Dr. Daren Anderson is VP/Chief Quality Officer of Community Health Center, Inc. In this role, Dr. Anderson is responsible for ensuring that CHC delivers the highest possible quality of care to its patients, developing a strong quality improvement infrastructure across CHC, promoting research and development, and supporting CHC’s mission to become a nationally-recognized center of world-class healthcare.

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 Carter is the Health Applications Director at Community Health Center, Inc. (CHC) After working with CHC for over 11 years, she managed this statewide organization through a full implementation of an integrated health record that supports CHC's model of planned care in a paperless environment.  She is now leading the effort to develop an electronic health record for the dental services that is fully integrated with medical and behavioral health services, and is particularly interested in using the electronic health record platform to drive quality initiatives including Health Information Exchange.

Shanti is currently a resident of Haddam, CT.

Dr. Veena Channamsetty is a family medicine physician and the Associate Chief Medical Officer of Community Health Center Inc. In this role, Dr. Channamsetty supports the clinical and administrative initiatives of the organization. She is responsible for medical staff recruitment, retention, and provider affairs. She is responsible for the oversight of the clinical and non-clinical training orientation, training and onboarding for all new CHC medical providers. With the vision of a stable and solid medical staff, Dr. Channamsetty coordinates clinical care with provider professional interests, promoting provider wellbeing and work life balance. She works directly with the Chief Medical Officer in overseeing clinical and non-clinical affairs of Physicians and APRNs. She is also a clinical preceptor for the APRN resident and sees patients weekly. Dr. Channamsetty received her medical degree from the American University of the Caribbean and her Family Practice Residency from Central Maine Medical Center. Dr. Channamsetty is board certified with the American Board of Family Medicine. Dr. Channamsetty worked at both private and hospital based practices prior to beginning her career at the Community Health Center in 2007, in Meriden CT. She served as the On-site Medical Director for the Meriden and Waterbury sites for 4 years, during which she medically managed her full patient panel and directly supervised the Physicians and APRNs both clinically and administratively.

Peter Courtway joined CHC in 2011 as Vice President and Chief Information Officer. He oversees all Information Technologies Department operations. He brings over 30 years of experience in innovative information technology strategic planning and execution in the healthcare environment to the organization.

He currently serves the State of Connecticut as a Board Member and Technical Committee Chairman to select and implement a statewide health information exchange in a sustainable business model. Previously he led the selection and implementation of the successful HealthLink regional health information exchange.

Previously, Peter Courtway served as the Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Western Connecticut Health Network, a regional multi-hospital integrated network in Southwestern Connecticut. He was responsible for all information and medical technology integration across the Network including Hospital, Home Health, and Physician Practice information systems.

He is an innovator whose accomplishments include the pioneering of smart cards in healthcare business processes, self-service initiatives; web based intelligent agent development with the Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards (NIST) Advanced Technology Program (ATP). He also created browser-less web applications and accelerated workflow development, which created new business development opportunities with offshore resources.

As Community Health Center’s program manager, Charise DiPierro oversees the Statewide Mobile Dental Program in more than 150 schools and community sites, community wellness programs and Community HealthCorps, a national AmeriCorps program that places members in community health centers throughout the country. Among the community wellness programs Charise manages are Vinnie’s Jump & Jive – a community dance hall – two Family Wellness Centers and Recess Rocks, a national childhood obesity campaign.

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. Margaret Drozdowski Maule received her undergraduate degree from St. Joseph’s College and her graduate degree from University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine in 1998.  She completed her residency training in Advanced Education in General Dentistry also at the University of Connecticut.  After spending three years as an associate in private practice, she joined the Community Health Center Inc. in September 2002 as a general dentist.  Since 2005, she has served as the Dental Director for the agency.  Currently Community Health Center, Inc has seven locations throughout the state of CT operating 44 dental chairs, and operates over 100 “mobile” dental delivery sites.

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. Most recently, Dr. Drozdowski earned her MBA from Cornell University and was promoted to CHC's Chief Dental Officer.

Ali Eslami is the Director of Information Technology at the Community Health Center, Inc. In this role Ali provides company-wide direction and leadership for all aspects of Information Technology. Working with his team, CHC became the first Community Health Center in Connecticut to implement an Integrated Electronic Health Record while at the same time moving CHC to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP). Ali has led the development of best practice methodologies, processes, and systems across all technology projects for the last 11 years.

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.

Adele Gordon,  a graduate of Boston University  began her career as a Speech and Hearing therapist in the Stratford, CT School System and worked for many years in non-profit agencies, such as the Kennedy Center and the Rehabilitation Center in Bridgeport and ARI in Stamford.

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 is the Director of Community Health Center, Inc. Hartford and New Haven County Sites. In this capacity she oversees CHC of New Britain, Enfield, Bristol, Waterbury, and Meriden, where she is committed to eliminating racial and ethnic health care disparities. Yvette looks forward to ensuring that the community’s underserved populations continue to have access to quality medical, dental, mental health and school-based services.

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.

Managing more than 20 programs statewide, Jane enjoys the opportunity this position offers to oversee programs and staff that deliver barrier-free, comprehensive primary, dental and behavioral health care to students in a variety of Connecticut communities.

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.

