NMQF 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health spotlights rising professionals from minoritized communities who are working to strengthen minority health outcomes and expand health access—often while navigating the same barriers their patients and communities face.

The National Minority Quality Forum’s “40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health” program is designed to spotlight rising professionals from minoritized communities who are working to strengthen minority health outcomes and expand health access—often while navigating the same barriers their patients and communities face. The 2025 class will be recognized in Washington, D.C., during NMQF’s Leadership Summit on Health Disparities and the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Health Braintrust convening on April 28–29, according to NMQF’s announcement.

Although the awards are now widely associated with NMQF’s annual spring convening, the program’s roots go back a decade. In late 2015, NMQF publicly announced it was establishing a “40 Under 40 Leaders in Health” awards initiative to recognize influential young minority leaders making a difference in health care. In its inaugural year, universities and professional organizations described the program as honoring early-career leaders across disciplines, from physicians and nurses to researchers and policy experts, with recipients recognized at NMQF’s Leadership Summit on Health Disparities in Washington. Over time, NMQF’s annual announcements have consistently emphasized the same throughline: selecting 40 leaders under age 40 from minoritized communities whose work targets disparities and strengthens community health, now under the “Leaders in Minority Health” banner.

Why the program was introduced

NMQF has framed the “40 Under 40” program as an answer to a persistent national challenge: the people most affected by gaps in care are often underrepresented among the decision-makers shaping care delivery, research priorities, and policy. NMQF, founded in 1998, says it focuses on reducing patient risk and ensuring optimal care for all, using research, education, and advocacy to eliminate disparities. The “40 Under 40” program fits that mission by lifting up leaders early—before they reach the most senior roles—while connecting them to national networks that can accelerate their impact.

The Washington setting is also part of the program’s purpose. NMQF pairs the recognition with its Leadership Summit on Health Disparities, a convening the organization says it launched in 2003 to bring together providers, researchers, policymakers, and community and faith-based organizations around improving care for diverse populations. The awards are presented in a city where federal policy and funding decisions are made, and alongside the CBC Health Braintrust, which Rep. Robin Kelly’s office describes as the CBC’s principal health care advisory task force focused on reducing disparities and advancing the caucus’s health priorities. In NMQF’s 2025 announcement, Dr. Gary Puckrein, the organization’s president and CEO, said the program is meant to “champion the next generation of leaders” who will be critical to shaping the path ahead for underserved communities.

That emphasis on leadership development comes at a time when the country’s care infrastructure faces both capacity pressures and unequal access. A federal workforce report from the Health Resources and Services Administration notes that roughly 75 million people live in a primary care Health Professional Shortage Area, while 122 million live in a mental health shortage area—gaps that can translate into long wait times, long travel distances, and delayed diagnosis and treatment. The same report points to an aging physician workforce, noting that fewer than 17% of active physicians in 2022 were under 40—an indicator of how quickly health systems will need new clinicians and leaders, especially in underserved regions.

NMQF’s message is that improving minority health outcomes requires more than recognizing problems; it requires people with the expertise and lived experience to move solutions through clinics, academic institutions, community organizations, and government. The organization’s 2025 summit theme—“From Data to Action: Uniting to Advance Evidence-Informed Solutions for Medically Underserved Communities”—reflects that push to translate measurement into real improvements in care.

The need for that kind of momentum is visible in some of the country’s most sobering indicators. Federal vital statistics data show that Black women experienced a maternal mortality rate of 50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2023, far higher than the rates for White, Hispanic, and Asian women. Public health researchers have long pointed to uneven access to timely prenatal care, gaps in care quality, and differences in how concerns are heard and addressed as factors that can shape outcomes—issues that intersect directly with Health Access and the broader conditions in which people live and seek care.

Within that landscape, NMQF’s “40 Under 40” program functions as both a recognition and a signal: the organization is betting that the next wave of improvement in minority health will come from leaders who can bridge data and community realities. NMQF has described its honorees as spanning clinical medicine, patient advocacy, research, and policy—roles that influence everything from the evidence base behind clinical guidelines to the on-the-ground design of community interventions.

As the 2025 class prepares to be honored in Washington, the program’s purpose remains consistent with its earliest framing: identifying talented, mission-driven leaders early and placing them in a national forum where ideas can be translated into policy and practice. For communities of color facing persistent gaps in health access, NMQF’s message is that progress depends not only on better data but also on the people empowered to act on it—and on the institutions willing to invest in their leadership before the next crisis demands it.

Registration Link: 2026 NMQF Leadership Summit (April 27-28)

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