Board of Directors
Our board of directors are passionate about promoting public health.
Ben L. Bynum, MD, MBA, MPH is the senior director of impact investing at the Colorado Health Foundation. Dr. Bynum develops the Colorado Health Foundation’s impact investing strategy and has guided the Foundation to investing over $100 million through its impact investment portfolio, including its nonprofit and for-profit mission-related investment (MRI) and program-related investments (PRI)
Prior to joining the Foundation, Dr. Bynum helped launch a $100 million nonprofit community development financial institution (CDFI) to help support health care services and good jobs in communities of need.
Dr. Bynum is currently an adjunct profession at the Colorado School of Public Health where he created and teaches mandatory healthy equity courses for graduate master in public health students. He serves on national nonprofit boards including Grounded Solutions Network, a national nonprofit that builds strong communities by promoting housing solutions that will stay affordable for generations. He also serves on the board for Mission Investors Exchange, which is the leading impact investing network for foundations dedicated to deploying capital for social and environment change.
Dr. Bynum received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C. and completed a dual Master of Business Administration and Master of Public Health at Columbia University in New York City as a W.E.B. Du Bois Scholar.
Helen Drexler is the chief executive officer of Delta Dental of Colorado, the largest nonprofit dental benefits provider in the state. She also serves as the managing director of Ensemble Innovation Ventures, the parent company of Delta Dental of Colorado, where she works to identify and fund innovative business models that improve community health and wellness.
Drexler is a seasoned health care executive with a passion for creating high-functioning teams that work from a foundation of trust to achieve great results. With more than 30 years of progressive management experience, Drexler is deeply versed in all aspects of the health insurance industry and has led Delta Dental of Colorado for more than six years.
Drexler serves on the national board of directors of Dental Lifeline Network, as well as on the board of trustees for Mile High United Way and the board of the Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce. She previously served on the Women’s Leadership Council for United Way of Greater Atlanta.
She was named one of Denver Business Journal’s Most Admired CEOs in 2020.
Steven G. Federico, MD is the chief government and community affairs officer at Denver Health and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Dr. Federico’s passion for improved and equitable child health is fueled by his ongoing experiences as a pediatrician and primary care physician at Denver Health where has worked since 2002.
In his past role as medical director, he oversaw three community health centers and 19 school-based clinics that provide comprehensive physical and mental health to 70,000 children across Denver. He has presented and published in the areas of school-based health, child poverty, improving child health coverage, physician advocacy and health policy.
His advocacy work has focused on eliminating the barriers to adequate health coverage and health care faced by children and families in Colorado. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic he advised Denver Public Schools on policies to mitigate risks of infection and efforts to maximize in-person learning. He is a past president of the Colorado Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He has served as a board member to Girls Inc of Metro Denver, Clayton Early Learning Center, Colorado Association of School Based Health Centers and the Colorado Children’s Campaign. He has been appointed to various child health task force groups by governors and lieutenant governors of Colorado and previously served on the Mayor’s Children’s Cabinet for the city and county of Denver.
He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Arizona. He completed his training in pediatrics and a primary care research fellowship at the University of Colorado and a physician advocacy fellowship through the Institute for Medicine as a Profession.
Olga González is the executive director of Cultivando, a Latino-serving organization that focuses on developing the leadership, advocacy, and capacity of the Spanish-speaking community. She is also the CEO of O.G. Consulting Services, where she provides equity facilitation and coaching services to businesses and nonprofit organizations at the state and national levels.
As the first Indigenous woman to lead Cultivando in its 25-year history, she has expanded the organization’s reach beyond Adams County to support Latinx communities and organizations statewide. In her four-year tenure, she has also tripled the organization’s budget and established the first community-led air monitoring and environmental justice program in Colorado holding corporate polluters accountable.
González has earned recognition for her work in the areas of inclusiveness, equity, and social justice, including the Mayor’s Award for Outstanding Denver Citizen Committed to Fighting Against Hate and the Award for Excellence in the Promotion of Health Equity from the Public Health in the Rockies Conference. In 2022, she was awarded the Soul of Leadership (SOL) Award by the Latino Community Foundation of Colorado, and the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce named her one of the Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Business. She is also a featured TEDxMileHigh speaker.