Dr. Kearney earned his BA with a combined major in Psychology and Spanish Literature at Yale University and pursued graduate work at Fuller Theological Seminary where he earned his MA (Theology) from the Graduate School of Theology and his Ph.D. (Clinical Psychology) from the Graduate School of Psychology. He has also completed the post graduate Primary Care Behavioral Health training program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester. He is a licensed psychologist in Connecticut, New York, and California.

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 Landsberg joined CHC in November 2010 as the Vice President of Human Resources. David oversees all HR department operations and is involved in strategic planning to educate and engage current and future employees in CHC’s culture, brand, values and business priorities. He also currently serves as the chair of the State of Connecticut Insurance and Risk Management Purchasing Board.

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 is the Director of Communications and Creative Services at Community Health Center, Inc. In this capacity he overseas all public relations and new media initiatives including the development of marketing and promotional materials.

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.

Born in Peru and living in the Unites states since 1989, Alejandro Melendez-Cooper brings rich experience and deep insight to his every undertaking.

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. J. Nwando Olayiwola is a family practice physician and Chief Medical Officer of Community Health Center, Inc (CHCI). In this role, she is responsible for the clinical leadership of a large staff of medical providers and caregivers for the state’s largest Federally Qualified Health Center. She was recently appointed as the Director of the Weitzman Center Institute of Health Policy, Community Health Center’s new division focusing on bidirectional approaches to effecting health policy and public health change for community health patients and communities. As the medical leader and health policy director for the organization, Dr. Olayiwola is responsible for coordinating clinical care, research and innovation, teaching, and medical quality improvement initiatives, ultimately with the vision of incorporating public health initiatives and evidence-based medicine into daily practice, while simultaneously translating research and quality efforts into meaningful policy change.

The Institute of Health Policy is focused on the concepts of Disruptive and Frugal innovations, looking at how community health care can be delivered in unique ways and how policy efforts can influence care on the ground. Recognizing that innovation often rises from necessity, survival needs and economic challenges, the institute will engage in policy efforts, research and public health strategies to design, implement and model affordable, lower cost models that are disruptive (giving underserved communities across the world access to services and models previously only available to more privileged ones) and frugal (providing underserved communities with care and services where human, financial and political resources are limited).

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/New York Presbyterian Hospital, where she was a 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. Respected as a leader in primary care innovations and transformations, 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 Provider 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 Committees. 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 has published in numerous peer reviewed medical journals, including: the Journal of Healthcare for the Poor and Underserved, Diabetes Spectrum, The Female Patient, The Pharmacy Journal of New England, Obesity Research, the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, and Connecticut Medicine.

She is also a national spokesperson for the Recess Rocks™ campaign to prevent childhood obesity and has served as a voice for the Text4baby® national program to improve health education during and after pregnancy. In these roles, she has participated in a national radio tour and numerous television online and print interviews, reaching more than 14 million people across the country.

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. In the summer of 2011, Dr. Olayiwola was named one of the Top 40 Physicians Under 40 by the National Medical Association and was also named as one of the Top 100 Buckeyes You Should Know by the Ohio State University Alumni Association. In October 2012, she will receive the Early Career Achievement Award from the Ohio State University College of Medicine, which is presented “to an alumnus who has made significant contributions in the community, scientific or academic achievement before the age of 40”.

Dr. Jacqueline Nwando Olayiwola, MD, MPH, FAAFP
Chief Medical Officer, Community Health Center, Inc.
Director, Weitzman Center Institute of Health Policy
Clinical Instructor of Family Medicine, University of Connecticut School of Medicine
635 Main Street
Middletown, CT 06457
(860) 852-0809 (O)
(860) 638-6658 (F)
(646) 281-1651 (M)
Nwando@chc1.com

Bernadette Thomas APRN, DNP, MPH, is the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) for Community Health Center, Inc., overseeing diverse nursing services across the CHC network, including primary care, health care for the homeless, and school based health services. As CNO she ensures the quality and expansion of nursing services, the development of nursing policy, and continuing nurse education. Bernadette also works collaboratively to ensure Joint Commission and Patient Centered Medical Home compliance throughout CHC.

Building upon her service in the Peace Corps and domestic civic organizations, Bernadette continued her mission to meet the needs of the underserved by earning her MSN and MPH at Yale University in 2005, and her Doctorate of Nursing Practice at Johns Hopkins University in 2011. Bernadette joined CHC as a family nurse practitioner, in 2005 as a National Health Service Corps Scholar. While at CHCI, Bernadette has served as the On-Site Medical Director in the Clinton office, the Vice President of the Medical Staff, the Chair of the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, and has served as a preceptor for the Nurse Practitioner Residency Program since its inception.

Bernadette has been leading quality improvement efforts to innovate the meaningful use of electronic health records to better manage chronic disease. With support from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) her program to improve Blood Pressure Goal Attainment Among Adults with CKD and Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus is building a model for wider application in efforts to improve and assess chronic disease management and reduce health disparities among the patients served by CHC.

Bernadette has taught Adult Primary Care and maintains a faculty appointment at the Yale School of Nursing, and is a member of the Coordinating Panel of the National Kidney Disease Education Program (NKDEP) for the NIDDK of the National Institutes of Health.