2023 Lifetime Achievement: Teri Nestel

By Kalie VanDewater

Lifetime Achievement Award

Teri Nestel

Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals
President and CEO

Life has a way of throwing a wrench in your plans, and it takes a combination of determination, skill, passion and compassion to not only make it through, but to leave an indelible, positive mark on an organization.

This year’s winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award embodies just that. Teri Nestel, president and CEO of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, has fought to improve the lives of children and families across the United States and Canada for more than 40 years. She took up children’s healthcare as her advocacy cause after seeing her friends’ deal with the loss of their premature son after he spent 12 weeks in a neonatal ICU, according to her nominator.

Initially, she worked in philanthropy for Arkansas Children’s Hospital Foundation — now Arkansas Children’s Foundation — in 1983 before joining Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals six years later.

Since then, Nestel has held several roles with the organization, including Ohio regional marketing director; director and vice president of corporate development in Virginia; senior vice president of development; senior vice president of the nonprofit’s Cure Kids Cancer brand — now Curing Kids Cancer; chief operating officer for the United Kingdom and Ireland; and senior vice president of corporate integrity and long-term funding.

Then, in 2011, Nestel became the nonprofit’s chief administration officer, overseeing finance, accounting, legal, human resources and IT operations.

Nestel took up the helm of president and CEO of the organization shortly after her predecessor was lost in a sudden accident in February 2020. Postponing her own plans for retirement to fill the position, Nestel became the first woman to lead the organization, according to her nominator.

In the wake of the sudden loss, plus the added stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic and a 5.1-magnitude earthquake striking near the nonprofit’s headquarters in Utah just two days after stay-at-home orders began, Nestel was able to regroup the organization and lead it to success.

“Teri rallied the organization through these crises, working with the executive team, senior leaders, board and member hospitals to make crucial decisions that involved canceling or postponing activities and multi-million-dollar fundraising campaigns and quickly moving the organization’s efforts to virtual platforms,” her nominator told NonProfit PRO. “She adapted quickly, became comfortable with uncertainty, and projected calmness and reassurance, which maintained stability to keep the organization on track.

“Rather than focusing on the pandemic’s impact on fundraising, she focused on the well-being of employees, hospitals and partners,” her nominator continued. “And despite all the crises, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals exceeded its prior-year fundraising results in 2020.”

To add to the challenges Nestel has faced, she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022.

“Her positive attitude and resolute determination helped her through diagnosis and treatment,” her nominator told NonProfit PRO.

Nestel finally set her retirement for Nov. 1 of this year. Over the course of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals’ 40-year existence, Nestel’s determination and leadership have led the organization to raise more than $8.5 billion, grow from 22 member hospitals in 15 states to 170 member hospitals across the U.S. and Canada, and increase the number of its national fundraising partnerships and media partnerships.

“What’s made Teri so successful is that she is a trained mentor and coach and always keeps others in focus, helping each team member reach their personal best,” her nominator told NonProfit PRO. “She’s generated layers of strong leaders by pulling in new team members to drive strategic initiatives forward. She believes one of the greatest gifts a human being can give is listening carefully and understanding what makes people tick. She emphasizes respect and caring for others while encouraging team members to have the faith and courage to bring new ideas forward and to have crucial conversations, building trust and teamwork.”