Two collaborative groups guide the pursuit and achievement of the Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity's (CARHE) goals:
In addition, the following teams have helped us shape CARHE and provide day-to-day oversight and management of its work:
Read the CARHE "bylaws" describing the Center's oversight.
The Leadership Council
The Leadership Council is the primary governing body of CARHE. It provides strategic direction and ensures our activities remain consistent with our mission, vision and values.
Sonia Chimienti, MD, FIDSA
Dean for Educational Affairs, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College
Dr. Sonia Chimienti supports all medicine and health sciences educational programs at Geisel and is responsible for the school’s accreditation activities. She is keenly interested in increasing connections between learners at Geisel and local communities, with a deep focus on supporting excellence in rural health care and well-being. Dr. Chimienti completed her undergraduate studies at Stanford University, with degrees in Biology and Psychology, and received her MD degree from the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine. She completed an Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, Massachusetts, followed by an Infectious Diseases Fellowship with Partners (MGH/Brigham and Women's Hospital) and an HIV Fellowship at MGH. Dr. Chimienti’s educational leadership experience spans the spectrum of undergraduate and graduate medical education. Throughout her professional career, Dr. Chimienti has maintained her commitment to clinical service, providing care for patients with immune compromise or general infectious diseases. Education and mentoring of learners have been one of her longstanding passions.
Rudy Fedrizzi, MD
Public Health Services District Director, Vermont Department of Health
Rudolph (Rudy) Fedrizzi is the Public Health Services District Director for the White River Junction Office of Local Health in the Vermont Department of Health. Prior to his career in public health, Dr. Fedrizzi practiced Obstetrics and Gynecology for 16 years. His past administrative and clinical experience includes Chief of OB-GYN Services and training as a flight surgeon at Luke Air Force Base Hospital in Glendale, Arizona, Medical Director of the Northern New Mexico Women’s Health and Birth Center in Taos, NM, and Director of Surgical Services at Cayuga Medical Center in Ithaca, New York. Currently, he is Chair of the Upper Valley Medical Reserve Corps Advisory Board, President of the Public Health Council of the Upper Valley Board, Vice President of the Southern NH Area Health Education Network (AHEC) Board, member of the Twin Pines Housing Board, and member of the Rotary Club of Lebanon, New Hampshire. He has 3 children scattered in 3 states (Washington, Colorado and New Hampshire). When not working he enjoys reading, travel, building whimsical birdhouses and height rulers, and is a pretty consistent, though pretty slow, runner.
Tina Foster, MD, MPH, MS
Staff Physician, Professor, Dartmouth Health
Tina Foster is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Community and Family Medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine. She practices at general OB/GYN at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and serves as Vice-Chair for Education in the Department of OB/GYN. She is board certified in OB/GYN and Preventive Medicine. A graduate of UC San Francisco medical school, she obtained her MPH (1998) at the Harvard School of Public Health and MS (2001) at Dartmouth’s Center for Evaluative Clinical Sciences while she was a fellow in the VA Quality Scholars national fellowship program in White River Junction, Vermont. She is Associate Program Director for the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Leadership Preventive Medicine Residency, a unique residency focused on the improvement of health and healthcare services. She teaches in the MPH programs at The Dartmouth Institute. She is also part of the leadership team of the International Coproduction of Health Network, focusing her work on building Communities of Practice. A Californian by birth, she lives in Post Mills, Vermont, where she tends the Post Mills Airport and Museum of Rusty Dusty Stuff and enjoys her cats and chickens, gardening, cooking, knitting and writing.
Ann Fournier, PhD, MS, RN, AHN-BC, CNE, CCE
Associate Professor, School of Nursing & Health Sciences, Colby Sawyer College
Dr. Fournier is a deeply committed holistic educator who trusts in the process and product of the mutual work of engaged pedagogy. Her teaching and learning, research and practice occur in academic, community, and clinical settings. The focus of her teaching extends from nursing into liberal education and lifelong learning spaces. She appreciates opportunities to collaborate with colleagues and community groups. Most recently, collaborations have included: planning a spring break alternative trip to Appalachia, exploring medical humanities and narrative medicine, storytelling, contributing to the implementation of interprofessional microaggression and bias trainings and participating as a member of the leadership team for Dartmouth Health’s Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity. She is a lover of flowers, the water, the color blue, flamenco guitar, shared gatherings, and is a mother of 7 (6 boys and 1 girl) who wishes she had time to learn to sew.
