Our Board Members

Ms. Petee has served as the inaugural Executive Director of the Coalition since its founding in 2015. Drawing from more than 34 years of experience in healthcare communications and government relations, Ms. Petee leads the Coalition's efforts to unite cross-sector organizations under the common goal of achieving health equity. The Coalition's membership has grown from 17 inaugural partners into a diverse collection of more than 70 leading organizations from various states, sectors and services. For the past decade, Ms. Petee's focus has been addressing food insecurity and other basic needs so as to help develop and lift-up sustainable solutions that can be scaled and replicated across the nation, thereby improving the health and well-being of individuals and communities.

Committed to helping develop and implement a new model of healthcare delivery that considers all the various social, physical and mental needs of individuals, Ms. Petee’s work in the social determinants has been widely recognized across the nation. She has served on myriad local, regional and national boards and committees, and is currently a board member of the Alliance to End Hunger, an affiliate of Bread for the World; a member of the Government Relations Officers Network for the American Hospital Association; and serves on the Legislative Policy Panel for the Michigan Health and Hospital Association. Follow Barbara on Twitter: @BarbaraPetee

Throughout her career, Emily Allen’s primary passion has been on serving the needs of those most at risk in our communities. She has served in a number of capacities in the nonprofit, education and workforce development arenas, both internationally and in the U.S., and has worked across the generations to ensure vulnerable and at-risk individuals have access to the resources and services they need to thrive.

Beginning her career as a special education teacher and school administrator on Andros Island, Bahamas, Ms. Allen later held positions with the AARP enterprise including director, economic security and workforce programs, and vice president, income security, before being named senior vice president for programs for AARP Foundation in 2016.

In her current role, Ms. Allen is responsible for overseeing AARP Foundation’s programmatic portfolio that focuses on equity in increasing economic opportunity and social connections for low-income older adults. Through innovation and the development and implementation of programs and interventions, the Foundation’s collective work focuses on ensuring that low-income older adults are able to secure the essentials in life.

Ms. Allen holds a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from Westminster College and a Master’s degree in human and organizational learning from The George Washington University.

Rachelle Reyes Wenger MPA, is System Vice President of Public Policy and Advocacy Engagement, CommonSpirit Health. In February 2019, CommonSpirit Health was formed by the combining of California-based Dignity Health and Colorado-based Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI), making CommonSpirit Health one of the largest, private, not-for-profit healthcare systems in the nation with 137 hospitals across 21 states.

Ms. Wenger is primarily responsible for advancing the organization’s Public Policy & Advocacy Priorities at the local, state, national and international arenas. She manages policy issues core to CommonSpirit Health’s commitment to its foundational priorities focused on social and environmental determinants of health. Her portfolio includes: health equity, economic and racial justice, immigration, housing and homelessness, climate change and the environment, nutrition and hunger. She serves on various hospital and community boards and committees. Through strong collaborations and speaking platforms, Ms. Wenger has worked to successfully provide the healthcare voice in support of landmark legislation and strategic initiatives while inspiring community and industry engagement to raise their voices in solidarity on common ground issues. She serves various leadership positions on boards, including Community Hospital of San Bernardino, Housing California, California Immigrant Policy Center, California Clean Air and NETWORK: A Catholic Social Justice Lobby. Ms. Wenger most recently joined the Leadership Circle of We Are Still in, a cross sectoral group of leaders committed to climate action.

Ms. Wenger received her Bachelor’s degree in philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, and her Master’s degree in public administration at California State University, Northridge.

Ms. Fox serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Acenda Integrated Health where she oversees the operations and systems for over 100 programs throughout 13 counties in New Jersey. Under Melissa’s leadership, the Acenda team has launched several innovative measures to further integrated care models that serve vulnerable and historically disenfranchised populations.

Ms. Fox is also a Board Member of the Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance, Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers, the Urban Affairs Coalition, the National Wellness Institute, and the Gloucester County NAACP, which presented Melissa with its prestigious Game Changer Award.

Catherine “Katy” Crosby serves as the Town Manager for the Town of Apex, North Carolina. In this capacity, she is the chief executive officer overseeing day-to-day operations and a budget of approximately $150M. In this role, she is leading the development of the Town’s first strategic plan, and restructuring to improve capacity to increase the level of service to the fastest growing town in the region.

Prior to that, she served as the Chief of Staff to Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz and the City of Toledo. In this capacity, she was delegated the responsibility as the Chief Administrative Officer providing leadership to approximately 2700 employees and overseeing day to day operations which included administering a total budget of more than $800M. Her direct responsibilities included the departments of Finance, Human Resources, IT, and Diversity and Inclusion. She also provided guidance on developing the city’s community and economic development strategy, legislative and administrative policy to the Mayor and Council, and oversaw implementation of the administration’s strategic plan.

Previously she served as the executive director of the City of Dayton Human Relations Council (HRC) reporting directly to the Mayor and City Commission. She was responsible for civil rights enforcement in the areas of housing, employment, public accommodation, and credit; contract compliance and capacity building for socially and economically disadvantaged businesses; and community relations programs that focused on immigrant integration, reducing violence, and improving the relationship between the community and police. In addition, she was actively engaged in advocating and developing strategies to ensure equitable investment by financial institutions in low-to-moderate income (LMI) communities and communities of color. She considers herself a convener encouraging cross sector collaboration to foster effective strategies for community building. While Executive Director, she doubled the participation of women and minority-owned businesses in the city’s procurement process. The city also became the first certified Welcoming community for the work of Welcome Dayton, which ensured that foreign-born citizens were appropriately integrated into the Dayton community.

