Founding President and CEO Julio Bellber to Retire September 1st;
RCHN CHF Executive VP Feygele Jacobs to Assume Presidency
New York, NY — The RCHN Community Health Foundation (RCHN CHF), a not-for-profit foundation that supports community health centers nationwide, announced the retirement of its founding president and CEO, Julio Bellber. Executive Vice President, Feygele Jacobs, MPH, MS, will succeed him as the Foundation’s leader.
“Jay has had an incomparable career as a health center leader and visionary,” said RCHN CHF Board Chair Sara Rosenbaum. “He has set the bar for the Foundation’s future and continued success.”
Tom Van Coverden, President and CEO of the National Association of Community Health Centers and a member of the Foundation’s Board, said, “Jay has made many vital contributions to health centers across the country, through his service to NACHC and his Foundation Presidency. We hope that the health center family will continue to receive his guidance and counsel.”
Bellber has served as president and CEO of RCHN CHF since 2005. Previously, Bellber was President and CEO of its predecessor the Ryan Community Health Network (Network) and CenterCare, Inc., a Pre-Paid Health Services Plan (“PHSP”) which provided health coverage to more than 80,000 low-income individuals throughout the five boroughs of New York City. RCHN CHF was formed with the assets resulting from a September 2005 corporate transaction that transferred the ownership of CenterCare from the Ryan Community Health Network to Fidelis Care New York.
With a career in health care that started nearly 50 years ago, Bellber began working at the William F. Ryan Community Health Center (Ryan) in 1968 and became the center’s Executive Director in 1979. A multi-site federally-funded community health center, Ryan became a national model for the delivery of comprehensive, quality primary care under Bellber’s leadership. Bellber has also served on the boards of numerous health care organizations, including the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, Primary Care Development Corporation, and Visiting Nurse Service of New York, and was past Board President of the National Association of Community Health Centers and the Community Health Care Association of New York State.
The RCHN CHF Board of Directors also announced Bellber’s successor. “The Board is so pleased to have found such a worthy successor in Feygele Jacobs,” said Rosenbaum. “Feygele has a long and distinguished history working for the RCHN Community Health Foundation and at some of New York’s top health care institutions. The Board has enormous confidence in her ability to take the work of the Foundation forward.”
As the Foundation’s current Executive Vice President and chief operating officer, Jacobs oversees the organization’s policies and program-related investments and grants. She came to RCHN CHF at its inception after serving as EVP and chief of staff at the Ryan Community Health Network and CenterCare, Inc. Before joining the Network in 1997, Jacobs spent more than 15 years in health care administration, during which she held increasingly responsible positions in strategic planning, business and program development, and operations and ambulatory care. She has worked for New York City’s public hospital system (Health and Hospitals Corporation) and St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, where her positions included VP of ambulatory care and VP of program development. She presently serves on the boards of directors of Care for the Homeless, a federally qualified community health center in NYC, and the National Center for Farmworker Health.
“I am honored to lead the RCHN Community Health Foundation into its next chapter as we work to help community health centers across the country address the challenges of caring for millions more patients,” said Jacobs.
The RCHN Community Health Foundation is the only not-for-profit foundation in the country dedicated solely to community health centers, focusing on health care access, center stability, and health information technology. Through strategic investment, research, and education and outreach, RCHN CHF is helping to address community health centers’ primary challenges and establish opportunities to sustain health centers in the future. www.rchnfoundation.org
