CTC-RI Annual Conference Official Landing Page

Kati Moran, MPH is the Director of Primary Care Innovation at Community Care Cooperative (C3). In this role, she works with C3’s member FQHCs to strengthen primary care delivery and build the capabilities needed to succeed in value-based care. In this role, she partners with FQHCs to design, test, and scale innovative care models, advance care team redesign, and support practice transformation efforts that improve both patient outcomes and care team experience. Her work also includes exploring digital health solutions and technology-enabled approaches to improve access to care and support care team well-being. Prior to this role, she held other positions at C3 in the areas of Performance Improvement, Telehealth, and Quality. Kati holds a Bachelor of Science in Health Science and a Master of Public Health from Boston University.

Amy Ledwell is currently the Director of Value-Based Care Strategy for GLFHC. In her previous role as the former Executive Director of Feltin Community Care, she implemented and managed the home visit pilot program for GLFHC in collaboration with C3 and shepherded the transition of the program to GLFHC to build and expand the program more permanently inhouse.

Dr. Lichkus is a full-spectrum family physician and serves as the AVP, Quality and Clinical Integration for GLFHC. He oversees GLFHC’s quality improvement efforts and is helping lead their transformation to integrated, team-based care. He also serves as Co-Director for the Health System Management Curriculum at Lawrence Family Medicine Residency.

Alex Weiner, MPH, FNP-C, PMHNP-BC is a Family and Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner working at the intersection of primary care, psychiatry, and public health. He helped develop and lead a home-based primary care pilot program at the Community Health Center of Cape Cod focused on medically complex and homebound patients across Cape Cod. Alex also serves on the New Bedford Board of Health and is the founder of New Bedford Psychiatry & Wellness, a community-based psychiatric practice on the South Coast of Massachusetts.

Melany Rabideau is an entrepreneurial healthcare executive and professor with eclectic experience serving in leadership roles supporting Fortune 5 companies, community-based health systems, and academic global health institutions. Proven strategic leader and systems thinker with a track record for radical transformation reversing underperforming operations through process design optimizing patient care valuing the patient-provider relationship. Subscribes to an equity agenda for ensuring accessible care across the continuum with an emphasis on primary care and keeping healthcare local.

Dr. Conan Tu graduated from CUNY Medical School (Formerly Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education) in 1999 and received his MD from SUNY Upstate Medical School at Syracuse 2001.  He completed his Internal Medicine Residency at Long Island Jewish Hospital in 2002 after which he joined his current medical group.  Dr. Tu is double board certified in both Internal Medicine as well as Diabetology and practice in Bethpage, NY.  In 2022, he earned his MBA in Healthcare Administration from Molloy University.

Dr. Prakash Jayakumar is Senior Medical Director and Head of Clinical Strategy & Intelligence at Optum Insight and a faculty member at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin. A surgeon-scientist and healthcare innovator, he specializes in advancing decision intelligence through artificial intelligence, data science, and patient-centered care models. With expertise spanning clinical strategy, healthcare innovation, and health policy, he has dedicated his career to improving healthcare decision-making, outcomes, and value for patients, clinicians, and healthcare organizations.

