MEET OUR SUB-BOARD
The Cape Fear HOP Sub-Board
Angela Ives, RN, CCM, Executive Director, Community Care of the Lower Cape Fear (Ex Officio)
Angela Ives, RN, CCM has been the CCLCF Executive Director since April, 2016 and oversees the Healthy Opportunities Network Lead work. She has more than thirty years of healthcare experience working with the Medicaid population in the Lower Cape Fear Region and has been with CCLCF since its inception in 2003. In the early stages, CCLCF partnered with CCNC to provide care management services to the Carolina Access Medicaid population, grow Quality Improvement Initiatives that concentrated on the most “impactable” patients, and provided assistance to providers to be outstanding “Medical Homes”. Under Medicaid Managed Care, CCLCF works with PHPs, practices and providers to improve patient outcomes, experience, and satisfaction and is a National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) accredited organization. Angela has been a certified case manager for 12 years, working to improve population health in Southeastern North Carolina by harnessing strengths the CCLCF program brings – local provider support and participation, local care management services, adoption of evidence- based treatment guidelines, care coordination, social determinants of health screening with linkage to community resources, health information technology, data analytics, and proven outcomes to high-risk, high-cost populations.
Cindy Ehlers, MS, LPC, Executive Vice President Clinical Operations, Trillium Health Resources
As the Executive Vice President for-Trillium Health Resources, Cindy is focused on improving health and affordability through emerging analytics and innovative clinical solutions. She leads several major components of Trillium overseeing the clinical and network operations. Trillium Health Resources, is a leader in innovation for behavioral health and /IDD long term support service populations in NC markets. As Executive Vice-President Cindy is responsible for the administrative, clinical, and programmatic operations of the $550 million per year health plan contract with North Carolina Medicaid and the North Carolina Division of Mental Health Developmental Disabilities and Substance Use services along with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Cindy graduated from University of North Carolina at Pembroke with a bachelor’s degree in social work, and completed her Master’s degree at East Carolina University in Rehabilitation Studies.
Peter E. Bird, Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Development, Boulder Care
Peter Bird serves as Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Development, Boulder Care. Boulder Care provides telehealth addiction treatment for people with substance use disorders. Pete is a mission-driven healthcare leader with extensive entrepreneurial experience in strategy development and execution, consulting, corporate development, informatics and business development. He has a proven track-record of establishing and leading high-growth, innovative organizations. Previously, Pete was Vice President of Strategy and Performance at Carolina Complete Health Network, a physician-led joint venture partner in North Carolina’s Medicaid Transformation. Pete also spent 18 years at IQVIA as an internal consultant in the Corporate Strategy group and in a variety of product management and business development leadership positions. He also played a pivotal role in the formation, growth and sale of the Verispan healthcare informatics joint venture with McKesson.
Crystal Pellom, LCMHC, National Training Manager, Child First/NSO
Crystal Pellom is a Licensed Mental Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LPC) and the National Training Manager for Child First, a mental health trauma treatment program aimed at supporting infants and toddlers’ birth to 6yo alongside their caregiver. Much of Crystal’s early professional career focused on working with individuals who were differently abled, had mental illness diagnosis, or individuals with comorbidity. Crystal wanted to do more regarding helping marginalized groups. In 2015 she received her Master of Arts from Wake Forest University, located in Winston-Salem NC, in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. Crystal returned back to the community she so loved. She held a clinical counseling position at Coastal Horizons Center as psychotherapist for more than two years before being promoted to program supervisor of the Child First Program. Apart from her professional responsibilities, Crystal has allowed her passion to encourage community empowerment and social equity through her work with the Minority Mental Health Networking Group; a group she founded in 2018. The advocacy and networking group has grown to now include more than 15 active members who hold various mental health, community, and service driven positions within the community. Crystal’s personal passion to promote equity and inclusion matured into a pivot in her career. In 2021 during turbulent times in our country, Crystal acquired the first ever role as Director of Equity and Inclusion for Coastal Horizons Center. Crystal is now the National Training Manager for Child First and works to provide quality clinical training to staff located in North Carolina, Connecticut, Florida, and Colorado.
Carolyn Moser, BSN, MPA, Pender County Health and Human Services Director, Pender County, Department of Social Services Director
Carolyn serves as Director for the Pender County Health Department and Pender County Department of Social Services. She was Madison County’s Health Director for seven years and a State Nurse Consultant for twelve. Carolyn has over 35 years of public health experience and is active in numerous professional organizations including the North Carolina Public Health Association (past president) and the Community Care of the Lower Cape Fear Board (member). Carolyn was named N.C. Health Director of the year in 2019.
