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- Around Town
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Ithaca Health Alliance envisions a community where everyone is connected to compassionate, quality, integrative healthcare. "Abbe is the embodiment of Ithaca Health Alliance's core value of compassion. The board accepts Abbe's resignation with regret and understands her decision to focus on primary caregiving for an elderly family member," said White.
Among the agency's many accomplishments under Lyons was the re-launch of the Ithaca Health Fund; the development of an onsite partnership with insurance enrollers, which benefitted Ithaca Free Clinic patients in learning about and enrolling in health insurance plans as part of the Affordable Care Act; improvements to the Free Clinic's quality assurance program; and cultivating increased levels of board engagement. She was also instrumental in obtaining health benefits for staff, and securing increased funding to expand those benefits.
"It has been an honor to work together with our small, extremely dedicated staff and so many wonderful volunteers, patients, community partners, and donors towards making health care more accessible for everyone in our community," said Lyons. "The incredible creativity, compassion, gratitude, and community spirit of all these Health Allies that has helped to create and sustain our innovative programs is an inspiration to me, and I look forward to continuing my support of the Health Alliance's extraordinary work moving forward."
Ithaca Health Alliance, founded in 1997, facilitates access to health care for all, with a focus on the needs of the uninsured. The agency operates three programs: the Ithaca Free Clinic, the Ithaca Health Fund, and Community Health Education. These programs will continue to be offered without interruption during this leadership transition. Ithaca Health Alliance will celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Ithaca Free Clinic in 2016.
All of the work of Ithaca Health Alliance is made possible through the generosity of individual and provider volunteers, individual donors, local foundations, the Tompkins County Legislature, businesses, many other non-profit agencies, and many hours from a small dedicated staff and over 140 volunteers.
Ithaca Health Alliance Board of Directors has appointed a transition team to guide the national search for an Executive Director to lead the organization. A search for a permanent Executive Director will begin under the joint leadership of Directors Alexandra Clinton (Board Vice President) and Jane Baker Segelken (Board Secretary), who will Co-Chair the search committee. It is anticipated that active solicitation of candidates will begin immediately, with the goal of announcing the new Executive Director in early 2016.
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