Board Members
Linda Thomas-Hemak, M.D., FACP, FAAP
President & CEO - The Wright Center for Community HealthPresident & CEO - The Wright Center for Graduate Medical EducationCo-Chair - The Wright Center for Patient and Community Engagement
About
Linda Thomas-Hemak, M.D., FACP, FAAP, is president and CEO of The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education and The Wright Center for Community Health, affiliated entities in Northeast Pennsylvania with a shared 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.”
Driven by the conviction that health care services and workforce development are public assets, Dr. Thomas-Hemak led The Wright Center for Community Health’s designation as a U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) Look-Alike in 2019, and The Wright Center enterprise’s expansion of access to whole-person health services in 13 community health centers and a mobile medical and dental unit, Driving Better Health, while training primary care physicians, medical students, and interprofessional health care professionals in a replicable and scalable Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Safety-Net Consortium (THC GME-SNC) model. She 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 a founding board member of both the American Association of Teaching Health Centers and the “Beyond Flexner” Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine.
A visionary executive and healer at heart who is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Addiction Medicine, Obesity Medicine, and Nutrition, Dr. Thomas-Hemak remains a primary care and public health enthusiast, caring for multigeneration families, while developing a primary care workforce at The Wright Center in her hometown of Jermyn, Pennsylvania – Birthplace of First Aid. She firmly believes that her active, passionate engagement with patients, families, and learners spanning over 25 years as a practicing primary care physician and medical educator enlightens all aspects of her executive decision-making and service to her community and our country. She joined The Wright Center in 2001, becoming president in 2007 and CEO in 2012.
Dr. Thomas-Hemak played a pivotal role in launching The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education’s National Family Medicine Residency Program in 2013 through a groundbreaking partnership with A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona (ATSU-SOMA). The program brought together four geographically dispersed Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) – El Rio Health in Arizona, HealthSource of Ohio, HealthPoint in Washington, and Unity Health Care in Washington, D.C. – under one residency accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). Through its nontraditional model, the residency program ultimately demonstrated exceptional outcomes, including unprecedented graduate retention in community health centers, and validated the potential of FQHCs to transform from peripheral training outposts into fully accredited, self-governing academic institutions.
In addition to achieving FQHC Look-Alike designation, which unlocks significant federal resources for our region and vastly improves access to high-quality, whole-person primary health services for patients and families, The Wright Center has earned numerous other accolades under Dr. Thomas-Hemak’s leadership, including a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Top 30 Site for National Primary Care Innovations and membership in the prestigious American Medical Association ChangeMedEd Consortium in 2024. The Wright Center for Community Health follows the Patient-Centered Medical Home Model, with the Clarks Summit, Mid Valley, Scranton, and Wilkes-Barre locations achieving National Committee for Quality Assurance Patient-Centered Medical Home certification.
Dr. Thomas-Hemak graduated as a Michael DeBakey Scholar from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and completed Harvard’s Combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Residency Program in Boston.
A passionate and devoted advocate for organizing platforms that empower community health centers, she intentionally devotes her leadership to multiple health care and medical education organizations, several nonprofit boards of directors, and numerous cross-sector committees and workgroups. Dr. Thomas-Hemak advocates for collaborations that benefit the health and welfare of local, regional, and national communities. Her advocacy prioritizes quality, safety, and accessibility of health services while also enhancing the well-being and competency of the health care workforce.
Dr. Thomas-Hemak serves as an advisory council member on graduate medical education for the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration; a board member of the Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers; a member of the National Association of Community Health Center’s (NACHC) New Health Center CEO Affinity Group, Women Leaders; an advisory board member of the Health Federation of Philadelphia’s Health Center Controlled Network; as well as the immediate past chair and executive committee member of the Northeast Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center (NE PA AHEC). She is also a board member of the National AHEC Organization; Partnership for Quality Measurement’s Endorsement & Maintenance Cost and Efficiency Committee Advisory Group; 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.
She 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.
Dr. Thomas-Hemak has received several prestigious state and national awards for her leadership, mentorship, and advocacy initiatives, including: the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award from NACHC; 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.
Under Dr. Thomas-Hemak’s leadership, The Wright Center aims to have its GME-SNC recognized by the President of the United States by June 30, 2027, as THE Health and Human Services’ gold standard for community-based primary health services delivery with integrated workforce development.