González holds a dual bachelor’s degree in psychology and Chicano studies from Scripps College in Claremont, California, and earned a master’s degree in nonprofit management from Regis University as a Colorado Trust Fellow. She is a graduate of the Transformative Leadership for Change fellowship, the Executive Directors of Color program at the Denver Foundation, and she is currently a Bonfils Stanton Foundation Livingston Fellow and a Piton Fellow. She is also an IRISE (Interdisciplinary Research Institute for the Study of (In)Equality) visiting scholar at the University of Denver.
Jeffrey L. Harrington serves as senior vice president and chief financial officer at Children’s Hospital Colorado.
Before that, he served as the vice president of finance at Children’s Hospital Colorado from 2005 to 2013. He previously served as corporate director of finance for the Atlantic Health System in Florham Park, N.J. from 1999 to 2005. And from 1996 to 1999, he was partner and site chief financial officer for CurranCare, LLC, a start-up health care consulting company in Chicago. Prior to that, from 1990 to 1996, Harrington held various finance and administrative positions at ScrippsHealth, culminating in the director of finance and operations for Scripps Memorial Hospital in Chula Vista, Calif.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration with an emphasis in finance from the University of Colorado and a Master of Science degree in business administration with an emphasis in management from San Diego State University.
Patrick Knipe is the vice president of payor relations and network development at UCHealth.
Bio coming soon
Shelly Marquez is the president of Mercy Housing Mountain Plains. She joined Mercy Housing in May 2022 and leads the Mountain Plains region’s operations, including real estate development, fundraising, and resident services.
Marquez has been a community development leader for more than 30 years in the financial services industry – including 19 years serving communities with low and moderate incomes. She brings commercial lending experience in serving the needs of business customers across the state. She is a thought leader in financial health with deep expertise in asset building, particularly in underbanked communities. Before retiring from Wells Fargo with 28 years of service in 2022, Marquez held the position of senior vice president of community relations – leading a team across a 13-state region. In her role, she managed a philanthropic budget to deploy grants to local markets and was responsible for community outreach, stakeholder engagement and reputation activities across the region.
Marquez holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration, magna cum laude from Colorado Christian University. She has been a recipient of the “Outstanding Women in Business Award” from the Denver Business Journal and currently serves on numerous boards in the community including the National Association of Latino Community Asset Builders, Community First Foundation and Energize Colorado.
Donald Moore is the chief executive officer at Pueblo Community Health Center (PCHC).
Before taking the role of chief executive officer, Moore served as PCHC’s chief operations officer from 1999 to 2009, during which time he directed its administrative and clinical support services.
In addition to serving the PCHC Board, Moore has extensive volunteer, nonprofit governance experience which includes serving on the boards of Colorado Community Health Network, CCMCN, Community Health Provider Network, Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment, Pueblo Triple Aim Corporation, and Southeast Colorado Area Health Education Center.
He obtained his Master of Healthcare Administration degree in 1992 from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Moore is a Fellow in the American College of Medical Practice Executives, and a member of its Certification Committee.
Fernando Pineda-Reyes is the executive director and founder of Community + Research + Education + Awareness = Results (CREA Results), a social enterprise of Community Health Workers (CHWs)/Promotores de Salud (PdS) advancing health equity, environmental stewardship, and workforce development. He has implemented and supported hundreds of programs to address health disparities through the state of Colorado, México, and Puerto Rico where he helped design and launch the first Puerto Rico Public Health Trust Office of Community Engagement. As a director of community mobilization for the Vector Control Unit for the Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust, Pineda-Reyes led post-Hurricane Maria recovery efforts through a CHWs/PdS model.
Pineda-Reyes has served on many boards, such as the Early Childhood Leadership Council, Head Start Policy Council, Metro Caring, CASA Soccer Club, Colorado Rapids Youth Soccer Club, the Collaborative School Committee at Ana Marie Sandoval and Denver Center for International Studies in Denver Public Schools, the American Public Health Association/Governing Council, the National Steering Committee for Promotores de Salud (part of Health and Human Services/Office of Minority Health), and the Partnership of Academicians and Communities for Translation for the Colorado Clinical Science Institute. He was also a member of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences Taskforce. He currently serves on the boards of Sheridan Health Services, the National Parent Leadership Institute, and The Junkyard Social Club. He is the current Chair of the Board for the American Mexican Association.
