A Dozen of Community Health's Emerging Leaders Are Getting Recognized

The National Association of Community Health Centers and the Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health at the Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health have selected 12 people for its Emerging Leader Award.

“From pediatricians to dentists to community health workers and more, these skilled emerging leaders represent the wide range of services that community health centers offer to the 31.5 million patients they serve,” said Kyu Rhee, M.D., M.P.P., president and CEO of the National Association of Community Health Centers, in a news release.

The winners of the emerging leaders award are being honored this week at the association’s Policy & Issues Forum in Washington, D.C.

“The professionals recognized as emerging lleaders truly are the future of America’s health center program. We are delighted to recognize their achievements as clinicians, managers, educators, policy advocates and public health experts, and anticipate their exceptional contributions in the years ahead,” Feygele Jacobs, director of the Geiger Gibson program, said in the same news release.

Here are the honorees:

Alona Sukhina, M.D., physician-pediatrician, El Rio Health. Arizona

Courtney Buys, director of quality, Montana Primary Care Association. Montana

Daniel Martinez Tovar, MBA,ental senior manager. Multnomah County Community Health Centers, Oregon

Daniella Rocha, LCSW, integrated behavioral health/substance Treatment Consultant, Denver Health and Hospital Authority, Colorado

Jazmine Cardenas, center operations director, Salud Family Health, Colorado

Kelly Chacon, M.P.H.,director of care navigation and health promotion, Urban Health Plan. New York

Lucia Camacho, patient benefits navigator manager, Esperanza Health Center, Illinois

Samantha Pinard, community health worker supervisor – quality, Greater Portland Health, Maine

Samantha Stacks, M.P.H.,advanced practice provider, Fourth Street Clinic, Utah

Scott Stewart, M.P.A.,chief strategy officer, Honor Community Health, Michigan

Suely Ribeiro, assistant director of practice management. Brockton Neighborhood Health Center, Massachusetts

Zainab Wilson, D.D.S., dental director, TCA Health, Inc.,Illinois

The community health center movement has grown over the past\ half-century, from just two centers in the late 1960s to more than 1,400 health centers operating in over 15,000 urban and rural locations, according to the news release.