Dr. Nunn is the Chief Executive Officer at RIPHI. She is a passionate public health advocate best known for her innovative and effective solutions to our nation’s most pressing public health problems. Dr. Nunn holds masters and doctoral degrees in global health from the Harvard School of Public Health, and completed her post-doctoral fellowship at Brown University. Dr. Nunn is also a Professor of Public Health and Medicine at Brown University, and has trained hundreds of faculty members and students from around the world in how to create creative solutions to seemingly intractable public health problems. She has received many awards for her public health service and research over the last 15 years and has led highly effective advocacy campaigns locally and nationally. Her successful advocacy campaigns include, but aren’t limited to: PrEP for All in Rhode Island, which requires insurance companies to pay for HIV prevention medications without copayments and deductibles, and Eat Well Be Well, a SNAP incentive program that provides discounts for SNAP recipients when they buy fruits and vegetables with EBT cards. Dr. Nunn’s work has been covered by the New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, PBS, National Public Radio, the BBC, and dozens of other media outlets. With a background in global health, she also wrote The Politics and History of AIDS Treatment in Brazil, which has been critically acclaimed by the Lancet and other major medical journals. Dr. Nunn is passionate about building highly effective, interdisciplinary teams who work together to build the scientific evidence base for public health solutions to seemingly intractable public health challenges. Her work has been elevated by her amazing team of public health leaders at RIPHI, and her community partners. Dr. Nunn is a vocal advocate for social justice, which was informed by her childhood growing up in Little Rock, Arkansas. She is an alumna of Little Rock Central High, forcibly integrated by the National Guard in 1957. Dr. Nunn loves to travel and has lived all over the world. One of her passions is studying foreign languages! She speaks fluent Spanish and Portuguese and is conversant in German and French.

Brandon Potter was first elected in 2020 to represent the peop​le of District 16, which encomapasses the Garden City, Eden Park, and Stadium neighborhoods in Cranston. Representative Potter serves as Second Vice Chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee is a member of the House Corporations Committee and the House Labor Committee. ​ In the 2025 legislative session, Representative Potter sponsored a new law that created a three-year pilot program prohibiting insurers from requiring prior authorization for medically necessary health care services ordered by patients' primary care providers. The pilot aims to remove a roadblock that slows down patient care and consumes hours of primary care providers' and their staffs' time each day. Representative Potter has also sponsored a new law requiring construction projects worth more than $10 million that receive state tax credits through the Rebuild RI or historic preservation programs to pay their construction workers the prevailing wage. He was the sponsor of legislation, later included in the state budget bill, seeking an investment of $250 million in school construction, which voters approved in 2022. He successfully sponsored legislation to increase transparency around affordable housing development, sponsored a law that permanently requires the state to analyze overdose deaths to help identify ways to reduce their prevalence, and sponsored a law to reduce the time health insurance companies are allowed to claw back payments to behavioral and mental health care providers. Representative Potter also cosponsored laws to increase paid time off to eight weeks, protect Rhode Islanders from annual and lifetime limits on health insurance benefits, require landlords to give tenants at least 90 days' notice before a rent increase, authorize a pilot program to prevent drug overdoses through the establishment of harm reduction centers, prohibit housing discrimination based on source of income, raise the minimum wage to $17 per hour by 2027,​ and increase the benefits provides by RI Works, the cash assistance and work-readiness program for low-income children and their families. Born August 6, 1984, he grew up in Cranston and went to Cranston West High School. He attended Community College of Rhode Island and graduated magna cum laude from Rhode Island College. He has nearly a decade of experience in the automobile industry, and graduated from Roger Williams University School of Law in May 2025.

Melissa Murray is a Democrat representing District 24 (Woonsocket, North Smithfield) in the Rhode Island Senate. The first openly LGBTQ+ elected official in Woonsocket, Sen. Murray served two terms on the Woonsocket City Council before being elected to the Rhode Island Senate in November 2018. During her time in the General Assembly, Sen. Murray has been active on a number of issues. She was the Senate sponsor of a $50,000 new tangible personal property tax exemption – which fully eliminates a significant financial burden for 75 percent of Rhode Island businesses, including all smaller businesses – as well as a law prohibiting rental application fees. She was also the Senate sponsor of new laws making HIV-prevention treatments free and accessible to qualifying patients; formalizing protections in state law against discrimination in health care; and requiring the state crime laboratory to conduct an audit of DNA samples in the databank to determine the number of DNA profiles that should have been entered in the databank but haven't been. She also introduced legislation to increase benefits paid to children and families in the Rhode Island Works program, a measure that was included in the approved budget. She has additionally sponsored legislation to cap the cost of insulin and diabetes testing supplies for Rhode Islanders with diabetes; allow Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous to meet during a state of emergency; and improve restroom access for all genders. Sen. Murray was born on Oct. 3, 1974. Born and raised in northern Rhode Island, she attended Woonsocket's public schools. She has an A.A.S. in Criminal Justice with a focus in Forensic Science. A self-taught artist who travels locally, she also works at a family-owned business in Woonsocket. Sen. Murray is deeply involved in her community. She is involved with numerous boards and committees, including serving as Vice Chair of the Woonsocket Democratic City Committee. ​

