New Leadership Lab Unites Professionals to Tackle Health and Wellness Challenges, Eliminate Disparities and Build Networks
Nine-month lab to contribute to building Culture of Health Network in Palm Beach County.
Palm Health Foundation has announced the six Palm Beach County professionals who were accepted into the inaugural Culture of Health Network Leadership Lab. During the nine-month lab beginning in January 2022, the leaders will take on performance challenges to seek ambitious change in their organizations and the communities they serve, including equitable delivery of services, integration of physical health with behavioral health, and investing in the social determinants of health. Through professional coaching and peer learning, participants will focus on developing the tools, capacity and resources to achieve their aspirational goals and contribute to building a stronger culture of health network in Palm Beach County.
The 2022 Culture of Health Network Leadership Lab participants are:
Anita Fernander
Chief Officer for Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion and Professor, Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Florida Atlantic University
Deborah Feinsinger
Personal Fitness Teacher, Palm Beach Gardens High School
Kristina Baker
Chief Program Officer, Mental Health America of the Palm Beaches
Corey “Nick” Savage
Digital Inclusion Director, Community Partners of South Florida
During the nine-month lab, participants will engage in a performance challenge process that Palm Health Foundation has infused throughout its Healthier Together place-based grantmaking strategy during the last five years. The foundation will share their learning from centering residents at the core of developing health solutions around their own needs, and recognizing the complexity, culture, context and circumstances of diverse communities. The Leadership Lab is one of several efforts by the foundation to intentionally evolve and stoke a local Culture of Health Network to address Palm Beach County’s toughest challenges and eliminate health disparities.
“The lessons we have learned over the past five years from working closely with neighborhoods to leverage their own assets for building healthier communities have been recognized by national organizations and contributed to Palm Beach County winning the 2020-2021 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Prize,” said Patrick McNamara, president and CEO of Palm Health Foundation. “Sharing our experience around centering people and creating flourishing networks through highly-localized, community-driven efforts to address health challenges and disparities are the cornerstones of the Learning Lab—lessons we hope the participants will proliferate throughout Palm Beach County.”
About Palm Health Foundation
Palm Health Foundation is Palm Beach County’s community foundation for health. With the support of donors and a focus on results, the foundation builds strong community partnerships, respects diverse opinions, advocates for its most vulnerable neighbors and inspires innovative solutions to lead change for better health now and for generations to come. The foundation supports health equity for Palm Beach County residents of all backgrounds, heritage, education, incomes and states of well-being. Palm Health Foundation has invested more than $89 million in Palm Beach County health since 2001. For more information about Palm Health Foundation, visit
palmhealthfoundation.org or call (561) 833-6333.