Helen Hong
Executive Director, COVER Home Repair
Helen is excited to further COVER Home Repair’s mission to build community and foster hope through cooperation and fellowship among home repair and reuse participants. As a former attorney, Helen excels at bringing her creativity and analytical skills to solve problems. She enjoys finding ways to collaborate, to build trust and to work towards a common goal. Helen spent six years on the COVER board, serving as the Board Chair in 2015-2016. Helen has also volunteered on home repair projects and in the COVER store and she spent a week in Louisiana as part of COVER’s volunteer team helping to rebuild homes after Hurricane Katrina. Helen first arrived in the Upper Valley in 2005. Over a 13-year tenure at Twin Pines Housing, she helped over 25 low- to moderate-income households access down payment grants to become homeowners. In exchange for the grants, homeowners agreed to keep their homes perpetually affordable. She also helped homeowners make energy-efficient improvements to their homes and funded three net-zero homes through creative initiatives with local investors and state entities. Helen quickly realized that reducing energy costs was critical to keeping homes affordable to limited-income homeowners. She is passionate about making homes safer and more efficient while also building a sense of community.
Sally Kraft, MD
Vice President, Population Health, Dartmouth Health
Sally Kraft is Vice President of Population Health at Dartmouth Health, where she leads a multi-disciplinary team dedicated to improving the health of populations and communities across the region served by Dartmouth Health faculty and affiliates. Dr. Kraft served as the Medical Director of Quality, Safety and Innovation at the University of Wisconsin Health system from 2007-2014, where she led system-wide initiatives to redesign ambulatory care. She received her MD and MPH degrees from the University of Michigan, completed a residency in internal medicine at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and fellowships in Pulmonary and Critical Care medicine at Stanford University. She has practiced pulmonary and critical care medicine in Stanford, California, and Madison, Wisconsin.
Terri Lewinson, PhD, MSW
Associate Professor, The Dartmouth Institute
Dr. Lewinson is an Associate Professor at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and the Department of Epidemiology at the Geisel School of Medicine. Her research focuses on housing-health experiences for marginalized people in various community contexts. This work includes exploring factors involved in residential mobility, or why people transition into and out of different home environments. As her research has evolved, Dr. Lewinson’s focus has broadened to include determining the impacts of environmental factors—such as toxic exposures in homes and forced evictions—on health and well-being. Her most recent projects have looked at tobacco exposure and housing pathways among extended-stay hotel residents, medical social workers’ scope of practice during the pandemic, and the role of payment and delivery system reform in combating the opioid epidemic.
Andrew Loehrer, MD, MPH
Staff Physician, Dartmouth Health
Andrew Loehrer is a surgical oncologist and health services researcher at Dartmouth Health, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. His clinical practice includes care for patients with cancers of the skin, soft tissue, liver and gastrointestinal tract. Dr. Loehrer currently serves as the Cancer Liaison Physician for the Dartmouth Cancer Center and as an academic mentor to trainees across Dartmouth. Dr. Loehrer received his medical degree from Loyola University Chicago, Stritch School of Medicine before completing a residency general surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital and a clinical fellowship in Complex General Surgical Oncology at the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center. He also holds a Master of Public Health degree with a concentration in health policy, received from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Outside interests include professional football and baseball, hiking, landscaping and gardening.
Andy Lowe
Executive Director, New England Rural Health Association
Andy Lowe is the Executive Director of the New England Rural Health Association, the Rural Health Association of the six New England states. Before becoming Executive Director, he was a member of the NERHA Board of Directors, serving as President from 2020-2021. Before joining NERHA, Andy served as Chief Strategy Officer at Outer Cape Health Services, a community health center serving the rural Outer Cape Cod region. While there, Andy also served as Director of the Cape and Islands Area Health Education Center (AHEC). Previous work includes positions at the University of Vermont, where he worked on community-based research programs for rural veterans, and the State of Vermont, where he served in a number of roles culminating in Associate CIO for the Agency of Human Services. Andy holds a community faculty appointment at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and has worked with many advisees from the Medical School and Graduate School of Nursing on community-based rural projects. Andy and his wife Jayne, who met as undergraduates at Norwich University, live in rural Vermont. A lifelong resident of New England who has lived in rural areas of Vermont, Connecticut and Cape Cod, Andy enjoys fishing, primitive arms hunting, hiking, biking, snowshoeing, gardening, boating, swimming, maple sugaring, cross country skiing and anything else outdoors. Andy is a competitive endurance athlete who has trained and raced as a runner, cross country skier, triathlete and rower.
