National Rural Health Foundation

The National Rural Health Foundation (NRHF) was established in 2011 as the Rural Health Leadership and Education Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit organization connected to the National Rural Health Association. NRHF was created to empower rural health professionals to step into advocacy leadership roles. By supporting their growth through programs that focus on rural health tailored leadership training, we're creating more opportunities for rural health care to improve.

Our Mission

NRHF is committed to leadership development tailored specifically to the health care needs of rural communities. We play an important role in the protection of health care access and quality in rural America and the advancement of equity for those communities. By giving our rural health champions the tools and resources they need to make their voices louder, we prepare them to take on the unique challenges affecting rural areas locally, regionally, and nationally.

Supported Programs

• NRHA's Rural Health Fellows Program 
  • The Rural Health Fellows Program is a nationally recognized, year-long training course that guides participants through topics like Rural Workforce Issues, How to Engage with the Executive Branch, Population Health & Value-Based Care among others. In covering this type of material, Fellows are given an education in engagement with national policy and effective advocacy techniques. 
  • Over time, the Fellows Program has been responsible for producing a lengthy record of published policy papers that share NRHA's views on critical issues and demonstrate their leadership capabilities. Policy paper topics include Medicare Advantage in Rural, Cybersecurity in Rural Health, Rural Childhood Immunization, and Psychiatric Boarding of Rural Youth, just to name a few. Leaders responsible for creating and influencing meaningful change at the highest level for their communities and others emerge from the Fellows Program.
• The Center for Rural Health Leadership (CRHL) 
  • CRHL hosts a number of specialized programs that provide curated tools and strategies to hospital and clinical administrators and executives looking to improve their facility operations, provide high-quality care to their communities, and ultimately keep their doors open. CRHL maintains a highly engaged community of rural health leaders commonly found in the hospital/clinical setting. Programs geared toward C-Suite executives, Human Resource staff, and Hospital Board Members open the opportunity for a wide variety of professionals to participate.

Our supported programs promote a dynamic network of advocates and innovators who drive solutions to the nation’s most pressing rural health challenges.

Looking Ahead

As the need for effective rural health leadership only continues to grow, NRHF remains committed to enhancing these programs and their offerings in the hopes that we can be apart of the transformation of the rural health landscape. As we continue to work toward this mission, our aim is to strengthen the curriculum of our programs, expand networking opportunities for our participants, and create actionable pathways for our leaders to demonstrate their leadership abilities within NRHA as well as in their communities.