Keynote Speaker
Michael Fisher
President and CEO, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Michael Fisher became president and CEO of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in January 2010. He leads an organization of more than 15,000 employees serving children from all 50 states and more than 60 countries.
He currently chairs the Children’s Hospital’s Solutions for Patient Safety, an international network of more than 100 pediatric hospitals. Their efforts have saved nearly 7,000 children from serious harm and an estimated $130 million in healthcare costs.
Fisher is a strong advocate for children and healthy communities. He serves as co-chair of a task force to address childhood poverty in Cincinnati. In 2016, he announced a medical center investment of $11.5 million over five years to drive community development and improve child health in the Avondale neighborhood. Also, his 2020 strategic plan joins with local partners to reduce infant mortality and prematurity, and seeks to ensure that all of Cincinnati’s kids are physically and emotionally healthy by the time they start school.
Prior to his appointment at Cincinnati Children’s, Fisher was president and CEO of Premier Manufacturing Support Services, a supplier to the global automotive industry. He then served as president and CEO of the 5,000-member Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce.
A graduate of Stanford University, Fisher has provided long-term board and philanthropic leadership to a range of not-for-profit and civic causes. He and his wife, Suzette, have four adult children.
Moderator
Dan Hurley
Interim President
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
.
Dan assumed the role of interim President of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center In March 2017, while the institution searches for a new President. As the founder of Applied History Associates, a public history consulting firm, Hurley acted as the original project manager for the National Underground Freedom Center and as a member of the exhibit planning team from 1994 to 1999.
Dan Hurley has worked as a public historian for 38 years. He has worked for both WCPO and WKRC-TV as an historian and political reporter. Dan continues as the Executive Producer and host of Local 12 Newsmakers, a weekly talk show that focuses on local political and social issues
Hurley is the author of five books including Cincinnati: The Queen City, One Child at a Time: a History of the Children’s Home of Cincinnati and Otterbein: Remembering Our Past/Embracing Our Future.
From 2008 until retirement at the end of June 2016, he worked as the director of Leadership Cincinnati and Leadership Action.
He also is a regular columnist for Cincy Magazine. He was recently recognized for writing the region’s “Best Editorial” of 2016 by the Society of Professional Journalists.