Gil Friedell Award
The Gil Friedell Award winner is selected from among Healthy Kentucky Champion honorees each year. The winner is announced at the annual Howard L. Bost Memorial Health Policy Forum, typically held in September. The Foundation makes a $5,000 cash award in the Friedell Award winner’s name to a Kentucky-based 501(c)(3) organization of their choice that is working to advance health policy in the commonwealth.
The Friedell Award is named after Dr. Gil Friedell, a passionate advocate for access to health care, the first director of the Markey Cancer Center at the University of Kentucky, and cofounder of the Kentucky Cancer Registry. Dr. Friedell helped launch a nonprofit advocacy education organization in 2005 that later became the Friedell Committee for Health System Transformation. The Foundation created the Friedell Award when it united with the Friedell Committee in 2018.
Gil Friedell Award Winners
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2024 - Suzanne Craig
Public Health Supervisor, Green River District Health Department
The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky is proud to announce Suzanne Craig as the 2024 Gil Friedell Memorial Health Policy Award winner for her outstanding contributions to improving health access and outcomes in western Kentucky.
$5,000 grant given to Centro de San Juan Diego Foundation.
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2023 - Donovan Blackburn
CEO, Pikeville Medical Center
Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky presents the 2023 Gil Friedell award to CEO of Pikeville Medical Center for Expanding Care in Eastern Kentucky.
$5,000 grant given to Appalachian Valley Autism Center.
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2022 - Denise Hall
Trimble CARES Coalition
Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky recognizes Denise Hall as Gil Friedell Award Winner for her decades-long support of youth health.
$5,000 grant given to Trimble CARES Coalition.
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2021 - Bill Wagner
Retired CEO, Family Health Centers
The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky named William (Bill) Wagner recipient of its 2021 Gil Friedell Memorial Health Policy Award, for his work expanding access to medical care and health care coverage.
$5,000 grant awarded to Kentucky Voices for Health
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2020 - Richard Seckel
Director, Kentucky Equal Justice Center
The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky has named Rich Seckel the recipient of its 2020 Gil Friedell Memorial Health Policy Award. Seckel was chosen for his leadership to prevent more than 100,000 Kentuckians living on low incomes from losing their health insurance, which became especially critical this year during the COVID-19 pandemic.
$5,000 grant awarded to KEJC.
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2019 - Sheila Schuster, PhD
Advocacy Action Network
Sheila Schuster received the inaugural Gil Friedell Award in 2019 in recognition of her more than four decades of leadership to improve services for persons living with mental illness or other disabilities and to increase access to health care across Kentucky.
$5,000 grant awarded to Mental Health America of Kentucky.
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2017/18 - McCreary County Health Coalition and Wayne County Healthy Council
McCreary County Health Coalition and Wayne County Healthy Council were named Healthy Kentucky Policy Champions of the Year.
$2,500 grant to McCreary County Health Coalition;
$2,500 grant to Wayne County Health Council
