Berry honored at Salem State

SALEM – Lori Abrams Berry, chief executive officer of Lynn Community Health Center, received an honorary degree from Salem State University, which held its graduate degree commencement Thursday.Billy Starr, founder of the Pan-Mass Challenge, the most successful charity event in the country, addressed the approximately 500 graduates in a ceremony at the Rockett Arena, O’Keefe Complex.Berry has guided the health care agency through a period of unprecedented growth. The agency that is so vital to the well-being of the community has significantly expanded its programs and services to fill a critical health care void. Under her leadership, the organization cares for over a third of Lynn’s adult population and 40 percent of its children.Berry has overseen the acquisition of a new building and the addition of clinics for urgent care, radiology, mammography, and dental and eye care. Community outreach and chronic disease case management programs have joined nine school-based health centers and a comprehensive pharmacy program, ensuring that the citizens of Lynn have access to quality health care across a wide spectrum.Prior to assuming the directorship of Lynn Community Health Center in 1996, Berry served as director of practice management at Partners Community Healthcare and as associate administrator for ambulatory care at Cambridge Hospital.She serves on the board of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers Capital Link, a national nonprofit that connects community health centers and capital resources to build healthy communities, and has been honored by her peers with the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers Founders Award in 2008. In 2009, she received the Massachusetts Coalition of School-Based Heath Centers’ Outstanding Collaborator Award, and in 2011 she was honored with the Lydia E. Pinkham Award for Lynn Businesswoman of the Year.Berry received a bachelor of arts degree from the University of California, her master’s degree in social work from the University of Maryland School of Social Work and a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University’s School of Public Health. She resides with her family in Newton.