Leadership

Mark Masselli (he/him)

Founder, President & CEO

Mark Masselli is president, CEO, and founder of Community Health Center, Inc., Connecticut’s largest provider of medical, dental, and behavioral healthcare for the underserved. A Middletown, Conn. native, Masselli founded CHC in 1972 with a group of community activists.  CHC currently provides team-based primary care services to more than 150,000 patients at 200 sites across Connecticut and is an innovator in the delivery of primary care to special populations. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, CHC was called upon by Connecticut’s executive branch to build and operate the state’s largest drive-through mass vaccination sites.  Masselli led this historic effort, during which CHC administered more than 500,000 vaccines. In addition, CHC organized hundreds of mobile vaccination clinics, bringing vaccines directly into the most vulnerable communities. Masselli serves as board chair of the National Institute for Medical Assistant Advancement and of the national e-Consult provider ConferMED, is Vice President of the Goodspeed Opera House Board of Trustees, and is Chair-Elect of the Board of Directors of the national School-Based Health Alliance. In 2022, he was appointed to the State of Connecticut's Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Working Group. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Wesleyan University in 2009 for his work in the healthcare field.

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Margaret Flinter, PhD, APRN (she/her)

Senior Vice President & Clinical Director

Margaret Flinter is Senior Vice President and Clinical Director of the Community Health Center, Inc. and is a family nurse practitioner by profession. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from the University of Connecticut, her Master’s Degree from Yale University, and her doctoral degree at the University of Connecticut. She was the recipient of a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellowship from 2002-2005. In 2021, she was honored with a Yale-Jefferson Award for her steadfast dedication to providing healthcare services for those in need.

CHC’s first nurse practitioner

Following her graduate training at Yale University, Margaret joined the Community Health Center in 1980 as a National Health Service Corps Scholar and CHC’s first nurse practitioner. Since 1987 she has held both clinical and administrative leadership roles in the organization and established the Weitzman Center for Innovation in Community Health and Primary Care as the “research and development” arm of CHC. She serves as the Director Emeritus of the Weitzman Institute. Margaret is also the founder of America’s first nurse practitioner residency program that operates out of the Community Health Center. It is a national model for nurse practitioner preparation for service in primary care environments.

In addition, Margaret is the Chair of the Board for the National Nurse Practitioner Residency and Fellowship Training Consortium. She also serves as a Trustee of the ABIM Foundation, created by the American Board of Internal Medicine to develop and implement projects in support of its mission to advance the core values of medical professionalism as a force to improve the quality of health care.

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Daren Anderson, MD (he/him)

Founder and President, ConferMED

Dr. Daren Anderson is a general internist and has worked in safety net practices for his entire career. He is VP/Chief Quality Officer of Community Health Center, Inc., a large, multisite community health center providing primary care to over 145,000 medically underserved patients across Connecticut. Dr. Anderson is also President of the Board of Community eConsult Network (CeCN).

Dr. Anderson was Director of CHC’s Weitzman Institute, a research and innovations center dedicated to improving primary care for underserved populations, for eight years.  The Weitzman Institute leads a range of initiatives focused on practice transformation and workforce development and has created an eConsult process that is now being used across Connecticut and in ten additional states. In addition, Weitzman researchers are engaged in a range of research projects focused on health disparities, telehealth, and pain and opioid abuse treatment in primary care.

Dr. Anderson obtained his undergraduate degree at Harvard College and his medical degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He completed his residency training in internal medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

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Karen L. Ashley, ED.D (she/her)

Director of Education, Weitzman Institute

As Director of Education for the Weitzman Institute, Dr. Ashley is responsible for providing leadership and supporting the growth and development of the Weitzman Institute’s diverse educational programs. Dr. Ashley has focused her career on adult education in health and health care, whether in academic or non-profit settings. Her areas of expertise include curriculum design and development, accreditation, faculty development, instructional design, and evaluation. Prior to joining CHC, Dr. Ashley was the Associate Director of Education at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice at Dartmouth College, where she oversaw its MPH, MS, and PhD programs. While at Dartmouth, Dr. Ashley was also the Principal Investigator for a CDC/PEPFAR project in partnership with Boston University’s School of Public Health, and Muhimbili University’s School of Public Health (in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) to redesign Muhimbili’s public health curriculum and offer faculty development seminars. The goal of this nine-year project was to increase the number of public health workers in the field to address HIV/AIDS in Tanzania.