Dr. Chan is Chief Medical Officer at Open Door Health. He is a board-certified physician who completed residency and fellowship at Brown University. Dr. Chan provides primary care, HIV/STI care and prevention, and HCV treatment at Open Door Health. He believes that health is a human right and that all persons deserve to be treated with compassion and kindness. Dr. Chan is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine and School of Public Health at Brown University. He has led and currently leads multiple grants and programs at the intersection of research, public health, training and education, and LGBTQ+ health. He is co-chair of the statewide Rhode Island Hepatitis C Action Coalition (RIHAC) and the Governor’s Overdose Taskforce. Nationally, Dr. Chan serves on the Presidential Advisory Committee for HIV/AIDS (PACHA) and contributed to the CDC STI Treatment guidelines and the CDC DoxyPEP guidelines, among others. Dr. Chan’s goal is to continue to improve access to and provide affirming healthcare for people from all backgrounds.

Olutosin “Tosin” Ojugbele MD MPH is the medical director of the divisions of community health and equity and environmental health at the Rhode Island Department of Health. She is an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University and practices primary care in the community. Prior to joining the Rhode Island Department of Health, she served as the director of the Fostering Health Clinic at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. Dr. Ojugbele completed her medical degree as well as an MPH in community health science at SUNY Downstate, pediatric residency at Northwell Health/Cohen Children’s Hospital and a post-doctoral fellowship in primary care research at Dartmouth Hitchcock.

Swanette Salazar, CCHW, is a trilingual Certified Community Health Worker and Lead CHW for the First Connections Program at Family Service of Rhode Island, where she supports pregnant women, foster youth, and families. She has built her career around advancing health equity and strengthening community-based systems of care. Swanette recently served as Rhode Island’s first CHW Ambassador with the National Association of Community Health Workers and as a Lead Consultant for the Rhode to Equity Initiative, helping advance CHW leadership and clinical-community partnerships. Her work has been recognized by the Governor of Rhode Island and honored with the 2024 Elizabeth Burke Bryant Hero Award. She continues to mentor CHWs, advocate for systemic change, and expand opportunities for community-driven health solutions.

C. Paula Lewis-de los Angeles, MD, PhD is a triple board-certified pediatrician and is an assistant professor of pediatrics on the clinician-educator track at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University. She currently practices as a general pediatrician in primary care and as an attending pediatrician at the Healthy Eating Active Living Through Hasbro (HEALTH) program.  Dr. Lewis-de los Angeles graduated from the Brown Triple Board Residency, a combined program in Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Prior to that, she completed her combined MD, PhD at Northwestern University and her undergraduate studies at Stanford University.

Janelle Amoako, DNP, APRN-CNP, is a family nurse practitioner, educator, mentor, and nursing workforce leader committed to advancing health equity and strengthening the nursing profession. She practices at Blackstone Valley Community Health Center, providing community-based care to culturally diverse and immigrant populations, with a particular commitment to addressing healthcare disparities and improving access to culturally responsive care.

Janelle holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and through her doctoral work, developed a passion for innovative approaches to primary care, particularly the implementation of the group medical visit model. She is interested in leveraging group-based care to promote patient engagement, health education, peer support, and improved health outcomes within primary care settings.

Janelle also serves as Program Coordinator for the Pathways to Nursing Program at the University of Rhode Island College of Nursing, where she supports students from underrepresented backgrounds through academic support, mentorship, professional development, and career advancement opportunities.

Her professional interests include health equity, community health, innovative models of primary care, nursing workforce development, leadership, and nursing advocacy. Across her clinical, academic, and community roles, Janelle is dedicated to creating meaningful connections between healthcare, education, and community to advance healthier and more equitable outcomes.

