Meet Our Staff

Every expectant mother wants to have a healthy pregnancy, but for some women it’s difficult to find the resources needed to help them give their child a healthy start. That’s where Connections for a Healthy Pregnancy can help. Connections for a Healthy Pregnancy is a free community outreach program that helps to guide expectant mothers in need of resources for a healthy pregnancy. Expectant women or caregivers of expectant women, in and around the York City area, are invited to call Family First Health at (717) 801-4812 to learn more.

Roseann Stewart became a community health worker because she would have the opportunity to help others and to be of service to the community. She says it’s “the perfect opportunity for me to completely be myself.” Roseann describes herself as caring, understanding and nonjudgmental, which is the key formula of what our patients need.  She has a Bachelor’s of Science in Human Development from Penn State University and is trained in the IMPaCT model by Penn Medicine.

When asked why the Connections for a Healthy Pregnancy program is important for our community, Roseann shared, “Not only does a Community Health Worker help the mother, we are helping the unborn baby and the surrounding support system that the mother has. In this way we are positively impacting multiple people’s lives at the same time and also have a small hand in the future. This program is helping mothers make more positive decisions for themselves and their family.” In her spare time, Roseann enjoys reading, writing, watching movies, and spending time with her loved ones.

Claudia Salazar is a certified breastfeeding peer counselor, SOAR certified, and is trained in the IMPaCT model by Penn Medicine. She is compassionate, caring, and enjoys seeing patients be cared for and receive the help they need. She joined the Connections for a Healthy Pregnancy team as a community health worker because she has always loved working with people and families in the community, and is “willing to be that extra hand or support for their needs.”

Claudia feels this program is incredibly important to pregnant mothers in our community to enable them to find resources for a healthy pregnancy like housing, food, child-care, and family services. When asked why she became a community health worker, she shared “I wanted to be a part of a community working together to make a change. I believe that working for Family First Health I am going to have the opportunity to do so, with the amazing team and program we have started.”

Family First Health’s Center of Excellence provides patients with substance use disorders the support they need to reach, and maintain recovery. Our team links patients to community resources/support services, then walks alongside each patient to ensure that critical needs are met and that the patient remains in care for as long as needed. The goal – to give each patient the supports needed to get, and stay healthy. The team is currently seeing patients at our George Street, Hanover, and Columbia centers. For more information please call 717-801-4864.

Meet Anika Jackson, the Center of Excellence (COE), substance use program, director! Anika has Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Elon University and a Master of Science in Public Relations from S.I. Newhouse School at Syracuse University. She has spent a lot of time working in community based organizations, which is why she was led to Family First Health, it was a “no-brainer” for her.

Anika particularly enjoys working with the substance use treatment population because it gives her the opportunity to help this vulnerable population put their lives back together. With her position in particular she gets to work to build internal capacity for the program and also build partnerships and relationships in the community to help facilitate care for patients.  When asked why this program is so important for Family First health, she shared:

“There are many paths to recovery.  Family First Health’s Center of Excellence allows individuals seeking recovery the opportunity to get healthy in a holistic way.  Our team provides social, biological and psychological support services all in one place.  Having this program in the context of primary care destigmatizes substance use.  Patients in our program can get all of their medical and substance use related concerns addressed with a single medical provider – it’s simply ‘going to the doctor’.”

It’s easy to see why Anika is a great leader to be at the helm of the COE program.  She has fit into the Family First Health family easily and has enjoyed making connections with both staff and patients. During her downtime, Anika likes to spend time with her family.  Lately, she spends most evenings at the baseball field – either watching her son play or watching the York Revolution.

 

Family First Health’s Center of Excellence provides patients with substance use disorders the support they need to reach, and maintain recovery. Our team links patients to community resources/support services, then walks alongside each patient to ensure that critical needs are met and that the patient remains in care for as long as needed. The goal – to give each patient the supports needed to get, and stay healthy. The team is currently seeing patients at our George Street, Hanover, and Columbia centers. For more information please call 717-801-4864.

Erin Cosgrove-Findley joined the Family First Health Center of Excellence (COE) program as the program manager at the onset of the program. She has a Master of Science in Clinical Psychology from Millersville University, a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from York College of Pennsylvania, and is a Licensed Professional Counselor. She feels privileged to have assisted with starting this program from the ground up and is very passionate about the work she does.  When asked about the impact COE has on its patients, Erin shared that she has seen them “moving towards a healthier lifestyle and achieving the goals that they have always wanted to achieve.” Erin loves the positive impact the program has with patients and has watch them change their lives and build confidence.

Erin joined Family First Health because she knew about the good work being done and I wanted to be part of it to help the people in the community. In her free time Erin enjoys hanging out with her husband and animals, cooking, and being on the water or at the beach.

Tadd Hoffman joined Family First Health four years ago because he thought it was a great grass-roots organization that was really concerned about quality care for patients rather than profiting from them. He has spent time in our patient benefits department, the Caring Together HIV program, and ultimately joined the Center of Excellence (COE) program in spring of this year as their data analyst/administrative assistant. So why the change, and what drew Tadd to COE?

