University Health President and CEO Charlie Shields Named KC Chamber's 2023 Kansas Citian of the Year

Charlie Shields’ selfless commitment to the region and enduring servant leadership to public education, healthcare and civic organizations, has earned him the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce’s 2023 Kansas Citian of the Year Award. The award announcement came tonight at the culmination of the Chamber’s 136th Annual Dinner. The award is the highest honor the Chamber can bestow on an individual and is presented annually during this prestigious gathering.

Shields is President and CEO of University Health, a position he has held since 2014. His leadership is based on a strong belief that University Health exists to serve as Kansas City's essential hospital, providing quality care to those with the very best insurance and those with no insurance at all as well as to serve as an academic medical center, preparing the doctors, nurses, dentists and pharmacists of the future, and taking on the toughest cases.

Shields has been described as “exactly the right mix of business savvy, people skills and political acumen,” and has more than 25 years of healthcare leadership and decades of public service experience, including 20 years in the Missouri General Assembly that culminated with two years as president pro-tem of the Missouri Senate. Known for his quiet leadership style that leads to consensus building, Shields is no stranger to recognition – even though he shies away from the spotlight. He has received numerous awards of appreciation for his dedication and service.

A strong supporter of quality education, Shields has served in leadership positions for his local school board as well as on the Missouri State Board of Education. He is often quoted as saying, "Education is the number-one determinant of economic status, and economic status is the number-one determinant of health status," bringing together the importance of education in living a long and healthy life.

Shields is a founding board member of the UMKC Health Sciences District, a collaboration between University Health; UMKC schools of Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing and Dentistry; Children's Mercy Hospital; the Kansas City Health Department; and other entities, creating a true academic health center investing in research, advancing intellectual collaboration, and developing a space for health innovation unlike any other in the region. He is also deeply involved in and proud to serve the Kansas City community, holding leadership positions with the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, the Civic Council of Greater Kansas City, and the Urban Neighborhood Initiative.

Past Kansas Citians of the Year include Bill Berkley, John Sherman, David Warm, Alvin Brooks, Mayors Kay Barnes and Carol Marinovich, Don Hall, Jr., Ewing Kauffman, Lamar Hunt, Anita Gorman, Buck O’Neil, Lucile Bluford, Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, and Jim and Virginia Stowers, among others. The Award is given “only to those persons whose civic contributions and achievements have reflected the insight, creativity, and consciousness necessary to build and maintain a quality urban community.”