Doctor Gloria Caballero Roca has been an academic, educator, researcher and activist for more than two decades. Cuban born, raised and educated in Havana, her global experience throughout her career took her to explore topics on translation, Latin American, Latinx and Caribbean studies, Women´s and Gender and Gender and Diversity studies. With two Ph.D.’s, two MA´s degrees, her mission in education has been to form sophisticated critical thinkers who can recognize our interdependency and connectedness among ourselves and with Mother Earth. Her publications and international talks focus on the intersectionality of diaspora, anti-imperialism, social justice and transnational experience. Dr. Caballero Roca was a 2021 Mayoral Candidate for the City of Holyoke.
Dr. John B. Cook serves as the sixth president of Springfield Technical Community College (STCC). Since Dr. Cook began leading the college in 2016, STCC has created a 3 + 1 RN-To-BSN Nursing pathway with Westfield State University; a bachelor’s degree in Manufacturing from Northeastern University is now offered on the STCC Campus; in partnership with Holyoke Community College and MGM-Springfield, the Massachusetts Casino Career Training Institute opened in downtown Springfield; and new degrees include Biomedical Engineering Technology, Health Science and online Business degree options.
Dr. Cook is passionately committed to the greater Springfield community and stresses the college’s two middle names, “Technical & Community,” when describing STCC’s mission. He serves on Boards throughout the region and is a proud resident of the city of Springfield.
Prior to his appointment, Dr. Cook was Vice President of Academic Affairs at Manchester Community College (MCC) in New Hampshire. He also worked for 12 years at Granite State College, one of four institutions that constitute the public University System of New Hampshire; Granite State is known particularly as the leading provider of public online education in the state. He holds a Bachelor’s of Science from St. Lawrence University in Psychology and Anthropology, a Master’s degree in Community/Social Psychology from UMASS Lowell, and a PH.D. in Education (Curriculum/Instruction) from the University of New Hampshire.
Soloe Dennis is the Deputy Public Health Commissioner for The Department of Health and Human Services in the City of Springfield. Soloe oversees several programs which include the Substance Abuse, Tobacco, Nursing, Environmental Health, Men of Color Program and the Public Health Preparedness and Response initiatives within the department. He also provides leadership and support to other offices that are part of the Commissioner’s Cabinet as requested by the Commissioner.
Before Joining the City of Springfield, Soloe worked for the MA Department of Public Health, serving as the Director of Local and Public Health Initiatives. He led workforce development initiatives to ensure all 351 local boards of health within the Commonwealth had the appropriate skill set and training needed to carry out the 10 essential services of core public health functions. Soloe also led the effort in working with all academic institutions within the Commonwealth in strengthening and engaging them in partnership around research and workforce development efforts. Prior to that role, Soloe served as Regional Director for the Western MA region. He oversaw the Northampton Regional Office, supporting the MA Department of Public Health priority areas and staff communications across bureaus. Lastly, Soloe worked at Pioneer Valley Planning Commission as the Senior Public Health Planner developing systems, plans, and programs to enhance health department’s capacity to address health priorities in Western Massachusetts.
Soloe has had a long career and is very passionate about Public Health and sits on many boards. He currently is a board member of the Massachusetts Public Health Association, University of Massachusetts School of Public Health and Health Sciences Dean Advisory Board, Western Massachusetts Training Institute and University of Massachusetts School of Nursing.
Soloe has Master of Science in Environmental Health from the University of Massachusetts, School of Public Health and Health Sciences; He is also a graduate from the Commonwealth Senior Leadership Program and is a Master Exercise Practitioner Certified from the Department of Homeland Security.
Keith Fairey began his tenure as president and chief executive officer of Way Finders in July of 2020. Way Finders is a regional housing organization focused on pursuing housing stability and economic mobility outcomes for its clients and communities in Western Massachusetts. The organization annually touches the lives of over 50,000 people through a diverse set of initiatives including: homelessness prevention, rental assistance, financial education, homeownership and foreclosure prevention counseling, real estate development, property management, community engagement, and small business lending through its subsidiary, Common Capital.
Prior to joining Way Finders, Keith was a senior vice president for Enterprise Community Partners, Inc. In that role he led the management, oversight and strategic guidance of Enterprise’s 11 regional market offices across the United States. Keith’s extensive experience in community development and real estate finance, organizational development and strategic planning allowed him to make an impact across Enterprise. Signature efforts initiated by Keith during his tenure at Enterprise included a national state and local policy program, racial equity initiative, and market expansions in Detroit and the Southeast. Previously, Keith served as regional operating officer, overseeing all of Enterprise’s eastern region markets. Prior to working nationally for Enterprise, Keith held other New York focused leadership positions including deputy director and LIHTC originator for the Enterprise Social Investment Corporation.
