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The Wright Center for Community Health’s president & CEO appointed to the Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers’ Board of Directors


Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak, president and CEO of The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education, has been appointed to serve on the Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers’ (PACHC’s) Board of Directors.

PACHC represents the commonwealth’s largest network of primary health care providers that serve nearly 1 million patients annually at more than 475 sites in underserved rural and urban areas in 55 counties. Its 15-member Board of Directors is made up of community health center CEOs from across Pennsylvania, representing a broad spectrum of expertise that spans finance, clinical care, workforce development, advocacy, policy and regulation, nonprofit health care administration, and human resources.

“I am deeply honored and profoundly grateful to join the reputable Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers. I am excited for the opportunity to collaborate with dedicated and talented colleagues from across our state as we work together to advance access, affordability, and excellence in community-based primary and preventive health services for all Pennsylvanians,” said Dr. Thomas-Hemak. “Together, we will continue to strengthen the mission-driven voice of community health centers to ensure that the patients, families, and communities we are privileged to serve remain at the forefront of health care conversations and strategies.”

Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemack

Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak, president and CEO of The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education

Dr. Thomas-Hemak is a quintuple board-certified primary care physician in internal medicine, pediatrics, addiction medicine, obesity medicine, and nutrition. Alongside her executive leadership, she continues to care for multigenerational families at The Wright Center for Community Health Mid Valley in Jermyn, her hometown. She has earned national recognition for advancing innovative community-based primary care delivery models, expanding access to essential health services, and cultivating the current and future interprofessional health care workforce.

A proud graduate of Scranton Preparatory School and the University of Scranton, Dr. Thomas-Hemak went on to earn her medical degree as a Michael DeBakey Scholar at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, followed by completing Harvard’s Combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Residency Program in Boston. Guided by a profound sense of service to her community roots, she returned to Northeast Pennsylvania to practice primary care. She joined The Wright Center in 2001, became its president in 2007, and assumed the role of CEO in 2012. Anchored in a people-over-profit philosophy, Dr. Thomas-Hemak has transformed The Wright Center into one of the nation’s largest Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Safety-Net Consortiums, shifting physician training from traditional academic medical centers into community-based health centers, hospitals, and specialty networks. Today, nearly 200 physicians and 250 interprofessional learners are trained each year at The Wright Center, with many choosing to remain and serve the local communities. She has also overseen the growth of a network of 13 community health centers and a mobile medical and dental unit, Driving Better Health, across Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wayne, and Wyoming counties, ensuring that rural and underserved populations receive the compassionate, high-quality, whole-person primary health services they deserve. Under her leadership, The Wright Center has integrated primary medical, mental, behavioral, dental, and school-based health services, and advanced health information technology to deliver accessible and coordinated care for all.

Under Dr. Thomas-Hemak’s leadership, the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) designated The Wright Center as a Federally Qualified Health Center Look-Alike in 2019, which unlocks significant federal resources for the region and vastly improves access to high-quality, whole-person primary health services for patients and families. The Wright Center has earned numerous additional accolades under her stewardship, including: designation as 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. The Wright Center for Community Health achieved National Committee for Quality Assurance Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) certifications at its Clarks Summit, Mid Valley, Scranton, and Wilkes-Barre locations and also Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) Certification for Care Management Services Coordination for Substance Use Disorders and Addiction.

Map of The Wright Center for Community Health locations

The Wright Center’s community health centers.

A founding member of the consortium that established the Scranton-based Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Dr. Thomas-Hemak currently also serves as 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, and the Partnership for Quality Measurement’s Endorsement & Maintenance Committee Advisory Group on Cost and Efficiency, which is a federally funded and consensus-based organization that brings together leaders and experts from across the health care spectrum to evaluate and endorse health care performance measures.

She is also the immediate past chair and executive committee member of the Northeast Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center (NEPA AHEC), a member of the National Association of Community Health Centers’ (NACHC) New Health Center CEO Affinity Group for Women Leaders, and an advisory board member of The Institute.

Dr. Thomas-Hemak has received several distinguished state and national awards for her mission-driven leadership, mentorship, and advocacy initiatives, including: the NACHC 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award; 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 also named her in 2024 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 Johanna Cavalieri Thomas, who lives in Archbald, and the late William Thomas.

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