Massachusetts General Hospital

Joan Quinlan is the Executive Director of the MGH Center for Community Health Improvement. Prior to joining MGH in 1995, Joan was the administrative director of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (1990-1995) and the Advisor on Women’s Issues to Massachusetts Governor Michael S. Dukakis (1983-1987), where she worked on issues of concern to low-income women, such as child care and teen pregnancy. She holds a BA in English literature from Boston College, and a Masters in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Leslie Aldrich is Associate Director for the MGH Center for Community Health Improvement. She received her Master’s degree in Public Health from Boston University and her Bachelor’s degree in Communications from Boston College. Ms. Aldrich started at the Center in 1999 as manager of evaluation and research and then moved on to direct this work in 2006. For the past 11 years she has focused her efforts on youth and the prevention of risky lifestyle choices and the study of underserved populations and the critical need for access to health care. Leslie has been instrumental in developing community surveys to assess social norms around alcohol and drug use and has helped a multitude of community health center programs evaluate their system of care.

Sarah Abernethy Oo has held her position as the Director of Community Health Improvement at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Chelsea HealthCare Center (MGH Chelsea) for the past 15 years. In this role, she is in charge of a team of 35 staff members who implement 18 public health and community health programs and strategies targeting hunger, obesity, cancer, refugee and immigrant health and social services, family violence, navigation and language services, maternal and child health, asthma and diabetes. Immediately prior to joining MGH Chelsea, Sarah worked as a Health Program Officer for UNICEF in Bangladesh. Sarah holds a Masters of Social Work from Columbia University, and has had extensive experience working with underserved communities both in the United States and overseas.

Kitty Bowman is the Director of Revere CARES, a nationally-recognized Healthy Communities Coalition and a program of the MGH Center for Community Health Improvement. Prior to joining MGH in 1997, Kitty was the outreach manager for Joseph Smith Community Health Center (1994-1996) and a Boston School Committee member (1988-92), where she led efforts to adopt the first HIV/AIDS curriculum and establish the first school based-health centers in Boston. She holds a BA in Psychology from Boston State and a Masters in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Christy Egun is the Director of Boston Partnerships for the Center for Community Health Improvement. She has led the transformation of CCHI’s Boston student initiative over the last three years. She develops and maintains relationships with key constituents including Boston Public School officials/leadership, the Boston Private Industry Council and Mass General leadership. Christy previously worked at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay doing marketing and volunteer recruitment. Earlier in her career, she was an academic advisor in the University of Minnesota’s Upward Bound Program, helping to direct the academic performance of low-income, first generation, college-bound high school students to post-secondary success. She received her Master’s degree from Emerson College.

Danelle Marable is the Director for Evaluation at the MGH Center for Community Health Improvement. She has evaluated several community-based programs employing the techniques of Community-Based Participatory Research. Her work is focused on adolescent risk and protective factors, specifically relating to drug use and violence, refugee and immigrant health, maternal and child health, and healthy eating and active living. Danelle received her B.A in Anthropology from the University of Central Florida and her M.A in Applied Social Research from West Virginia University.

Susan Leahy is the Communication Manager of the MGH Center for Community Health Improvement. She brings greater public awareness to the Center's work in Boston, Chelsea and Revere. Prior to joining MGH, Susan was the Senior Director of Public Relations for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. She received her B.A. in Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her Master of Science in Public Affairs degree from the University of Massachusetts at Boston.