NACHC Leadership: Staff Leadership
NACHC’s staff leadership is a dedicated team of professionals committed to advancing the mission of community health centers. They bring expertise in healthcare policy, advocacy, finance, and program development, driving initiatives that support over 32.5 million patients nationwide.
Kyu (“Q”) Rhee, MD, MPP, joined NACHC in 2023 to lead efforts to advance health equity and support the mission of community health centers, which provide high-quality, affordable, transdisciplinary primary care services to more than 31.5 million people at over 14,000 sites across the nation.
As a purpose-driven physician executive, scientist, teacher, and entrepreneur, Dr. Rhee has a reputation synonymous with leadership, innovation, and transformation across the nonprofit, public, and private sectors. Throughout his career, Dr. Rhee has actively worked to advance primary care, public health, and health equity for underserved populations.
Before joining NACHC, Dr. Rhee held the position of Senior Vice President and Aetna Chief Medical Officer at CVS Health. He led a team of over 1,500 doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other health professionals in the integration and delivery of clinical and population health solutions to improve the health and deliver the “Quintuple Aim” for up to 65 million people via commercial, Medicare, Medicaid, behavioral health, digital health, student health, vision, dental, and voluntary health plans. Dr. Rhee served for a decade as the Chief Health Officer at IBM, where he and his team led IBM’s global efforts to transform health using data, analytics, artificial intelligence, services, and research.
During the time of the Affordable Care Act, Dr. Rhee held the office of Chief Public Health Officer at the Health Resources and Services Administration. Dr. Rhee also worked at the National Institutes of Health as the Director of the Office of Innovation and Program Coordination.
Prior to his public service, Dr. Rhee was Chief Medical Officer at Baltimore Medical System and worked as a National Health Services Corps primary care physician and Medical Director for Unity Health Care.
Dr. Rhee was Chief Resident and completed his medical residency training in both internal medicine and pediatrics at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles with dual-board certification. He earned his medical degree from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Dr. Rhee also holds a master’s in health care policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Yale University in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry.
For the past decade Ms. Erani worked for the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, a Primary Care Association and Health Center Controlled Network representing 52 health centers and serving 1 in 7 patients across the Bay State. Ms. Erani served Mass League in multiple capacities, most recently as COO and head of health informatics, where she established strategies to optimize the use of electronic health records among health centers to drive quality improvement and clinical performance. During her tenure at Mass League, Ms. Erani launched an online collaborative user community for health center staff, created diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging programming and protocols, and implemented a $310 million dollar student loan repayment program administered by Mass League, to include resource onboarding. Ms. Erani started her work in the community health center movement at a federally qualified health center, Healthcare for the Homeless–Houston. There she served as COO, where she overhauled operations to ensure integrated comprehensive care for the unhoused and led the development and implementation of the health center’s strategic plan and electronic medical record system.
Before joining NACHC, Jason Bellamy spent 19 years with the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). Most recently, Jason served as Senior Vice President of APTA’s Member Experience Unit, overseeing membership development and marketing, component relations, customer service, branding and communications, and conferences and events. Jason’s work at APTA includes developing award-winning public awareness campaigns, revamping APTA’s national special interest group structure, implementing a unified brand strategy, and serving on the Obama Administration’s opioid working group.
Gina Capra leads a talented team responsible for the development, implementation, and evaluation of education, training, and technical assistance services for 1,400 Community Health Centers across the country. Gina coordinates training and technical assistance across NACHC and with state/regional Primary Care Associations, Health Center Controlled Networks, and other national organizations who advance access to care through their technical assistance to community health centers. Training domains include financial management, practice operations, performance improvement, strategic planning, and leadership development. Prior to joining NACHC, Gina completed 20 years of federal service with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and Veterans Administration implementing health care access programs.
A two-time graduate of the George Washington University, Joe Dunn has spent the last 20 years in Washington, D.C., on Capitol Hill and in a variety of government relations roles. Joe joined NACHC in January 2021 as Senior Vice President for Public Policy and Research from Cigna. Prior to this he was in senior positions with two offices in the federal delegation representing Connecticut . Joe began his work on behalf of the people of Connecticut in 2010 when he joined then Representative Chris Murphy in 2010 as his Legislative Director. In 2012, when Congressman Murphy was elected to the Senate, Joe transitioned to being his Senior Policy Advisor. In that role, Joe oversaw all aspects of health policy and was the point person for Sen. Murphy’s Mental Health Reform Act, which was signed into law by President Obama in December 2016.
Rachel joined the staff of the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) in January 2020 as the Senior Vice-President for Western Operations. Prior to joining NACHC, she served as CEO of Community Health Development, Inc. (CHDI). Rachel’s involvement with CHDI began while serving as one of its founding board members in 1983. In 1984, she accepted the position of Executive Secretary, and in 1986, she was appointed CEO. In addition to overseeing CHDI’s operations and significant growth, Rachel focused on improving access to affordable, quality health care for people from all social classes, including those from rural areas, agricultural workers, and veterans. Rachel has served as a board member for the Texas Association of Community Health Centers and was elected as Chair of the Board of Directors at NACHC, with the distinct honor of being the first Hispanic female to serve in that position. Rachel currently serves as the Interim Chief Operations Officer of NACHC.