Dr. Nicole Siegert, MD, is a distinguished clinician-educator and Assistant Professor at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. With an extensive background in international medicine and patient safety, she specializes in full-spectrum family medicine, maternal and child health, and urgent care. She currently holds dual board certifications from the American Board of Family Medicine and the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine, reflecting a holistic and evidence-based approach to patient care.

Dr. Siegert’s academic journey began in Germany at the Eberhard-Karls University of Tübingen, where she earned both her Medical Doctor (MD) degree and a PhD focusing on incident reporting systems and patient safety. She later completed her residency training at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island through Brown University. In her leadership experience, she has served as the Director of Maternal and Child Health for the Brown Family Medicine Residency and the Director of the Maternal Child Health Program at Women and Infants Hospital.

A dedicated educator, Dr. Siegert is a recurring recipient of the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award at Brown University and was named Faculty Teacher of the Year in 2015. Her clinical work spans several prominent healthcare systems in New England, including Atrius/ Optum, Care New England, Providence Community Health Center, and Blackstone Valley Community Health Center, where she provides urgent care and high-risk prenatal services as well as inpatient obstetrical and newborn care. Beyond the clinic, she is an active researcher and advocate, currently serving as an Alternate Delegate for the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and a member of the Advocacy Committee.

A native of Cranston, Dr. McCarten is a 1983 graduate of the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine. Upon graduation, he was commissioned a Lieutenant in the United States Navy, beginning a 30-year career that led to travel to 24 countries on five continents. The highlights of Dr. McCarten’s career include serving as Senior Medical Officer aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) at the time of the 9/11 attacks. His ship deployed to the North Arabian Sea one week later and remained in combat operations for the next five months. Dr. McCarten also served as the Commanding Officer of the NATO trauma hospital in Kandahar, Afghanistan, overseeing 500 US Navy, Army, Air Force and NATO medical personnel for a one-year period of intense combat operations. There the medical personnel recorded an historic 97 percent survival rate for combat casualties. Following retirement from the Navy in 2013, Dr. McCarten served as a family physician at the Elliot Health System in Manchester, New Hampshire, until 2021, was a Staff Family Physician at Wood River Health through 2023, and now serves as Chief Medical Officer of JA Health & Wellness a primary care and behavior health clinic with Justice Assistance in Cranston, RI.

Mason Adams is a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor (CADC) and Licensed Chemical Dependency Professional (LCDP) with nearly ten years of experience supporting individuals through life’s challenges. Specialties include addiction, anxiety, depression, loss, grief, and bereavement, stress management, and trauma.  Mason provides individual therapy, group therapy, substance use treatment, and substance use evaluations.  His approach is grounded in authenticity and connection.  Mason is a Clinician at JA Health & Wellness, a primary care and behavioral health clinic of Justice Assistance in Cranston, RI.

Since September 2025, Marti Rosenberg has served as the Director of Health Care System Planning for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, following her role as the Director of Policy, Planning, and Research from 2019 to 2025, and Project Director of Rhode Island’s State Innovation Model Test Grant (SIM), from 2015 to 2019. In her current role, Marti is leading the effort to create the state's first comprehensive health care system plan in 40 years and is helping to implement the Rural Health Transformation Program.

Prior to her state service, Marti led the Healthcare Initiative at The Providence Plan, through which she participated in the creation of HealthSource RI. Before that, Marti served as Development Director for USAction in Washington, DC, where she helped raise seed money for national advocacy leading to the passage of the Affordable Care Act. From 1996 to 2006, she led Ocean State Action, carrying out healthcare campaigns and grassroots policy advocacy at the Rhode Island State House, including for the passage of legislation creating the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner, securing RIte Care expansions, and beginning Rhode Island's health care planning process.

Ana Novais holds a Clinical Psychology degree from UCLN, Belgium, and is a graduate of the NPHL Institute, University of Albany, NY. Ana’s career in Public Health started in 1985 (Cape Verde) and includes 5 years in Portugal.