Fernando has dual degrees in clinical biochemistry and pharmaceutical chemistry from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). He is a Leadership Denver Class of 2017 Fellow as well as a Community Resource Center Leadership Development Program and Regional Institute of Health and Environmental Leadership (RIHEL) Fellow. He received the 2022 Water Hero Award from the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
Lydia Prado, PhD, is the executive director of Lifespan Local. Lifespan Local partners across sectors, breaks barriers, and elevates community voices while maximizing sustainable assets within neighborhoods. As the visionary behind the Dahlia Campus for Health & Well Being associated with WellPower (formerly Mental Health Center of Denver), Dr. Prado has taken her past work experience and used it to activate community-driven solutions at Lifespan Local.
Before starting Lifespan Local, Dr. Prado spent 17 years with WellPower as the vice president of Child & Family Services. She is the project visionary behind WellPower’s Dahlia Campus for Health & Well Being, an innovative community center in northeast Park Hill that promotes well-being across the lifespan. The campus features an inclusion preschool, a full service dental clinic for children, a one-acre urban farm, aquaponics greenhouse, horticultural therapy spaces, community gardens, teaching kitchen, community room, gymnasium, and a full array of mental health services.
Dr. Prado serves on the Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation board and is the chair of the board for Denver Preschool Program.
She earned her Doctorate of Philosophy degree and a Master of Arts degree in clinical child psychology from University of Denver
Terri Richardson, MD, is a retired internal medicine physician. She practiced at Kaiser Permanente for 17 years and Denver Health for 17 years.
Dr. Richardson has more than 34 years of experience as a clinician, health educator, mentor, speaker, and volunteer in the health sector. She considers herself a community doctor and is extremely passionate about the health of the Black community. She remains active in health-related community endeavors.
Dr. Richardson is currently the vice chair of the Colorado Black Health Collaborative (CBHC) and one of the leads for CBHC’s Barbershop/Salon Health Outreach Program. Dr. Richardson is also a member of several volunteer boards and organizations. She is a board member of the Colorado Health Foundation, a member of the University of Colorado Cancer Center’s Community Advisory Council (CAC), and an active member of the Mile High Medical Society, among others.
She received her Bachelor of Science in biology from Stanford University and her doctor of medicine degree from Yale University School of Medicine. She completed her residency in internal medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.
Brian T. Smith, MHA is the senior associate dean for finance and administration for the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the executive director of CU Medicine at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colo.
Prior to joining CU Anschutz, Smith was at the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City where he served as the senior vice president and chief operating officer of the Mount Sinai Doctors Faculty Practice and senior associate dean for clinical affairs for the Icahn School of Medicine. Prior to joining Mount Sinai in January 2017, Smith was the founding executive director of Rush University Medical Group and vice president of clinical affairs at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago for more than 11 years. Prior to joining Rush in August 2005, Smith spent 12 years in Tampa, Fla. at the University of South Florida as executive director of the USF Physicians Group and was director of clinical planning for the USF Health Sciences Center. Prior to moving to Tampa, Fla., he spent five years in consulting in New York-based firms.
Smith has been active in physician faculty practice issues nationally and is the past president of the Academic Practice Plan Directors and past chair of the University HealthSystem Consortium Group Practice Council. Smith is serving a two-year term on the Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Faculty Practice. Smith is currently on the University HealthSystem Consortium (Vizient) Performance Improvement and Comparative Data Operations Committee. Smith is the lay delegate on the American Orthopaedic Association Executive Committee.
Smith earned his bachelor’s degree from the Manhattan College School of Engineering in New York City and received his master’s degree in health administration from the University of South Florida College of Public Health in Tampa, Fla.
Simon Smith is the president and chief executive officer of Clinica Family Health. Simon joined Clinica’s staff in 2011 as a project manager and, in less than three years, was named as president and CEO of the organization.
Before coming to Clinica, Smith worked for Abt Associates, Inc., a research and consulting firm that assists companies and governmental agencies in implementing health, social and environmental programs. Smith spent his first three years with Abt in Kazakhstan helping restructure the country’s public health system. He spent another five years at Abt’s Bethesda, Md., office managing government-funded international activities to improve care in areas such as HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, and community health. Before becoming Clinica’s president and CEO, Simon served as the clinic director of Clinica’s Boulder facility, the People’s Medical Clinic. In that capacity, he managed 64 staff members who provided care to almost 9,500 people annually. As Clinica’s CEO, Smith wants to work closely with other social service agencies and officials within Clinica’s service area to improve the health care safety net for low-income and uninsured individuals.
Smith received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Earlham College and a Master of Healthcare Administration degree from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.