Brian Toomey, Chairman

Mr. Toomey joined Piedmont Health Services, Inc. as its Chief Executive Officer in 2005. Working with the Piedmont Health (PHS) Board and staff, the organization has grown significantly under his leadership, and now has over 370 staff with an annual operating budget of over $40 million for the Community Health Center and PACE sites.

In his tenure at PHS, he has spearheaded efforts that support the PHS mission, high quality health care, and institutional financial security. He has focused most on:

• Expanding health center services to more individuals needing access to care. PHS now serves over 42,000 patients annually with about 107,000 medical visits, 271,490 prescriptions and 18,600 dental visits.
• Piedmont Health has eight community health centers.
• Development of Piedmont Health SeniorCare, the areas first Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly with two locations.
• Fostering significant community partnerships to work collaboratively around care of the underserved, including the Carolina HealthNet program for the uninsured with UNC Health Care and a project with several local Chambers of Commerce to provide access to care for the owners and employees.

He was elected as Chairman of North Carolina Community Health Center Association Board of Directors and served two terms as chairman. Boston College School of Social Work awarded him the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2012, and he was inducted into the NACHC Grassroots Hall of Fame in 2014.

Claudia Gibson

Claudia is an association executive with over 40 years experience in communications, management and health care advocacy. She currently serves as Executive Vice President for Communications of the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) where she oversees the association’s strategic communications and public affairs activities. She also serves as Editor in Chief of Community Health Forum Magazine – a national publication dedicated exclusively to issues surrounding health care delivery for the medically underserved and at-risk populations.

The National Association of Community Health Centers is the national voice of America’s Federally Qualified Health Centers. Collectively, this dynamic community-based health care provider network delivers quality and cost-effective primary and preventive health services to over 23 million people in 9,000 delivery sites in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and U.S. Territories.

Jacqueline C. Leifer

Jacqueline is a senior partner in the law firm of Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP, counsels national, regional and state primary care associations, including serving as General Counsel to the National Association of Community Health Centers, Inc., as well as advising hundreds of federally qualified health centers (“FQHCs”) and other community-based healthcare providers, health center–controlled networks and managed care companies.

Ms. Leifer handles a variety of corporate matters, including corporate formation and restructuring, consolidations and affiliations between and among FQHCs, health systems, hospitals, rural health clinics, private group practices, oral health providers and behavioral health providers. Ms. Leifer is also recognized for her work in healthcare compliance, advising on a broad range of high risk issues, including Federal grants management, 340B, FTCA, tax, anti-kickback and false claims. Ms. Leifer helped create the graduate healthcare compliance certificate program at George Washington University, where she is a Professorial Lecturer.

Prior to joining the law firm in 1980, Ms. Leifer was an Attorney Advisor in the Office of General Counsel of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, where she served as principal counsel to the Bureau of Community Health Services (now the Bureau of Primary Health Care). Ms. Leifer received her law (J.D.) and undergraduate (B.A.) degrees from Cornell University.

Rachel A. Gonzales-Hanson

Rachel is the Chief Executive Officer of Community Health Development, Inc. (CHDI), is a lifelong resident of Uvalde, Texas. CHDI, incorporated in 1983, is a nonprofit, community-based health care agency and serves Uvalde, Real, Edwards and parts of Zavala Counties and operates five service delivery sites providing comprehensive, integrated primary health care.

Rachel’s involvement in the Health Center Movement began while serving as a board member of CHDI’s original board of directors in 1983. In 1984, she accepted the position of CHDI’s Executive Secretary. In 1986, she was offered the position of Chief Executive Officer. Since then, she has guiding the agency through significant growth and development, bringing on additional services to compliment and enhance the initial system. Rachel is a founding member of the Southwest Texas Network, a health center – controlled network, collaborating to further the mission of community health centers while taking advantage of economies of scale and shared resources. Additionally, throughout her years with CHDI, Rachel has held various positions on the Texas Association of Community Health Centers’ (TACHC) Board of Directors including Secretary, Treasurer, Vice-President, and President.

She has also served on the Board of Directors of the Southwest Primary Care Association. Her involvement with the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) has been at all levels, chairing committees, and serving as Parliamentarian for the Board of Directors in 1995, 2004, and 2011- 2013. Rachel was elected as Chair of the Board of Directors of NACHC, with the distinct honor of being the first Hispanic female to serve in that position (1997-98).

From 1999- 2003, she served on the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health, appointed by the Secretary of Health and served as an Ombudsperson for Migrant Health Issues for the Associate Administrator of HRSA’s Bureau of Primary Health Care.   She was appointed by the Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs to serve on the Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans’ Rural Health Advisory Committee from 2008 – 2013 and is a “VRHAC Emeritus.”

More recently, Rachel was named as the 2011-2012 Geiger Gibson Distinguished Visitor in Community Health Policy at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, Department of Health Policy. She has been recognized for her commitment and leadership in advancing the philosophy of community health, both locally and nationally.

Benjamin Money Jr., MPH

Benjamin Money Jr., MPH , joined the North Carolina Community Health Center Association in June 2001 and has served as Chief Executive Officer since December 2008.   Mr. Money directs the Association’s staff in providing training, technical assistance, and resource development, for all federally qualified health centers in North Carolina.

Ben represents the interests of health centers before state and federal legislative and administrative entities. Ben holds a B.S. in health education and psychology from Springfield College in Massachusetts, and an MPH in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His career spans over 30 years – with work in public health, community mental health, faith-based non-profits, and health care to the homeless programs.

Mr. Money holds board appointments to the NC Care Share Health Alliance, the NC Health Information Exchange; and is a member of the East Carolina University Department of Public Health Advisory Committee, the Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative Advisory Group, the NC Public Health Association, and the American Society of Association Executives.

Ben and his wife Monica have three children – Olivia, a resident physician at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, NC; Nathan, a Brown University student; and Lauren, a high school student. In his spare time Ben enjoys kayaking, cycling, and travel.

James W. Hunt, Jr., PhD

James W. Hunt, Jr. has been the president and chief executive officer of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers since 1979.

Over his 30-year tenure, Hunt has focused on stabilizing health center financing; expanding health center services to the homeless, seasonal farm workers, persons with disabilities and the elderly; developing the health center workforce; and replicating best practices across the health center network.

On a national level, Hunt is certified as an association executive through the American Society of Association Executives; is the former president of the National Association of Community Health Centers; and was the 1996 recipient of the prestigious Johnson and Johnson Community Health Care Award for an innovative health outreach project for Greater Boston’s underserved women and children. Hunt is an adjunct professor at the Sawyer School of Management at Suffolk University. In 2002, Jim received an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from the New England College of Optometry. And, in 2005, was chosen as the first Geiger Gibson Distinguished Visitor in Community Health Policy at the George Washington University’s School of Public Health and Health Services. The award is given to an individual who has exhibited extraordinary and sustained leadership in community health policy.

Robert M. Pugh, MPH

Robert M. Pugh, MPH, is the Executive Director of Mississippi Primary Health Care Association (MPHCA) and has held that position since October of 1990. Mr. Pugh has been involved in the health care industry in the State of Mississippi as a health care professional since 1975 and has held numerous health care professional positions in State Government as well as in the private sector including hospital management and operations.