"Hats Off to Health Centers" - Six community health center employees and two statewide health care leaders were honored by their colleagues at a June 3 awards gala sponsored the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers (the League), a statewide association representing and serving the needs of the Commonwealth’s 53 community health centers. The annual event highlights the work and mission of community health centers, which provide primary and preventive health care to one out of every ten residents in Massachusetts.

Awardees are nominated by their colleagues and selected by the League’s Executive Board.  Award recipients must demonstrate exceptional dedication to the founding mission of community health centers, which is to ensure that any patient in need, regardless of their health status, language, culture or ability to pay, receives high quality comprehensive primary care services.   This year’s awardees are:

Outstanding Massachusetts Community Health Center Physician Award

Thomas C. Sterne, MD, Medical Director
MGH Chelsea Health Center

Kathleen Crampton Award

James Hooley, President & CEO
Neighborhood Health Plan

Joseph M. Smith Consumer Award

Lucius Wilder, Board Member
Harbor Health Services, Inc.

Outstanding Executive Director Award

Jim Luisi, Executive Director
North End Community Health Center

Outstanding Employee Award

Carol Harrington, LPN
Dimock Community Health Center

Outstanding Employee Award

Marisol Morales
Reception Coordinator
Holyoke Health Center

Outstanding Employee Award

Ha Toohey
Maternal and Child Health Advocate
Family Health Center of Worcester

Chair’s Award

 Thomas Manning
Vice Chancellor for Operations
UMass Medical School & 
Commonwealth Medicine

2005 Public Service Award

Kenneth C. Brown
Deputy Director
HRSA Office of Performance Review

James W. Hunt, Jr. Scholarship Recipient

Adminda Scott

Massachusetts’ 53 community health centers provide primary care, dental care, school-based health programs and other community-based health services to more than 677,000 patients across the state. In total, health centers care for about 43 percent of Massachusetts’ medically underserved, defined as Medicaid-eligible and low-income uninsured and underinsured.  The first health center in the nation was founded in 1965 at Columbia Point, Dorchester.  A celebration marking the 40-year history of the health center program is scheduled for Monday, November 21, 2005 at the John F. Kennedy Library in Dorchester.

Established in 1972, the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers provides a wide range of assistance to community health centers and serves as an information source on community-based health care to policymakers, opinion leaders and the media.

Sponsors for this year included Neighborhood Health Plan, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Partners Healthcare, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital, East Boston Neighborhood Health Center, Boston Medical Center HealthNet Plan, Boston Private Bank & Trust Company, Hemenway & Barnes, North End Community Health Center, UMASS Medical School, Massachusetts Medical Society, Massachusetts Association for Mental Health, and The Karol Group.

To see the 2004 Gala Awardees, please click here.
To see the 2003 Gala Awardees, please click here.
To see the 2002 Gala Awardees, please click here.
To see the 2001 Gala Awardees, please click here.
To see the 2000 Gala Awardees, please click here.
To see the 1999 Gala Awardees, please click here.

For other Recent Events, click here.

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