John Santistevan Awarded Stanley J. Brasher Community Health Gratitude Award

DENVER―On March 17, CCHN presented the eighth annual Stanley J. Brasher Community Health Gratitude Award to John Santistevan, CEO of Salud Family Health Centers, at CCHN’s Policy and Issues Forum.

This award was named in honor of Jerry Brasher, former CEO of Salud Family Health Centers and one of CCHN’s founders. It is given to a CHC executive who has been working at a CHC for ten or more years, has maintained excellent relationships with his or her state and national legislators, and has done something extraordinary as it relates to CCHN’s priorities during their career.

“I first met John during my first couple of weeks at CCHN in 1996. He was an auditor with Clifton Gunderson and presented the audit to me and the Board!” said Annette Kowal, CEO and President of CCHN. “He was also auditing Salud and Jerry knew he needed John for Salud’s CFO and so offered him a job and, thankfully, John took it!  He then became Salud’s CEO in 2014.”

“John deeply understands the importance of advocacy and building relationships with elected officials,” added Ms. Kowal. He goes above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to reaching out to his elected officials, ensuring they understand what is important to or what is at stake for Salud, their patients, and all Colorado CHCs.  John has formed personal relationships with just about all of his Members of Congress and is always ready and willing to be a key contact to one or more policymakers – able to pick up the phone or send a quick text or email about an important issue when asked.”

“John has instilled the importance of advocacy and close relationships with policymakers in Salud staff, and as a result has cultivated a well-informed and deeply involved group of health care provider advocates. John has been recognized for his advocacy before, including receiving the Betsey K. Cooke Grassroots MVP Award from NACHC.”

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To interview Mr. Santistevan, please contact Jennifer Morse at jmorse@saludclinic.org or 720-383-0380.

The Colorado Community Health Network (CCHN) is the unified voice for Colorado’s 21 Community Health Centers (CHCs) and their patients. CHCs provide a health care home to more than 830,000 of their community members – more than one in seven people in Colorado – from 61 of the state’s 64 counties. Without CHCs, hundreds of thousands of Colorado’s low-income families and individuals would have no regular source of health care. CCHN’s mission is to increase access to high quality health care for people in need in Colorado. For more information about CCHN, please visit www.cchn.org.

To learn more about careers at Community Health Centers, please visit www.missiondrivencareers.org.