Chief Executive Officer

Chief Executive Officer

The Colorado Health Foundation (CHF) stands out as one of the largest private foundations in Colorado and one of the most significant health philanthropies in the country, at a moment when independent philanthropy has an important role to play. With an endowment approaching $3 billion, CHF has the resources, relationships, and statewide reach to help make health more possible for every Coloradan.

Its strength is not only financial; it comes from a clear commitment to health equity, a willingness to listen to communities, and a belief that lasting change requires more than grants alone.

That strength is the result of years of deliberate leadership that helped CHF focus more clearly on the conditions that shape health—such as housing, economic opportunity, primary and behavioral healthcare, and community power. In that time, CHF has deepened its commitment to health equity and racial justice while working to build more trusting, responsive relationships with grantees and communities. Today, partners across Colorado describe CHF as more than a funder: a convener, a listener, a learner, and a partner willing to support the hard, long-term work of organizing, advocacy, capacity building, and systems change.

As the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Karen McNeil-Miller, has announced her retirement, the incoming CEO will step into an organization whose culture, board, staff, and community relationships are already oriented toward this mission; a foundation ready to be led further, not reintroduced to itself.

The timing adds real weight to the role. Changes to public programs, rising costs, and a more divided public climate are affecting the very communities CHF exists to serve. CHF's independence gives it the ability—and the responsibility—to stay clear about its commitments, use its resources with purpose, and stand with people and organizations working for a healthier, more equitable Colorado.

This is, in short, a rare leadership opportunity: a chance to steward a financially strong, mission-clear institution through a consequential period for Colorado and to help CHF become even more trusted, more connected across the state, and more effective in advancing health equity.

CHF traces its origins to a 1995 joint venture between a Denver-area nonprofit hospital system and a for-profit hospital operator. The charitable proceeds from that transaction were preserved in a dedicated philanthropic entity, which adopted the name "The Colorado Health Foundation" in 2006. CHF's board later sold its remaining stake in the joint venture in 2011 for $1.45 billion, and in 2016 the organization completed its conversion to private foundation status.

Over three decades, that history has made CHF the largest private foundation in Colorado and among the largest health-focused philanthropies in the country. Headquartered in Denver, CHF works statewide to improve the health of Coloradans by advancing health equity through racial justice. Its work is grounded in the understanding that health is shaped by the places people live, learn, work, play, and age—and that the people most affected by inequities should help shape the solutions.

CHF prioritizes Colorado's communities who have less power, privilege, and income, with a special emphasis on Coloradans of color and rural Coloradans.

CHF uses a range of tools to advance this work, including grantmaking, program-related and mission-aligned investments, policy advocacy, research and learning, convening, strategic communications and narrative change, and partnerships with communities and institutions across the state.

The Mandate

The next CEO will build on a strong platform while helping CHF continue to learn, adapt, and deepen its impact. This leader will bring people together across community, philanthropy, business, government, healthcare, and civic life, including voices CHF has not yet fully reached. The mandate is to use CHF's influence responsibly and courageously—staying clear about centering health equity, strengthening relationships across Colorado, and supporting the people and organizations working to change the conditions that shape…