Samira K. Beckwith, president and CEO of Hope HealthCare Services, has been elected to serve as vice chair for the National Hospice Foundation Board of Trustees.
In addition, Beckwith has also been appointed to a second term for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s Public Policy Committee.
Beckwith joined Hope HealthCare Services as CEO in 1991, when the organization served fewer than 100 patients a day in the immediate Fort Myers area. Under her leadership, Hope Hospice now serves more than 2,200 people each day in Lee, Charlotte, Collier, DeSoto, Hendry, Glades, Hardee, Highlands and Polk counties.
NHPCO was founded in 1978 as a charitable organization advocating for the needs of people facing life-limiting illnesses. Today, NHPCO is the world’s largest and most innovative national membership organization devoted exclusively to promoting access to hospice and palliative care and to maintaining quality care for people facing the end of life and support for their families. The NHF works in partnership with NHPCO to raise funds from individuals, foundations and corporations to fund programs that make a difference in the lives of the patients and families served by NHPCO’s membership of more than 3,400 hospice and palliative care providers.
Beckwith has been recognized for professional and personal achievements on the local, state and national levels. She was recently awarded the 2010 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, one of the nation’s most prestigious awards, and in 2009 received the Alumni Medalist Award from The Ohio State University Alumni Association and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Stevie Awards for Women in Business.
Her previous honors include the APEX Award from the Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce, Gulfshore Life magazine’s Woman of the Year, Survivor of the Year for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure and the Junior Achievement of Lee County’s Business Leadership Hall of Fame.