She serves as the board chair of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) and has worked with local groups across the country to negotiate billions of dollars in community benefit agreements with banks to increase access to mortgage and business lending, community and economic development investments, and philanthropy for LMI communities. She serves on Fifth Third Bank’s national community advisory forum and NCRC’s regional and community banker’s councils with community and regional banks from across the country. She is a member of the board of the Higher Learning Commission, one of six regional institutional accreditors in the United States.

Drawing from a broad range of lived and learned experiences, DeAnna Minus‐Vincent has tackled the toughest issues plaguing our country today—equity, poverty, housing, health, and education, just to name a few. DeAnna has created programs that move individuals along their pathway, but believes that the most sustainable change happens when we work across sectors to re‐engineer fractured systems; in so doing we can exponentially impact the lives of many…in so doing we can create change. DeAnna is noted for not just programmatic and policy prowess, but for scaling organizations—she has transformed entities and dramatically increased revenue, service regions, as well as product mix. DeAnna considers the work she does with organizations a metaphor to the work that she hopes to do in life; she wants to leave an imprint and ensure every place she exits is better than when she entered.

DeAnna Minus‐Vincent currently serves as the Corporate Senior Vice President, Chief Social Integration and Health Equity Strategist for RWJBarnabas Health. In this role, DeAnna works across the system, with internal and external stakeholders to co‐design strategies that improve health outcomes, promote health equity and eliminate health disparities. Specifically, her portfolio includes leading the system’s anti‐racism efforts which seek to develop a strategy to ensure that patients, employees, and communities in which RWJBH serves are equitable, anti‐racist, and free from discriminatory practices that promote poor health, social, and economic outcomes. Additionally, DeAnna designed and is charged with leading Health Beyond the Hospital, an end‐to‐end universal initiative conceived to fully integrate social factors into the clinical setting by overcoming barriers for both providers and patients. Funded by the Walmart a Robert Wood Johnson Foundations, this effort offers culturally and linguistically appropriate assessment and connection to services for patients. Finally, she oversees the system’s housing and community development initiatives, key social determinants of health that promoted positive outcomes for children and families.

Before coming to RWJBarnabas Health, DeAnna served for more than seven years as the Chief Engagement Officer at Benefits Data Trust (BDT), a national social change organization, where she facilitated cross‐sector partnerships, diversified the organization’s revenue streams and oversaw the organization’s strategic positioning. Additionally, she has served as the Assistant Commissioner for the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs.

DeAnna serves on the Board of the Corporation for Supportive Housing and the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey. DeAnna received a Master of Public Administration from Rutgers University, and a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from Morgan State University. DeAnna is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Business Administration with a concentration in Health Leadership and Innovation. Born and raised in Trenton, DeAnna is a native New Jerseyan and lives in Lumberton with her husband, Daryl and daughter, Darynn.

Angela has established her career by building revenue and efficiencies through effective operational models. In her current role, as President of ProMedica Physicians Group, she manages the business operations, clinical operations, revenue cycle, and value-based initiatives for northwest Ohio’s largest, employed provider group. ProMedica Physicians Group, employing more than 1150 providers, the multispecialty group, expands more than 130 acute care and ambulatory-based locations and is a vital part of the ProMedica Health System. Angela has also been critical in the growth and development of the strong recruitment, retention, and engagement efforts of providers and staff. Additionally, she is now serving in the inaugural role as President, ProMedica Telehealth Institute. Angela earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Healthcare Administration and holds an Executive Master of Business Administration degree from Case Western Weatherhead School of Management. In 2017, Angela was selected as one of sixteen executives to be a Baldrige Executive Fellow through the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Angela is a proud veteran of the United States Navy and active in the metro Toledo community as a volunteer and board member. Co-chairing the Toledo Communities of Excellence effort through Baldrige and serving as a board trustee for the Root Cause Coalition is consistent with Angela’s commitment to effectuate the changes needed for equitable, healthier, vibrant communities.

As Vice President of Integration at AARP Foundation, Marc McDonald directly works with AARP Foundation’s president to ensure its vision – a country free of poverty where no older person feels vulnerable – is implemented through collaborations and relationships across the Foundation, AARP enterprise and externally. He also serves as co-lead for AARP Foundation’s strategic plan objective to generate nearly $700 million in new income and earnings by 2026.

Prior to his role as Vice President of Integration, Marc was Vice President of Grants and External Initiatives, were he developed AARP Foundation’s strategic grantmaking framework. In addition, Marc served as project director for AARP Foundation’s two White House Social Innovation Fund awards. Marc also served on the board of directors of PEAK Grantmaking, including a two-year term as co-chair. PEAK is the largest membership organization service grantmaking professionals.

Prior to joining AARP Foundation, Marc was Director of Grant Policy and System Analysis for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He oversaw distribution policy, compliance and grantee reporting for the $300 million Community Service grant program serving nearly 600 public radio and television grantees. He also served on the board of the Public Media Business Association. Marc earned his BA from Dartmouth College and his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He’s also actively involved with the Telluride Film Festival and the Middleburg Film Festival where he oversees theater operations and volunteer training as well as a variety of ad hoc projects, occasionally involving someone famous.