Sage Memorial Hospital Honored with The Bond Buyer’s 2025 Deal of the Year Award in Health Care Financing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 1, 2025

GANADO, Ariz.  – Sage Memorial Hospital has been selected as the winner of The Bond Buyer’s 2025 Health Care Financing Deal of the Year award, recognizing the hospital’s groundbreaking $80 million unrated tax-exempt bond issuance that closed in December 2024.

The prestigious award recognizes the transaction’s successful recapitalization of a replacement hospital, an expanded outpatient clinic, and critically needed workforce housing serving the Navajo community in Ganado, Arizona.

The Bond Buyer’s editorial board cited the transaction’s innovation and public purpose, noting that it “opened a replicable path to market for indigenous health systems” across the United States. Sage’s financing was selected over hundreds of submissions nationwide and stood out for its ability to overcome significant structural and market challenges while delivering transformative healthcare infrastructure to one of the most underserved regions in the country.

Delores Noble, Board Chairwoman of Sage Memorial Hospital, stated: “As Diné, we have always known that our strength lies in our resilience and our ability to find new paths forward. I am deeply proud of what Sage Memorial and the Board has accomplished and grateful to everyone who helped make this vision a reality.”

“This national recognition belongs to the Navajo people we serve and to the dedicated team,” said Melinda White, Chief Executive Officer of Sage Memorial Hospital. “This award validates that creativity, sovereignty, and community commitment can break through barriers and create a model others can follow.”

Sage Memorial Hospital will be formally honored at The Bond Buyer’s 24th Annual Deal of the Year Awards gala on December 2, 2025, at Guastavino’s in New York City, where it will also be a finalist for the overall national 2025 Deal of the Year award.

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