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In recognition of his years of providing care and advocating for an underserved population, Steve Colchamiro, DMD, dental director at Brookside Community Health Center, received this year’s Founder’s Award from the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers. The award honors the achievements of a leader who continues to protect and promote health care access as a right for all, rather than a privilege for some.
In 2003, Colchamiro was appointed to the Governor’s Council on Oral Health Care, where he has worked to reverse funding cuts in MassHealth for adult dental patients.
Colchamiro has served all age groups during his 35 years at Brookside, with a particular focus on pediatric dental care. In 1971, he established the School Dental Transportation Program, which has bused thousands of students from the Boston public school system to Brookside for oral health services, often for their first visit to the dentist.
Additionally, the dental program Colchamiro founded has trained hundreds of dental residents and students in connection with BWH, Harvard Dental School and the Goldman School of Dentistry at Boston University, many of whom have gone on to work in or lead oral health services at other community health centers and/or community focused dental school programs.
The Founder’s Award was established in 2005 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the community health center movement and was bestowed upon both Dr. H. Jack Geiger, one of the founders of the first two community health centers in the nation, and U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, recognized as the nation’s chief congressional advocate for accessible health care and health information technology.
Colchamiro will receive the award at the League’s annual gala on June 8 at the Seaport Hotel in Boston.