The Wright Center for Patient & Community Engagement will host the 2025 Wonderful Women Breast Cancer Support Group program on Tuesday, Oct. 28, from 6-8 p.m. in the auditorium at The Wright Center for Community Health Scranton, 501 S. Washington Ave.

The Wright Center for Patient & Community Engagement is a nonprofit subsidiary of The Wright Centers for Community Health. The organization supports the nonprofit enterprise’s mission to improve the health and welfare of our communities through responsive, whole-person health services for all and the sustainable renewal of an inspired, competent workforce that is privileged to serve by involving patients and communities in transforming primary health care, fostering workforce development, and addressing public health challenges. 

Focused on education, advocacy, and addressing barriers to care, The Wright Center for Patient & Community Engagement assists the region’s most vulnerable populations, including those experiencing poverty, homelessness, food insecurity, limited educational and employment opportunities, lack of transportation, social isolation, and other hardships. Guided by a board of patients and local professionals, it leads community initiatives such as health fairs, food and blood drives, and school supply giveaways. Its signature fundraising event, the annual Dr. William Waters Golf Tournament, provides vital resources to sustain these programs.

Visit TheWrightCenter.org or call 570-230-0019 for more information about The Wright Center for Community Health, The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education, and The Wright Center for Patient & Community Engagement.

Mary Marrara, co-chair of The Wright Center for Patient & Community Engagement Board of Directors and secretary of The Wright Center for Community Health Board of Directors – both of which she helped found – has been awarded the 2025 Ethel Bond Memorial Consumer Award by the National Association of Community Health Centers. This prestigious, national honor recognizes her exceptional volunteer leadership in health center development and her steadfast, compassionate commitment to advancing the mission of community health centers.

Since 2010, Marrara has been a driving force in The Wright Center’s growth. As co-chair of the annual Dr. William Waters Golf Tournament for the past three years, she has led one of the nonprofit organization’s most significant fundraising efforts, supporting The Wright Center for Patient & Community Engagement’s mission to improve health through education, advocacy, and services that address poverty, food insecurity, homelessness, and other barriers to care. Under her leadership, the nonprofit has expanded impactful outreach efforts, including food and coat drives, back-to-school supply distributions, health fairs, and blood drives.

“With a generous heart full of compassion, a deep well of lived experience, and a steadfast commitment to community, Mary Marrara has helped shape who we are as an enterprise,” said Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak, president and CEO of The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education. “Her grassroots advocacy and authentic, joyful service have empowered and elevated our mission and continuously inspired countless people, including me. This well-deserved recognition, receiving the National Association of Community Health Centers’ Ethel Bond Memorial Consumer Award, is a powerful affirmation of the impact one person can have when guided by purpose and unwavering love for humanity and her community.”

In addition to her volunteer work with The Wright Center, Marrara has an extensive record of community leadership and service throughout Northeast Pennsylvania. She has played a key leadership role with the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, serving as the board’s vice president for marketing and public relations, as well as vice chair of the Philharmonic League.  She is also a member of the Keystone Chapter of UNICO National and the Jermyn Lions Club. 

Marrara has supported and volunteered with organizations such as Allied Services, St. Joseph’s Center, and Meals on Wheels of Lackawanna County, which awarded her the Elaine F. Shepard Award for Exceptional Volunteerism.

She has also served on numerous boards and advisory committees, including the American Red Cross of Lackawanna County, UNICO National Scranton Chapter, La Festa Italiana, the Anthracite Historical Discovery Center, Keystone College, Mayfield’s St. Rose Academy, the Scranton Cultural Center at The Masonic Temple, the Susan G. Komen NEPA Race for the Cure, and Aylesworth Park Authority.

Her outstanding commitment has earned her numerous other recognitions, including the 2024 Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic League Honoree, the 2016 UNICAN of the Year, and the 2015 Past Presidents Award from the UNICO National Scranton Chapter, the 2013 Everyday Heroes Award from the American Red Cross of Lackawanna County, and the 2010 Volunteer of the Year Award from Jermyn Borough.

