Leadership Team
Click on the names below to read each bio.
Previously, Dr. Anderson has served as Director of Primary Care for the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Yale School of Medicine, Chief Medical Officer of Community Health Center, Inc., and a consultant in the field of disease management, and a primary care provider at the Community Health Center of New Britain.
Dr. Anderson obtained his undergraduate degree at Harvard College and his medical degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He completed his residency training in internal medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital and is a board-certified general internist.
Dr. Andersons researches, lectures and writes extensively in the areas of disease management, self management/behavior change, implementation science, and health services research. He has published articles in several top-tier peer-reviewed medical journals, including the Journal of General Internal Medicine, Archives of Internal Medicine, and Diabetes Spectrum. He is the 2010 recipient of the Society of General Internal Medicine’s Hamolsky Award for his research on disease management for diabetes in a community health center.
Shanti is currently a resident of Haddam, CT.
Previously, Charise developed and implemented health-related communication initiatives, such as a pilot employee wellness program, melanoma education toolkit for primary care physicians and social media strategies to promote smoking cessation among youth, for a number of non-profit organizations, including the Melanoma Education Foundation, Massachusetts Department of Public Health and MaineHealth. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut’s School of Business with a concentration in health care management and a master’s degree in health communication from Emerson College in conjunction with Tufts University School of Medicine.
Dr. Drozdowski Maule continues a general dentistry practice at the New Britain site. She has a faculty appointment at the University Of Connecticut School Of Dentistry and participates in clinical supervision of AEGD residents and 4th year dental students. In 2008, she was named as one of “40 under 40” outstanding graduates of the University of Connecticut.
Under Ali’s leadership, the IT department’s current initiatives keeping CHC at the forefront of technology include continuous network upgrades, virtualization, implementation of Dental Electronic Health Record and Digital Imaging and real time off site disaster recovery improvements. These projects provide CHC the framework to move forward with its goals of implementing Health Information Exchange, Expansions of staff and services, Patient Portals, and Data Warehousing.
Ali came to CHC in 1999 as the Network Administrator working to guide CHC through the Y2K conversion and quickly moved into the role of Directing Information Technology.
Ali is a native of Connecticut and currently lives in Middletown with his family.
A long standing advocate for public education, Adele served on the Stamford Board of Education for ten years, two years as its president; and also as president of the Connecticut Association of Boards Of Education.
She is a founding member of The Connecticut Association of Children With Learning Disabilities (CACLD), the Stamford Public Education Foundation. Over the years she has served on many boards and commissions, including: Domestic Violence Crisis Center, Stamford Partnership, ARI, Red Cross, Literacy Volunteers, the Connecticut Employment and Training Commission and the Stamford Police Commission.
As a natural transition from education and social service, Adele became a partner in a unique company called The Training Connection that improved women’s self esteem and helped them to become self sufficient. It was through her efforts to get dental care for Training Connection clients, that she realized the absence of dental providers for low income people.
In 1999 she led a group of committed community people to open a dental clinic, The Dental Center of Stamford. The mission of the Dental Center was to provide high quality cost effective oral health care and to ensure that patients were treated with dignity and respect. She first served as the chair of the Board of Directors and subsequently became the executive director. The Board of Directors determined that CHC was an organization that would continue the mission and philosophy of the Dental Center and joined CHC in November, 2005.
Adele became Faifield County Site Director when Norwalk Smiles opened in 2006 and the Danbury Community Health Center opened in 2008. She continues to promote and provide health care for CHC as the Fairfield County Site Director.
Yvette has done extensive work in the area of HIV/AIDS, providing services to individuals living with HIV/AIDS for over fifteen years.
Yvette is a fellow with Connecticut Health Foundation’s 2009 Class of the Health Leadership Fellows Program. Yvette has been the recipient of many awards including: the Mayor’s Award, presented by Hartford’s Mayor Eddie Perez for her work as co-chair of the Ryan White Title I Planning Council, a citation from Meriden’s Mayor Mark Benigni for her work in educating the community on the importance of HIV testing, the 2005 Meriden-Wallingford NAACP Community Service Award for Health, and a community service award from the Miriam Chapter of the Order of Eastern Star.
Yvette was a Martin Luther King Scholar at Long Island University and received her Master’s Degree in Management from Cambridge College. Yvette was recently selected to participate in the Johnson & Johnson Health Care Executive program at UCLA.
Hylan began her career in the human service field. For more than 20 years, she served as a member of the administrative team for an agency that supports people with developmental and physical disabilities. After completing her Master’s degree, Jane served as residential director at a residential treatment facility for emotionally disturbed adolescents and taught middle school students at risk for failure.
Hylan earned a Bachelor of Arts in psychology at Salem State College in Salem, Mass., and a Master’s in public health from Southern Connecticut State University. She is a Certified Health Education Specialist.
He joined the Community Health Center behavioral health staff in 1998. He is the author of Caring for Sexually Abused Children: A Handbook for Families and Churches (Intervarsity Press, 2001). In addition to administrative and clinical leadership of the Behavioral Health programs at CHC, Dr. Kearney supervises and trains postdoctoral psychology residents, co-leads psychotherapy groups with students and younger staff to train them in the provision of child group therapy, and provides direct client care with the clinical focus of providing care to children and adolescents and their families, especially those impacted by medical illness, trauma, and abuse.