“It’s important to the communities that we serve. We are making our patients and their families lives better by providing them the necessary skills and assistance on their road to recovery.”

Tadd shared that getting to report out on the hard work and effort that the team puts in for their patients and building a sustainable program, makes it all worth it.  In his spare time Tadd enjoys playing music, fishing, reading, and taking care of his cat-buddy, Deacon.

 

 

Family First Health’s Center of Excellence provides patients with substance use disorders the support they need to reach, and maintain recovery. Our team links patients to community resources/support services, then walks alongside each patient to ensure that critical needs are met and that the patient remains in care for as long as needed. The goal – to give each patient the supports needed to get, and stay healthy. The team is currently seeing patients at our George Street, Hanover, and Columbia centers. For more information please call 717-801-4864.

Jeffrey Scheerer joined Family First Health’s Center of Excellence (COE) program this spring as a recovery support specialist. Prior to that he spent three years at the Harford County Health Department in Maryland and has experience in recovery support. Jeff once struggled with addiction himself and enjoys helping people since he has the unique perspective of showing patients that recovery is possible, “that we can, and do, recover.” When asked why this work is important he shared that during this substance use epidemic, Family First Health is a place for patients to go and receive help from unique staff of different skill levels.

Jeff is excited to be a part of the team that is building the COE program from the ground up. In his spare time he enjoys spending time with his family, camping, and attending church, and other recovery-related activities.

Mark McCullough is local to York County and has spent time as a carpenter, butcher, cook, carney, and rapper. Ultimately, he became a certified recovery specialist and joined the Center of Excellence (COE) program.  Joining the Family First Health team was important to him because it enabled him to perform his discipline in its purest form, by operating within the team dynamic. His goal is to help the individual in recovery find a medium where they feel comfortable that their recovery is not a hindrance in their life, but part of achieving their goals.  When asked why he enjoys doing this type of work, he shared “I like working with people to help them realize their potential and find hope in seemingly hopeless situations.”

Mark is energetic and will talk to just about anyone. He enjoys spending time with his family and doing as many family-related activities as possible.

Family First Health’s Center of Excellence provides patients with substance use disorders the support they need to reach, and maintain recovery. Our team links patients to community resources/support services, then walks alongside each patient to ensure that critical needs are met and that the patient remains in care for as long as needed. The goal – to give each patient the supports needed to get, and stay healthy. The team is currently seeing patients at our George Street, Hanover, and Columbia centers. For more information please call 717-801-4864.

Jenny Smith says that her job is not work, it’s a privilege. Jenny joined Family First Health as a drug and alcohol case manager for the Center of Excellence (COE program) and has 12 years of experience in the mental health field.  Jenny has worked in other substance use programs but saw that Family First Health was doing it differently and working here has allowed her to give patients a safe space where they are care for and not judged. When asked why this work is importance, she stated:

“Substance use can touch anyone. Accessing treatment is not always possible and people need the help regardless of economic status. Walking into your doctor’s office and hearing that there is help to treat an addiction and you don’t necessarily need to leave your job and stop providing for your family for a month to get help is a much-needed resource in our communities.”

In her spare time Jenny shared that she spends way too much time watching videos of goats wearing pajamas. Don’t we all?

Alicia Shiflet, one of the Center of Excellence’s (COE) two drug and alcohol case managers, has a Bachelor’s degree from Bloomsburg University and is currently enrolled in Southern New Hampshire University’s Healthcare Administration Master’s degree program. She joined Family First Health because she wanted to be involved in a community-based program and focus on direct patient care. Alicia truly understands the importance of the COE program for our patients and health center.

“Our program brings active recovery and medication assistance to people in the community who may benefit from the services. Without the COE, patients may have to leave our community health center in order to seek treatment.”

An energetic person with a busy, non-stop life, Alicia enjoys spending time with her family, running, and being a swim coach.

When asked what people would be surprised to know about her, Dr. Hetal Patel answered that she never had a pair of shoes until she was seven years old. This was not at all unusual in the small village in India where she grew up but gives a glimpse into why she felt the push to go into a career in healthcare. She shared that in India, healthcare options are at a minimum. The smallest portion of India’s healthcare sector is in medical services and most healthcare expenses are paid out of pocket by patients and their families. It was the drive to help people that lead Dr. Patel to become a physician.

Dr. Patel joined Family First Health in December of 2016 and it was clear to her why Family First Health was the right choice. “Out of all primary care practices, we can do the most for our patients,” she stated. Dr. Patel always wanted to practice in a medically underserved community and feels that the resources we have access to can help meet the needs of our patients.

When asked if there was a particular area of medicine that she’s interested in, she laughed and said, “I love diabetes.” She went on to say that she enjoys meeting new patients every day and seeing different worlds in each appointment, which makes perfect sense because of her love of travel. Dr. Patel has done several medial mission trips, including trips to India and Ethiopia. In her spare time she enjoys bringing friends together and being crafty.

Dr. Patel received her Bachelor of Science in Biology and Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Maryland in Baltimore. She completed her Family Medicine Residency at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio and a Preventive Medicine Residency at Oregon Health and Sciences University. In addition, Dr. Patel has a Master’s degree in Public Health in Health Management and Policy from Portland State University.

