St. Margaret’s Hospital Guild and Versiti Blood Center of Indiana announced Megan Porter, M.Ed., MSW, LSW, and Claire Willard, M.D., as co-recipients of the 2025 Achievement in Medicine (AIM) Award. The AIM Award honors a physician or professional of the Eskenazi Health team who upholds the tradition of excellence in health care within the communities they serve.

Porter is a social worker with Eskenazi Health Palliative Care and also serves as the program’s hospice coordinator. She was nominated for the AIM Award for advocating for vulnerable patients by bridging care gaps, coordinating care across teams, and ensuring social and medical needs are met. She mentors others, partners with community and hospital resources, and exemplifies Eskenazi Health’s mission through tireless service to those most in need.

According to the award nomination, “Megan is tenacious, resourceful and deeply compassionate. She challenges limitations with innovation, leverages community partnerships with home-based palliative care groups, hospice agencies, etc., and persistently advocates no matter the obstacles present. Her problem-solving skills and commitment to personalized, equitable care embody the core values of outstanding achievement in medicine.”

Porter has worked at Eskenazi Health for eight years and supports patients in both the inpatient and outpatient settings. As the program’s hospice coordinator, she engages with area agencies to ensure compassionate, coordinated care for patients at the end of life and their families.

Dr. Willard serves as the medical director of Eskenazi Health Palliative Care. She was nominated for the AIM Award for going above and beyond in her service to Eskenazi Health. Dr. Willard has chaired the Eskenazi Health Ethics Committee since 2017 and is recognized for bringing her ethics expertise and her good judgment and compassion to the most difficult situations in medicine and often to the most vulnerable patients.

Dr. Willard’s dedication to her patients is evident, especially when discussing life-threatening illness and the end of life. “She has a quiet, compassionate yet direct way of giving patients important information they need about their diagnosis and prognosis while showing compassion and ensuring the patient feels cared about and respected,” said her nominator.

In addition to her roles at Eskenazi Health, Dr. Willard serves as an assistant professor of clinical medicine at Indiana University Department of Medicine. Dr. Willard attended Indiana University School of Medicine, where she also completed a residency in internal medicine and fellowship in hospice and palliative medicine, as well as a fellowship in medical ethics at Charles Warren Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics.

AIM Award recipients are selected by the St. Margaret’s Hospital Guild, a volunteer organization that has been a key partner in supporting Eskenazi Health’s mission since 1907. Through the years, the guild has raised nearly $15 million to support the work of Eskenazi Health and the communities it serves.