Community Health Centers: A Movement and the People Who Made It Happen

Acknowledgments

xi Acknowledgments The first people I want to thank are those who were convinced I should write this book and were there in the beginning to read outlines and early proposals and bug me to get on with the next steps. They include Dorree Lynn, who literally poured her enthusiasm into me and shared ideas, contacts, and all the agonies of trying to publish; Alice Sardell, who will always be the first chronicler of community health centers and was bound and determined that I should follow suit; Ann Zuvekas, who was incredibly generous with her friendship and her great store of knowledge; Karen Davis and Cathy Schoen of the Commonwealth Fund, who supported my research and encouraged my work; and Hank Cole, Jerry Levine, and Cliff Sotnick, who never stopped believing in me. Then there are the men and women who made health centers what they are today and somehow found time to open the doors to their world, serve as my guides to an ever-growing and always fascinating circle of informants, and review drafts of the manuscript pertinent to their areas: Dan Hawkins, Aaron Shirley, Jim Hunt, Roland Gardner, Barbra Minch, and Paula Gomez. I interviewed more than seventy people for this book, many of them multiple times. Most but not all are included in the final manuscript; I thank every one of them for their generosity of time and spirit. I also want to thank Susan Rodberg for her unstinting computer support when it really mattered, Jerri Regan for her advice and support and for helping me organize the voluminous material I collected, Jonny Feldesman for help with indexing, and the people who contributed studies and information—especially Michelle Proser of the National Association of Community Health Centers, but also numerous data specialists in state and local health departments and health care organizations. The book is all the better for the efforts of the staff at Rutgers University Press, especially Audra Wolfe, a terrific and kind editor, and of Sara Rosenbaum , a discerning reviewer. Two people I miss terribly and think of as midwives to my work are Joanne Lukomnik, whose unquenchable commitment is a model for future heroes of community health, and Marcy Gross, whose great well of spirit survives her. Finally, my thank-you list must include the originators of the health center model, without whom this story wouldn’t have happened. I regret that I wasn’t able to interview Count Gibson, who passed away in 2002. I do know that there is a special place in the pantheon for Jack Geiger, who, with all his other contributions , served as a key informant and reviewer of several chapters and was never too busy to stop and mentor a fellow writer. And that pantheon must also include my husband, Bill Culhane, loving, patient, and surely glad the book is finished. xii Acknowledgments Community Health Centers ...