Denise Pouliot, Chair of the CARHE Leadership Council
Cowsuck band, Penacook-Abenaki people
Denise K. Pouliot is the Sag8moskwa (Female Head Speaker) of the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook Abenaki People and traditional artist. She currently serves on the New Hampshire Commission on Native American Affairs and New Hampshire Public Health Association, is a Federal Religious Advisor, the treasurer for COWASS North America and the Abenaki Nation of Vermont, and a founding member of the Indigenous New Hampshire Collaborative Collective. Denise is also an Affiliate Faculty member of the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Native American and Indigenous Studies Minor and recipient of the UNH Platinum Sustainability Award for community building and was named as one of The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC's) 60 individuals and organizations that have positively impacted the natural world in honor of TNC’s 60 years of conservation in New Hampshire 2021. In her spare time as a traditional artist, she creates coil, bark or woven baskets and produces traditional ceremonial clothing.
Roscoe Putnam
Community Member from Lebanon, New Hampshire
Roscoe was born and raised in Lebanon, New Hampshire, where his father served as a police officer and his mother managed the family businesses, which included selling vegetables at a roadside stand, offering storage rentals, and owning several apartments. With a strong dedication to social and community services, Roscoe’s former roles include a working as a licensed funeral director, a licensed auctioneer, and 14 years with the Vermont Department of Probation and Parole. Most recently, he served as Communications Coordinator with LISTEN Community Services. Now semi-retired, Roscoe is supporting programs for people who are housing insecure and serving on the CARHE Leadership Council. In his free time, Roscoe enjoys volunteering, refurbishing old furniture, and traveling.
Jim Rowe, MS
Senior Director of HR Functional Excellence at Hypertherm
Jim Rowe has been working in human resources for over 30 years, leading teams in areas such as talent acquisition, compensation, employee benefits, HR systems, and learning and development. His experience includes engaging employees to actively participate in their wellbeing, fostering teams, and linking business plans to talent strategies. Jim is passionate about improving access to quality healthcare in rural communities having lived in small towns in West Virginia, Ohio, and Illinois for much of his life. He holds a bachelor’s in business administration and a master’s in industrial and labor relations both from West Virginia University. Jim has lived in Nashua, New Hampshire, for the past 20 years, where he enjoys spending time with his family, playing guitar, and tackling all manner of home projects.
Elisabeth Wilson, MD, MPH, MS-HPEd
Chair and Professor of the Department of Community and Family Medicine, Dartmouth Health
Elisabeth Wilson is Chair of Community and Family Medicine at Dartmouth Health and Geisel School of Medicine. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing the clinical, academic and social mission of the department. Prior to coming to Dartmouth, Dr. Wilson served as Chair of Family Medicine at Maine Medical Center where she also served as the Executive Director of the Preble Street Learning Collaborative. Dr. Wilson completed her MD and MPH at Tufts University and received a master’s in education from the MGH Institute of Health Professions. After residency and a three-year research fellowship at UCSF, she joined the faculty as the Director of “PRIME-US”, an innovative program for students interested in working with urban underserved communities. Dr. Wilson is committed to advancing primary care and health equity through clinical care, education, research, and community engagement. She loves hiking and biking, has a huge dog named Charlie, and spends a lot of time on the road going to visit her partner and family living beyond the Upper Valley.
CARHE Affiliate Members
CARHE Affiliate Members bring the voice of the community to the Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity and serves as a resource for Center activities. CARHE Affiliate Members are representative of diverse communities in rural northern New England.
Aiyana Banks
Community Member from Lebanon, New Hampshire
Aiyana has worked in a variety of settings, giving her a broad perspective on individuals from all types of backgrounds. She has managed people, worked in service roles, provided care for seniors, and worked as a nursing assistant, massage therapist and Native American Special Emphasis Program Manager. Aiyana has strong interests in natural and traditional medicine, community/lay midwifery, and sustainable living. She loves working on her van named "Buggy" and renovating her trailer named "The She Shack." She is always willing to learn new things. She has 5 children and 3 grandchildren.
Lindsey Boisvert
Community Health Worker, New London Hospital
Lindsey Boisvert is a Community Health Worker by training. Lindsey has worked as a Community Health Worker in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center as well as Primary Care and Pediatrics at New London Hospital. In addition to her work addressing Social Drivers of Health, Lindsey is the Co-Chair for the New Hampshire CHW Coalition and The Chair for the Greater Sullivan County Public Health Advisory Council. Lindsey lives in Sunapee, New Hampshire, with her Husband Jacob and their rescue dog, Reggie.
