Steven W. Churchill, MNA, will be leaving his post as president and CEO of the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP) to accept a role at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China. Churchill will stay on with the organization through its 50th annual international conference to be held Oct. 18-21 in New Orleans, La.

“While I am excited to pursue this once-in-a-lifetime career opportunity, I will miss interacting with AHP’s caring and passionate community that does so much for health care in the United States and Canada,” Churchill said in a statement.

Churchill will serve as senior advisor and chief of staff to Ambassador Terry E. Branstad in Beijing. The move reunites the two former colleagues after most recently working together at Des Moines University, where Branstad served as university president and Churchill worked as vice president of alumni relations for the medical school. Churchill’s three terms as an Iowa state representative also overlapped with Branstad’s first tour as the state’s governor.

Churchill joined AHP in April 2014 after serving as executive director of the American Medical Association Foundation. Previous career stops also include director of major gifts at Simpson College, marketing executive at Mid-America Group, and fundraising consultant for political and nonprofit groups.

AHP has begun its search process to identify a new president and CEO with Fred Najjar, senior vice president of philanthropy at Dignity Health in San Francisco, Calif., leading the search committee. AHP will retain an interim president and CEO to fill the position during the search process. Additional details regarding the search will be shared with membership in the coming weeks, according to a release.

Headquartered in Falls Church, Va., AHP represents 5,000 members from 2,200 healthcare organizations. The organization reported revenue of $3.93 million in 2014, its most recently available federal Form 990. The sum was a decrease from 2013’s $4.24 million, but an improvement on 2012’s $3.82 million.