Marrara and her husband, Philip, have been married for 55 years. Their family includes a son, also named Philip, his wife, Stacy, and her son, Jeremy.

Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak, president and CEO of The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education, received the prestigious 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) in recognition of a 25-year career as a transformative community health center leader, primary care physician, medical educator, and public health advocate. 

Winners of the NACHC Lifetime Achievement Award are honored for their enduring commitment, dedication, and contributions to the Community Health Center Movement and expansion of access to high-quality, compassionate care for all. First launched as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty in the 1960s, community health centers were created to remove barriers to care by providing affordable, community-governed, and needs-responsive health services to underserved populations. 

Today, more than 32.5 million Americans receive care through over 1,400 health centers and their satellite sites, including the nearly 35,000 patients that The Wright Center, a nonprofit, sees annually.

“I am deeply honored and humbled to receive this Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Community Health Centers, an organization whose mission and values have so closely aligned with my own throughout my career,” said Dr. Thomas-Hemak, a Jermyn native and resident. “This recognition affirms my personal and professional journey as a first-generation, small-town primary care physician, public health advocate, medical educator, and teaching health center enthusiast, forever energized by the enduring, collective power and spirit of the community health center movement. This award belongs to The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education, and to the many patients, families, learners, colleagues, community members, and partners who have shaped, challenged, and inspired me. In a time when health care is increasingly burdened by corporatization and commoditization, our community health centers stand as bright lights, breaking down barriers, integrating whole-person primary health services, and putting people before profits. This honor reinvigorates my commitment to the noble and critical work ahead of us.”

Concurrent with her executive responsibilities, Dr. Thomas-Hemak is also quintuple board-certified in internal medicine, pediatrics, obesity medicine, addiction medicine, and nutrition. She sees generations of patients at The Wright Center for Community Health Mid Valley in Jermyn. 

She is a graduate of Scranton Preparatory School and the University of Scranton. After graduating as a Michael DeBakey Scholar from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and completing Harvard’s Combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Residency Program in Boston, she returned to Northeast Pennsylvania to serve as a practicing physician, guided by a deep sense of responsibility to the community that raised her. She joined The Wright Center in 2001, becoming president in 2007 and CEO in 2012.

A healer at heart, caring for multiple generations of families, neighbors, and friends, she believes her experiential perspective as a hands-on primary care physician and advocate for patients and families enlightens her executive decision-making.

Championing a people-over-profit philosophy, Dr. Thomas-Hemak has propelled The Wright Center to national prominence through visionary leadership and mission-driven innovation:

• Establishing one of the nation’s largest Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Safety-Net Consortiums (GME-SNC), funded by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Under her leadership, The Wright Center pioneered a transformative, community-led GME-SNC model that reimagines medical education as a force for public health improvement. By shifting physician training away from traditional hospital-centric systems and into community-based health centers, The Wright Center ensures care reaches people where they are, regardless of insurance status, ZIP code, or ability to pay. The Wright Center now trains nearly 450 interprofessional learners, physician residents, and fellows annually, many of whom remain to serve in the very communities where they received their training.
  
• Expanding a robust network of care to 13 community health centers across Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wayne, and Wyoming counties — plus a mobile medical and dental unit, Driving Better Health. Each site delivers high-quality, compassionate, comprehensive, whole-person primary health services, with an intentional focus on reaching rural and underserved populations.
  
• Leading the integration of comprehensive health services, including primary care, behavioral health, school-based care, dental services, and advanced health information technologies. This coordinated, patient-centered approach ensures individuals and families receive seamless, accessible care that addresses the full spectrum of health needs.

“Dr. Thomas-Hemak’s leadership has reshaped what is possible in community health,” said Deborah Kolsovsky, a longtime patient at The Wright Center and chair of The Wright Center for Community Health Board of Directors. “With unwavering vision, integrity, and purpose, she has built a nationally recognized model of care and education that puts people first — always. This Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Community Health Centers is more than well-deserved; it is a powerful acknowledgment of the deep, lasting impact she has made on patients, families, and the future of health care in Northeast Pennsylvania and far beyond.”