Prior to joining Dartmouth, Karen served as Director of Education for the Carolinas Center for Hospice and End of Life Care, providing continuing education for hospice and end-of-life care providers and volunteers for hospice agencies across North and South Carolina. Before that, she worked with the Northeast Tennessee Area Health Education Center through East Tennessee State University, coordinating continuing education for medical and other health care professionals in 13 counties in Tennessee. Karen completed her EdD in Educational Leadership from the University of Phoenix, MEd in Health Education from the University of Tennessee, and BS in Health and Sport Science from Wake Forest University.

Lisa Avellino (she/her)

Chief Information and Technology Officer

Lisa Avellino is Chief Information and Technology Officer for the Moses/Weitzman Health System. She brings more than 18 years of leadership in the IT field, with 15 of those years at Yale New Haven Health System. At YNHHS, where she served as Director, IT & Communications Operations, she was known for being solution-oriented and building strong teams. Her responsibilities included business app management, informatics, security program development, and Epic production controls.

Lisa began her career on the healthcare side as an EMT and Surgical Technologist, and credits her roots in direct patient care for shaping her view on technology as always patient- and clinician-centric. She holds a Master's degree from Quinnipiac University in Organizational Leadership with a focus in Healthcare Informatics, and has taught graduate level classes on healthcare informatics at Sacred Heart University.

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Kerry Bamrick, MBA (she/her)

Executive Director, Consortium for Advanced Practice Providers

Kerry is the Executive Director for the Consortium for Advanced Practice Providers.  In this role, she serves as the key management leader of the Consortium. Kerry is responsible for overseeing the administrative, fiscal, and technical, programs, and services of the Consortium while carrying out the strategic plan of the organization.  As the Executive, key responsibilities include oversight of the development, implementation, and operation of the Accreditation Commission of the organization in accord with the rules governing that Commission, supporting the business growth and development of accreditation business for the Consortium, and achieving /maintaining USDE recognition as an accreditation organization. Over the last fifteen years, Kerry has been directly involved in the growth and development of the organization including moving it from an informal group of six organizations to becoming its own 501c3. 

Kerry is a recognized leader in the area of postgraduate nurse practitioner residency training. She has extensive experience in both managing postgraduate nurse practitioner residency training programs and serving as a content expert to organizations interested in implementing postgraduate residency and fellowship programs.  Prior to becoming the Executive Director, she was the Program Director for CHC’s Postgraduate Family Nurse Practitioner Residency Program and managed CHC’s remotely hosted nurse practitioner residency programs in the states of California, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington. Kerry served as the Co-Principal Investigator for HRSA’s National Cooperative Agreement (NCA) on Clinical Workforce Development focused on providing training and technical assistance to health centers interested in transforming teams and training the next generation.  Her passion and interest in this field is reflected in her work nationally.

Kerry has an undergraduate degree from Merrimack College and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Western New England College.

John Ephraim Butt, MEd, MHRM he/his

Executive Director, The National Institute for Medical Assistant Advancement (NIMAA)

As the Executive Director of the National Institute for Medical Assistant Advancement (NIMAA), John is responsible for providing strategic leadership and operational excellence in support of NIMAA’s mission of providing educational opportunities that address critical workplace shortages in primary care.

John brings to NIMAA 18 years of higher education experience, most recently as the Director of Digital Learning for the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus. Previously, he served as Associate Director of Recruitment in the Office of Digital Education at the University of Colorado and was Associate Director of Graduate Student Services at UNC Charlotte. John has also taught numerous courses for Southern New Hampshire University and UNC Charlotte, including Success Strategies for Online Learning, Human Relations in Administration, and Management and Organizational Behavior. John has a strong background in student recruitment and engagement, technology, online and hybrid program development, non-traditional students, and student support.

He holds a Bachelor's degree in Communications from the University of South Alabama and multiple advanced degrees, including a Master’s in Higher Education Administration from the College of William & Mary and a Master’s in Human Resource Management from the University of Richmond. John is currently completing a PhD in Public Affairs at the University of Colorado Denver.