David was a consultant to CHC’s board of directors and senior management team from 2000 and 2010. Before coming to CHC, he was the principal at PSL Consulting, a leading human resources consulting firm that has worked with several healthcare organizations, colleges and universities, as well as for-profit businesses. Previously, David was the director of human resources and risk management for Wesleyan University. In that role, he drove effective recruitment campaigns to staff an executive management team and redesigned all employee benefits programs. David has also served as human resources director at Schlumberger, Ltd., a large Fortune 500 multi-national corporation, where he integrated job roles and compensation programs to help managers develop and retain highly-committed teams during times of transition.
Paul Mayer previously was Executive Director of the Central Regional Tourism District of Connecticut – the DMO (destination marketing organization) for 65 cities and towns and home of River Valley/Connecticut and Greater New Haven/Connecticut.
An Award-winning television/film producer and award-winning still photographer, Mayer produced the Tourism District’s marketing videos that are distributed to group tour operators, travel agents and travel writers worldwide. His year-long “Airstreaming Connecticut’s River Valley” promotion campaign received the NCDO Destiny Award top prize for Special Projects in 2008. He also has been honored with 12 Telly Awards, 2 Communicator Awards, 3 Aegis Awards, a Vision Award, a Flame Award and the Governor’s Tourism Award. He recently was awarded the Founders Award by the Greater Hartford Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.
Mayer has extensive experience in creative direction for many ad agencies in the Northeast and has worked on campaigns for Toyota and Prada. He also has written music and jingles for radio and TV and is skilled on the piano and guitar.
He was a consultant to the former National Music Foundation in Lenox, Mass., which supported the Museum of American Music. Mayer spent three years at Sonalysts Studios in Waterford, Conn. as Senior Vice President of Production. Previously, he was Director of Marketing and Media Relations and a producer for Arnold/Levin Productions, Inc. in Boston, worked as a Field Producer for Entertainment Tonight, and produced special projects for MTV and HBO Pictures.
Mayer served on the National Council of Destination Organization’s (NCDO) Board of Directors for three years and is a past chair of the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA’s) Education Committee.
A former member of the Boards of Directors of the Bushnell Park Foundation, the Old State House, and the Co-Chair of the Tourism Subcommittee of the Springfield-Hartford Economic Partnership Committee. He recently was elected to Board of Directors of the Connecticut Lodging Association and serves on the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Heritage Foundation.
With a background in Arts, Education and Business he has held leadership positions at Centro de la Comunidad, Connecticut College, and Leadership, Education and Athletics in Partnership (LEAP). He has served on numerous organization’s Board of Directors, founded The America Project Partnership as well as The Hispanic Alliance.
Alejandro has diverse experience in the development of entrepreneurial business and an intense interest in negotiation, communication and conflict management. He has extensive training in Family reunification and preservation. He is currently applying his many skills as the Director of the Community Health Center of Groton and New London. In his spare time he enjoys painting and cooking for his family and friends.
Dr. Olayiwola was a Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellow in Minority Health Policy at Harvard Medical School from 2004 to 2005. During this fellowship and leadership training, she received her master’s degree in public health with a concentration in health policy from the Harvard School of Public Health as a Presidential Scholar. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Human Nutrition/Pre-Medicine at the Ohio State University, Summa Cum Laude and With Distinction, and her medical degree from the Ohio State University/Cleveland Clinic Foundation. She completed her residency training in family medicine at Columbia University, where she was chief resident.
Dr. Olayiwola has served as a clinical instructor of family medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and is currently a preceptor in CHCIs Nurse practitioner residency program. She is the founder and CEO of GIRLTALK, Inc, a non-profit organization in New York City that provides HIV/AIDS education and prevention to minority adolescent girls in high-risk areas. In June 2005, she was selected to become a member of the Minority Women’s Health Panel of Experts of the Office on Women’s Health (OWH) of the Department of Health and Human Services, a national committee dedicated to ensuring that minority women’s issues are incorporated into OWH initiatives. She is also a member of the Electronic Health Record Innovation Collaborative of the Institute of Medicine and Office of the National Coordinator, the Health Disparities and Equity Advisory Committee of Connecticut’s Sustinet Health Plan, the Connecticut Department of Public Health Advisory Committee on Chronic Diseases and the Connecticut Department of Social Services’ Patient-Centered Medical Home Advisory Committee. At CHCI, she chairs the Medical Quality Improvement Committee, the Institutional Review Board, and co-Chairs the Electronic Health Records Superusers Group and the Meaningful Use Committee. She has been a leader in harnessing technology to increase access to care for underserved populations and is a renowned speaker and scholar in the areas of health disparities, women’s health and health information technology. She is also a national spokesperson for the Recess Rocks™ campaign to prevent childhood obesity and the text4baby® program to improve health education during and after pregnancy.
Since 2007, Dr. Olayiwola has been named one of America’s Top Family Doctors by the Consumers Research Council of America annually. She received the Excellence in Medicine Leadership Award from the American Medical Association in March 2005 and was honored as a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians in October 2007. In October 2008, she was one of three physicians in the nation to receive the Emerging Leaders Award from the Family Medicine Education Consortium and the Society for Teachers of Family Medicine and in September 2009, she received the William Oxley Thompson Award for Early Career Achievement from the Ohio State University Alumni Association.
Upon graduation from Fairfield University in 1980, Charlie began his career with the federal government at the Department of Labor in Washington D.C. as a budget analyst. He then moved to varying roles at the City of New Haven, serving first as a budget Analyst in the Controller’s Office and then as the Business Manager to the City Welfare Office. From the City of New Haven he then joined CS – HHC first as a Financial Analyst and then as its CFO.