Mary Hawbecker directs the financial, accounting, IT, conferences, and administrative activities of NACHC; and also provides training and technical assistance to health center boards of directors and senior staff regarding audit requirements and fiscal responsibilities. Mary is lead staff to the NACHC Audit and Finance Committee. She is a licensed CPA, received a Bachelor of Science degree from George Mason University, and is an active member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Maryland State Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
E. Benjamin Money, Jr. joined the North Carolina Community Health Center Association in June 2001 and has served as Chief Executive Officer since December 2008. Ben directs the association’s staff in providing training, technical assistance, and resource development for all federally qualified health centers in North Carolina. He holds a BS in health education and psychology from Springfield College in Massachusetts, and a master’s in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a retired registered dietitian. His career spans over 30 years – with work in public health, community mental health, faith-based nonprofits, and health care to the homeless programs. Ben is chair of the Southeast Regional Healthcare Consortium and vice-chair of the NACHC’s Primary Care Association Leadership Committee.
Dr. Padilla comes to NACHC from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). There he served for nearly a decade as the Associate Administrator for the Bureau of Health Workforce (BHW), responsible for over 70 workforce programs and 478 staff, and Director of the National Health Service Corps (NHSC), BHW’s largest program of over 18,000 clinicians. A key focus for Dr. Padilla at HRSA was improving primary care across the nation and developing, recruiting, and retaining a diverse and culturally competent health workforce; under his leadership, the Bureau expanded to its current budget of almost $2 billion and the NHSC grew to the largest size in its 50-year history. Prior to joining HRSA, Dr. Padilla served for more than a decade at Unity Health Care, the largest community health center system in Washington, DC, as senior health policy advisor to the CEO, medical director, and as a NHSC Scholar. He also served on the National Advisory Council of the NHSC from 2007 to 2010.
A licensed family physician, Dr. Padilla received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and a Bachelor of Science in biology from the University of California at Irvine. He earned a medical degree from Wake Forest School of Medicine and completed his family medicine residency at Brown University.
Prior to being named NACHC’s Senior Vice President of Operations and Chief Financial Officer, Sean Roddy was most recently the CFO for the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) and worked with the CEO to grow SHRM’s global footprint, both organically and through M&A. Just prior to SHRM, he was the CFO for the largest social services charity in the country, Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA). CCUSA and its member organizations operate in all 50 states and U.S. territories with over 50,000 employees, 200,000 volunteers at 2,300 locations.
As the CFO for Pace Global Energy, an affiliate of the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) he assisted the company with opening offices in six countries managing contracts in over 36 countries, along with raising $250 million through Private Placement Memorandums. Upon leaving Pace Global, he became the CFO for Sceptor Industries. His responsibilities included, drafting the S1 registration statement for the IPO, audit the three prior years financial statements, amend the prior years’ tax returns, become Sarbanes-Oxley compliant, develop the strategic plan and work with the primary underwriters, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan.
Upon the sale of Sceptor Industries he became the COO for Watkins Meegan, one of the top 60 largest CPA firms. As the COO, he assisted the Managing Partner with running the firm and managed my own book of business consulting with Firm clients.
During his career he was an adjunct professor of finance at Johns Hopkins University, where he taught graduate courses in two colleges. He taught mergers and acquisitions in the MBA program for the Carey School of Business, and Finance for the Master of Biotechnology in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.
Sean has served on numerous boards of directors in a leadership capacity, most recently as the Audit Committee Chair for the American Kidney Fund (AKF), prior to that he was the Audit Committee Chair for the Maryland Association of CPA’s (MACPA), he was the Treasurer for Jr. Achievement of Greater Washington and an executive committee member of the Maryland Technology Council.
Peter Shin, PhD, MPH comes to NACHC after recent being an Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management and Research Director of the Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health and GG/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative at the George Washington University Milken Institute SPH. Dr. Shin is author of over 100 health policy reports and articles on access to care, the health care safety net, community health centers, population health and social determinants. Dr. Shin teaches courses in health policy analysis, qualitative and quantitative methods, and public health leadership and is an expert in the management and analysis of data and evaluation of regulatory and policy impacts. Dr. Shin has presented at national and international conferences and provided technical assistance to federal and state agencies.
Merrill is Senior Vice President of Development & Innovation at the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC.) Merrill leads NACHC’s efforts to develop and leverage opportunities for health centers to prepare for and address challenges to their core mission of advancing access to health care and health equity in the United States. She works across NACHC and with external partners to equip health centers with innovative strategies, tools and resources to achieve improved health outcomes and health equity.
Merrill was Senior Vice President of Philip W. Johnston Associates and for 22 years consulted with NACHC, Primary Care Associations, health centers, and other health organizations on federal affairs, development and other areas. Merrill ran the global health nonprofit, Health eVillages, which collaborates to advance health access by providing grants and mobile technology to organizations serving vulnerable communities around the world. Merrill began her career at the nonprofit Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights managing its awards programs and fundraising events. Merrill earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University.
Angelique A. Wilkins, MPS, has nearly 30 years of executive-level experience managing domestic and international communications, marketing, and training events for nonprofit organizations.
Prior to joining NACHC, Angelique served as the vice president of communications and meetings for Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), a global nonprofit substance use and misuse prevention trade association. She was responsible for managing the planning and execution of CADCA’s strategic communications, branding, marketing and public relations, and national meetings and special events. Previous positions included serving as director of meetings and facilities at the Mathematical Association of America, a nonprofit trade association of practitioners of mathematics, and the vice president of conferences and meetings at the Futures Industry Association in Washington, an international futures and securities trade association. She earned a BA from Georgetown University and also holds a master’s degree from Georgetown in public relations and corporate communications and is a regularly invited speaker at industry forums on marketing, communications, and events.