Dr. Allison van der Velden
CEO, Community Health Center of Franklin County: Age 39
Dr. Allison van der Velden
Like many Hampshire College students, Dr. Allison Van der Velden trod a winding path, first studying language and religion, then switching to microbiology, then landing on dentistry.
“I was interested in working with people, making a difference, working with my hands, learning a useful skill — being a doctor, but not having the same emotional load as, say, pediatric oncology. Just something where I could solve problems.”
After starting her career at Amherst Dental Group, then working in private practice, she did some part-time work Hilltown Community Health Center and immediately preferred that model of care.
“I realized the community health center movement was more my home, so I left private practice,” van der Velden said. “I really enjoy the healthcare aspect of dental. I prefer that to cosmetic dentistry. I don’t enjoy cutting down a perfectly healthy tooth and doing a treatment to look prettier for someone who was already beautiful. That never jived with me.
“What I find really satisfying is taking a person who’s afraid of the dentist, in pain, and putting them at ease and relieving their pain and discomfort and bringing them to a healthier place.”
She eventually landed at the Community Health Center of Franklin County and moved quickly up the ranks from dentist to dental director to CEO. The nonprofit, federally qualified health center provides primary medical care, dental care, behavioral health, and wraparound services like transportation, language translation, and health-insurance navigation, and recently opened its first pharmacy.
“One thing you notice in the community health center population is a lot of patients have been mistreated by the medical healthcare industry,” she explained. “They’ve been invalidated, haven’t had resources during their lives from the beginning, and have had a lot of trauma.”
Away from work, van der Velden has volunteered with numerous boards, including Amherst Survival Center, as well as Deerfield’s Capital Improvement Planning Committee and Finance Committee. At work, she leads a team that serves 9,000 people annually — a number that’s only growing in a rural region with fewer medical resources than other counties.
“I like to say community health centers are the least broken part of the healthcare system,” she said. “People face so many barriers to seeking their best quality of life and medical treatment. I’m passionate about healthcare and healthcare access and feel really good knowing I am working to be part of a solution to an enormous problem.”
—Joseph Bednar
