Director, Community Benefit and Anchor Initiatives
BJC HealthCare
Christopher Nolan serves as the Director of Community Benefit and Anchor Initiatives at BJC HealthCare. BJC HealthCare is part of BJC Health System, which is one of region’s largest health systems encompassing 24 hospitals spanning Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas and providing over $1 billion in community benefit. BJC operates as BJC HealthCare in the Eastern region and Saint Luke’s Health System in the Western region.
As a member of the Community Health Improvement leadership team, Christopher leads BJC HealthCare’s community benefit and anchor initiatives team with a particular focus on improving the health and well-being of those in the greater St. Louis region. Christopher is responsible for community benefit efforts for the Eastern region, including the institutional Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA), Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP), and Community Benefits Report (CBR). Christopher also leads BJC’s anchor initiatives, with a specific focus on local purchasing, local investing, and local volunteering. Christopher represents BJC on the Regional Community Health Needs Assessment Collaborative as well as the national Healthcare Anchor Network.
Prior to joining the BJC team, Christopher served as the System Manager of Community Health and Benefit at the Rush University System for Health in Chicago. While at Rush, he was responsible for Rush’s CHNA, CHIP, and CBR. He was an inaugural member of Rush’s Anchor Mission Steering Committee, where he helped shape the community investment and local volunteering pillars of the mission. Christopher is particularly proud of his work to create and build Rush’s Community Health Worker (CHW) Hub, which provided job opportunities for local community members on Chicago’s West Side.
Christopher is also committed to training the next generation of the healthcare workforce. He served as an instructor in the Rush University Department of Health Systems Management, where he created and directed the interprofessional “Health Equity and New Models of Care” course. Christopher also was an adjunct instructor with the City Colleges of Chicago’s Malcolm X College, where he also led the development of courses to help community partners navigate the pandemic and teach community residents how to address vaccination myths and misinformation. For this academic work at Rush University, he holds multiple teaching and service awards.
Christopher is also active in various associations and organizations. He is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, of which he received the Young Healthcare Executive Award from the Chicago Health Executives Forum in 2019. Most recently, he was a member of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Leadership Missouri Program in 2023. Christopher also serves as the Secretary of the Board for DOORWAYS, an organization that provides housing and wraparound services for people living with HIV.
Christopher earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, and Master of Public Administration degree from New York University.
Collaborators Not Competitors: Improving Regional Community Health
Monday, March 2, 2026
4:30pm - 5:30pm CT