LYNN — A doctor with a long career in community health center leadership is the Lynn Community Health Center’s (LCHC) new chief executive officer.
LCHC Chief Medical Officer Kiame Mahaniah, MD, will succeed Lori Berry as CEO, LCHC Board of Directors President Jane Gould announced on Monday. He will assume the new position October 2.
“My lifelong passion has been the pursuit of social justice while working in underserved communities. The opportunity to lead Lynn Community Health Center — one of the largest and most comprehensive community health centers in Massachusetts — is the opportunity of a lifetime. I am humbled by the responsibility but also tremendously excited,” Mahaniah said in a statement provided by LCHC.
Berry announced her retirement in June and an Oct. 19 celebration is planned in her honor.
“Lynn Community Health Center is an anchor institution in the city, and the breadth and depth of our search revealed the high esteem in which the center is held,” said Gould.
She added in a statement announcing the appointment: “Working with Catlin Donnelly Associates, the board’s search committee received and reviewed more than 140 applicants. The extraordinary talent of the pool of candidates is a testimony to the role LCHC plays in improving the health of our community and positively influencing healthcare policy at both state and national levels. In conversation after conversation, Dr. Mahaniah emerged as the strong and inspiring leader we had all hoped we would find.”
Mahaniah has progressed, the statement said, through larger and more complex community health center leadership positions during his career. Trained as a family physician, he has been a medical site director, faculty and associate director of a Family Medicine Residency Program, director of an outpatient-based opioid addiction treatment program at two health centers, and an associate medical director of a large health center, before taking his current job at the Union Street-based center.
In his two years as chief medical officer, Mahaniah has demonstrated a passion for improving the patient experience and the quality of care, the statement said.
“Kiame has shown himself to be an inspirational and collaborative leader in the two years he has served as CMO. With his unwavering sense of social justice and tremendous respect for staff and patients, I am confident that the health center will be in good hands,” Berry said.
