Health Center leader inducted into the Grassroots Hall of Fame
BETHESDA, MD –Annie Neasman, president and CEO of Jessie Trice Community Health Center Inc., in Miami Dade, Fla., has been inducted into the Grassroots Hall of Fame for the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC). Grassroots Hall of Fame members have made lasting contributions to insuring the creation, survival and strength of Community Health Centers and the Health Center Movement through their dedicated and tireless efforts over many years.
Neasman was presented the Hall of Fame Award at the 2016 NACHC Policy and Issues Forum in Washington, D.C., an event attended by more than 2,000 health center leaders from around the country.
“Annie has been a passionate advocate on behalf of health centers and the movement would not be what it is today without her dedication, skilled leadership and tireless energy,” said Tom Van Coverden, president and CEO of NACHC. “Annie has been on Capitol Hill many times carrying the health center message, and rallying public support for funding. We’re deeply appreciative of her commitment, hard work and leadership in advocacy.”
Neasman was singled out for the award for her long-standing and passionate commitment to advocacy. She has a worked diligently to educate leaders at the local, state, and national level about the value of investment in health centers, including First Lady Michelle Obama.
The Jessie Trice Community Health Center, Inc. owns and/or operates 51 facilities, including nine Comprehensive Primary Care centers, a women’s substance use residential pro-gram, forty school-based locations and two university centers. The center’s multi-cultural, multilingual, and multidisciplinary staff serves a diverse population of over 39,575 patients who make more than 126,000 visits annually.
The Jessie Trice CHC is part of a national network of Com-munity Health Centers that started more than fifty years ago as a daring experiment in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty campaign.
Today, that pilot project has evolved into the largest and most successful primary healthcare system in the United States. Health centers serve more than 24 million Americans (one in 14 people) who live in more than 9,200 rural and urban communities. Health centers also save the U.S. healthcare system more than $24 billion every year in reduced overall costs from preventable hospitalizations and avoidable emergency room visits. To learn more about the mission and accomplishments of heatlh centers please visit www.nachc.org.
Founded in 1970, the National Association of Com-munity Health Centers (NACHC) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance and expand access to quality, community-responsive health care for America’s medically underserved and uninsured. NACHC represents the nation’s network of over 1,200 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) which serve over 24 million people through over 9,200 sites located in all of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam.
