2025 Health Care Champions Health Care Professional: Amanda Altobell

As director of ethics for Mercy Springfield Communities, Amanda Altobell serves five hospitals and more than 100 clinics across southwest Missouri, always keeping in mind what she calls the intimate and vulnerable relationship between patient and provider.

It’s a relationship that she says transcends injury and illness.

“On one end there is the individual in need of care and on the other end the individual wanting to give care,” she says. “At the center, I always saw Christ supporting both individuals, as receiving care is never easy, and there are many burdens to giving care.”

Altobell says in her role as director of ethics, she takes a strategic approach to advanced care planning and continuity of care while also focusing on communication styles with patients and providers to ensure that patients’ wishes are heard and honored.

Altobell says she also works to expand access to the field of medical ethics in research initiatives and work groups that shape accreditation standards and secure funding for ethics fellowships.

“These efforts aim to cultivate a more diverse and well-prepared pipeline of future ethics leaders,” she says.

Additionally, she mentors young ethicists and medical professionals by lecturing alongside residency programs and clinicals for Missouri State University nurses and University of Missouri medical students. She also performs and publishes academic research to advance understanding in her field.

An inspiration to Altobell is a painting by contemporary illustrator Nathan Greene called “The Healer.” In it, a nurse uses one hand to dab the brow of a patient in his bed. Her other hand holds the patient’s wrist, giving comfort while perhaps tracking his pulse. Standing beside the nurse is Jesus, who looks with compassion at the caregiver as he touches her shoulder.

Ashleigh Goris, vice president of quality and safety for Mercy Springfield Communities, notes Altobell’s grounding in faith and praises her calm demeanor and motivating presence.

“She meets with patients and their loved ones in arguably the most vulnerable, tragic times of their lives, creating a faith-based, trusting environment to make some of life’s toughest decisions,” Goris says.

She adds that while facilitating complex care meetings with physicians, social workers, legal and safety professionals, and others, Altobell leads with passion and expertise.

“Amanda shared that her motivation to be a health care ethicist was to further improve faith-based recommendations in health care and provide personalized, preventive ethics to our most vulnerable,” Goris says.

“I truly believe that motivation is coupled with her intrinsic desire to improve patient care and achieve better outcomes for the patients and families we serve.”