Melinda L. Estes, MD,

President and Chief Executive Officer of Saint Luke’s Health System

Melinda L. Estes, M.D., has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Saint Luke’s Health System since September 2011.  Prior to joining Saint Luke’s, Dr. Estes served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Fletcher Allen Health Care since October 2003, as Chair of the Board of Governors of Cleveland Clinic Florida from 2001 to 2003, and as the Executive Director of Business Development at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio, and Chief Medical Officer at The Cleveland Clinic Florida, from 2000 to 2001.  Dr. Estes served as Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff for the MetroHealth System in Cleveland from 1997-2000 and was the Associate Chief of Staff of The Cleveland Clinic Foundation from 1990-1997.  

Dr. Estes earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.  She received her medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, in 1978, and completed a neurology residency there in 1982.  She also was a neuropathology fellow at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation from 1982-1984 and completed special training in pediatric neuropathology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in 1984.  She is board certified in both neurology and neuropathology.  Dr. Estes earned an M.B.A. from Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management in 1995.

Dr. Estes has been active in many professional organizations and is the current past chair of the American Hospital Association board and is a member of the executive committee.  She also has served on the board of the Council of Teaching Hospitals of the American Association of Medical Colleges, the board of directors of the University Health System Consortium, the American Hospital Association’s Metropolitan Health Council, the Committee on Health Professionals, and the Regional Policy Board.  She was chair of the board of the Vermont Association of Hospitals & Health Systems and is a member of the board of the Missouri Hospital Association.  

Dr. Estes is married to Harold H. Morris III, M.D., a neurologist in Kansas City.