| About our Speakers (more added as confirmed) |
| Alok Agrawal MD, FASN, FNKF Clinical Hypertension Specialist, ASH Clinical Associate Professor Wright State University Alok Agrawal, MD, is a Board Certified Physician in Nephrology specializing in hypertension and internal medicine. He recently accepted a position at the Dayton VA Hospital. Dr. Agrawal is a fellow member of the American Society of Nephology, which honors its members (fellow designation) denoting high professional achievement and recognition in this field. Dr. Agrawal is active as a Board member for the Regional National Kidney Foundation and began a 501(c) 3 preventive health organization in Dayton, Ohio called Stop-N-Check to assist physicians and the public with Lifestyle Modification tools to lower the risk of diseases such as hypertension. Dr. Agrawal dedicates many hours to volunteering at Reach Out of Montgomery County, a free clinic in Dayton and mentors Internal Medicine Residents at 5 Rivers FQHC also in Dayton. Recently he has extended his volunteer efforts overseas to India as a missionary for his home country. | |
| Sarah Brady State Program Specialist Corporation for National and Community Service Sarah Brady is a State Program Specialist for the Corporation for National Service. Her responsibilities include overseeing National Service programing in Ohio, including a portfolio of AmeriCorps VISTA and Senior Corps programs. Sarah is the team lead for VISTA programming in the state and provides various training and technical assistance to VISTA programs and members alike. Sarah served as a VISTA member for two years in Maine with the Senior Corps Association and managed an AmeriCorps State program before coming to the State Office. Sarah graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder, Leads School of Business with a focus on Human Resources. | |
| Cathy Corcella Consultant Cathy Corcella Consulting Cathy Corcella is an independent consultant and grantwriter providing technical assistance services to non-profit organizations including Federally Qualified Health Centers and Look Alikes, Rural Health Clinics, free clinics, hospitals, community mental health agencies, and social service agencies. Services include strategic planning, operations, budgeting and finance, program compliance, and grantwriting. Ms. Corcella holds a B.A. in Economics from the Ohio State University, and worked for the Ohio Environmental Agency for twenty years as an Economist and Fiscal Officer. Successful projects include Public Health Services Act Section 330 community health center grants, Federally Qualified Health Center Look Alike designations, medically underserved area designations, rural health clinic shortage designations, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Agriculture grants, Ohio Department of Health, Ohio Commission on Minority Health grants, Ohio Governor’s Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives grants, Ohio Attorney General grants, and foundation grants. | |
| Trey Daly Ohio State Director Enroll America Hugh F. “Trey” Daly III is the Ohio State director for Enroll America. Enroll America is a non-profit, non-committed to maximizing the number of uninsured Americans who access health coverage pursuant to the Affordable Care Act. Prior to joining Enroll America, Trey was an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati for 23 years. Trey represented individuals seeking health and disability benefits form the Department of Job and Family Services, the Social Security Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Trey is a noted expert on Medicaid eligibility and enrollment policy. Trey worked extensively on health access issues including hospital charity care, language access, and hospital debt collection practices. Trey managed a federally funded CHIPRA Medicaid Outreach, Enrollment and Retention project that resulted in Medicaid enrollment of children and parents increasing in Southwestern Ohio three times as much as the rest of Ohio. Trey was awarded the 2009 Community Health Leader award by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Trey is a graduate of Xavier University in Cincinnati and the University of Kentucky College Of Law. He is the proud father of Hannah, a recent graduate of New York University, Maya, currently attending Earlham College and Desmond and Griffin, attending Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati. | |
| Julie Darnell Ph.D., MHSA Assistant Professor, Health Policy and Administration University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health Julie Darnell, PhD, MHSA is Assistant Professor in the Division of Health Policy and Administration, School of Public Health, at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research focuses on access to, and the delivery and financing of, health care for poor and vulnerable populations and the safety net organizations that serve them. She has earned a national reputation for her work on free clinics, which are volunteer-based nonprofit clinics that provide healthcare services at little or no charge to low-income people who are predominantly uninsured. Findings from her research on free clinics have been published in the Archives of Internal Medicine and Medical Care and in a report to the U.S. Congress. Her work on free clinics has received numerous awards from organizations including the Society for Social Work and Research, the National Association of Social Workers Foundation, the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action, the American Public Health Association, and the Public Health System Research Interest Group of AcademyHealth. She received both her master’s degree and doctoral degree in Social Service Administration from The University of Chicago. She also has a master’s degree in health services administration from The George Washington University. | |
