Leadership
Olga Valdman, MD – Executive Director
Dr. Olga Valdman is the Founder and the Executive Director of Worcester RISE Health Clinic and an Assistant professor of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMass). Dr. Valdman has devoted her career to working with vulnerable populations locally and globally. Her work with the refugee community of Worcester began during medical school when as a medical student she co-founded the African Community Education program together with Kaska Yawo. ACE is a non-profit that provides educational support for youth and families from the African continent and has grown from a volunteer organization to one of the prominent non-profits in Worcester serving refugee and immigrant communities. Dr. Valdman took a leave from medical school for a year to help ACE get started writing its first grants, applying for 501c3, and creating organizational structure while supporting Mr. Yawo in his leadership. After completing her residency at Greater Lawrence Family Health center, Dr. Valdman returned to Worcester because of her connection with ACE and with the Worcester refugee and immigrant community. She joined Family Health Center of Worcester (FHCW) where she spent the last decade building one of the best refugee health programs in the state of MA according to MA DPH. Under her leadership, FHCW created a dedicated team devoted to serving newly arriving refugees and immigrants with nursing, medical assistant and patient navigators; she worked hard to recruit staff that would be culturally and linguistically congruent with patients served. Dr. Valdman also developed a Global Health fellowship which attracted Family Medicine physicians passionate about global health globally and locally. Locally, fellows were trained in refugee and asylum care and became highly sought-after experts in the field. Dr. Valdman left Family Health Center in December of 2022 to create Worcester RISE Health Clinic as she believes the care for newly arriving refugees and immigrants must be integrated in the community and requires a different approach from “mainstream health system”.
Over the past decade, Dr. Valdman has built strong relationships and partnerships with the refugee resettlement agencies and the refugee & immigrant serving organizations in Worcester. She currently leads the Worcester Refugee Health collaborative which holds meetings twice a month and engages all refugee-serving organizations in the city of Worcester including the three resettlement agencies and the two community health centers.
At Umass Dr. Valdman serves as the Director of Global Health programs at the Family Medicine department. In that role she has established and maintained partnerships in Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Liberia including securing a $1.5 million grant from USAID to help build Family Medicine Residency training in Liberia. Additionally she has recently partnered with colleagues to launch a robust Spanish Language training program for Family Medicine residents and is excited to see Family Medicine physicians graduating fluent in Spanish language with deep appreciation for Latinx communities of Worcester.
Dr. Valdman serves as the advisor to the student Refugee Health Interest Group at Umass and hoping to see medical students take more active role in supporting Worcester refugee and immigrant communities. Nationally, Dr. Valdman is a member of the Society for Refugee Health Providers, presented at multiple conferences on topics of refugee health, global health and border health and is a recipient of awards and recognitions including Pisacano Leadership Award by the American Board of Family Medicine, Mass League Community Health Center Special Project award, Faculty Excellence Award, and Rotary international Humanitarian Award.
Board of Directors
Board Chair: Alex Mooradian, Esq.
Term: July 2023 – June 2025
Attorney Alex Mooradian represents clients in deportation proceedings, including immigrant juveniles, refugees, asylum-seekers, and survivors of crimes. He also represents those seeking immigration benefits, such as citizenship, adjustment of status, family-based visas, deferred action, relief under the Violence Against Women Act, U/T visas, and appeals to the Administrative Appeals Office and Board of Immigration Appeals. He has appeared before numerous courts in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, including the Federal District Court, District and Superior Courts, Probate and Family Courts, the Boston Immigration Court and USCIS. Alex has served as lead counsel on complex cases relating to protracted immigration detention, post-conviction relief, spurious gang allegations against immigrant juveniles, and gender-based and political asylum claims.
He serves as the Board Chair of the Organization for Nonprofit Excellence (ONE Worcester), which provides pro bono business consulting to Worcester-area nonprofits. He also serves on the pro bono panel at Ascentria Care Alliance's ILAP; is a mentor (and contract attorney) for the BU Law Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Program; is on the mental health committee for distribution of the City of Worcester's ARPA funding; is a member of the Steering Committee for African Community Education's capital campaign; is a Corporator of the Boys and Girls Club of Worcester; and routinely presents to and advises health centers and universities on immigration policy. He is the 2021 Recipient of the Boston University School of Law’s Public Interest Alumni Award in recognition of his pro bono work with immigrant kids, including those in immigrant detention, and his work on complex asylum matters. Alex speaks fluent Spanish.
Vice-Chair: Mukhtar Idhow
Term: July 2023 – June 2025
Mukhtar Idhow founded the Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success (ORIS) in September 2009 previously known as Somali Bantu Community Association of NH. As the Executive director he brought with with him over 10 years of experience serving people ranging from individuals with disabilities to those who are the most vulnerable in our communities and those impacted by global crises. The organization has recently expanded to Worcester, MA. While being an effective manager, he created space for people to talk, implemented programs that make impacts in the lives of communities and managed staff that are passionate about what they do in every single day
Mukhtar is an innovative Community leader who has focused his career on designing and implementing services that make an impact on people’s lives, both those being served and the staff doing the work. He believes that by amplifying the voices of those with lived experience and creating collaborative spaces for human centered design, we can accomplish the critical goal of making differences in people’s lives
Mukhtar began his career supporting and advocating for children and adults displaced by conflicts and natural disasters, living on a refugee camp in Kenya. By working alongside different NGOs Mr. Idhow focused his efforts in providing vulnerable refugees at the camp access to food, health care and Safety
Mr. Idhow believes that diversity, equity and inclusion are core pillars in every setting; finding ways of having courageous conversations is a priority for him.
