By Aaron Summerall, 2025–2026 International Central Region Vice President
Some healthcare stories begin with a stethoscope. Landyn Ford’s begins with a sign in sheet. Not because paperwork is glamorous, but because that is where access becomes real. A name written down. A door opened. A first step taken by a student who has the passion, but not yet the map.
At East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, Ford has made a career out of building that map, creating pathways that allow young people to enter healthcare with confidence, clarity, and a sense of belonging.
Today, Ford serves as the Volunteer Programs Manager at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, where he oversees youth and adult volunteer programs, manages in-kind donations, and designs educational initiatives that introduce students to healthcare long before their paths feel permanent. His leadership happens quietly, often behind the scenes, but its impact is carried forward by every student who walks into the hospital unsure and leaves believing they belong.
“It really means everything to me to inspire these students,” Ford shared. “I was once standing where they are now, trying to figure out how to get involved and where I fit.” That memory is the foundation of his work.
Ford’s relationship with healthcare began in high school through service and leadership. He joined Tennessee HOSA in 2015, eventually serving as Chapter President and later as East Tennessee Regional Vice President. Through HOSA, he learned that healthcare is not a single role or title, but a system made up of people, programs, and values. HOSA gave him space to explore. It taught him how to speak with purpose, lead collaboratively, and remain grounded in service. Even after graduating, Ford stayed connected through his early years at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, carrying HOSA’s values into every new environment. HOSA did not give Ford a fixed destination. It gave him permission to explore. In 2020, he was named Tennessee HOSA Alumni of the Year, recognizing not just what he had accomplished, but the kind of leader he was becoming.
Raised in Jacksboro, Tennessee, Ford showed early signs of service driven leadership. As a high school student, he raised more than five thousand dollars for Alzheimer’s Tennessee in honor of his papa, who had Alzheimer’s disease. The experience taught him that care does not begin in hospitals. It begins wherever people decide to show up for one another. Around the same time, he joined the VolunTeen Program at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, stepping into pediatric healthcare not as an observer, but as someone willing to show up, listen, and learn. It was not about service hours. It was about presence, empathy, and responsibility.
Ford’s academic path reflected his growing interest in the systems that shape healthcare. He graduated in 2023 with a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies and a concentration in nonprofit leadership. Through his studies and an undergraduate thesis on healthcare sharing ministries, he examined healthcare through ethical, theological, and policy lenses. That systems level perspective now defines his work. At East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, Ford leads the VolunTeen Program, managing the same initiative he once joined as a student. In 2025, the program welcomed students from 35 different high schools, many of whom described the experience as transformative. He also developed the Children’s Hospital Immersive Medical Program and Career and Technical Education Day, initiatives designed to give students early, meaningful exposure to healthcare careers. Many participants are HOSA members, reinforcing the connection between student leadership and professional pathways.
In 2020, at just nineteen years old, Ford’s understanding of healthcare shifted from professional to personal. His father was rushed to Vanderbilt Health with severe heart complications. For five weeks, Ford and his family lived in a hospitality house near the hospital, relying on the quiet infrastructure that supports families during medical crises. That experience truly changed him.
“My dad is the reason I am who I am,” Ford shared. “I would not be here without him. Watching how he faced that season, and how our family was supported, shaped the kind of leader I want to be.”
He saw that care extends beyond treatment. It includes hospitality, dignity, and community support. Today, Ford continues to give back to similar hospitality organizations, visiting families and bringing supplies to those walking the same road his own family once traveled.
Ford joined East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in November 2020 in a part time role intended to last just two months. Within a year, he was promoted to a full time specialist position. By age nineteen, he had his own office. Now, as Volunteer Programs Manager, he oversees approximately two hundred adult volunteers and leads the VolunTeen Program that once shaped him. One of Ford’s core priorities has been ensuring that opportunity is as fair and accessible as possible. As someone who attended a rural high school, he understands how geography and resources can limit access to professional pathways. In 2026, he launched a strategic initiative called the Beyond Borders Plan, focused on expanding outreach to underrepresented schools across East Tennessee and beyond, ensuring that students from all backgrounds have the chance to participate in healthcare experiences. For Ford, access and excellence belong together.
In early 2025, Ford received the BEE Award, the highest honor for non clinical staff at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. The recognition affirmed what students and colleagues already knew: his leadership changes how people experience healthcare. While working full time, Ford is completing a Master of Healthcare Administration through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has spoken openly about a long term goal shaped by a pivotal conversation with former hospital CEO Keith Goodwin: to one day lead the hospital as its President and CEO. He continues to mentor students and remains active with Tennessee HOSA, ensuring that the next generation has clearer pathways than the ones he once searched for.
“If I could tell my younger HOSA self anything,” Ford reflected, “it would be not to put myself in a box.”
Ford’s story is not just about career progression. It is about continuity. About how leadership, when rooted in service, becomes something that outlives titles and timelines. For HOSA members wondering what comes next, his journey offers a powerful answer. The work you begin now can become the systems that welcome others later. And sometimes, that is the most meaningful impact of all.
If you are a HOSA alumni and would like to join our alumni network of leaders like Landyn Ford visit www.hosa.org/alumni.
