New Chief Health Officer Dr. Luis Padilla Joins NACHC Leadership Team

Bethesda, MD - Luis Padilla, MD, will join the senior leadership team of the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) as the Chief Health Officer. Dr. Padilla is a thought leader in the Community Health Center Movement who will help direct NACHC's efforts to advance health equity, grow the primary care workforce and support the mission of health centers, which provide high-quality, affordable, transdisciplinary primary care to over 31.5 million people nationwide.

Dr. Padilla's selection is the result of a nationwide search conducted in partnership with Diversified Search Group, the largest woman-founded and woman-led executive search firm in the U.S. Diversified Search Group is an industry leader in recruiting diverse, inclusive, and transformational leadership for clients across all industries and sectors.

Dr. Padilla comes to NACHC from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). There he served for nearly a decade as the Associate Administrator for the Bureau of Health Workforce (BHW), responsible for over 70 workforce programs and 478 staff, and Director of the National Health Service Corps (NHSC), BHW's largest program of over 18,000 clinicians. A key focus for Dr. Padilla at HRSA was improving primary care across the nation and developing, recruiting, and retaining a diverse and culturally competent health workforce; under his leadership, the Bureau expanded to its current budget of almost $2 billion and the NHSC grew to the largest size in its 50-year history. Prior to joining HRSA, Dr. Padilla served for more than a decade at Unity Health Care, the largest community health center system in Washington, DC, as senior health policy advisor to the CEO, medical director, and as a NHSC Scholar. He also served on the National Advisory Council of the NHSC from 2007 to 2010.

A licensed family physician, Dr. Padilla received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and a Bachelor of Science in biology from the University of California at Irvine. He earned a medical degree from Wake Forest School of Medicine and completed his family medicine residency at Brown University.

Dr. Padilla will officially join NACHC on August 19, 2024.

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NACHC is the leading innovative change agent collaborating with affiliates and partners to advance Community Health Centers as the foundation of an equitable health care system free from disparities, and built on accessible, patient-governed, high-quality, integrated primary care.