Mukhtar has a Degree from Kenyatta University, Nairobi Kenya and earned Certificate in project management from Makerere University and Associate degree in Organizational Leadership from Southern NH university.
Treasurer: Millie Rao, MBA
Term: July 2023 – June 2025
Millie Rao has a bachelor’s in economics and an M.B.A. After spending over two decades on the payor side of healthcare where her career evolved from planning and program development to analytics, she moved to the non-profit sector in 2020 and has been serving refugees in her role as Education Coordinator and, more recently, the Executive Director of Worcester Refugee Assistance Project (WRAP). WRAP is a 501c3 non profit organization committed to assisting refugees achieve self-reliance through advocacy, mentoring and educational assistance. WRAP has been serving Burmese refugees since 2009 and expanded its mission to include all refugees in 2021.
Millie's analytical experience at Massachusetts based payors such as Fallon Health, Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare and BMC Health includes
Use of medical and pharmacy claims data for Actuarial pricing and modelling, Care management, and risk adjustment
Physician profiling using ETG's (episode treatment groupers) and EBM's (evidence-based metrics)
Hedis quality metrics
Predictive modelling for high-risk care management registries.
Data profiling to identify new opportunities for medical cost savings.
Risk assessment for new to market drugs
Evaluation of medical cost savings initiatives
ROI and cost benefit analysis
In her role as Director of Clinical Informatics at Boston Medical Center, she worked extensively with clinical staff to design innovative programs for the Medicaid population which addressed underlying social determinants with the ultimate aim of improved quality and efficiency. As Director of Medical Economics at axialHealthcare, a start-up, she was responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of programs focused on reducing opioid and substance use dependency. Millie sees many parallels between the refugee population and the impoverished, co-morbid and high-risk populations she has worked with over the years and is deeply vested in the mission of RISE.
Secretary: Jillian Phillips, LICSW, CEIS, IMH-E®
Term: October 2023 – June 2025
Jillian Phillips (she|they) is a social worker who has worked in Worcester supporting individuals and families since 2005 first as an outpatient therapist and then as a clinical supervisor at MENTOR South Bay early intervention for the past ten years. She is a licensed independent clinical social worker (LICSW), certified early intervention specialist (CEIS), and was recently endorsed by the MassAIMH (Massachusetts Association for Infant Mental Health) They are passionate about providing child focused trauma informed care, with a specific interest in supporting refugee families. They also spearheaded a nonprofit in their hometown aimed at cultivating a healthy community, reducing barriers to accessing physical and mental health care, and opened a community center with programming to support those goals. Jillian is a single mother by choice to 4 amazing children, including two children on the autism spectrum. They strongly believe that it takes a village to help communities thrive, and are honored to support the on the ground work helping ensure refugee families have the support and access to services they need to thrive.
Board Member: Crista Johnson-Agbakwu, MD
Term: July 2023 – June 2025
Dr. Crista Johnson-Agbakwu, an Obstetrician/Gynecologist, is the inaugural Executive Director of the Collaborative in Health Equity at UMass Chan Medical School and UMass Memorial Health. She is also a Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology and a Professor in the Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine, Population & Quantitative Health Sciences. Her efforts will aim to center health equity throughout all aspects of clinical care, research, education, and community engagement; leveraging institution-spanning, community-wide, and global assets which foster and sustain community embeddedness and trust while nurturing the recruitment, retention, and promotion of underrepresented minorities in medicine (URiM) across trainees, faculty, staff, and leadership. Her vision is for UMass Medical School to become the premier academic institution nationally and globally in advancing health equity for vulnerable, underserved, and historically marginalized communities.
From 2008 - 2023, Dr. Johnson-Agbakwu was the Founding Director of the Refugee Women’s Health Clinic (RWHC) at Valleywise Health in Phoenix, AZ, and the Director of the Office of Refugee Health in the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center at Arizona State University. Her research focused on investigating strategies to advance sexual and reproductive health equity for women of color, including migrant women, with the aim of improving health care access and utilization, sexual and reproductive health education, counseling, community engagement, as well as enhance health care provider cultural competency.
The RWHC was the first of its kind in the state of Arizona and has been nationally recognized as an innovative best practice model of care wherein she has spearheaded a unique patient-centered medical home for migrant families. Exponential growth beyond women’s services, has led to the care of over 16,000 patients across Women’s Health, Pediatrics, Internal and Family Medicine, hailing from 68 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, South-East Asia, and the Middle East and speaking over 71 languages.
