2024 Top 20 Impact Makers Honorees
Steven Foster, FACHE
2024 Top 20 Inspiring Man Impact Maker Award
Awards Presentation
Saturday, April 27, 2024
Four Seasons Hotel Houston
Steven Foster is a health system executive dedicated to mentoring young careerists, promoting diversity, and improving community healthcare.
Steven is the South Houston Market president for St. Luke’s Health. In this role, he manages Patients Medical Center in Pasadena, Sugar Land Hospital, and Brazosport Hospital in Lake Jackson. These three institutions are with the Texas Region within CommonSpirit Health, the largest not-for-profit faith-based hospital system in the United States. Their combined net revenue is $500 million.
Born in Mexico City and raised in Texas, Steven earned a master’s degree in Business Administration and a master’s degree in Healthcare Administration from the University of Houston, Clear Lake. He also holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Sam Houston State University.
Steven has over 20 years of progressive hospital administration experience. He began his career at the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center where he was inspired by physicians, researchers and administrators who gave him the opportunity and courage to grow professionally. After moving internationally, Steven managed two hospitals: one in Costa Rica and one in Mexico. These positions exposed him to a two-tier healthcare system (private and public). Despite being promoted to CEO internationally, Steven wanted to prove himself domestically. Returning to the United States, he worked in California, Oklahoma, and Texas gaining experience in small and large for-profit hospital systems.
As a result, Steven is a proven health system executive whose experiences and accomplishments give him a unique perspective on hospital operations and health systems. His experience in for-profit, not-for-profit, and faith-based systems makes for a well-balanced executive portfolio.
Steven is described as a highly effective yet caring leader who is passionate about mentoring young careerists, especially diverse professionals. He is known for pulling people up through the organization and spearheading developmental programs within the companies he works for. Steven is a prolific systems thinker and consensus builder who believes in participative management. This results in cohesive, strong, productive teams and independent leaders that grow vertically within the organizations he works for.
Steven is a Distinguished Fellow with the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and serves on the Regents’ Advisory Council. He is also a member of the South East Chapter of the Texas Diversity Council. In addition to his hospital appointed boards, Steven serves on several community boards, including the National Association of Healthcare Executives, Gulf Coast Chapter; Greater Houston Women’s Chamber of Commerce; ACHE Regents’ Advisory Council; and as an advisory board member of Brazosport Community College Health Services Management Program. As well, he is a guest lecturer at The University of Houston Clear Lake, Texas Women’s University, and Texas A&M healthcare administration programs.
Steven has been acknowledged for his efforts in diversity and educating the healthcare community about implicit bias perceived by Hispanic, African American, Asian, and East Asian cultures. He brings community partners together to improve the quality of care in the communities he serves and strives to develop a workforce, leadership teams, and boards that reflect the communities they serve.
Due to his tireless work with the Hispanic community, Steven was recognized by the Houston Business Journal as a Diversity champion in 2023. In 2022, he received the ACHE Community Service award, and in 2021 he was awarded the National Association of Latino Healthcare Executives (NALHE) Leadership Award for his career achievements.
Steven has authored several articles for Modern Healthcare and the Journal of Healthcare Management on the topics of diversity, international affairs, and emergency management. He was recently featured on Becker’s Healthcare podcast to talk about his work with NALHE.
Steven is married to his wife, Florencia, and is proud of their three children: Marisol, Sebastian, and Lucas. In his spare time, Steven paints at the Glassell School of Art with a focus on oil painting.
It is for all the reasons mentioned above, and many more, that Steven Foster has been named a Top 20 Inspiring Man Impact Maker for 2024.
