Dr. Bridget McCandless was selected and honored as our 2016 Woman of the Year. She is soon to be a member of the Independence, Missouri City Council.

A seat opened on this city council when an incumbent resigned. Dr. McCandless won the seat in a runoff against former city council member Mike Huff on Tuesday, November 8, 2022. She was victorious with 56% of the vote.

Dr. McCandless, a long time Independence resident, received an M.D. from the University of Missouri–Columbia School of Medicine, completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia, and received an M.B.A. in Health Care Leadership from Rockhurst University. 

She was in private practice in Independence for 8 years. She then founded and ran the Shared Care Free Clinic for 15 years to serve uninsured adults with chronic medical conditions.  

She is the retired President/CEO of the Health Forward Foundation. The Foundation worked to ignite a culture of health by focusing on those in need. Since its inception, the foundation has invested more than $300 million in service of its mission in a 6-county area surrounding Kansas City.

She has served on the American College of Physicians Health and Public Policy Committee, the Missouri Medicaid Oversight Committee, the Missouri Women’s Health Policy Council, and the board of the Truman Library Institute.

She currently serves on the Public Utility Advisory Board for Independence. She was awarded the Truman Heartland Community Foundation Humanitarian of the Year and was the Examiner Woman of Distinction.

She is married to Dennis Taylor and is the proud mother of three fabulous children.

You can learn more about this outstanding leader and her election victory here.