Speaking Opportunities

The 2026 AHA Rural Health Care Leadership Conference, February 8-11 in San Antonio, will gather more than 1,000 rural health leaders committed to advancing rural health and providing quality care for patients and communities. The conference will feature top rural practitioners sharing actionable strategies and resources aimed at improving access to care, leveraging unique workforce approaches and implementing digital technologies.

We will explore the most significant challenges facing rural health care providers and present innovative approaches to transform care delivery and business practices.

We are now accepting proposals centered around “on-the-ground” perspectives and applicable strategies that showcase unique insights, successful case studies and cutting-edge solutions. We are especially interested in presentations that feature rural hospital executives, clinical leaders and trustees as presenters. Proposals that highlight how health care organizations are overcoming challenges, accelerating innovation and transformation, and scaling change are preferred.

Topics of Interest:

• Strategies for fostering a more flexible and adaptive workforce.
• Advancing quality, patient safety and performance improvement in a rural care environment.
• Emergency and cybersecurity preparedness, response and recovery.
• Value-based care and emerging payment models for rural and small population markets.
• Strategies and collaborative models to improve access to behavioral, maternal and specialty services.
• Advancing community and population health and economic vitality in rural communities.
• Assessing value and innovative approaches to joint ventures, affiliations and mergers for rural hospitals.
• Enhancing access to care in rural communities through telehealth, wearable technologies and remote patient monitoring.
• Adoption of cutting-edge technology and AI to improve access to care, address workforce shortages, reduce administrative burden and mitigate coverage denials or delays.
• Best practices and high-performing care models that address the health care needs of American Indian and Alaskan Native patients and communities.
• Strategies for effective and high-performing governance.

How to submit a proposal

Our Submission Portal will open May 1, 2025.

• To submit a proposal, you must create an account to begin the proposal submission process. The email used to create the account will be set as the default email for the primary contact or presenter.
• Identification of a presentation format.
• A detailed summary of the session including its focus and participant learning objectives.
• Identification of a content area.
• Full contact information for the primary contact.
• Full contact information on the proposed speaker(s).

Please note: You will able be to log back into the submission platform to make edits before the submission deadline.

The primary contact will receive a confirmation email once the proposal has been successfully submitted. Speakers selected to participate will be notified by August 22, 2025.

Waived Conference Fee

Accepted speakers will receive a complimentary registration to the conference. Speakers are responsible for their own travel and hotel guest room expenses.