2027 NACHC Workforce Conference Call for Abstracts

Deadline: Friday, November 6, 2026

NACHC’s Workforce Conference is the premier conference for health center Chief Financial Officers, Chief Executive Officers, Chief Operating Officers, Chief Information Officers, Chief Medical Officers, and all health center innovators and leaders in the areas of operational, financial, HIT, and clinical services delivery. NACHC is now accepting proposals for educational sessions until Friday November 6, 2026, at 11:59PM ET. Please review the criteria below prior to submitting an abstract.

Important Call for Abstract Dates

• Friday, November 6, 2026: Completed submissions are due by 11:59 PM ET.
• November - December 2026: Abstract review period
• January 2027: Education program announced: abstract submitters will be notified via email

How to Write a Compelling Abstract:

Do you want to improve your odds of acceptance? We've created a short document that describes how to write the type of abstract that will capture the hearts and minds of our conference organizers. This is highly encouraged reading if you want to move from "proposal" to "featured session at the 2027 Workforce Conference!"

Who Attends Workforce Conference?

You can expect 800+ attendees at the 2027 Workforce Conference. Attendees are primarily Community Health Center leaders with the following job functions:

• 29%: CFOs and Finance Administrators
• 20%: CEOs and Executive Directors
• 17%: COOs and Office Administrators
• 12%: IT Administrators
• 12%: Other Management Personnel
• 10% Clinicians

About the Education Program:

NACHC anticipates offering at least 30 education sessions during the 2027 NACHC Workforce Conference. This year, we are looking for sessions that position health centers as the Employer, Provider, and Partner of Choice (EPPOC) for primary care and advancing health access:

• Partner of Choice: Position health centers as the partner of choice among all healthcare stakeholders to catalyze innovation and improve health. Healthcare Stakeholders = Patients, Providers, Payers, Purchasers, & Policy Makers.
• Employer of Choice: Position health centers as the employer of choice by identifying strategies and best practices to educate, recruit, and retain a high-quality, resilient, diverse, and culturally competent workforce that represents the people we serve.
• Provider of Choice: Positioning health centers as the provider of choice for all patients (and payers) across the lifespan through the provision of comprehensive, high-quality primary care that delivers on the Quintuple Aim with access in the center.

Education sessions will feature best practices and innovative solutions in the content areas below:

• Clinical Informatics
• Clinical Workforce
• Data Strategy
• Financial Sustainability
• Operations
• Medically Underserved Patients
• Technology
• Workforce

Content & Delivery Priorities:

Feedback from previous Workforce Conference attendees points to a clear demand for practical, solutions-focused education that addresses the workforce pressures Community Health Centers are navigating right now. Previous attendees consistently prioritized strategies they can adapt and implement within their own organizations.

Across all of these areas, attendees expressed a strong preference for practical application over theory. Competitive proposals should feature real-world Community Health Center examples, case studies, tools, templates, benchmarks, measurable outcomes, implementation lessons, and approaches that participants can adapt within their own organizations.

Based on that feedback, we encourage proposals that address the following suggested topics:

• AI, Technology & the Future of Work: Practical applications of artificial intelligence, automation, and emerging technologies that improve workforce efficiency, reduce administrative burden, support HR functions, or reshape how health center teams work.
• Financial Sustainability: Approaches to managing workforce costs while maintaining access and quality, including compensation and benefits strategies, productivity, staffing efficiencies, revenue diversification, and workforce planning within constrained budgets.
• Leadership, Management & Organizational Culture: Strategies for developing effective supervisors and leaders, navigating conflict and change, strengthening accountability, improving communication, supporting staff well-being, and creating workplaces where employees can succeed.
• Workforce Data, Analytics & Benchmarking: Using workforce data to inform decision-making, including turnover and vacancy metrics, compensation benchmarking, productivity measures, workforce forecasting, employee feedback, and approaches for translating data into action.
• New Staffing & Care Team Models: Innovative workforce configurations, expanded roles, team-based care approaches, scheduling models, workflow redesign, and strategies for maximizing the skills and capacity of existing staff.
• Recruitment, Retention & Employee Experience: Strategies for attracting and retaining clinical and non-clinical staff, improving employee engagement, strengthening organizational culture, reducing turnover, and responding to changing workforce expectations.
• HR Strategy, Performance & Compliance: Practical guidance on performance management, employee relations, labor and employment issues, regulatory compliance, compensation, benefits, policies, and other evolving HR challenges affecting Community Health Centers.

