E. Benjamin Money, Jr., M.P.H., President and CEO of the North Carolina Community Health Center Association, has been named the 2015 Geiger Gibson Distinguished Visitor. The Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health Policy is a special initiative of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University. The Distinguished Visitor Program honors an individual whose lifetime career in community health, and achievements on behalf of health centers and medically underserved communities serves as an inspiration in public health policy and practice. The Distinguished Visitor is in residence briefly each fall to lecture, meet with students, and consult with faculty and research staff. Ben Money is the first North Carolina resident and the first African-American to receive this honor.
“The changes North Carolina is proposing in its Medicaid program coupled with the state legislature’s refusal to expand Medicaid drew the interest of the faculty at George Washington University and led to my invitation,” said Mr. Money. His presentation focused on Medicaid Reform and Expansion in North Carolina, emphasizing the critical role community health centers play in the state’s health system, providing quality primary care at considerable cost savings.
Ben Money joined the North Carolina Community Health Center Association in June 2001 and has led the Association as Chief Executive Officer since December 2008. Mr. Money holds a bachelor’s degree in health education and psychology from Springfield College in Massachusetts, and earned a Master of Public Health degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His career spans over 30 years – with work in public health, community mental health, faith-based non-profits, and health care to the homeless programs. He is on the board of Capital Link, the Carolina Medical Home Network, the NC Health Information Exchange, the Care Share Health Alliance, the East Carolina University Department of Public Health Advisory Committee and is a member of the North Carolina Public Health Association and the National Association of Community Health Centers.
About the North Carolina Community Health Association: The North Carolina Community Health Center Association (http://www.ncchca/) serves as the collective voice for North Carolina’s 34 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and Look-alikes (LAs)—aka Community Health Centers (CHCs). Our members offer a patient-governed, patient-centered health care home that integrates high quality medical, dental, behavioral health, pharmacy, and enabling services without regard to a person’s ability to pay. NCCHCA members are geographically dispersed across 66 counties and operate nearly 180 clinical sites.
About the Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health Policy: The Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health Policy is a special initiative of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University. Established in 2004, the program is named in honor of Drs. H. Jack Geiger and Count Gibson, pioneers in community health practice and tireless advocates for civil and human rights who fifty years ago, founded the nation’s first community health centers in Mound Bayou, Mississippi and Boston, Massachusetts. Today, more than 1200 health centers, operating in over 9000 locations, serve over 24 million people in urban and rural medically underserved communities across the nation.
About Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University: Established in July 1997 as the School of Public Health and Health Services, Milken Institute School of Public Health is the only school of public health in the nation’s capital.
