grown in California. Mr. Dean is Board Chair of the Board of Directors for the Committee on Jobs, an organization that brings employment to the San Francisco Bay Area. Previously, Mr. Dean has served on the Board of Directors of Wells Fargo & Company; Board of Navigant Consulting, Inc.; as Board Chair of the Bay Area Council; as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Catholic Health Association of the United States; Board Member for Mercy Housing California, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to developing, operating and financing
affordable housing, and Board Chair of Cytori Therapeutics, an international leader in regenerative medicine and adult stem cell research.
A passionate advocate for health care reform, Mr. Dean was actively engaged with the White House Cabinet on health care issues during the Obama administration and directly participated in health care reform discussions with the former president during the formation of the Affordable Care Act. In California, Mr. Dean has been appointed to the State Health Care Cost Containment Commission charged with developing practical state policies to contain health care costs in the nation. Mr. Dean holds degrees in sociology and education from Western Michigan University and received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the University of San Francisco. In 2019 he was ranked number 39 in Modern Healthcare’s “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare” and is consistently named to Modern Healthcare’s “Top 25 Minority Leaders in Healthcare.”
Mr. Dean has dedicated his career to eliminating the social disparities that are the root problems behind so many health issues.