Session Formats:

• Workshop: A 60-minute presentation that is highly interactive and focuses on problem-solving or skill-building. Your presentation should therefore be a mix of didactic information sharing and hands-on work. Workshops are intended to change attendee behaviors and should therefore incorporate exercises that will help attendees take home actionable steps that they can immediately incorporate into their health centers.
• Panel Discussion: A 60-minute didactic presentation with a panel of experts sharing insights and opinions. Panel discussions are designed to share information on emerging topics and new developments. These sessions should incorporate some interactive components (e.g. polling, Q&A) to better understand your audience's starting points and motivations.
• Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Networking Session: A 60-minute facilitated session focusing on topics that affect health centers such as – but not limited to – legislative and regulatory practices, operational issues, good governance practices, and the unique challenges that come with health center management and patient care. P2Ps are designed for learning in small group settings, where participants exchange ideas and network on issues most relevant to health centers.
• NEW in 2027: Challenge Labs: Challenge Labs are 90-minute immersive, scenario-based sessions designed to help participants collaboratively address real high-stakes challenges facing community health centers. These sessions emphasize applied problem-solving, peer learning, and practical takeaways. Challenge Labs are not just presentations or panels - they should be designed as facilitated learning experiences where participants actively engage in solving a clearly defined challenge.

Abstract Tips:

• For-profit entities must partner with a health center or PCA/HCCN/NTAP to be considered, and session faculty must include these health center or PCA/HCCN/NTAP partners. Please confirm all speakers in your abstract prior to submission.
• Submissions with full session details (e.g. title, description, learning objectives, & speakers) will be prioritized.
• An education session is not a sales or vendor marketing opportunity; rather, it should provide actionable and relevant information for health center leaders to apply in a vendor-agnostic session.
• Demonstrate how your work is relevant to health centers, and why they should know about it..
• Please clearly describe how the session fits the selected track(s).
• Unless otherwise noted, sessions are limited to 60 minutes in length, including time for questions and answers.

Abstract Submission Selection Criteria:

• Relevance & Strategic Alignment: Does this address a real & current challenge for our audiences?
• Practical Value & Applicability: Will attendees leave with something they can actually use?
• Engagement & Format Design: Is this designed as an interactive experience rather than a lecture?
• Evidence, Credibility & Outcomes: Is this grounded in real-world experience or data?
• Originality & Differentiation: Does this bring new approaches and solutions to the table?
• Commercial Bias : Does this proposal offer vendor/product agnostic solutions?

Financial Disclosures::

All faculty participating in the planning or implementation of a sponsored activity are required to disclose to NACHC any relevant financial relationship or other relationship held within the past 24 months that may pose a potential commercial bias and to assist in resolving any conflict of interest that may arise from the relationship. Any faculty member/participant who refuses to disclose relevant financial relationships may be disqualified from participation in this CME activity and may be precluded from consideration of future presentations at NACHC CME events/programs. In accordance with AAFP policy, NACHC requires that any potential conflicts of interest disclosed below be reviewed and resolved prior to the beginning of the activity.

If you are submitting this abstract for other speakers, please confirm if they have financial relationships as directed in the abstract form and complete disclosures on their behalf.

Speaker Expenses:

At the time of publishing this call for sessions, no travel or hotel expenses will be provided to speakers. Speakers currently qualify for a $50 discount on conference registration fees and must register in order to participate beyond their individual session.

Terms:

• All abstract proposals will be reviewed by a committee composed of health center leaders and industry experts, with support from NACHC staff.
• NOTE: NACHC may consider combining sessions based upon topic, session format, speakers, or other factors. NACHC also reserves the right to edit session titles and descriptions to meet the organization's marketing and branding guidelines. NACHC will contact submitters if this affects any sessions that are selected for the final program.
• This is a competitive process. Due to the limited number of available education session slots, not all proposals will be accepted for conference presentations. Submitters will be notified of their abstract status in January 2027.