Prior to joining Enterprise, Keith was chief operating officer of the Mount Hope Housing Company in the Bronx, where he rebuilt the organization’s real estate development capacity, while managing fundraising, communications and economic development initiatives. Keith also served as the assistant director of Community Pride, the community building program of the Harlem Children’s Zone.
Keith has a Master of Public Administration with a concentration in public finance and financial management from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. He also has a Bachelor of Arts in history education from the University of Delaware.
Rachel is the Co-Executive Director of the (NELCWIT), the sexual and domestic violence crisis center serving Franklin County and the North Quabbin. Prior to joining NELCWIT, she was a researcher and program manager for the London-based Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium, studying livelihoods and service delivery in South Sudan, Uganda, and Sierra Leone, and led gender mainstreaming efforts for the 8-country consortium. She also worked as a freelance researcher and consultant for international and local nonprofits, and managed political campaigns for a State Representative candidate in 2018 and the successful local ballot initiative to make Greenfield a Safe City in 2019. Rachel serves on the board of Asylum Access, a global refugee rights organization based in Oakland, CA. She holds dual Master's degrees in urban & environmental policy & planning and international affairs from Tufts University and its Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy. She currently lives in Greenfield with her pitbull mix, Lionel Richie.
Jennifer Lee currently serves as the Systems Advocate for Stavros. As the Systems Advocate she assists the agency in promoting and protecting the civil rights of persons with disabilities. Her major responsibilities include advocating for policy and serving as a community organizer. Jennifer has a commitment to bringing a disability perspective to various dialogues, including that of housing, healthcare, transportation, and policy. For years, she has served as an advocate for persons with disabilities.
Jennifer holds a Bachelor’s degree in Health, Science, Society, and Policy, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Brandeis University. She also possesses a Master’s Degree in Disability Studies from the City University of New York. Jennifer is a former intern for the American Association of Persons with Disabilities where she advocated for the national rights of persons with disabilities. As an advocate and individual with a disability she remains committed to bringing visibility to the issues that impact persons with disabilities. Jennifer currently serves as Chair for the Massachusetts Statewide Independent Living Council, a board member for the Disability Policy Consortium, and a Policy Council Member for the Massachusetts Public Health Association. All in all, Jennifer is a passionate advocate who remains committed to addressing the social determinants of health that impact access and quality of health for persons with disabilities.
Kim Lee is an experienced builder of collaborative relationships that support strong, inclusive and productive communities. As a leader in several nonprofit organizations, Kim has advocated for the populations served through constant policy influence at the local, community and state level, leading to effective government/non-profit relationships and satisfied customers. During a career spanning three decades, Kim has demonstrated consistent achievement in managing resources, building strategic corporate, state and nonprofit alliances, identifying and tapping new revenue sources, and working to implement innovative solutions delivered through non-profit businesses. Along the way she has built extensive relationships with her peers in non-profit and for-profit organizations, with municipal and state government officials, and with local and regional media. Kim began her career as a communication specialist and found her niche in the non-profit sector, where she has held a variety of senior and executive positions in Marketing, Advancement and Development. She is currently Vice President of Development for MHA, Inc. (Mental Health Association) providing a broad range of high quality, community-oriented human services to 400 adolescents, adults, and their families each year. Kim holds a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication from Westfield State College. Kim is married to Kevin Lee and they have two teenage daughters.
Luz Zenaida Lopez, a mother of two wonderful children, was born and raised in Springfield, MA after her parents and siblings migrated from Puerto Rico in the late 1970s. At a young age Luz began advocating on behalf of her classmates as the student council president believing that all people should be loved and respected.
Luz started working at the age of fourteen at a local fast food restaurant and throughout her high school years at local nursing homes and hospitals. She attended Springfield Public Schools and graduated with a concentration in Health from Putnam Vocational Technical High School. She is a graduate of Springfield Technical Community College and Westfield State University where she majored in Psychology with a focus on Social Work and Community Organizing.
Luz worked in various positions as a social worker/case manager and program director with vulnerable populations. She serves on the Springfield Schools Volunteer Board and co-chairs the Community Benefits Advisory Committee at Baystate Medical Center. Luz is involved with many initiatives such as the Western Mass Health Equity Network and the Regional Community Health Needs Assessments. She has assisted in community organizing for education policy and investment, social justice and services for vulnerable populations.
