Margery Pabst Steinmetz is one of the most consequential philanthropic thinkers of her generation. She did not wait for the field of arts and health to be fashionable. She funded the research, convened the scholars, insisted on a shared vocabulary, and then pressed everyone to speak in the language of policy and outcomes. Nemours Children’s is enormously proud to recognize her as a friend and partner, and prouder to place her name alongside John Lord’s.
ORLANDO, Fla. (Sept. 28, 2026) – Nemours Children’s Health has presented the 2026 John S. Lord Health Impact Award to philanthropist, author, and community leader Margery Pabst Steinmetz. Presented at the 2026 Night with Nemours gala, the award recognizes individuals who have made meaningful, positive, and lasting impacts on the health and well-being of children and families throughout Central Florida.
“Margery Pabst Steinmetz is one of the most consequential philanthropic thinkers of her generation,” said Sean Finn, Vice President of Philanthropy at Nemours Children’s Health. “She did not wait for the field of arts and health to be fashionable. She funded the research, convened the scholars, insisted on a shared vocabulary, and then pressed everyone to speak in the language of policy and outcomes. Nemours Children’s is enormously proud to recognize her as a friend and partner, and prouder to place her name alongside John Lord’s. What Margery has built in the region will continue to shape pediatric medicine well beyond Florida.
Steinmetz is widely regarded as one of Florida’s most important figures in arts and health philanthropy. Through the Pabst Steinmetz Foundation, which she founded with her husband Chuck, she has dedicated more than two decades to making the arts accessible to Floridians. Her influence is visible in the cultural framework of Central Florida, where the family’s philanthropy created Steinmetz Hall at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
The Pabst Steinmetz Arts & Wellness Innovation Awards at the University of Central Florida (UCF) have supported more than a decade of interdisciplinary research at the intersection of the arts and well-being, including studies of music therapy in Alzheimer’s disease. She has served on the board of the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, chaired the board of the National Center for Creative Aging, and is a Board Member Emeritus at UCF. At Nemours Children’s Hospital, Florida, a Pabst Steinmetz Foundation grant brings ArtReach Orlando into the hospital each month to work alongside the art therapist and directly with patients.
Moreover, her work has also been foundational to the national arts-in-health movement. In partnership with the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine, Steinmetz helped convene the roundtables that produced Talking about Arts in Health (2017), the position paper that gave the discipline a common academic language. She played an integral role in designing and promoting the Creating Healthy Communities: Arts + Public Health in America initiative, a series of nine convenings that brought together more than 500 thought leaders across the arts, healthcare, and public health sectors, resulting in a 2019 white paper addressing racism, social isolation, mental health, chronic disease, and collective trauma. The Pabst Steinmetz Foundation also helped launch the EpiArts Lab at the University of Florida, developed with the National Endowment for the Arts and in partnership with University College London, which has published a substantial body of peer-reviewed research on the health effects of arts participation and social prescribing.
After caring for her late first husband, Margery also became a national voice for caregivers, writing four books, including the award-winning Enrich Your Caregiving Journey and Words of Care, creating mycaregivingcoach.com, and hosting two radio programs devoted to the emotional lives of the people who care for others.
The John S. Lord Health Impact Award is named in honor John S. Lord, former Chair of the Nemours Foundation, Emeritus Trustee of the Aldred I. duPont Charitable Trust. He is also known as one of the key community leaders who advocated for the establishment of Nemours Children’s Hospital, Florida. The award is the highest honor bestowed at the Night with Nemours gala, from which proceeds support the Compassionate Care Fund at Nemours Children’s Hospital, Florida. This year’s gala and award presentation come as Nemours Children’s Health celebrates 90 years of caring for children.
To learn more about the John S. Lord Health Impact Award and this year’s honoree, or to support Nemours Children’s Health, visit give.nemours.org.
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About Nemours Children’s Health
Nemours Children’s Health is one of the nation’s largest multistate pediatric health systems, which includes two free-standing children's hospitals and a network of 80 primary and specialty care practices. Nemours Children's seeks to transform the health of children by adopting a holistic health model that utilizes innovative, safe, and high-quality care, while also addressing children’s needs well beyond medicine. In producing the highly acclaimed, award-winning pediatric medicine podcast Well Beyond Medicine, Nemours underscores that commitment by featuring the people, programs and partnerships addressing Whole Child Health. Nemours Children's also powers the world’s most-visited website for information on the health of children and teens, Nemours KidsHealth.org.
The Nemours Foundation, established through the legacy and philanthropy of Alfred I. duPont, provides pediatric clinical care, research, education, advocacy, and prevention programs to the children, families and communities it serves. For more information, visit Nemours.org.
About the Pabst Steinmetz Foundation
Founded by Margery Pabst Steinmetz and Charles “Chuck” Steinmetz, the Pabst Steinmetz Foundation works to inspire and build community through innovation in the arts and education, with a mission to ensure that every Floridian has access to the arts.
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