Alumnus Kevin E. Lofton Receives Beta Gamma Sigma Business Achievement Award

ATLANTA – The international honor society Beta Gamma Sigma has recognized healthcare executive Kevin E. Lofton, vice chair of the Georgia State University Foundation Board of Trustees and an alumnus of the J. Mack Robinson College of Business (M.H.A. ’79), with its 2023 Business Achievement Award.

Recipients of the Business Achievement Award are selected for significant accomplishments that have advanced the field of business, a community, and/or humankind, and for acting as exemplars of ethical business leadership and values including honor and integrity, and the pursuit of wisdom, earnestness and service.

Lofton, a Lifetime Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (LFACHE) and CEO Emeritus of CommonSpirit Health, is among the most influential and longest-standing leaders in the industry. He served for 21 years as CEO with Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI), now CommonSpirit Health, a system of hospitals and other care centers in 21 states. Under his leadership, CHI transformed from a hospital company to an innovative, diversified healthcare entity. In 2019, CHI merged with Dignity Health to form the $29 billion nonprofit healthcare entity, CommonSpirit Health, with Lofton as CEO.

Lofton had a broad impact across the sector by helping to increase the ranks of healthcare executives and physicians from underrepresented groups and reduce care disparities in underserved populations. A former president of the National Association of Health Care Executives (NAHSE) he was a founding board member of the Institute for Diversity, as well as a board member of the Morehouse School of Medicine and the Heersink School of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In addition, Lofton was the founding chair of the American Hospital Association’s (AHA) Equity of Care Initiative, which was later joined by the Catholic Health Association, the American Association of Medical Colleges, and America’s Essential Hospitals.

As a Georgia State alumnus, Lofton has funded participation by dozens of Robinson graduate health administration students in a case competition, and he and his wife, Sabrina Shannon, have endowed the Lofton Family Professorship in the Institute of Health Administration.

Lofton has received numerous accolades for his accomplishments. He has been included in Modern Healthcare Magazine’s list of the “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare” 15 times. In addition, he received Georgia State’s Distinguished Alumni Award, Robinson’s Hall of Fame Award, the AHA’s Distinguished Service Award, an honorary doctorate in humanities in medicine from Baylor College of Medicine, the ACHE Gold Medal Award, the NAHSE Hall of Fame Award and the Pierre Toussaint Medallion from the Archdiocese of New York. He also was a 2022 AACSB (formerly the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) Influential Leader. Lofton serves as lead independent director on the board of Gilead Sciences, Inc., and on the Medtronic, plc board.

“There is no finer role model for our students than Kevin Lofton,” said Robinson’s Steven S. Dionne, clinical assistant professor of management and advisor to Georgia State’s chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma. “We are proud that he is alumnus and grateful he continues to share his wisdom with Georgia State.”

In addition to Lofton, Lindsay Boyle, Chief of Staff at Advanced Surgical Instruments of Medtronic, also received the 2023 Beta Gamma Sigma Business Achievement Award.

About Beta Gamma Sigma
Founded in 1913, Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS) is the international business honor society for schools accredited by AACSB. Inducted as students, BGS members go on to serve in critical leadership roles in corporate, entrepreneurial, government, nonprofit, and academic sectors. Notable members include Nobel Prize winners, Olympians, inventors, CEOs of major global companies and nonprofit organizations, deans of leading business schools, and others who are making the world a better place at all levels of contribution through social enterprise, service, and leadership.