Olivia Herndon, MA, Associate Director- SEAHEC, Director- Continuing Professional Development
Olivia Herndon serves a dual role within South East Area Health Education Center (SEAHEC) and New Hanover Regional Medical Center (NHRMC)/Novant as the Associate Director of SEAHEC and the Director of Continuing Education. SEAHEC is a part of the North Carolina AHEC system and works to ensure that our region’s current health workforce and future health workforce have access to quality education, training, and resources to improve the health of southeastern North Carolina. In addition to her role at SEAHEC, Olivia serves as one of the Strategic Initiative Owners at NHRMC, owning the Community Partnership initiative. Through this portion of the strategic plan, NHRMC has worked to address screening patients for social determinants and linking them to resources, trauma informed care, has collectively worked with community partners to identify housing needs of the region, address food insecurities within the communities of the region, and create a system wide site to obtain information regarding regional health needs.
Lisa Robinson, MHA, Executive Director, Mt Calvary Center for Leadership Development
Lisa has an extensive background in clinical and healthcare administration with leading healthcare systems such as Inova Healthcare System and several other medical facilities. She holds a Bachelors Degree from Bowie State University in Psychology with a Masters Degree in Healthcare Services from Central Michigan University. She serves on several boards including the Wallace Chamber of Commerce, and lead the charge for Mt. Calvary’s involvement with the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce and Burgaw Chamber of Commerce. Her interests remain with helping people. Mt. Calvary Center for Leadership Development has greatly grown under her leadership with nearly 25 employees within one year, and three major governmental contract initiatives and secured record amounts of private foundation funding for the organization. Because of her efforts and strong advocacy for helping communities overcome challenges the Center sponsor’ nearly eight food drives and processed hundreds of applications for financial and other assistance during the Covid-19 pandemic. She continues to provide senior level leaderships over the Community Health Covid-19 Division with Mt. Calvary which continues to serve ten counties. She assisted with the development of Mt. Calvary’s VIC Academy serving youth in grades 5-6 and the second component for grades 11-12 with career identification and the confidence to know they can reach their full potential. This program serves youth in Pender, Duplin, Bladen, New Hanover and Sampson Counties.
Jason Beck (CCLCF Board Treasurer, HOP Sub Board Treasurer)
President, Columbus Regional Healthcare System
Jason Beck served as CEO of Columbus Regional Healthcare System since 2018 and became the Interim President after the retirement of John Young in December 2021. In January 2022, his position became permanent. He graduated from Ohio University with a Master of Business, Health/Health Care Administration/Management and received his BS in Business Management and Organizational Development from the University of Mount Olive. Jason has worked at CRHS for over 24 years and grew up in Columbus County. He began his healthcare career as a Respiratory Therapist; with a passion for caring for others and a desire to do more, he found himself on a leadership path early in his career. In 2022, CRHS achieved accreditation as a Center of Excellence in Robotic Surgery, recognizing Columbus Regional’s commitment and high standard of delivery of quality patient care and safety.
Abdul Hafeedh Bin Abdullah, Executive Director Sokoto House (Consumer Advocate)
After several years of intense exposure to California’s gang and street culture, Abdullah was first incarcerated at age 9 and at age 17 was sentenced spending time in California’s Department of Corrections maximum security prison. Abdullah was inspired to shift his world view and began to tenaciously pursue a journey of self and community restoration and healing. Abdullah was 1 of 2 principal Community Health Workers at the Multnomah County Health Department (MCHD), striving to Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere (STRYVE) in Oregon and was instrumental in the program’s success. STRYVE had the national mandate to advance violence as a public health priority from 2011 to 2016. He co-developed an African-African American centered adaptation of the curriculum, and subsequently co-authored a peer-reviewed research of the training’s implementation. Abdullah spearheaded the development of a 20 hour training titled Understanding Violence Through a Public Health Lens and co-led a team of colleagues in a comprehensive adaptation and implementation of OHA’s CHW curriculum with a focus on violence prevention (2016).
Abdullah was requested by the Principal Investigator of the STRYVE program to join the research team to write the final report for the CDC in 2017 while living in Wilmington, North Carolina. Upon completion of the CDC report, Abdullah began to implement a community-centered and community-driven version of the MCHD STRYVE program inside North Carolina Cape Fear Region inside the Cape Fear Region Abdullah is the Executive Director of Quality Life Blueprint and Founding Executive Director of Sokoto House (Community Center and Cultural Hub) where his program is being implemented.
Currently, Abdullah works closely with key Executive staff within the CDC’s Injury Prevention Department and several other violence prevention, public health, and CHW professionals across the country to advance the CHW Violence Prevention model. He also serves as the Co-Chair for the American Public Health Association (APHA) CHW Section Policy Committee and is co-leading with Rumana Shams Rabbani on the APHA policy proposal for CHWs as Racial Equity Advocates and Pathways for Training. Abdullah is the Lead CHW and Co-Chair for the APHA CHW Section Racial Equity workshop that will be hosted at the APHA 2022 annual conference in Boston focusing on violence prevention practices and racial equity tools. He is the Co-PI of the research collaborative with Rumana and CBO-based CHWs which aim is to address CHW sustainable and equitable payment models during Covid and Emerging pathogens with a focus on racial equity interventions. He is one of several principle CHWs helping to lead the National Association for CHWs for Leadership and Capacity Building funded by Johnson & Johnson Foundation.
