Jeff Bahr, MD, FACP
Chief Physician Executive - Midwest Region, Advocate Health
Chair, WHA Board of Directors
Dr. Bahr leads the 3800 physicians and 2200 advanced practice clinicians employed by Advocate Health Care in Illinois and Aurora Health Care in Wisconsin. Having previously overseen the integration of two large medical groups within Advocate Aurora Health, he currently oversees medical group operations, clinical service lines, workforce planning, clinician recruitment, clinical quality and programming, as well as patient access. He is currently Chair of the Board of Directors for the Advocate Aurora Research Institute and has previously led system Academics in Wisconsin and Illinois.
Dr. Bahr joined Aurora Health Care in 2002 and previously served as Vice President – Primary Care, leading Aurora Health Care’s Primary Care Service Line. In that role, he led initiatives in clinical quality, patient experience, growth, care redesign, and workforce planning for internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, and urgent care. He assisted in developing and implementing tactics within the Primary Care Redesign initiative that fostered growth and efficiency in the practices of over 900 primary care physicians and advanced practice clinicians.
He is a director on the board of the Wisconsin Hospital Association and chairs the board of Open Arms Free Clinic in Elkhorn, Wisconsin.
Dr. Bahr is board certified in general internal medicine and maintains a primary care practice. Prior to establishing his practice in 2002, he served as Chief Resident and Instructor of Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee where he completed his internship and residency.
Dr. Bahr earned his medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin and received his bachelor’s degree from Marquette University. He was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha in 2001 and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians.
Julie Steiner
Partners of WHA, President
Julie Steiner finds volunteering at her local hospital gratifying and fulfilling. She has been a member of The Friends of Vernon Memorial Healthcare in Viroqua for 37 years. Julie is honored to have served as an officer of Western District Partners and has served on the Board of Directors of Partners of WHA for 9 years.
Professionally, Julie was the News Director at WVRQ Radio in Viroqua for 21 years. She served as the Marketing/Public Relations/Development Manager at Vernon Memorial Healthcare for 14 years, retiring in 2013. Through the years she has been an active member of numerous organizations in her community.
Julie is married to Garith Steiner, a retired registered nurse and hospital CEO. They have two married daughters and four grandchildren, ages 4 to 11. Julie enjoys travel, golf, fishing, reading, sewing, and spending time with her family and friends. As 2025-2027 Partners State President, she looks forward to promoting the value of Partners and health care volunteers in their service to Wisconsin hospitals.
Eric Borgerding
President and CEO, Wisconsin Hospital Association
Eric Borgerding is the president and CEO of the Wisconsin Hospital Association (WHA). He has been with WHA since 2002 and previously held positions as vice president of government relations, senior vice president and executive vice president.
Borgerding’s advocacy career in Wisconsin spans over three decades. Prior to joining WHA, Borgerding previously served as director of legislative relations for the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s largest business organization, senior director of state legislative affairs for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and previously with WHA as the director of legislative relations.
During Borgerding’s tenure, WHA has become one of the most influential and effective advocacy and lobbying organizations in Wisconsin, respected and recognized for its public policy leadership and building bipartisan consensus on a host of health care issues.
Since joining WHA in 2002, Borgerding has assembled and led a highly respected policy and advocacy team while achieving several notable accomplishments, including: restoring the damage cap in medical lawsuits and preserving Wisconsin’s balanced medical malpractice system; creating Wisconsin’s Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital program; enacting legislation creating the Wisconsin Council on Medical Education and Workforce and the Wisconsin Rural Physician Residency Assistance Program; enacting legislation creating the WHA Information Center and nationally-recognized transparency tool PricePoint; enacting the Wisconsin Quality Improvement Act; increasing state funding for graduate medical education and creating new residency programs; enacting Wisconsin’s successful hospital assessment; overhauling Wisconsin’s hospital regulations; building one of Wisconsin’s largest grassroots advocacy networks; and achieving a five-fold increase in contributions to WHA’s political action committee making it the largest in Wisconsin.
Borgerding serves on the board of directors of several key stakeholders and partners, including the American Hospital Association Region Five; Wisconsin Technology Council; Wisconsin State Historical Society; Wisconsin Council on Medical Education and Workforce; American College of Health Care Executives - Wisconsin chapter; Wisconsin Health News; Wisconsin Civil Justice Council; Wisconsin Hospital Association Foundation; Healthy Wisconsin Alliance; and the Wisconsin Hospital Association Information Center.
Borgerding received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a graduate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute of Organizational Management. He is married with three grown children, one grandchild and enjoys history, fishing, reading and writing.