Who We Are
Who We Are
Vice Chair – Hugh Silk MD MPH
Hugh Silk, MD, MPH, FAAFP, is a Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School and Vice Chair for Community Health. At UMass Chan, he is a Learning Communities Mentor and Pathways Director of the Structural Inequity, Advocacy, and Justice pathway. He also teaches at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM). He is a reviewer for over a dozen medical/dental journals, a section editor for Dynamed, associate editor for Families, System and Health, and a member of several national educational committees. He is a member of both the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and the Gold Humanism Honor Society. He has helped develop three dozen national and state education programs. He has been an invited speaker at over fifty education symposiums, presented at over one hundred national and international conferences, published seventy-five journal articles, eighty chapters, and a dozen policy briefs.
Program Director for Community Health – Heather-Lyn Haley PhD
Dr. Haley is the program director for community health initiatives within the department and leads the Population and Community Health Clerkship for students in our T.H. Chan School of Medicine. She serves as a member of the Community Engagement subcommittee of the Coalition for a Healthy Greater Worcester, the Worcester Healthy Baby Collaborative Steering Committee, the Worcester Zero Fare Coalition, the Worcester Regional Transit Authority Advisory Board and the Health Equity Partnership of North Central MA. Her past research includes the use of community-based participatory research methods with the Worcester Refugee Assistance Project, and then further work in partnership with Community Legal Aid of Central MA and the Central West Justice Center to better document the legal needs of local refugees as understood by workers in refugee-serving agencies. Dr. Haley connects learners with external partners to identify and answer the questions that will improve our institutional responses to community-identified needs.
Administrator - Pamela Tero provides administrative support for the work of community health in our department, assisting with scheduling, documentation, billing and award management for over 20 years.
Community Health Providers
Katharine Barnard MD
Associate Professor, Family Medicine and Community Health
Medical Director, Hector Reyes House
Medical Director, Worcester RISE for Health
Jennifer Bradford MD
Assistant Professor, Family Medicine and Community Health
Director of Social Justice and Inclusion, Family Medicine and Community Health
Medical Director, Community HealthLink Detox Continuum
Longitudinal Opioid Curriculum Director, UMass Chan Medical School
Erik Garcia MD
Associate Professor, Family Medicine and Community Health
Road to Care
Benedict Family Medicine
Olga Valdman MD
Assistant Professor, Family Medicine and Community Health
CEO and Executive Director, Worcester RISE for Health
Key Partners
MassAHEC Network