Skip to main content

Leadership Team

A diverse team of professionals

Interim Chief Executive Officer

Kathie Powell

Kathryn “Kathie” Powell joined as Marin Community Clinics Interim Chief Executive Officer in September of 2024. She had retired from the Petaluma Health Center (PHC) earlier in 2024 after serving as the CEO for 21 years. Mrs. Powell has been a trailblazing advocate for expanding access to high quality health care for all. Under her leadership PHC grew from providing primary medical care for 7K patients at one site to providing primary medical, dental, and behavioral health plus multiple specialty services to over 40,000 patients at 12 sites in 4 communities, across 2 counties in the northern San Francisco Bay area. PHC employees and budget have also grown significantly, from 60 employees with a $5M budget to almost 600 employees with over an $80M budget.

Like Petaluma Health Center, Marin Community Clinics is designed as a model “Patient Centered Health Home”. Mrs. Powell has always been passionate about quality and insisted on hiring the finest clinicians and employees with uncompromising commitment to patient care. Through her leadership PHC continually scored in the top 1-5% of local, regional, state and US Federally Qualified Health Centers in both clinical quality outcomes and management systems. In addition to being accredited by The Joint Commission as a high-quality organization, PHC received the nationally coveted Davies Award for its outstanding achievement in utilizing health information technology to substantially improve clinical outcomes and value, and regularly achieves among the highest quality scores among providers within its Medi-Cal managed care plan.

Strongly committed to health access through regional partnerships, Mrs. Powell has continually served on the boards of many organizations, among them: Providence Petaluma Valley and Healdsburg Hospitals, the Redwood Community Health Coalition (now Aliados Health), United Health Group’s Investment Advisory Committee, the Petaluma Health Care District (now Healthy Petaluma) and as a Commissioner on the Partnership HealthPlan of California Board.

Mrs. Powell’s efforts have also been recognized through a number of awards, including California’s “Woman of the Year” for District 10, the “Petaluma Person of the Year”, The California Wellness Foundation’s Sabbatical award for exemplary service to underserved Californian’s, and the North Bay Business Journal’s “Non‐profit Leadership” and “Women in Business” awards. Ms. Powell earned a Master’s degree in Health Care Administration from Texas Woman’s University, and a Master’s degree in Medical Anthropology from Southern Methodist University, with a focus on community health systems.

Prior to serving as the CEO at PHC, Mrs. Powell served as the CEO of another FQHC for 5 years, and as a hospital administrator and strategic planning consultant for hospitals for almost 20 years prior to joining the “Community Health Center” world, always striving to ensure patients received culturally competent and high-quality care. According to Mrs. Powell, “Being a leader in community health centers and hospitals has been an honor and a privilege for the past 45 years, fulfilling me, both professionally and personally beyond my dreams.”

Interim Chief Medical Officer

Elizabeth Shaw, MD

Coming soon...
Melanie Thompson
Chief Medical Officer

Melanie Thompson, DO

Melanie Thompson, DO joined Marin Community Clinics in 2015, over the years she has provided excellent patient care and stepped up to take on leadership positions with larger amounts of responsibility – Medical Director, Regional Medical Director, Associate Chief Medical Officer, and now Chief Medical Officer.
Dr. Thompson is a Family Medicine physician with special interest in obesity prevention in both pediatrics and adults. She believes it is important for patients to take an active role in their health and therefore approaches patients as partners, working with them to achieve small changes towards better health overall. She is a big supporter of engaging the community through promotores and finding ways to keep clinicians engaged in the every busy primary care world.
An osteopathic doctor, she received her degree from Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed a residency in Family Medicine at the University of California (San Francisco), Fresno campus. She completed the UC Davis Train the Trainer Psychiatric fellowship in 2016 and the Champion Provider fellowship in 2020 which links providers and departments of public health to further impact health outcomes in communities. More recently, she completed a 200 hour yoga teacher training and hopes to offer a community class soon.
Connie Kadera
Chief Dental Officer

Connie Kadera, DDS

Dr. Kadera joined Marin Community Clinics in 2008 and was instrumental in establishing the state-of-the-art dental clinic in San Rafael. She has continued to see patients and oversee the growing dental department ever since. Dr. Kadera is a longtime member of the Marin County Oral Health Access Program designed to address county oral health disparities among underserved populations. She is currently Chair of the Dental Director Peer Network of Aliados Health (formerly known as Redwood Community Health Coalition). She was a Fellow of the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) Health Care Leadership Program and Healthforce Center at University of California, San Francisco in 2022.
While attending UCSF School of Dentistry, she initiated outreach programs for the underserved, which have been expanded nationally. She was a member of the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Diversity, and often contributed to free clinics for the homeless. She was a recipient of the UCSF Derzon-Butler scholarship (for community involvement) and the Western Region National Association of Medical Minority Educators scholarship. In 2014, Dr. Kadera was Scholar of the National Oral Health Learning Institute offered by the National Network for Oral Health Access designed to offer new directors a solid foundation and career development in managing Federally Qualified Health Center dental practices.
Prior to moving to Marin County, she practiced at Mountain Valley Health Centers serving Siskiyou and neighboring counties in northern California. A native of Colombia and self-described coffee lover, Dr. Kadera is fluent in English and Spanish.
Leah Canvasser
Chief Information Officer