In 2016, Luz co-founded Metrocare of Springfield, LLC. MetroCare of Springfield provides adult foster care services to individuals who require assistance in order to live safely in the community. She currently serves as the Executive Director.
Airin joined the Department of Health Promotion & Policy in 2018. She is a medical sociologist with training from the University of California-San Francisco. She completed the W.K. Kellogg Health Scholars postdoctoral fellowship in community-based participatory research and health disparities at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research examines how sociopolitical conditions and institutional racism produce chronic disease disparities among Latinx immigrants and their US-born children. Dr. Martinez’s research has included a situational analysis of comiendo bien (eating well) among Latinx immigrant families in San Francisco, where she identified the transnational inequities that sustain and transform practices of healthy eating. She has also collaborated with multidisciplinary teams to examine the relationship between health and place among older adults in the Bay Area and cardiovascular disease and occupational health risks among Latinx immigrants in Baltimore. She is recently completed a Phoenix-based project that examines how the local implementation of immigration enforcement policies creates material deprivation and psychosocial stress among Mexican mixed-status families, with at least one unauthorized immigrant. Her future research is examining the health effects of structural and interpersonal racism in Latinx parent-youth dyads. She is also evaluating with partners at the Holyoke Health Center, among others, a healthy living and obesity prevention initiative, Let’s Move Holyoke 5-2-1-0. She hopes that her research can inform structural interventions that promote health equity and inform community-based prevention strategies.
Sarah Morgan is Assistant General Counsel and Interim Director of Human Resources at Health New England. Providing strategic leadership and employment law advice to the Human Resource team, including Employee Relations, Compensation program oversight, visioning and goal-setting, revising job descriptions for HR vacancies, HR Business Partner support to Finance team leaders, and project management of key HR initiatives. Sarah Graduated as Juris Doctor in 2017 from Western New England University School of Law. Sarah has been serving on the PHIWM Governance and Partnership Committee for over a year.
Ms. Amale Neary is the Chief Financial Officer at Center for Human Development, Inc. (CHD) in Springfield. CHD is the largest non-profit human services provider in Western Ma, supporting 22,000+ individuals annually in over 80 programs throughout Hampshire, Hamden, Franklin and Berkshire Counties and Western CT. She joined CHD in February 2014 after 24 years at Berkshire Healthcare Systems, an affiliate of Berkshire Health Systems in Pittsfield, serving in finance and operations senior leadership positions.
Ms. Neary is a graduate of Bentley University (formerly Bentley College) and received her Master’s in Business Administration from The Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts. She is mother to Dr. Tara Neary and Mr. Zachary Neary and is presently an “empty nester” in Pittsfield with her husband Christopher and her loyal dachshund Greta.
Dr. Sarah Perez McAdoo is a public health physician who is passionate and committed to transforming the health of communities by addressing health inequities and the social factors that influence health. Her work has focused in the areas of public policy, community based strategies, program planning, health advocacy and healthcare education. Currently, Dr. McAdoo is the Population Health Capstone Director for the Population based Urban and Rural Community Health (PURCH) Track at the University of Massachusetts Medical School - Baystate. Her work uses a team approach to design a Longitudinal Community based Education experience to compliment the bio-medical education of medical students. Her primary projects include creating a volunteer non -clinical community faculty, implementation of an immersive population health clerkship and building the Community-Doctor relationship. Most recently, Dr. McAdoo is developing an Interprofessional Health Equity Incubator where students from diverse health professions learn and apply foundational skills to address health inequities in low resourced communities. Dr. McAdoo also serves as the Chair of the Board of Health for the Town of East Longmeadow in Western Massachusetts. In her role she provides leadership and expertise to develop the community's public health infrastructure, implement public health policy and regulations, as well as create community health programs. Previously, Dr. McAdoo was the Founder and Director of the Youth Empowerment Adolescent Health Network, a community coalition which used advocacy, research, community education and collaboration to influence practice and policy in adolescent sexual health. Dr. McAdoo has received recognition for her work in public health, community leadership, as well as residency and faculty teaching awards. Dr. McAdoo received her medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed her residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, MA. She received a Master’s in Public Health from Harvard School of Public Health and completed the Commonwealth Fund Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy.
Knowledgeable, talented and visionary senior planning leader with vast experience thoughtfully and successfully guiding regional planning and community development at the city and county levels. Recognized for expert ability to create a holistic and compelling shared vision; anticipate challenges and creatively leverage opportunities; analyze complex issues, find creative solutions, and develop relevant and impactful policy. Demonstrated ability to successfully manage complex projects, programs and operations; communicate forthrightly yet effectively and navigate sensitive political relationships; facilitate consensus and commitment among competing stakeholders; and lead diverse teams to success.
