Center for Health Progress CEO, Joe Sammen, and Keynote Speaker, Rinku Sen, congratulate Mountain Family CEO Ross Brooks (left).

The Center for Health Progress honored Ross Brooks, Mountain Family’s Chief Executive Officer, this month.

At their annual HEALTHtalks luncheon in September, the Center for Health Progress (formerly Colorado Coalition for the Medically Underserved) honored Ross with their Community Champion Award for Community Leadership and Advocacy. Ross is driven by the simple principle that access to affordable health care is a human right, not a privilege, and he is a tireless community champion for health equity and access to high quality, patient-centered integrated medical, behavioral and dental health care for all.

Each year, Center for Health Progress honors four community members for “their outstanding contributions to improve health care systems and provide care for Coloradans, especially those who have faced unjust health outcomes.”

Other Mountain Family community leaders nominated for Center for Health Progress awards were:

  • Dr. Kent Petrie – Lifetime Achievement Community Achievement Award. Dr. Petrie is a family physician and obstetric provider at Mountain Family’s Edwards Center. He has spent his long career ensuring the medically underserved in the Vail Valley have access to high quality health care.
  • Dr. Anneliese Heckert – Physician Community Achievement Award. Dr. Heckert is a family physician and site medical director at Mountain Family’s Basalt Center. She is a champion for the underserved, directing the Basalt team as together they provide patient-centered, value-based, integrated care to all, regardless of ability to pay.
  • Jolene Singer, RN – Non-Physician Community Achievement Award. Jolene Singer is Mountain Family’s Integrated Care Director. She is highly passionate about exploring innovative ways to improve integrated care through both the connection of the medical, behavioral and dental health disciplines within Mountain Family, and reaching out to find community partners beyond the organization’s walls.

Mountain Family is proud of these leaders and offers our heartiest congratulations for your inspiring service to our patients and communities.

To learn more about Center for Health Progress and their work, click here.

Photo: Center for Health Progress, CEO, Joe Sammen, and Keynote Speaker, Rinku Sen, congratulate Mountain Family CEO Ross Brooks (left).