Nicholas Ciaburri (he/him)

Director of Business Intelligence

Nicholas Ciaburri is the Director of Business Intelligence at the Moses/Weitzman Health System. Since 2011, he has led a team that has developed a business intelligence dashboard and reporting platform for the organization. The team delivers actionable data to MWHS providers and leadership so that they can efficiently provide the highest quality of care possible. He also provides data to support the organization’s quality improvement and research initiatives. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Northeastern University.

Nicholas is currently a resident of Southington, CT.

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April Joy Damian, PhD, MSC, CHPM, PMP (she/her)

Vice President and Director, Weitzman Institute

Dr. April Joy Damian is an epidemiologist, health services researcher, and classically trained public health professional with expertise in health equity, social determinants of health, psychiatric epidemiology, and mixed methods. She currently serves as the Vice President and Director of the Weitzman Institute, a research, education, and policy center dedicated to quality improvement and primary care transformation, with a particularly focus on vulnerable populations. Dr. Damian concurrently serves as a Senior Scholar for Health Equity at AcademyHealth, and holds faculty appointments at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Wesleyan University. She provides thought leadership on numerous national committees, including as an appointed Member of the National Academies Board on Children, Youth, and Families, Forum for Children's Well-Being, Member of the Committee on Advocacy and Public Policy (CAPP) and Membership Committee at AcademyHealth, and inaugural Vice-Chair of the Health Equity/Patient Reported Outcomes/Community Engagement Committee of NIH's RECOVER initiative. Dr. Damian previously served as the Director of Quality Innovation at the National Quality Forum (NQF), where she spearheaded the expansion of NQF’s portfolio on social determinants of health quality measures, and co-led the NQF Measure Incubator®, an innovative effort that facilitates efficient measure development and testing through collaboration and partnership, and addresses important aspects of care for which quality measures are underdeveloped or non-existent.

Dr. Damian completed her PhD in the Department of Mental Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Masters in Medical Sciences at Harvard Medical School. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Berkeley with a Bachelors of Arts in Ethnic Studies, Highest Honors. She has received numerous recognitions in honor of her role as a social change agent, including the Harry S. Truman Scholarship, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded Community Well-Being Warrior Award, and an honorarium from the University of Delaware.

Christopher Farmer, MBA (he/him)

Vice President, Office of Grants Development & Pre and Post Award Administration

Chris Farmer joins CHC from Yale University, where he was most recently Director of Operational Excellence. Previously, he had served as Associate Dean, Finance and Administration, at the Yale School of Nursing. While at Yale, Chris created a process improvement team and led numerous projects, including continuous improvement teams post-Workday implementation focused on grants administration and financial reporting. At the School of Nursing, Chris was strategic partner to the Dean, advising on all aspects of fiscal and administrative affairs. He also led the office of business affairs with operational responsibility for finance and grants administration, human resources support, information technology support, oversight of facilities, and interdepartmental and community relations. Chris holds an MBA from Duke University, Fuqua School of Business and a BS in Accounting from North Carolina State University.

Leslie Gianelli, JD (she/her)

Vice President, Communications

Leslie Gianelli is Vice President of Communications, responsible for promoting the Moses/Weitzman Health System message and brand to a variety of audiences, including media and the public. She manages a wide portfolio of internal and external communications, including messaging, thought leadership, social media, the website, and multi-media assets.

Leslie has deep experience in health care spanning nearly 20 years and several continents. Most recently, she served as Communications Director at AmeriCares, overseeing communications initiatives in the U.S. and globally. In this capacity she promoted the work of AmeriCares Free Clinics in Southern Connecticut and emergency response activities in the U.S., Japan, Haiti, India and several other countries. With the Connecticut Hospital Association, she led industry work groups focused on public relations, fundraising, and issues of concern to patients. Previous work with Jhpiego/Johns Hopkins University and the Global Health Council gave her the opportunity to travel to more than 40 countries and regularly engage with global health experts, advocating for programs addressing maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, cervical cancer, malaria, and other diseases and conditions endemic to the developing world.

