2025 ASHE Award winners

Image by Getty Images

The American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE) celebrated the outstanding achievements of members to improve the health care physical environment with its annual member awards at the Health Care Facilities Innovation Conference™ on July 27-30 in Columbus, Ohio.

To continue that celebration, they also are featured in this special section of Health Facilities Management magazine.

Individual and chapter honors. The section begins with interviews with Dave Lockhart, CHFM, CEM, CRL, FASHE, executive director for facilities operations and maintenance at Kaiser Permanente’s national shared service operations based in Oakland, Calif., who received the Crystal Eagle Leadership Award, considered ASHE’s lifetime achievement award; and Larry Newlands, CEM, CEP, director of energy management for Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston, who received the ASHE President’s Award, which is given at the discretion of the sitting ASHE president to an individual who goes above and beyond to optimize the health care physical environment.

Following those interviews, the section includes ASHE Fellow (FASHE) and Senior (SASHE) recipients; Emerging Regional Leader Award recipients, who are recognized from each of ASHE’s 10 regions for their demonstrated commitment to the field and their interest in developing further leadership skills; and ASHE Chapter Award recipients, who are recognized for outstanding achievements and contributions to optimizing the health care physical environment.

Sustainability awards. Following those awards is a roundup of ASHE’s Energy to Care^® Award winners. This year, 87 health care facilities across 12 health care organizations have earned the Sustainability Champions Award, the program’s highest distinction, for demonstrating strong leadership in pursuit of reducing health care’s environmental footprint and using saved resources to support patient care.

Additionally, the section includes awards listings for Sustained Performance, which celebrates accomplishing sustainability goals supporting healthy, equitable and resilient environments and communities; Energy to Care^®, which recognizes facilities accomplishing sustainability goals that support healthy environments and communities over time; and the Chapter Challenge, which is awarded to ASHE-affiliated chapters.

Facility excellence award. The final article in this special section is a profile of UNC Health Blue Ridge in Morganton, N.C., winner of ASHE’s 2025 Excellence in Health Care Facility Management Award. This award recognizes individuals or facilities teams that implement new or innovative programs or processes to optimize the health care physical environment and improve patient care.

The hospital’s new six-story Pavilion on its central campus was planned to meet the needs of the growing patient population and modernize its infrastructure. The project team enacted an adaptive and highly collaborative design process, inviting perspectives from a range of clinical and operational teams, using value engineering and incorporating low-maintenance materials sourced locally, which reinforced values of teamwork, resilience and innovation.

In addition to this cover story section, the winners of the Vista Awards, presented annually by ASHE to celebrate outstanding achievements in team-based health care planning, design and construction, were profiled in the cover story of the May/June issue of Health Facilities Management. Those winners were MetroHealth’s The Glick Center in Cleveland for new construction and AdventHealth Shawnee Mission’s Tower 2 in Merriam, Kan., for renovation.

ASHE programs

As a professional membership group of the American Hospital Association, ASHE is relied on by more than 12,000 members as a critical source of professional development, information and advocacy, including representation on key issues that affect their work.

ASHE members have a significant impact on the health and safety of patients and the field of health care facilities management. Through ASHE awards and recognition programs, individuals and organizations are recognized for key accomplishments and their contributions to the health care facilities management field.

Visit ASHE online to learn more about its awards and recognition programs.

Award and recognition committee members

The following American Society for Health Care Engineering members served as the committee that selected the recipients of this year’s Crystal Eagle, Emerging Regional Leader and Excellence in Health Care Facility Management awards.

• Bobby Baird (chair), CHFM, CHC, CHSP, FASHE, director of facility operations at UF Health in Gainesville, Fla.
• Brady Housden, CHFM, CHC, CHOP-B, SASHE, lead project manager at Harrell-Fish Inc. in Indianapolis.
• Candice Bradley, manager of business development and marketing at Envinity Building Energy Solutions in State College, Pa.
• Kyle Houser, principal/senior project engineer at TLC Engineering for Architecture in Philadelphia.
• Reginald Warren, CHFM, CHC, CHSP, CHESP, CHOP-A, system director of construction management at VCU Health in Moseley, Va.
• Scott Wytosick, CHFM, fire and life safety consultant at Jensen Hughes in Massillon, Ohio.
• Taylor Benay, director of business communication at Hexmodal in Brooklyn, N.Y.