Under Dr. Thomas’ leadership, The Wright Center has garnered numerous accolades, including designation as a HRSA Federally Qualified Health Center Look-Alike; a Pennsylvania Opioid Use Disorder Center of Excellence and Coordination Center for Medication-Assisted Treatment; a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Top 30 Site for National Primary Care Innovations; recognition as both a University of California, San Francisco, Center of Excellence in Primary Care and an American Association of Medical Colleges’ Premier Primary Care Residency; membership in the prestigious 2024 American Medical Association ChangeMedEd Consortium; and leading partner in the Healthy Maternal Opiate Medical Support (Healthy MOMS) program for pregnant women and new mothers with substance use disorder. Following the Patient-Centered Medical Home Model, The Wright Center for Community Health’s Clarks Summit, Mid Valley, Scranton, and Wilkes-Barre locations achieved National Committee for Quality Assurance Patient-Centered Medical Home certification. 

Dr. Thomas-Hemak also leads The Wright Center’s engagement in the Keystone Health Information Exchange and its catalytic role in a public television-based education campaign aimed at accelerating the wide-scale adoption of local, regional, and national health information interoperability.

A founding member of the consortium that established the Scranton-based Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Dr. Thomas-Hemak is the governor for the Eastern Region of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American College of Physicians (PA-ACP), the nation’s largest medical-specialty organization. 

She serves on numerous local, regional, and national health care and medical education nonprofit governing boards, cross-sector committees, and workgroups, including HRSA’s Council on Graduate Medical Education, a federal advisory committee that assesses and recommends actions on physician workforce trends, training issues, and financing policies. She serves as the chair of the Northeast Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center and is vice president, as well as a founding board member of the American Association of Teaching Health Centers, which represents community-based Teaching Health Centers that train primary care physicians. 

Dr. Thomas-Hemak has received several prestigious state and national awards for her leadership, mentorship, and advocacy initiatives, including the 2020 Ann Preston Women in Medicine Award from PA-ACP, which recognizes her advancement of women’s leadership in medicine. In 2022, she earned the Elizabeth K. Cooke Advocacy MVP Award from NACHC for her efforts in engaging Congress and expanding grassroots advocacy. In 2024, she was honored with the Hometown Scholars Advocacy Award from the NACHC and A.T. Still University, as well as the Wilford Payne Health Center Mentor Award from the Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers. 

Most recently, in February 2025, Dr. Thomas-Hemak received the prestigious Athena Leadership Award from the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce. Multimedia news organization City & State Pennsylvania also recognized her leadership and impact, naming her in December 2024 as one of the commonwealth’s 100 most powerful and influential women and in July 2024 as a 2024 Trailblazer in Healthcare for her groundbreaking work in public health and medical education.

She and her husband, Mark, have three children, Mason, Maya, and Antoinette. Dr. Thomas-Hemak is the daughter of the late William Thomas and Johanna Cavalieri Thomas, who lives in Archbald.

The Wright Center’s annual summer internship program concludes with an Internship Poster Capstone program. Prizes were awarded to the top three vote-getters, from left, Katherine Mena Pereyra, first place; Nathan Cardona, director of scholarly activity, institutional research, and IRB administration at The Wright Center; Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak, president and CEO, The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education; Shane Cegelka, third place; and Noah Lynch, second place. 

The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education hosted 26 high school and college interns over the summer, providing hands-on experience for students following multiple career paths.  

The interns were assigned to several departments, including administration, clinical, finance, legal, and marketing and communications. Their experience was capped off with an Internship Poster Capstone event, which board members, executives, and employees attended to hear students discuss their projects and answer questions about their findings, internship experience, and future plans. 

