John W. Bluford, III

John W. Bluford, III is a native South Carolinian and a trailblazer in hospital and health care administration as one of only a few African-American hospital chief executive officers nationally. Bluford is President and CEO of Truman Medical Centers (TMC) based in Kansas City, Missouri. Truman Medical Center is a two-hospital, non-profit, multi-specialty academic medical center and teaching affiliate of the University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Medicine. TMC operates a stand-alone behavioral health unit and a level-one trauma center, has 4,000 employees and generates over $400 million in annual revenues.  In 2005, the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) ranked the TMC system as one of the Top Five Academic Medical Centers in the country.

Bluford has received numerous awards throughout his more than three decades career in hospital and health system administration including: Kansas City Urban League Difference Maker (2006); Modern Healthcare Magazine’s 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare (2006); NAACP Special Achievement Award (2004) and Missouri Hospital Association Visionary Leadership Award (2003). He was granted the Missouri Hospital Association Distinguished Career Award in November 2009, and recently designated chair-elect of 5000-member American Hospital Association.

Active in civic engagement and community service wherever he works, Bluford was the first African American to serve as Chairman of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.  Bluford is also a member of the Board of Trustees, Morehouse College School of Medicine, Past Chair of the Board of Trustees of the National Association of Public Hospitals and Board member of H&R Block Bank and DeCare International.

Bluford is a 1967 graduate of C. A. Johnson High School in Columbia, South Carolina. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from Fisk University in 1971 and an MBA in Management from Northwestern University in 1975.  In 1981 Bluford received additional training through Harvard University’s Executive Program in Health System Management. Bluford is a lifetime member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and Archon of Theta Boulé, Kansas City, Missouri.  Bluford is married and has two children. In his free time Bluford enjoys jazz music and plays tennis competitively.