Board of directors
Sia Lindstrom, Washington County Administrative
Office / Chair
If Project Access NOW were a plant, Sia Lindstrom would be the gardener.
As then-Executive Director of the Vision Action Network, a Washington County collaboration incubator, Sia launched a community planning group on healthcare. Access to care for the uninsured emerged as a top issue. Looking at the Project Access model, the group got a local program off the ground at the Essential Health Clinic.
Thanks to Sia’s seed planting, Project Access thrives in Washington County and regionally. She said, “Project Access NOW is a relatively young organization that’s come a long way quickly.”
When Sia started a new position with Washington County, it made sense for her to be connected with the regional organization, Project Access NOW. Her portfolio as Senior Deputy County Administrator is fairly broad: health and human services, assessment/taxation, elections, extension services, and sustainability programs. It is through Project Access NOW board service that Sia continues to manifest her passion for health care access as an issue.
On the board since the fall 2008, Sia now chairs the Organizational Capacity Committee, which manages board recruitment and development. The committee also oversees the organizational structure “to make sure we’re humming along”, as Sia put it.
Similar to other board members, Sia acknowledges that “what’s so fulfilling about Project Access is that I can put my skills [in medical anthropology and public health] together with the skills other board members bring. Together we’re able to build a strong organization that brings badly needed services to the community.”
Indeed, according to Sia, “with health care being such an important issue, more now than ever, local-level impact is hard to accomplish. We’re able to piece together a small part of the solution locally to help people here and now while the big picture is getting fixed.
“We’re always looking for good folk willing to lend time and expertise. It’s a wonderful organization, so you’d be joining a great group of people committed to making our mission a success. If you’re interested in volunteering on a board committee, contact me at Project Access NOW.”
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Mark Rosenberg, MD, Community Physician /
Immediate Past Chair
For Dr. Mark Rosenberg, Project Access NOW is a culmination of 30 years of working to improve healthcare for the underserved. As Director of the Internal Medicine Residency at Providence Portland Medical Center, he’s been training residents to value caring for all members of the community.
As a practicing internist, his practice has focused on the underserved, and his volunteer work at Wallace Medical Concern has reinforced the need.
Continue reading >
Read Dr. Rosenberg’s 2011 Bridges to Healthcare invitation
Read Dr. Rosenberg’s 2009 holiday message.
James “Judge” Hicks, MD / past Chair
Read Dr. Hicks’ 2008 letter to Project Access NOW supporters.
Read about Dr. Hicks’ Bank of American Local Heroes award.
John Nusser, MD, Project Access Clark County
Dr. John Nusser has been working to bring Project Access to the Portland-Vancouver area for the last five years. As clinic director of the federally qualified community health center in Vancouver, Washington, he found it heart wrenching to see uninsured patients who needed specialty care he couldn’t provide and they couldn’t afford. In 2004, he heard about the success of Project Access in Olympia, and thought it could be possible to bring it to Clark County. “While doctors quietly have offered charity care for years, Project Access offered charity care that was better coordinated and more equitably distributed throughout the medical community.”
Championing the Project Access model took time to allay the concerns of physicians and hospitals, and to establish Project Access Clark County at the Free Clinic. “The concept can be scary to some at first,” Dr. Nusser said, “but many communities in the US have implemented Project Access, with very satisfied volunteer physicians, hospitals, and patients. I felt lucky to work with a number of passionate physicians who were integral to bringing Project Access to Clark County.”
Alan Melnick, MD, MPH, CPH, Clark County Health Department
Dr. Alan Melnick has made community health his business. As health officer for Clark and three other counties in southwest Washington, one of his priorities is helping people access health care.
As a professional, he contributes his experience and expertise in medicine and public health to a number of nonprofit boards, including Free Clinic of Southwest Washington and Project Access NOW, whose missions he finds to be aligned and mutually supportive.
“I’m working to ensure everyone enjoys comprehensive access to quality care,” Dr. Melnick said. “Project Access NOW helps us get there.”
Originally a family physician, Dr. Melnick became interested in health on a broader basis. Ten years practicing medicine helped him transition to preventing disease and promoting health on the community scale. He has been a health officer in a number of Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area counties for twenty years.
Jan Hochstatter, Clackamas County Medical Society
Jan Hochstatter learned about the Project Access model about half way into her 20-year tenure as Executive Director of the Clackamas County Medical Society. It would take the other half for Project Access to launch in Clackamas County.
According to Jan, the main obstacle in getting the program going was the lack of a free clinic that could be used as a portal. “Out of three safety net clinics the County had,” Jan said, “two – in Sandy and in Molalla — have closed in the last two years due to budget constraints. The third one is slated to close within a year or so.”
As Project Access NOW director Jan helped get Project Access programs going in the other Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area counties. When that job was completed, she and other stakeholders revisited the idea of Project Access in Clackamas County.
“Two years ago,” Jan said, “a group of citizens and organizations concerned about access to healthcare in Clackamas County launched the Clackamas Health Access Initiative (“CHAI”), now a stand alone 501c(3) nonprofit. We have people representing various aspects of medical care, such as the Providence Willamette Falls Medical Center, functional service groups, some insurance companies, social workers, County Health and Housing Division and others. Our main focus is addressing access issues in Clackamas County.”
