Board of Directors
Jania, as the CEO at Valley-Wide, is responsible for strategic and operational leadership, relationship building internally and externally at the national, state, and local levels, and ultimately responsible for all high-level decision-making. Jania has been a leader in Community Health for over 22 years. Prior to her current role, Jania was the Chief Financial Officer at two community health centers and another community healthcare organization in Tucson, Arizona. Jania obtained her doctorate degree in Healthcare Administration in 2021 from AT Still University, her Master of Business Administration from The University of Phoenix in 2006, and her Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from the University of Arizona in 2002. Jania currently resides in Alamosa, Colorado with her husband and her six children. Jania enjoys spending time with her family and being outdoors anywhere in beautiful Colorado.
Simon joined Clinica’s staff in 2011 as a project manager and, in less than three years, was named as president and CEO of the organization. Before coming to Clinica, Simon worked for Abt Associates, Inc., a research and consulting firm that assists companies and governmental agencies in implementing health, social and environmental programs. Simon spent his first three years with Abt in Kazakhstan helping restructure the country’s public health system. He spent another five years at Abt’s Bethesda, MD, office managing government-funded international activities to improve care in areas such as HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, and community health. Prior to becoming Clinica’s president and CEO, Simon served as the clinic director of Clinica’s Boulder facility, the People’s Medical Clinic. In that capacity, he managed 64 staff that provided care to almost 9,500 annually. As Clinica’s CEO, Simon wants to work closely with other social service agencies and officials within Clinica’s service area to improve the health care safety net for low-income and uninsured individuals.
Alex is the Chief Financial Officer for Axis Health System in Durango, CO. He has spent over a decade of his career in the healthcare industry with a specific emphasis on operational and financial leadership. Serving in different capacities over the years has allowed him to gain experience in new practice start-ups, physician practice management, integration of behavioral health within the primary care setting, mergers and acquisitions, medical coding and billing, insurance credentialing, business analysis, process improvement and more. This experience has been expanded in many different healthcare settings across the country. These settings include private for-profit organizations, non-profit hospital based systems and Federally Qualified Health Centers. These settings offered services that included primary care, internal medicine, pediatrics, urgent care, neurology, neuro-psychology, behavioral health within a primary care setting, Substance use and addiction treatment & therapy, obstetrics and gynecology, pharmacy (340B), and dentistry. He currently maintains an active Certified Professional Accountant (CPA) license.
Kay holds a Master of Arts degree in History from the University of Poona, India. Since assuming the top leadership role in January, 2013, Kay has transformed MarillacHealth into a flourishing, progressive and sustainable community health center. Under her direction MarillacHealth has successfully implemented two Electronic Health Records and Medicaid service expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Kay possesses over twenty years of experience in senior management positions in health care, both in the for-profit and non-profit industry in Canada and the United States. With fourteen years of Executive Director/CEO experience, one of her noteworthy roles was from 2004-2007 as CEO of the People’s Clinic (a FQHC) in Boulder, Colorado, where she led the organization from severe financial losses to a stable bottom line in just twenty-four months. Kay was appointed to the Commission of Denver Mayor’s Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness; she has also served on many non-profit Boards. Kay’s mastery in working with boards, senior leaders, community partners and elected officials has enabled her to develop and implement annual plans, budgets, capital projects and clinic re-designs. Kay’s primary language is English. Born and raised in India, she speaks Tamil and Hindi and possesses a rich understanding of cultural issues and economic disparities.
Art Fernandez serves as the Chief Operating Officer for Mountain Family Health Centers. Art joined Mountain Family in July 2007, after more than 20 years of health care management experience. Art’s years in the medical industry have afforded him the opportunity to hone his skills in health care operations, leadership, systems/process administration, utilization management, and business development. Prior to joining Mountain Family, he worked for several medical and dental for-profit and not-for-profit organizations in Southern California. Before embarking into a career in health care, Art’s experience included holding various management level positions in banking operations with Bank of America. Art received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from the California State University, Los Angeles. When not working, Art enjoys biking, hiking, traveling (road trips), gardening, and spending time with his wife Annette, two children Sean and Monica, and our three dogs Casey Jane, Cash, and Snowball.
Autumn Orser is an innovative, physician leader who has been working at Peak Vista Community Health Centers since 2012. She currently serves as Senior Vice President of Health Informatics with a focus on population health, value-based care, continuous process improvement, and using data to inform change. Autumn is passionate about working with underserved and marginalized populations who have both medical and social complexity. Prior to her current position, she served as Vice President of Medical Services and oversaw nine health centers, including the Developmental Disabilities Health Center, several rural health centers, and the HIV center. Before that she was the Director of Medical Services at the largest primary care health center at Peak Vista. She obtained an MBA from Indiana University in 2019, completed residency at Children’s Hospital Colorado in 2012, and obtained her MD from the University of Colorado in 2009. Autumn, her husband and two children live on a small, hobby farm in Black Forest, CO and love to travel.
Donald is the CEO (2009 – present) of Pueblo Community Health Center, which is the health primary care home for over 28,000 patients who have access to primary medical, dental and mental health services in the Pueblo area. He previously was the Chief Operations Officer (1999-2009) and oversaw administrative and clinical support services at the Center, special population and outreach programs. Donald was also a senior leader for service and facility expansions, compliance and outcome improvement efforts. He obtained his Master of Healthcare Administration from the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in 1992. After completing his post-graduate residency at the Geisinger Health System in 1993 he worked for the Daughters of Charity National Health System, now Ascension Health (St. Louis), in Arkansas as a Health Systems Planner and then in San Antonio, Texas as Executive Director of the Daughters’ health and social service centers.
John Santistevan is the Deputy President/CEO of Salud Family Health Centers and held the position of Chief Financial Officer for the previous seventeen years. John has held the office of President and Treasurer for the community health centers primary care association, Colorado Community Health Network (CCHN). John served as the co-chair for the CCHN and Community Behavioral Health Collaboration committee for four years. John has served as the chaired the Finance Committee of the Colorado Community Managed Care Network for ten years and currently held the office of Treasurer. John has served on the following committees for the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC): Finance, Marketing and AmeriCorps Steering committee, and the subcommittee on Health Care Finance. In 2013, John was elected serve on the NACHC board of directors. In 2010, Mr. Santistevan was awarded the Jeffery T. Latman Leadership in Healthcare Finance by the NACHC.
Libby Goode-Grasmick, DC, is Chief Systems Officer for Sunrise Community Health. She has a diverse medical background consisting of eleven years of medical education focusing on medicine, chiropractic, pharmacology, radiology, and emergency medicine. Twenty-five years of experience in practice management and operations, compliance with federal and state program regulations, OSHA and infection control, quality improvement, grant program management and service line development. Libby has learned insurance contracting, coding, and billing from watching VHS tapes and filling out red HCFA 1500 forms by hand during her time in private practice. She is budget minded and mission driven.
Mr. Myers currently serves as the representative Medicare Beneficiary on the CHPA Board. He received his BA in journalism from Kent State University in Ohio and began his career first in Peace Corps in Guatemala where he was introduced to public health and then as a journalist in Mexico City. From there he attended the CSU masters program for nutrition and joined the Plan de Salud del Valle organization to work with migrant farm workers and the rural poor. In 1993 he became CEO for the Metro Community Provider Network (currently known as STRIDE) a position he held until his retirement in 2017. He currently works as an intern for CORHIO (Colorado Regional Health Information Organization).
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