A key player in Colorado's health care and philanthropic landscape has announced plans to retire.
For more than a decade, Karen McNeil-Miller has led the Colorado Health Foundation. The nonprofit has nearly $3 billion in assets, the most of any foundation in the state.
Each year it awards tens of millions of dollars in grants to hundreds of recipients. The funding goes to nonprofit organizations, government agencies and other groups working to improve the health of Coloradans.
“For more than a decade, Karen has led CHF with extraordinary courage, clarity, and humanity. Her leadership, rooted in equity, accountability, and community voice, has shaped CHF into the strong, values-driven institution it is today,” said Dr. Terri Richardson, CHF’s board chair, in an emailed statement. “She deserves the opportunity to step into retirement with the time, space, and good health to enjoy what comes next, and I know many of you will join me in celebrating her legacy and wishing her well.”
'Hopeful work'
McNeil-Miller shared a statement on the group’s website.
“Serving as president and CEO of the Colorado Health Foundation has been one of the greatest honors of my life,” McNeil-Miller said. “Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of being out in communities across Colorado — listening, learning, and walking alongside people who are doing the hard, hopeful work of advancing health equity.”
McNeil-Miller joined the foundation in 2015. “I chose this important field of work to be on the ground in Colorado communities and to get closer to those in need and assist in every way I could,” she said in the statement.
She came to Colorado after more than a decade as president of the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, one of North Carolina’s largest private foundations.
CHF was established in 1995 as the HealthONE Alliance after the nonprofit hospital system HealthONE entered into a joint venture with Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). In 2006, it rebranded as the Colorado Health Foundation.
Grants total millions of dollars
In 2025, it awarded approximately $122 million in grants and contributions, according to a spokesperson. It’s given more than $100 million in grants each year since 2020, except for one year.
The amount of money awarded in grants has roughly doubled since McNeil-Miller’s tenure began in 2015. The Colorado Health Foundation awarded at least 660 grants each of those years before 2025; that includes other contributions, donations and sponsorships. The foundation has 75 employees.
McNeil-Miller led the organization in adopting a comprehensive racial equity framework that explicitly names racism as a “structural determinant of health and embeds equity” across governance, strategy, operations, investments, and partnerships, according to the group’s website.
When the pandemic hit, McNeil-Miller helped ensure funding for programs in communities of color disproportionally impacted by the crisis.
She'll step down at the end of the year.
The foundation's board will oversee a national search for a new leader.