She has led a federally funded effort to improve health care services, community engagement and provider cultural competency on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C), gender-based violence, and has provided consultative expertise to the CDC and WHO on refugee women’s health and FGM/C.
Dr. Johnson-Agbakwu has garnered numerous awards including most recently: the 2023 APGO Humanism in Teaching Award, the 2022 Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award presented by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation on behalf of the University of Arizona, College of Medicine, Phoenix, the 2022 Lisa C Bruch Woman of the Year Award by the Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation, the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Program in Human Sexuality Inaugural 50 Distinguished Sexual and Gender Health Revolutionaries Award, the 2021 ISSWSH Humanitarian Service Award, and the 2018 ACOG CREOG National Faculty Award for Excellence in Resident Education.
Board Member: Dr. David Jordan
Term: July 2023 – June 2025
Dr. David Jordan is a social entrepreneur who has launched and scaled over 20 healthcare/ human service organizations since 1985. He has served as the President and CEO of the Seven Hills Foundation since 1995 and during his tenure grew the organization from a $7M organization in 1995 to over $400 M in 2023 employing 5000 professional and support healthcare employees serving 60,000 + clients and patients annually at 250 locations in MA, RI , NH and 8 developing nations. Prior to that he served as the president and CEO of two other organizations Crotched Mountain Foundation (1985-1995) and River Crest Center (1976-1985). Dr Jordan was just named the Dean of the School of Management , Clark University effective August 2023
Dr. Jordan received his BS in accounting from University of RI, MA from Salve Regina University, MPA from Clark University and Doctorate in Healthcare Administration from the medical University of South Carolina
Board Member: Sonya Taly
Term: July 2023 – June 2025
Sonya Taly is Director of Community Services, Ascentria Community Services, a non-profit organization strengthening communities by empowering people to respond to life’s challenges. Sonya, leads Services for new American’s Programs across Worcester MA, West Springfield MA and Concord NH. Sonya has 18 years’ experience in community development, WRAP around services, Refugee Resettlement and Public Health Work with New England and Internationally. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary and Special Education from Castleton University and a Master of Arts in Intercultural Management, Sustainable Development from School for International Training Graduate Institute.
RISE Professional Advisory Board
Paul Geltman, MD - Chief of Medicine at Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children, Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Until recently medical director of DPH Refugee services for MA DPH. National leader in refugee health. Associate Professor at Department of Pediatrics, Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine and Department of Health Policy and Health Services Research, Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine
Laurie Doran - Strategic advisor, Advancing Health Care. Extensive prior experience with multiple ACO and MCOs
Kate McEvoy - Vice President, Corporate Relations of UmassMemorial Health with extensive prior experience in health insurance sector
LeNola Potami, CFA – an underwriting manager at Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF). Prior to joining NFF in 2023, she worked at Fidelity Investments, MFS, and State Street Bank in various capacities for nearly two decades including as a research analyst covering bonds backed by commercial real estate mortgages, other loans, and assets
Kola Akindele, JD, MS – Associate Vice-President for External Relations and Partnerships at the Worcester Polytechnical Institute (WPI)
Gina Plata-Nino, JD – Deputy Director of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Previously she worked for Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, Central West Justice Center of Community Legal Aid in Worcester, MA. Recipient of the 2022 Liberty Award from the Worcester Country Bar Association and the Top Women of Law award from the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.
Robert P. Marlin, MD, PhD, MPH – Chief of the Meta Health Center, Associate Chief Medical Officer at the Lowell Community Health Center. Meta Health Center serves refuges and survivors of torture and violence. Prior to coming to Lowell in 2019, Dr. Marlin served for 13 years as the founding director of the Coordinated Care Program for Political Violence Survivors at the Cambridge Health Alliance.
Hugh Silk, MD, MPH, FAAFP (he/him) - Vice Chair of Community Health and Professor, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Instructor, Harvard School of Dental Medicine and Harvard Medical School, Medical Director, MassAHEC Network, Road to Care, and clinician at Homeless Outreach and Advocacy Project (HOAP). In addition to the above, Dr. Silk is a national expert on oral health and an avid advocate for oral health access for vulnerable populations
Satu Salonen, MD, MPH. – Family Physician at Edward M. Kennedy, Fellowship trained specialist in refugee health and asylum medicine.
Kaska Yawo – Executive Director of the African Community Education program (ACE). Under Mr.Yawo’s leadership the organization has grown from 0 to a 3.5million dollar organization in 17years and recently acquired a 56,000 square feet facility which he hopes to make accessible to Worcester refugee and immigrant populations
Sergut Wolde-Yohannes, MPH – DPH Director of TB programs, originally from Ethiopia, passionate about refugee and community work, extensive work in various departments of DPH around refugee care
Scott Early, MD, MBA. President and Co-Founder at On Belay Health Solutions as well as Founder of Cronos Health – an innovative primary care practice for underserved populations
Tim Garvin – President and CEO of United Way of Central Massachusetts
Ken Bates – President & CEO, Open Sky Community Service
Mary Benvenuto – Executive Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer, Open Sky community Service