Attendees at the annual event cast ballots for the scholarly posters. Prizes were awarded to the top three vote-getters: 

• First place: Katherine Mena Pereyra, of American University in Washington, D.C., created the scholarly poster, “Advocacy Coffee Connections: Understanding the Big Beautiful Bill. She was mentored by Aimee Wechsler, director of government affairs at The Wright Center.
• Second place: Noah Lynch of Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, for his research poster, “Increasing the Uptake of PrEP Among Women.” The project focused on educating providers and women in the community about the importance of pre-exposure prophylaxis, commonly known as PrEP, which can significantly reduce the risk of contracting HIV. Melissa Bonnerwith, grants administrator at The Wright Center’s Ryan White HIV/AIDS Clinic, was his mentor. 
• Third place: Shane Cegelka, of King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, showcased his poster, “The Importance of Proper Informed Consent in Healthcare.” Cegelka was mentored by Jennifer Walsh, Esq., senior vice president and chief legal and governance officer, and Courtney Kuschke, paralegal, at The Wright Center. 

To learn more about internship opportunities, visit TheWrightCenter.org/internships. 

The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education hosted its annual Internship Capstone Poster Day at its health center in Scranton. Participating interns and the schools they are attending, kneeling from left, are Paige Walsh, University of Pittsburgh; Mya Maus, The University of Scranton; Noah Lynch, Elizabethtown College; Matthew Dombrowski, The University of Scranton; Shane Cegelka, King’s College; and Alexander Franklin, The University of Scranton; seated from left, Rebekah Feinberg, A.T. Still University; Remy Turrell, Wyoming Seminary; Krittika Boruah, Wyoming Seminary; Katherine Mena Pereyra, American University; Jiya Shah, Abington Heights High School; and Patricia McAndrew, King’s College; standing from left, Alivia Minich, Penn State; Leelah Farrell, New York University; Andrew Clark, Duquesne University; Aidan Colleran, Penn State; Thomas Quinn, Penn State; Nathan Micknick, The University of Scranton; Thomas Fiorelli, University of Pittsburgh; Gabriella Staback, University of Denver; Margaret McGrath, Fairfield University; Rina Hanumali, Villanova University; and Minh Bauch, Pratt Institute.

The Wright Center for Community Health joined a national collaborative focused on addressing patients’ social needs alongside their medical treatment.

The Wright Center’s growing network of community health centers in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wayne, and Wyoming counties provides affordable, high-quality, whole-person primary health services to everyone, regardless of insurance status, ZIP code, or ability to pay. Patients typically have the convenience of going to a single location to access integrated medical, dental, and behavioral health care, making it easier to identify and address health concerns before they become serious. 

Additionally, The Wright Center employs community health workers, who help connect patients to community resources to address basic needs so they can focus on their health and wellness. 

“We have been working to identify ways to develop and improve our health services to better address the needs of our patients,” Dr. Thomas said. “Our acceptance into the collaborative reflects our ongoing efforts to advance an integrated care model that bridges health and social needs.” 

The Collective Action Collaborative will kick off with a virtual session on Aug. 19-20. Since 1995, IHI has sponsored over 50 collaborative projects on several dozen topics involving over 2,000 teams from 1,000 health care organizations.

Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak, president and CEO of The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education, has been appointed to serve a three-year term on the Partnership for Quality Measurement’s (PQM) Endorsement & Maintenance Committee Advisory Group on Cost and Efficiency.

The federally funded, consensus-based PQM brings together leaders and experts from across the health care spectrum to evaluate and endorse performance measures. Its mission is to ensure that measures are evidence-based, patient-centered, fair, and effective in driving quality improvement nationwide. Dr. Thomas-Hemak will contribute her clinical and leadership expertise to the Endorsement & Maintenance Cost and Efficiency Committee’s 45-member advisory group in evaluating and refining measures that assess total health care spending, resource use, and efficiency, ensuring they drive higher quality, lower cost care, improve value, and promote better use of health services across the U.S. health system.

A quintuple board-certified primary care physician in internal medicine, pediatrics, addiction medicine, obesity medicine, and nutrition, Dr. Thomas-Hemak sees generations of patients at The Wright Center for Community Health Mid Valley in Jermyn, her hometown, alongside her executive leadership. She is recognized nationally for her work in advancing community-based primary health care models, access to care, and interprofessional health care workforce development. 