Cheri Bryer
Recovery Coach, Moms in Recovery, Dartmouth Health
Cheri Bryer is the Recovery Coach at the Moms in Recovery Program at Dartmouth Health, where she provides peer support recovery services and advocacy to pregnant and parenting women. She is a member of the interdisciplinary pediatric and OB teams at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, working with women and families who have substance misuse disorders. In her inpatient and outpatient role she provides individualized advocacy, support and referrals to community recovery resources. As a person in long-term recovery herself, she often accompanies individuals to medical appointments, recovery meetings, court hearings and treatment. Cheri is a certified recovery coach and Ethics trainer, leading many trainings in the Upper Valley. She is certified to supervise recovery coaches and social workers and has been an integral part of mentoring and teaching medical providers and care givers throughout New Hampshire. She has appeared in documentaries and speaks at public forums on behalf of herself and people with substance misuse disorder. She is inspired to speak out and uses her own personal story of addiction to help reduce stigma and bring a voice to those who have been silenced. Her experiences and recovery are proof that people can change.
Laura Byrne
Executive Director, HIV and Hepatitis C Resource Center
Laura Byrne is Executive Director of the HIV/HCV Resource Center, an AIDS Service Organization located in Lebanon, New Hampshire. Over the past decade, she has expanded her agency’s syringes service and overdose prevention programming and has worked to strengthen the linkage to care for people with substance use disorders. She is particularly interested in promoting health equity for clients who have faced stigma, including people who inject drugs and LGBTQ individuals. In addition to harm reduction, she is interested in relationships between gender, identity, society and culture. She is a graduate of Colby College and received an MA in Anthropology from Boston University. In her spare time, she likes to sing and play hockey, but not necessarily at the same time.
Bryanna McConnell
TLC Family Resource Center
Bryanna is the Youth Programs Outreach Coordinator at TLC Family Resource Center in Claremont, New Hampshire. She grew up in Newport, New Hampshire, and still lives in her childhood home with her sister, Danielle, her mother, Teriko, and her gremlin-dog, Maia. One of her favorite things to do is travel. She has visited 20 states, including Alaska and Hawaii, as well as Japan, Zimbabwe, Canada, Puerto Rico, and just recently South Korea. She loves learning about places, people, languages and cultures that are different than what she grew up with. She also loves reading, writing, playing video games, cosplaying, kayaking, scuba-diving, and playing with her 5-year-old godson, Jack. Bryanna has always had a passion for helping others and bettering her communities. She brings to the Advisory Council the perspective of a self-identified queer Millennial woman with a medical disability and several mental health challenges, including anxiety, depression and ADHD. She’s thrilled for the opportunity to help find solutions to local barriers.
Ann Kobylenski Sanderson, RN
Registered Nurse, White River Junction VA Medical Center
Ann is a registered nurse at the White River Junction VA Medical Center, where she works with a predominantly rural population of Veterans. With over six years of nursing experience, she previously worked at a critical access hospital as a charge nurse on the inpatient unit at Mount Ascutney Hospital. Ann lives in a rural community in Vermont. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. In her free time, she enjoys running, camping, downhill skiing, and going on adventures with her two young kids.
Emily Zanleoni
Executive Director, Hartford Community Coalition
Emily Musty Zanleoni was born into a rural New Hampshire farming family and, early on, developed the sensitivities and qualities that make her a keen listener and appreciator of the human spirit. As a humanist, Em is committed to ensuring that all people have the skills and supports they need to live healthy, adventurous lives. Working with various educational and nonprofit organizations throughout Northern New England, Emily has worked to provide education and access to care for young people, and coordinated programs focusing on promoting sexual health, substance-misuse and suicide prevention, and positive youth development and engagement. She currently consults with Music to Life as a workshop trainer and coach supporting artists to turn their social change ideas into sustainable music-driven programs for communities in need; conducts trainings in Teen and Youth Mental Health First Aid for a variety of health and wellness organizations; and is also the Executive Director of the Hartford Community Coalition, her local community organization which acts to reduce the stigma and impact of alcohol and drug use, food insecurity and mental health in support of the development of a healthy, safe, and resilient Hartford, Vermont.
The CARHE Planning team
A 6-month co-design process between January and June 2022 brought together diverse team members to shape the Center for Advancing Rural Health Equity. Planning team members were chosen for their expertise, knowledge and willingness to tackle big ideas in pursuit of health for rural populations.
Representation on the planning team included:
- Colby-Sawyer College
- Dartmouth Health
- Dartmouth College
- LISTEN Community Services
- Public Health Council of the Upper Valley
- Rural constituent from Dorchester, New Hampshire
- Rural constituent from Hartland, Vermont
- Rural constituent from Lebanon, New Hampshire
- Rural constituent from Littleton, New Hampshire
- Rural constituent from Sunapee, New Hampshire
- Rural constituent from Windsor, Vermont
- Twin Pines Housing Trust
- Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission
- Vermont Department of Health
Read the CARHE community report (PDF)
CARHE staff