Ms. Steinhauer serves as ED of VIM Berkshires. Along with the standard ED responsibilities, she also acts as director of medical services- coordinating patient care across all medical service areas as well as providing acute and chronic care. In 2016 Ilana helped launch- BASIC, Berkshire Area Support of the Immigrant Community, a group who works to ensure Berkshire county is a place the immigrant community can thrive. She is also a Board Member of Southern Berkshire Rural Health Network, and Berkshire Taconic’s Eagle Fund. With an undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University and BS and MS degrees in nursing from Simmons College, Ms. Steinhauer began her career as a nurse with The Medical Group/Harvard Vanguard Associates-Beverly, MA, later returning there as a nurse practitioner. Ms. Steinhauer is bi-lingual in Spanish.
Cristina Huebner Torres is the Director of Research and Wellness at Caring Health Center (CHC) in Springfield, Massachusetts. Concurrent with her role as Director of Research, she previously served as Vice President at the health center where she was responsible for directing the administrative functions and overseeing all health center operations and quality in accordance with regulatory agencies. Ms. Huebner Torres is completing her doctorate in Epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts School of Public Health and Health Sciences where she teaches a course on epidemiology in public health. Ms. Huebner Torres also holds a bachelor’s degree in Medical Anthropology from Mount Holyoke College and a Master’s Degree in Somatic Studies from New York University. With over 15-years experience in public health research, her work is guided by theoretical frameworks from social epidemiology and medical anthropology focused primarily on social determinants of health, health disparities, and health equity as they shape chronic illness prevention and management among ethnically diverse, urban, low income populations. Ms. Huebner Torres oversees internationally-, federally- and state-funded grant projects aimed at chronic disease prevention and management and health care policy that lead to sustainable health promotion initiatives and practice. Key aims of the department’s work are to address individual and systems-level factors to reduce health disparities and to ensure the delivery of culturally and linguistically appropriate services. She is the site Principal Investigator of a National Institute of Health-funded study to examine health literacy, cultural beliefs and medication adherence and was Project Director of the prior NIH-funded study that examined health literacy, cultural health beliefs, and chronic disease outcomes. Barriers to chronic disease self-management such as high rates of food insecurity and medication non-adherence were among some of the key findings. Based on these findings, Ms. Huebner Torres has collaboratively led the development of the CHC Wellness Center, a community-based resource located within the health center that offers group-based, culturally-tailored exercise, nutrition, cooking demonstration, and chronic disease prevention and self-management classes to patients and staff at no cost. Ms. Huebner Torres has co-authored multiple peer-reviewed publications from the research and is a lead grant writer at the health center.
Joel is the Senior Vice President and Chief Information and Digital Officer at Hartford Healthcare. He also provided the vision, plan, and execution behind the launch of TechSpring as founder. He serves as Co-Chair of the TechSpring Steering Committee.
Prior to Hartford Healthcare, Vengco had been Baystate’s Senior Vice President and Chief Information and Digital Officer. He has previous executive leadership experience at GE Healthcare, Boston Medical Center and Partners Healthcare System, all in Massachusetts.
Joel is currently a Senior Fellow at Boston University's Health Policy Institute. He is also a lecturer at Boston University's School of Medicine, Boston University's School of Management, and Harvard University. He holds an undergraduate degree from Boston College and has Masters degrees from Harvard University and Boston University School of Medicine.
In 2010, Joel was recognized by Modern Healthcare magazine as one of the Top 25 Clinical Informaticists in the country. That same year, he also received distinction from Information Management magazine as one of the Top 25 Information Managers in the country. He was also a recipient of the eHealth Initiative's Advocate of the Year for Business Process Improvement.
Lora joined Leadership Pioneer Valley in 2011 after serving as the founding Executive Director of the Massachusetts League of Environmental Voters (MLEV) for 5 1/2 years. She was involved in all aspects of building MLEV into a successful, well-respected organization including administration, fundraising, management, board development, coalition-building, and strategic planning. Her political acumen and strategy has earned the organization strong support with members of Congress, the Governor, members of the legislature and the mayor of Boston. Prior to her work with MLEV, she worked for the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund and National Audubon Society in DC. While at LCVEF and Audubon, she launched and organized several successful programs and training programs. She has nearly 20 years of experience with grassroots organizing and community outreach. Ms. Wondolowski holds a BS from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and a MS from Bard College. She serves on the boards of the Connecticut River Watershed Council, Public Health Institute of Western MA, and the United Way of Pioneer Valley.
