Mend The Gap: Healthcare Workforce Summit

THA hosted its inaugural Mend the Gap: Healthcare Workforce Summit on April 17, 2026. This first-of-its-kind event for Tennessee brought together leaders from hospitals, education, workforce, and policy to take on one of the state’s most pressing challenges: strengthening the healthcare workforce.

Hosted in conjunction with THA subsidiary, the Tennessee Center for Health Workforce Development (TCWD), the summit highlighted the growing partnerships addressing this challenge. Mending the workforce gap depends on having the right voices at the table, and this conversation is just getting started. We are grateful to everyone who showed up ready to contribute and help build momentum for the future of this work.

Read the summit recap here.

View conference photos here.

Learn more about THA’s workforce initiatives here.

Looking Ahead

Information on the 2027 Mend the Gap: Healthcare Workforce Summit coming soon.

Attendee Testimonials

What stood out was the clear call to shift from conversation to execution. The most compelling examples demonstrated how health systems and academic partners are co-designing workforce pathways with shared accountability for outcomes.
Tiffany DuncanSenior Director, Clinical Professional Development, Methodist Le Bonheur
The sessions were very informative and timely. I took lots of notes and have reached out to two of the speakers to learn more about how they implemented their programs.
Scott TongateCEO, Macon Community Hospital and THA Board Member
The most important item was to see what is being done around the state to help with healthcare gaps and to meet people who are dealing with similar issues. I made a few good connections.
Tom Kincer, MDAssociate Dean for Rural and Community Programs, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University
Although we have different populations that we serve, there’s enough commonality that we can each take a little from what others are doing in their areas and tweak it to make it work.
Casey NorrisDirector of Clinical Practice & Development, Dolly Parton Children’s Hospital
The Summit highlighted both promising workforce partnerships already making a difference and the need to build those successes into a statewide standard.
Andrew BurnettVice President of Workforce and Rural Health, THA
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