Continue reading about Jan Hochstatter.
Rob Delf, Medical Society of Metropolitan Portand
Rob Delf has been involved with healthcare issues his entire professional life. One of his projects as the director of the Medical Society of Metropolitan Portland was Doctors Offering Community Service (DOCS), a partnership with the Coalition of Community Health Clinics in Multnomah County, which matched patients with volunteer physicians. DOCS later became an integral part of the regional effort that morphed into Project Access NOW.
To Rob, the idea of Project Access NOW is consistent with the Medical Society’s mission: “Physicians creating the best environment in which to care for patients.” And that includes access. Rob should know – he’s been with the Medical Society for 27 years.
Rob sees Project Access as “the best collaborative effort I know. It reflects the commitment and compassion of those involved.” The regional approach that Project Access NOW embodies “made all the difference in the world in creating access to healthcare for those who wouldn’t otherwise have any.”
Priscilla Lewis, Providence Health System
Count Priscilla Lewis, Regional Director for Community Services and Development at Providence Health & Services, as a Founding Mother of Project Access NOW.
Working with the Tri-County Safety Net Enterprise (TCSNE) group a few years back, she was so passionate about collaborative efforts to improve the regional healthcare that she continued to work with the participating counties even after the group lost its funding. So when a grant opportunity through the Oregon Health Systems in Collaboration (OHSIC) came along, the group was ready to apply with the Project Access model.
The initial funding and support came from the eleven Metro hospitals and four insurers who are the members of OHSIC. In addition, the four counties committed the remaining funds from the TCSNE to launch Project Access. Since then, the Project Access model has gained widespread support, from United Way of the Columbia-Willamette to more than 2,200 volunteer physicians donating care through the system.
Kari Stanley, Legacy Health System
When Kari Stanley talks about health care, passion is what you hear. As director of community benefit for Legacy Health, she works with community-based organizations to increase access to care for the underserved. Kari’s excited that Project Access NOW pursues that objective with great returns.
“People without insurance have to cobble their health care together themselves – they move from provider to provider in a very fragmented way,” Kari said. “Project Access NOW allows them to move smoothly between providers within a single referral process – it’s seamless.”
Kari enjoys highlighting another benefit of Project Access NOW: it reduces the cost of health care. “People can get health care in earlier stages of acuity, rather than wait until something serious or highly acute happens. This way, they don’t have to go to an emergency room where the cost is higher, or to get more services or treatment. It also improves the quality of care.”
Sheila Hale, Essential Health Clinic
Sheila Hale’s opportunity to be involved with Project Access NOW as board member came with her new job: she succeeded Linda Nilsen-Solares as Executive Director of the Essential Health Clinic. Each of the system’s participating counties has a place at the table, and the Clinic adopted Project Access Washington County just as the board was forming. Sheila commented, “I was at the right place at the right time.”
Sheila has tremendous appreciation for the Project Access model. “Project Access NOW is an enormous, well-greased vehicle allowing our patients to have greater access to care,” she said. “The success of Project Access Washington County is closely tied with the success of Project Access NOW in recruiting physicians. Plus it’s much more cost-effective for everyone involved to participate.”
Initially, the Essential Health Clinic was the only gateway to Project Access Washington County. Thanks to solid relationships, both Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center and Washington County Health and Human Services can now refer to the system.
Howard Klink, United Way of the Columbia/Willamette
Howard Klink participated in the earliest discussions about creating a regional access-to-healthcare system. He has been a strong supporter of Project Access NOW since its inception. At that time, he held the position of Vice President for Community Impact at United Way of the Columbia-Willamette and his role on the Project Access NOW board was to provide an ongoing connection between the two strategic partners.
Howard has been involved in the public health policy arena for over 20 years, working primarily to improve health and human services and access to healthcare. His passion and experience have made a strong contribution to the board: “The mission and focus of PANOW have given me an opportunity to bring together my years of experience in the public health arena and make a stronger connection to the community.”
Elaborating on the transition, Howard said, “The early board was by necessity very operationally oriented and we were building an organization from the ground up. Now, due to PANOW’s successes, we are more able to focus on marketing, fundraising and policy to stabilize and strengthen the capacity of the organization. This successful transition has paved a clear path to long-term stability and further evolution.”
Liz Rabiner Lippoff, Liz Ink
Liz Lippoff is a perfect example of peer recruitment: knowing she helped physicians with their marketing and public relations, board member Howard Klink approached her with the request to help Project Access NOW, too. The original idea was to have Liz chair the marketing committee; before long, she stepped up to join the Board.
Volunteering and healthcare run in Liz’s family. Her father, who was a hematologist at Legacy Good Samaritan, chose to have a limited practice so he could do research and help in the community. Her mother volunteered at the hospital and served as the Auxiliary president.
Liz and her husband David are both active in the community. “David and I consider ourselves blessed. We are happy we have the time to help because we believe it’s our responsibility. We both subscribe to the old value ‘Repair the world’, that everyone should strive to make the world a better place than they found it.”