Guided by a people-over-profit philosophy, Dr. Thomas-Hemak has built The Wright Center into one of the nation’s largest Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Safety-Net Consortiums, shifting physician training from hospitals to community-based health centers and preparing nearly 450 learners each year, many of whom remain to serve locally. She has expanded a network of 13 community health centers and a mobile medical and dental unit called Driving Better Health across Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wayne, and Wyoming counties, delivering compassionate, high-quality, whole-person primary health services in rural and underserved populations. Under her leadership, The Wright Center has integrated primary care, behavioral health, dental, school-based, and advanced health information services to ensure accessible, coordinated care for all.

Under Dr. Thomas-Hemak’s leadership, The Wright Center has garnered numerous accolades, including designation by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) as a Federally Qualified Health Center Look-Alike; a Pennsylvania Opioid Use Disorder Center of Excellence and Coordination Center for Medication-Assisted Treatment; a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Top 30 Site for National Primary Care Innovations; recognition as both a University of California, San Francisco, Center of Excellence in Primary Care and an American Association of Medical Colleges’ Premier Primary Care Residency; membership in the prestigious 2024 American Medical Association ChangeMedEd Consortium; and leading partner in the Healthy Maternal Opiate Medical Support (Healthy MOMS) program for pregnant women and new mothers with substance use disorder. Following the Patient-Centered Medical Home Model, The Wright Center for Community Health’s Clarks Summit, Mid Valley, Scranton, and Wilkes-Barre locations achieved National Committee for Quality Assurance Patient-Centered Medical Home certification. 

Dr. Thomas-Hemak also leads The Wright Center’s engagement in the Keystone Health Information Exchange and its catalytic role in a public television-based education campaign aimed at accelerating the wide-scale adoption of local, regional, and national health information interoperability.

A founding member of the consortium that established the Scranton-based Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Dr. Thomas-Hemak is the governor for the Eastern Region of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American College of Physicians (PA-ACP), the nation’s largest medical-specialty organization, and is vice president, as well as a founding board member, of the American Association of Teaching Health Centers, which represents community-based Teaching Health Centers that train primary care physicians. She serves on numerous local, regional, and national health care and medical education nonprofit governing boards, cross-sector committees, and workgroups, including HRSA’s Council on Graduate Medical Education, a federal advisory committee that assesses and recommends actions on physician workforce trends, training issues, and financing policies. 

She is also the governing board chair and executive committee member of the Northeast Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center (NEPA AHEC), a member of the National Association of Community Health Center’s (NACHC) New Health Center CEO Affinity Group, Women Leaders, and an advisory board member of the Health Federation of Philadelphia’s Health Center Controlled Network. Additionally, she serves as a board member of the National AHEC Organization; the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine’s Undergraduate Medical Education-Graduate Medical Education (GME) Task Force: GME Growth in Action Group; the Pennsylvania Patient-Centered Medical Home Advisory Council; Keystone Accountable Care Organization; The Institute; and the Center for Health and Human Services Research and Action. 

Dr. Thomas-Hemak has received several prestigious state and national awards for her leadership, mentorship, and advocacy initiatives, including: the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce 2025 Athena Award for career excellence, service, and women’s empowerment; the 2024 Wilford Payne Health Center Mentor Award from PACHC; the 2024 Hometown Scholars Advocacy Award from NACHC and A.T. Still University; the 2022 Elizabeth K. Cooke Advocacy MVP Award from NACHC for her efforts in engaging Congress and expanding grassroots advocacy; and the 2020 Ann Preston Women in Medicine Award from the PA-ACP for advancing women’s leadership in medicine. City & State Pennsylvania has also named her a Trailblazer in Health Care and one of Pennsylvania’s 100 most powerful and influential female leaders.

She and her husband, Mark, have three children, Mason, Maya, and Antoinette. Dr. Thomas-Hemak is the daughter of the late William Thomas and Johanna Cavalieri Thomas, who lives in Archbald.