Leah Canvasser

Originally hired in 2011 as the Director of Information Technology, Leah’s managerial and leadership skills led her to have several departments underneath her direct supervision; such as Health Information Management, Facilities, and the Call Center. Leah’s impressive ability to improve upon complex systems and see the big picture made her the perfect candidate for Chief Information Officer. Since she assumed her new role, Leah has continued to improve the departments she oversees as well as herself by continuing her education. Most recently she completed the Clinical Leadership Institute training through the UCSD Healthforce Center and annually she attends training’s for best practices with HIMSS and MGMA.

Leah was born and raised in Michigan, obtaining her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and her Masters in Information System Securities from Walsh College. After working in the healthcare field for several years before landing at Marin Community Clinics, Leah says that the most rewarding aspects of her current role is the palpable difference she makes in our patients lives, every day.

Elizabeth Horevitz
Chief Behavioral Health Officer

Elizabeth Horevitz, PhD, LCSW

Dr. Horevitz has worked for MCC since 2014, starting as Director of Behavioral Health, where she oversaw the expansion of integrated behavioral health services. She was promoted to the position of Chief Behavioral Health Officer in 2019. Dr. Horevitz oversees behavioral health services across all MCC sites, including psychotherapy, psychiatry, complex care case management, and substance use/recovery services. Dr. Horevitz also maintains a patient panel, providing bilingual (Spanish/English) psychotherapy and behavioral health services to MCC patients. Working with patients, she takes a strengths-based & partnership approach to help patients re-connect with their inherent strength and resilience. Lizzie brings a variety of intervention modalities to her practice, including: Problem-Solving Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and mindfulness-based approaches. As a health care leader, Dr. Horevitz is passionate about creating systems-level change to provide access to high quality, trauma informed, culturally responsive and evidence-based care to all. She has dedicated her career to addressing health and mental health inequities in the safety net setting.
Dr. Horevitz earned her PhD and MSW from the University of California, Berkeley. She completed an NIMH-funded post-doctoral fellowship in Clinical Services Research at the University of California, San Francisco. She earned her BA from the University of Michigan, where she triple majored in Social Science, Spanish and Latin American Studies. She completed the California Health Care Foundation’s Health Care Leadership Fellowship (cohort 18).
Miguel Ruelas
Chief Development Officer

Miguel Ruelas

Miguel joined Marin Community Clinics in July 2024. As Chief Development Officer he manages all aspects of fundraising, marketing and communications. This includes Major Gifts, Planned Gifts, Grants, Events and internal/external marketing and communications.

Miguel grew up in a small border-town in South Texas, was educated at the University of Minnesota and bring over 25 years of experience in fundraising and community relations. Miguel moved to Marin County California in 1996 to work at Schwab Charitable. Prior to joining Marin Community Clinics, he spent 17 years working at Community Foundation Sonoma County as Director of Philanthropic Advising, then worked at By the Bay Health for 7 years as Chief Development Officer.

Miguel currently lives in San Rafael with his spouse of 35 years, he is a proud father and has two granddaughters. In his spare time, you can find him sailing in the San Francisco Bay or biking the Marin County trails.

Lynne A. Bender
Director of Human Resources

Lynne Bender

Lynne joined MCC in 2021 as Director of Human Resources where she oversees the HR department that provides comprehensive services and solutions to the MCC team and supports the MCC mission through its most valuable resource – its people. We do this by creating and delivering HR policies, procedures and programs that promote a culture of fairness, open communication, high performance and equal opportunity for personal and professional growth. We strive to provide the same level of respect, service and care within MCC that we share externally with our patients.
As a strategic business partner, Lynne’s passion is partnering with leaders to create a positive and effective culture and employee experience. Lynne brings more than 15 years of HR Leadership experience, having worked with for profit and nonprofit organizations including Newport Healthcare, Scandinavian Design, Vivalon (Whistlestop) and Symmetricom. She received her Masters’ degree in Organizational Development from Teachers College, Columbia University in New York and her Senior Practitioner in Human Resources (SPHR) from the Society for Human Resources Management. Lynne has taught Human Resources as an Adjunct Professor at the Santa Rosa Junior College. She lives in Petaluma with her husband and son and is active in the community, volunteering with the Petaluma Arts Council.

Want to see a provider?

Tell us about your needs and we'll match you up with the right team.

Find a Provider

Locations near you.

Find a Clinic

Have questions? Give us a call.

415.448.1500

Do you need to see a doctor?

Appointments

Your support changes lives.

9 Ways to Donate
marin community clinics logo

Compassionate care for all of our community.