| Kate Frech Associate Benesch Law Kate Frech is an associate with the Benesch Law's Health Care Practice Group. She earned her J.D. from Case Western Reserve University on a Law-Medicine Scholarship. Prior to joining the Benesch team, she completed a Post-Graduate Fellowship at the MetroHealth System. While there she drafted and negotiated contracts and researched issues relating to the compliance of healthcare regulations. She focuses her practice on advising healthcare providers and entities on transactional matters including, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, contract drafting and negotiation, business reorganization, and general business counseling. She also counsel clients on a number of regulatory issues, including, HIPAA and state privacy laws, state and federal anti-kickback statutes, the Stark Physician Self-Referral Law, and Medicare and Medicaid licensing, certification and accreditation. | |
| Marty Hiller Senior Clinic Consultant Empowering Community Healthcare Outreach (ECHO) Marty Hiller is Senior Clinic Consultant with Empowering Community Healthcare Outreach, with over 35 years of experience in the free clinic sector, including 20 years at the Executive Director of the Free Clinic of Greater Cleveland and the past 10 years as a consultant. Marty was recently credentialed by the NCQA as a Program Content Expert for Patient Centered Medical Homes. Marty has lectured extensively for the free clinic sector and has presented and consulted with individual clinics across the country as well at many state association meetings and numerous national summits. He has also published on topics related to the sector, including a Report to Congress on Free Clinics, submitted with the FTCA program was launched in 2004, and more recently, in 2012 as a co-author of "Quality Incentives for Federally Qualified Health Centers, Rural Health Clinics and Free Clinics: A Report to Congress", Prepared by George Washington University. Marty was a founding member of the Ohio Association of Free Clinics. | |
| Mary Ellen Howard RSM Executive Director Cabrini Clinic Mary Ellen Howard is a native Detroiter, a Sister of Mercy, and a nurse. She earned her BSN at Mercy College of Detroit, her Masters in Health Care Management from the University of Wisconsin School of Business at Madison. For 20 years Mary Ellen served as a health care administrator in Mercy hospitals across Michigan, including as CEO in Grayling and Muskegon. Since 1995, she has been Executive Director of St. Frances Cabrini Clinic of Most Holy Trinity Church in Detroit, the oldest free medical clinic for uninsured persons in the nation. Mary Ellen is a Visiting Scholar at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, teaching classes in Leadership and Health Policy. She is the current President of the Free Clinics of Michigan, and actively promotes health reform on the local, state and national level, advocating for improved access for the uninsured. | |
| Adarsh Krishen MD, MMM, FAAFP Associate Director, Summa Family Medicine Northeast Ohio Medical University Dr. Krishen completed his M.D. at NEOMED in 1986. He completed his residency at Summa Akron City in 1989. He was one of the founding physicians at the Goodyear Medical Center in Akron. He returned to Summa in 1991 as Associate Director for the Family Medicine Residency and also serves as Clinic Director for the Family Medicine Center of Akron – the residency outpatient clinic. In 2009 he completed a Masters in Medical Management from Carnegie Mellon University. Practice Management and Obstetrics are his curricular areas for the residency. | |
| Ron Lech MD Lorain County Free Clinic Dr. Ronald Lech is a cardiologist (retired) with a strong interest in preventative medicine. He developed an adult diabetes education course with the goal of preventing and/or minimizing the complications of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. He has taught this course for over 5 years at the Lorain County Free Clinic (Ohio). He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and a member of the American Diabetes Association. | |
| Maureen Ringlein Program Director Ohio Association of Free Clinics | |
| Leiyu Shi, Ph.D. Professor of Health Policy and Health Services Research Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Dept. of Health and Policy Management Leiyu Shi is Professor of Health Policy and Health Services Research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Management. He is director of the Johns Hopkins Primary Care Policy Center (PCPC). He received his doctoral education from University of California, Berkeley, majoring in health policy and services research. He also has a master's in business administration, focusing on finance. Dr. Shi’s research focuses on primary care, health disparities, and vulnerable populations. He has conducted extensive studies about the association between primary care and health outcomes, particularly on the role of primary care in mediating the adverse impact of income inequality on health outcomes. Dr. Shi is also well known for his extensive research on the nation’s vulnerable populations, in particular community health centers that serve vulnerable populations. He has focused on sustainability, provider recruitment and retention experiences, financial performance, experience under managed care, and quality of care. Dr. Shi is the author of nine textbooks and over 100 journal articles. | |
| Jon Thomas , Ph.D. Associate Director, Summa Heath Systems Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine, Northeast Ohio Medical University Dr. Thomas completed his doctorate in Counseling Psychology at the University of Akron (1980) and internship at Fallsview Psychiatric Hospital (1981). He completed a Fellowship in Academic Medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University in 2001. He is curriculum director for Behavioral Science in the Summa Family Medicine Residency. He previously served as Clinical Director for Child & Adolescent Behavioral Health in Stark County. He was named Public Sector Psychologist of the Year by the Ohio Psychological Association in 2009, | |