At the same time, Liz wants to contribute what she’s good at: marketing and PR. “Non profits often lack the capacity internally do the marketing and PR that would help them thrive,” Liz said. “It’s a pleasure to help fill that gap.”
Marie Dahlstrom
When Marie Dahlstrom learned about the Project Access model while serving on United Way of the Columbia-Willamette’s Health Access Committee, she advocated for creating a similar organization in the Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area.
Since then, Marie said, “as someone who’s been involved in the creation of Project Access NOW, I’ve been absolutely ecstatic to see it launch and grow.”
As director of research and development at Familias en Accion, a health organization for Latinos, Marie works primarily with Latinos, who are overrepresented among the uninsured. She runs the organization’s Cancer Patient Navigator Program, where Project Access NOW executive director Linda Nilsen-Solares sits on the advisory board. Before Project Access NOW, uninsured Latinos with cancer had an extremely difficult time to get care, if they could get it at all.
“We’d receive calls from folks diagnosed with cancer, but we had no resources to tap into and nowhere to send them,” Marie said. “Physicians would tell them—even to people who have been here for years—to seek care in their country of origin.”
Joe Ichter
The latest addition to the Project Access NOW board happens to have the most experience with the Project Access model. In 1998 Joe Ichter, in conjunction with the Santa Fe County Medical Society, founded the 8th Project Access program in the United States, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In conjunction with his work in Family and Community Medicine at the University of New Mexico, he served as its Executive Director until 2007.
At the same time, “Project Access in the Portland/Vancouver area is more challenging than the Santa Fe community. There, we worked with 80 physicians and two hospitals. Here we have close to 3,000 physicians and work with 7 hospital systems and 14 hospitals. It’s a lot more fun here, with different dynamics.”
Just before moving to Portland, Joe spent two years in Saint Martin, in the Caribbean, helping Dutch and French governments provide healthcare to the island’s residents. In July 2009, he started a teaching sting at OHSU, where he’s assistant professor of clinical medicine and public health.
Larlene Dunsmuir
After more than two decades in nursing with Providence Health Systems, nurse practitioner Larlene Dunsmuir had begun to look for additional ways to remain connected with the reason she originally chose to enter the healthcare profession – to make a positive difference in the health of others.
Larlene has had a leadership role for many years with the Nurse Practitioners of Oregon (“NPO”) and had helped them develop a Student Nurse Practitioner Scholarship. The first scholarship recipient is a Project Access NOW Volunteer and she introduced Larlene to the wonderful work that Project Access NOW does. Later that same day, Larlene had dinner with Frank and Cathy Betzer and Frank mentioned that he was a board member for Project Access NOW and again Larlene heard about the great work that this organization was doing.
Marie Napolitano
Marie Napolitano has been caring for the indigent, migrant population of Oregon for more than 22 years. Until 2010, she primarily traveled to provide migrant health care in Virginia Garcia Medical Center’s (link) mobile health van. In 2010, Marie began to collaborate with Familias en Accion to focus on the comprehensive treatment of diabetic patients.
It so happens that Familias’ director of research and development, Marie Dahlstrom, is a Project Access NOW board member. She connected Marie with Project Access NOW’s Linda Nilsen-Solares and it was clear to Linda, Marie – and the rest of the board of directors – that Marie would be a valuable addition to the Project Access NOW board.
As an educator and the director of the Family Nurse Practitioner Program at the University of Portland’s School of Nursing, Marie has placed students in training situations where they have observed and treated patients who have no insurance and no ability to pay.
Michelle Kelly
One day a couple of years ago, Michelle Kelly’s boss at McDonald Jacobs, PC, happened to mention Michelle to his neighbor, Sia Lindstrom, current Project Access NOW board chair. McDonald Jacobs provides tax, finance, and audit services for many local nonprofit organizations. He knew of Michelle’s desire to become connected to a nonprofit organization where she could be of service and where her experience in financial services could be of value. Sia told him Project Access NOW was looking for someone with an accounting and auditing background to join their finance committee.
So, Michelle’s boss arranged an introduction to Sia and that led to a meeting with Project Access NOW Executive Director, Linda Nilsen-Solares. Michelle, who is a CPA, was invited to join the finance committee and, about a year later, she joined the board of directors. In addition to chairing the finance committee, Michelle also serves on the board’s executive committee and is board treasurer.
h1. Board member profile: Dr. Ariel Lopez-Chavez
As a practicing oncologist at OHSU, Dr. Ariel Lopez-Chavez specializes in caring for patients with lung cancer. He also conducts research in clinical trials and molecular therapies.
His interest in the health of underserved populations goes back a long way. Before arriving at OHSU in early 2011, he spent a number of years with the National Cancer Institute, where he researched the molecular basis of health disparities in underserved populations. And, prior to that, while at the University of Pittsburgh, he served as a volunteer health care provider at a free clinic in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, area.
Dr. Lopez-Chavez also serves on the board of directors for Familias en Accion, where Project Access NOW board member, Marie Dahlstrom is Director of Research and Development.
