2019 Malcom Cox, Consultant, and Former Chief Academic Affiliations Officer, Department of Veterans Affairs
2018 Patricia Horoho, Chief Executive Officer, OptumServe
2017 Linda Burnes Bolton, Vice President for Nursing, Chief Nursing Officer, & Director of Nursing Research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
2016 Sister Carol Keehan, President and Chief Executive Officer, Catholic Health Association of the United States
2015 Victor J. Dzau, President, National Academy of Medicine
2014 Jennie Chin Hansen, CEO, American Geriatrics Society
2013 John Rowe, Professor, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
2012 George E. Thibault, President, Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation
2010 Michael Bleich and Members of the Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing, at the Institute of Medicine
2009 40th Anniversary Celebration (no award given)
2008 Susan Hassmiller, Senior Adviser, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
2007 Paul Farmer, Founding Director, Partners In Health
2006 Louis W. Sullivan, Dean Emeritus, Morehouse School of Medicine
2005 Catherine Rick, Chief Nursing Officer, Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration
2004 Linda H. Aiken, Director, Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, University of Pennsylvania
2003 Donna Shalala, President, University of Miami and Former Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
2002 David Lawrence, Chairman and CEO, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc.
2001 Elizabeth Norman, Author, We Band of Angels, Professor, New York University School of Nursing
2000 Mary Wakefield, Director, Center for Health Policy and Research, George Mason University
1999 Faith Gabelnick, President, Pacific University
1998 Juliet Garcia, President, University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College
1997 Ruth Lubic, Maternity Center Association
1996 Shirley Chater, Commissioner of Social Security
1995 Roger Bulger, President, Association of Academic Health Centers