In the US since 1995, Ana started working as a Clinical Psychologist before moving to the RI Department of Health in 1998 where she remained until 2020, first addressing the needs of RI BIPOC community and later leading the areas of Chronic Disease, Environmental Health, and Maternal and Child Health; Ana’s work include the development of nationally recognized programs such as “Vaccinate Before You Graduate” and “Health Equity Zones” initiative. In 2015 Ana was promoted to Deputy Director.

In 2020, after helping to lead Rhode Island’s COVID-19 crisis, Ana was promoted to Assistant Secretary at the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

Ana was born and raised in Cabo Verde; a proud mother of 4 adult children and grandmother to 5 beautiful children. She loves spending time traveling, reading, and gardening.

Dr. Kate Millington is a board-certified pediatric endocrinologist and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. She earned her MD from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, followed by residency in pediatrics at the Boston Combined Residency Program (Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center), and fellowship in Pediatric Endocrinology at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Millington’s clinical and research work centers on the care of transgender and gender diverse youth and improving care and outcomes for youth with Type 1 diabetes. She is a passionate teacher and has mentored medical students, residents, and fellows in clinical research.

Dr. Fox received his undergraduate degree in economics from Cornell University, and his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He completed a residency in Pediatrics and a fellowship in Pediatric Endocrinology at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, and is board certified in both fields. He is currently pursuing his Masters of Public Health at Brown University. Dr. Fox has practiced general pediatrics and pediatric endocrinology at Pediatric Associates, Inc. since 2003. He is a board member for the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and is the chair of their Advocacy and School Health subcommittees. He is the school physician for the Rhode Island League of Charter Schools, the City of Providence, and several specialty schools. He is the President and Medical Director of Camp Surefire, Rhode Island’s only summer camp for children with diabetes.

Dr. Elizabeth M. Gomes, DO, is a board-certified family medicine physician and OB/GYN with over 16 years of experience serving Rhode Island communities. She is a physician at WTL Health, a free community health clinic in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, committed to providing quality healthcare with compassion and dignity for all individuals regardless of their financial situation. Her work encompasses primary care, women's health, vaccinations, chronic disease management, and community health outreach in partnership with churches and community-based organizations — with a focus on addressing social determinants of health. She graduated from Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2010 and is affiliated with Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island. As a first-generation Cape Verdean American and trilingual physician fluent in English, Spanish, and Cape Verdean Creole, Dr. Gomes has dedicated her career to serving immigrant, BIPOC, and low-income families who have historically faced the greatest barriers to quality care. She brings both clinical expertise and deep cultural understanding to every patient encounter — and as a single mother, she carries a personal commitment to the families and communities she serves every day.

Carlene Fonseca is the founder and CEO of The Greatest You Consulting, a trauma-informed wellness firm consulting across Rhode Island. A first-generation Cape Verdean American, survivor of childhood sexual and emotional abuse, and woman in long-term recovery, Carlene has transformed her lived experience into a powerful platform for healing, advocacy, and community change. Carlene serves as Co-Chair of the SUMH Taskforce of the Pawtucket-Central Falls Health Equity Zone, where she focuses on empowering community members in anti-stigma education and Narcan distribution. She is a faculty member at College Unbound, where she teaches non-traditional learners for five years, and currently teaches at the ACI Prison — bringing healing and dignity to incarcerated individuals. She speaks at the Rhode Island State House on health and recovery policy, writes for The Valley Breeze, and has shared her story on the TEDx stage and across multiple podcast platforms. Her work centers on the 8 Dimensions of Wellness, which she delivers through workshops for caregivers, behavioral health staff, and communities across Rhode Island. As a single mother actively breaking generational cycles of trauma, Carlene brings both professional expertise and personal truth to every room she enters. She holds a BA in Government from Georgetown University, an MA in Criminology from George Washington University, and is currently pursuing her Master's in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Rhode Island College — driven by a commitment to increasing the number of licensed, culturally competent mental health professionals serving Black and Brown communities in Rhode Island.