Leslie holds a J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law and is a member of the Connecticut Bar. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College cum laude with a degree in American Studies and received the Mount Holyoke Alumnae Association’s Medal of Honor. She is an active volunteer for U.S. Figure Skating as chair of the Domestic Officials Recruitment and Management Committee and as a National Judge and Referee and is a past board member of the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center.

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Meredith Johnson, MBA, MHA, PMP (she/her)

Chief Operating Officer

Meredith Johnson is Chief Operating Officer of the Moses/Weitzman Health System. In this role, Meredith directs the overall, system-wide, day-to-day clinical delivery and support functions, leads cross-functional strategic initiatives, and participates in planning for long term growth and stability.

Meredith has experience in Fortune 500 companies, small business start-ups, and healthcare operations. She worked in human resources at Principal Financial Group, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and interned with the President of Abbott Northwestern Hospital before being selected as Yale New Haven Health’s Administrative Fellow for 2012-2014. Post fellowship, she was named Program Manager and launched the nation’s first Epic Tele-ICU program; the Tele-ICU was awarded the Joseph A. Zaccagnino Patient Safety and Clinical Quality Award at Yale New Haven Health and was featured in the National Symposium on Value Innovation at Yale, the national Epic Users Group Meeting (UGM), and the national Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). Most recently she served as Yale New Haven Health’s inaugural Director of Telehealth where she authored the System’s $24 million telehealth business plan.

She graduated from Wartburg College summa cum laude with a degree in Business Administration. She completed subsequent master’s programs in Business Administration (Iowa State University) and Health Administration (the University of Iowa), receiving five named scholarships for academic achievement. She is trained as a Practical Process Facilitator and achieved her Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.

Meredith is an active hot yogi, gardener, house remodeler, Iowa Hawkeyes fan, and proud member of Adrienne’s Circle, a women’s leadership group for healthcare executives.

Karoline Oliveira, ED. D (she/her)

Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer

Karoline Oliveira, Ed.D, is the Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at the Moses/Weitzman Health System. Prior to joining MWHS, she served as Interim Executive Director, Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Special Advisor to the President, at Life University in Georgia, where she successfully developed and advanced the university’s DEI strategic agenda. Previously, she was Interim Director of the Multicultural Center at the University of Rhode Island, from which she received her B.S. and M.S. Karoline received her Ed.D. in Higher Education Leadership from Johnson & Wales University. She brings to the MWHS more than 15 years of experience in driving innovation and furthering the vision and mission of organizations through diversity enhancement initiatives.

Jason Pniewski, CPA (he/him)

Chief Financial Officer

As Chief Financial Officer, Jason Pniewski, CPA, is responsible for all financial operations for the Moses/Weitzman Health System, including accounts payable, accounts receivable, financial reporting and analysis, annual budgeting, audit, tax, treasury functions and patient accounts.  

Jason began his career in public accounting as a staff accountant for a Connecticut-based CPA firm providing accounting, audit and tax services for a variety of clients. Prior to joining the Moses/Weitzman Health System, Jason served in various roles of increasing responsibility at Yale New Haven Health System for more than 16 years, with his final role being Sr. Manager of Budget and Financial Planning. He joined MWHS in 2019 as Controller, where he was responsible for the monthly financial close, annual audit and tax preparation, among other responsibilities.  

Jason earned a bachelor's degree in Accounting from Quinnipiac University. He is an avid golfer and has volunteered in several youth sports associations as both a coach and board member.  Jason is also a member of the CT Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Kathi Tourjee (she/her)

Vice President, Human Resources

As VP of Human Resources, Kathi Tourjee works in partnership with MWHS/CHC leaders to attract, develop and retain talented individuals that can thrive and grow in our dynamic, mission-driven organization.  

Kathi started her career as a chemical process engineer at Pfizer Global Manufacturing and after 12 years, was offered the opportunity to take on an HR leadership position with Pfizer’s Research and Development division. In 2010, she joined WebMD as Sr. Director Total Rewards and was soon promoted to lead the HR function. Prior to joining MWHS/CHC in December 2022, Kathi had also served as Chief Human Resources Officer for Signify Health and Head of HR for Covr Financial Technologies.    

Kathi earned a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Connecticut and an MS in Business from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is an avid gardener and a volunteer board member for Connecticut Veterans Legal Center.