 

Heather Miller was on Route 322 headed home toward Mechanicsburg, stressing about her degree from Penn State University in business and art and how it wasn’t what she wanted to do anymore.

All of a sudden, she came upon an accident that had just happened. One vehicle swerved off the road, hitting a guide rail. The other overturned and the driver was slowly pulling himself from the wreck. In the first car, sat an older female driver who had seat-belt burn and the airbag had deployed. She was cold and in shock. So Miller pulled some of the newly-cleaned towels out of her laundry basket and wrapped her up, keeping her company until emergency personnel arrived.

Back in the car, she called her friend who was a pharmacist – to relay the story of what just happened and just talk about how powerful it felt just to be there and help in any way possible. Having worked as a pharmacy technician in high school, could there be a future in medicine, she wondered. And around 2 a.m. one morning, she found a website talking about nurse practitioners and physician assistants. A light bulb went off.

After finishing PA school at Penn College (where her father teaches) in 2014, Miller worked as a hospitalist – doing internal medicine for patients at University of Maryland Medical Center. There, she worked with case managers and behavioral health to provide overall care for those in the hospital with other issues. That’s one of the things that would later excite her about Family First Health.

From there, she worked at Express Care in Hanover until a day when her fiance stumbled across a job at Family First Health. He’s also a PA, but the job asked for experience, and he had just graduated. So he told Miller about it, encouraging her to apply. She did her research and did, and now she’s going to be the second provider at Family First Health’s new Columbia Center. Though she won’t admit it was because of him.

It was Family First Health’s dedication to coordination of care that had Miller excited to become a part of the team. “Especially for that population,” she said. “They need assistance but don’t know how to get or sometimes that it even exists.” When she was working at the hospital, people would come in as they were falling apart, and FFH’s goal is to reduce that by working on preventative, overall care, she said.

When she’s not working (or planning her May wedding), Miller spends her free time sleeping,cooking, attending PSU football games, visiting family and friends and touring wineries. She enjoys going to the gym and has taken on running. She recently completed a few virtual 5Ks for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

When Marie Kellett was in college, she went on a spring break trip to southern Virginia. She met a man who’s source of running water was a stream that went through his house. His chair was a wheelbarrow. And his medication sat in a bucket on the table.

“People were living in places that should have been condemned,” she said. And physicians were more than an hour’s drive away.

It was that trip that led Kellett to the decision that she would be a doctor. It might have been bouncing around in her head, as her dad is a dentist and her brother is also in family medicine. (In fact, the brother and sister went to the same college, medical school and did their residency in the same town. But we’ll come back to that later.)

Dr. Kellett joined Family First Health this month and will lead our Columbia practice in Lancaster County. While Columbia is not the Appalachia, Kellett said there’s a definite need. She worked there for three years before she was married – you might recognize her maiden name VandenBosche.

Kellett wasn’t always sure she wanted to be in family medicine. She actually somewhat followed her brother’s footsteps. Her school didn’t really encourage family medicine, but her brother did go that route. Her brother did his residency in Lancaster, and many people encouraged her to just check it out. So Kellett did a month’s rotation there, giving them the benefit of the doubt. She left on a Friday in October 1996.

Two days later, she was hit by a drunk driver.

She would lose her leg as a result of the accident. She had more than 40 units of blood transfused. She underwent 12 surgeries. While many med school students use their two months time off for vacation and interviews, Dr. Kellett would spend hers in the ICU for a month and then in rehabilitation. After the accident, she received an outpouring of love and concern from those she worked with during her Lancaster rotation. Turns out people were right to recommend it to her. She interviewed for her residency while still in a wheelchair.

“I’m a better doctor because I was a patient,” Dr. Kellett said, adding she came out of med school in a different place than her classmates. She was resolved to be a great physician because she saw some not so great ones while she was a patient.

The rest is history.

Well, the rest is actually residency, three years in Columbia and Wrightsville, getting married, and then 13 years in York. How did she end up at Family First Health? A friend – Dr. Debra Bell – told her to take a look. Dr. Kellett was excited about the opportunity for a few reasons. She sees the smaller office a chance to impact more lives and the community more directly. Plus if she sees something that needs change, she’s in a better place to affect that change. She loves that people are happy to come to work every day. She loves our ideals and mission, and she’s really excited to start the Columbia practice from scratch.

When she’s not working, Dr. Kellett keeps pretty busy. Her husband, Tom, works at the Catholic Harvest Food Pantry and works mornings (she works afternoons). They have five boys. (Even their dog is a boy, she joked.) The boys range in age from 1.5 to 10 years old. The oldest, Manuel, they adopted from Guatemala. They’re very active in their church St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. The boys go to school there. She loves to travel. She did two mission trips to Haiti – though they travel less now with the kids. She loves far-away locations like Fiji and Thailand. She’s the coach of her son’s 10 and under soccer team, which she’s done since they were an 8 and under team.

She also takes part in York County’s Victim Impact Panel for those going through the ARD program for first-time DUI offenders. Four to five times a year, she speaks to the groups about how drunk driving changed her life, hoping to inspire them to make whatever changes they need to stay on track.