Dr. Devoria K. Berry, DSW, MSW, LCSW, LCASA, CEO, Community Support Agency
Dr. Berry received her Doctorate of Social Work from University of Southern California, her Master of Social Work from Fayetteville State University and her Bachelor of Social Work from UNC Pembroke. In addition to this experience, she is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, a Licensed Clinical Addiction Specialist Associate, a Clinical Certified Sex Offender Treatment Specialist and a Forensic Specialist.
Dr. Berry has served as CEO of the Community Support Agency, a certified Critical Access Behavioral Health Agency (CABHA) since 2007. Her work experience includes being an expert in community inclusion and engagement within rural communities and staying current with the ever-changing field of mental health. In addition to her work at CSA, Dr. Berry works as an Outpatient therapist for juveniles and adults, providing treatment plans to emergency screenings and care management assessments to provide a full coordination of services care. Prior to this experience, Dr. Berry was an On Call and Human Services Clinical Counselor spending much of her time linking at-risk juveniles (and their families) in treatment facilities/ programs.
Dr. Joe Pino, MD, MHA, FACP, Senior VP Medical Education Novant Health and Executive Director SEAHEC (CCLCF Board Chair, HOP Sub Board Chair)
Over his career, Dr. Joseph Pino has built a strong reputation in leadership and innovation in healthcare, developing the next generation of leaders across the healthcare community and helping to shape the future of patient care. Dr. Pino wears many hats – he is the Senior Vice President for Graduate Medical Education at Novant Health, the Executive Director at SEAHEC (a nonprofit organization that provides training, education and resources to area health care professionals), the Campus Director of the UNC School of Medicine in Wilmington, and the Vice President / Designated Institutional Official for GME at NHRMC for the four residency programs in internal medicine, family medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, plus general surgery, as well as being an Associate Professor at UNC and UNCW. He serves on many boards and committees and holds memberships with many different organizations including, but not limited to, Coastal Connect Health Information Exchange, Community Care Lower Cape Fear, the SEAHEC Education Committee, the MedNorth Board and the MAHEC Board. In between all his extensive meetings Dr. Pino, as an internal medicine/pediatrics physician, still holds Pediatric Clinic hours every Wednesday afternoon and teaches medical students at SEAHEC.
Diane Brown, Community Health Worker Mt Calvary Center for Leadership Development, Mayor Town of Greenevers (Consumer Advocate)
Diane serves as a Community Health Worker (CHW) for Mt. Calvary Center for Leadership, overlapping the six counties in the HOP region. As a CHW, Diane works to improve community resilience, quality of life and create connection between residents and healthcare providers. Diane serves as an advocate providing outreach, community education, social support, and connection to resources. She is a Covid vaccine advocate, working with the community to rigorously promote health and vaccine awareness through the Community Health Program. Diane is also the Town of Greenevers Mayor, located in southern Duplin County, NC with a population of approximately 634 (2010 Census). Greenevers is largely an African American community with a median household income of $19,000 with Ms. Brown guiding citizens to growth and preservation of historical, cultural and natural heritage.
Sarah Arthur, Community Engagement Administrator, New Hanover Regional Medical Center/Novant
Sarah Arthur was born in Greensboro, NC and grew up heavily involved in her community. Sarah volunteered often with the downtown homeless community through Urban Ministries and this is where she truly gained her passion for social work. She obtained her Bachelors in Social Work from Appalachian State University and then went on to achieve her Master’s in Social Work at University of North Carolina Charlotte. Sarah is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and has been working within the field of social work for the past 12 years. Sarah began her career in the area of homelessness at Charlotte Family Housing. She has since worked as a medical social worker, and is now in the area of community engagement at Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center. Sarah is committed to health and wholeness for all which encompasses her current position as Interim Director of Community Engagement. She and her husband Lee have lived in Wilmington with their two young boys Reid and Wade since 2012 and are also committed to serving the needs of the underserved in the Wilmington community.
Lenis Chen-Edinboro, Ph.D., Ed.M. Associate Professor, Public Health, College of Health and Human Services, University of North Carolina Wilmington (Data Champion)
Lenis Chen-Edinboro is an Associate Professor of Public Health and a Gerontology Faculty Affiliate in the College of Health and Human Services at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW). Her research focus includes the interplay of lifestyle factors, such as nutrition and sleep, with cognition and mental health. She has graduate-level training in epidemiology, biostatistics, aging, cognition, mental health and sleep research. She has an additional research interest in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Lenis is a biostatistics instructor for undergraduate students in the Public Health Program at UNCW. She has also taught Research Methods in Public Health, Public Health Practice, Explorations in Public Health, and a Capstone course for public health students. Lenis has been at UNC Wilmington for nine years.
Lenis completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in sleep research in the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She holds a Ph.D. in Human Nutrition, also from Hopkins. She has an Ed.M. in Arts in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and she has a B.S. in Biology from Duke University.
