Community Health’s Leading Voices to Gather at NACHC’s Annual CHI Community Health Conference

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Michael King,

[email protected]

BETHESDA, MD - August 13, 2026 - As the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) celebrates 55 years of advancing Community Health Centers (CHCs), the 2026 CHI Community Health Conference will bring together CHC leaders, patients, partners, and practitioners alongside healthcare stakeholders and more than 200 exhibitors to share innovative practices, address emerging challenges, and shape the future of community-based care.

"Community Health Centers are the nation's largest primary care network, serving 52.3 million people, or 1 in 7 Americans," said Kyu Rhee, MD, MPP, President and CEO of NACHC. "We're stronger when we come together with our partners, advocates, and community leaders, and the energy and innovation we experience at CHI truly illustrates that. NACHC is proud to celebrate 55 years of supporting the health center movement and mission to bring affordable, effective, comprehensive primary care to all."

This year's conference will showcase how health centers are implementing groundbreaking ideas that help communities thrive, reduce healthcare costs, and build a healthier America. CHCs operate in an era where change represents opportunity. Success requires more effective and efficient care delivery models. That path demands training in emerging disciplines, strategic collaboration, focused workforce development, technological advancement, and innovative care models that address today's most pressing health challenges.

Leading voices in healthcare, public policy and community wellness will share insights and exchange ideas to advance the CHC movement and make CHCs the nation's healthcare Employer, Provider, and Partner of Choice. Featured speakers include:

• Thomas J. Engels, Administrator, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Daniel Brillman, Director of Medicaid and CHIP, Deputy Administrator, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Stacie Weeks, MPH, JD, Director, Nevada Health Authority
• James Hotz, MD, MACP, Albany Area Primary Care
• Sheena Favors, DO, MS, FACOOG, Albany Area Primary Health Care
• Shelley Spires, MSM, CEO, Albany Area Primary Health Care
• Lynette Fraga, PhD, CEO, Reach Out & Read
• Robert Boyd, MCRP, MDiv, President and CEO, School-Based Health Alliance
• Jeremy Nobel, MD, MPH, Founder and President, The Foundation for Art & Healing
• Melissa Brotz, Senior Vice President, Abbott and President, Abbott Fund
• Kofi Essel, MD, MPH, FAAP, Food as Medicine (FAM) Director, Elevance Health
• Wayne Jonas, MD, President and Founder, Healing Works Foundation
• Brian Caveney, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Labcorp
• Keith Dipboye, MD, Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO), eClinicalWorks
• Nele Jessel, MD, Chief Medical Officer, athenahealth
• Robert Murry, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer, NextGen Healthcare

This year's reimagined expo hall, "The Neighborhood," will also feature the inaugural conference Bookstore with over 150 titles available for purchase. Several of the featured speakers and noted champions of the community health movement will participate in book signings. The authors are:

• Wayne Jonas, MD, Healing Works Foundation: Healing and Cancer: A Guide to Whole Person Care
• James Hotz, MD, MACP, Albany Area Primary Care: Where Remedies Lie: A Sequel to Doc Hollywood
• James W. Hunt, Jr., PhD, MUA, CAE: If You've Seen One…
• Jeremy Nobel, MD, MPH, The Foundation for Art & Healing: Project UnLonely: Healing Our Crisis of Disconnection
• Joshua Sharfstein, MD, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: Information Sick: How Journalism's Decline and Misinformation's Rise Are Harming Our Health―and What We Can Do About It

NACHC continues to advance innovations that support CHCs, the patients they serve, and the collaborators helping these innovations come to life: NACHC Partners of Choice (POC). One featured POC conference session will spotlight NACHC's partnership with the Bloomberg American Health Initiative. The Initiative equips health center leaders with tools to tackle critical public health challenges by providing scholarships for Master and Doctor of Public Health degrees from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Five members of the newest Bloomberg Fellows cohort represent CHCs across the country and will develop projects both with their health centers and NACHC during their fellowship. The NACHC Bloomberg Fellows and their focus areas are:

• Julia Ettelbrick, Sun River Health, New York, NY: Addiction and Overdose
• McKenzie Taylor, The Wright Center for Community Health, Kingston, PA: Addiction and Overdose
• Shamsun Nahar, Center for Pan Asian Community Services, Atlanta, GA: Adolescent Health
• Cara Skillingstead, Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations, Missoula, MT: Environmental Challenges
• Andre Moore, UI Health Mile Square Health Center, Chicago, IL: Violence

Another featured POC session will explore the strategic leadership of IT leaders at CHCs. This panel discussion is presented in partnership with NextGen Healthcare and will not only cover technology as a strategic driver of CHC mission and business goals but also introduce NACHC's new professional development program: the NACHC Leadership Exchange for Chief Information Officers. Thanks to generous partnership with NextGen Healthcare, NACHC can offer this innovative leadership development program at a significantly reduced cost, making it more accessible to CHC technology leaders across the country. The application period for the program is now open for the inaugural cohort on a rolling basis through October 23, 2026.

These and the rest of NACHC's POC are dedicated to the constant innovation, bold imagination, and enduring tenacity that CHCs embody. They are dedicated collaborators and NACHC is thrilled to have over 15 POC sessions at this year's conference. Explore the full schedule online.

Primary care innovation is expanding beyond U.S. borders. NACHC is also proud to announce the International Association of Community Health Centers (IACHC) and its mission to foster global collaboration in community-oriented primary health care and expand access that advances primary health care for all. IACHC connects the world's leading CHC movements, starting with the U.S., Canada, and Australia, and will provide organizations with research, policy tools, clinical quality frameworks, and a peer network that empowers members to advance high-quality community-led primary care for the communities that need it most.

To learn more about the conference and its offerings, visit https://2026chi.eventscribe.net/

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About NACHC

NACHC's mission is to champion Community Health Centers delivering affordable, effective, comprehensive primary care that is community-driven and improves health for all. For more information, visit https://www.nachc.org.