The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) has honored Daniel J. Driscoll, President and CEO of Harbor Health Services with the Cornell Scott Excellence in Leadership Award. The award honors outstanding community health leaders and advocates for the medically underserved.  It was presented at the 47th annual NACHC Community Health Institute & EXPO (CHI) in Chicago, a national conference attended by nearly 2,000 community health leaders from across the country.

Driscoll is a longtime veteran of the Community Health Center Movement. His career in community health was launched in 1977 when he became Administrator of the Neponset Health Center. In 1985, Driscoll and the Neponset Health Center management were asked by both the local community board of directors and the federal government to assume responsibility for the Columbia Point Health Center, the nation’s first health center which was founded in 1965. At that time the center was on a path to be put in receivership. That merger led to the creation of the larger Harbor Health Services, Inc. In 1990 the center was renamed the Geiger Gibson Community Health Center in honor of Jack Geiger and Count Gibson, the founders of the Health Center Movement.

Under his leadership Harbor Health has grown from a small, single neighborhood health center with 23 staff and a budget of under $400,000 to one of the largest community health agencies in Massachusetts, with a staff of 550 and a budget of $72 million. The growth of the agency was achieved through the expansion of the original two health centers in Harbor and the development of two new Community Health Centers on Cape Cod: the Ellen Jones Community Dental Center in 2000 and the Harbor Community Health Center – Hyannis in 2003. In both cases, Harbor was asked by local community groups to assume responsibility for converting their plans into fully operational Community Health Centers.

“As an exemplary leader within the Health Center Movement, it is entirely fitting that Dan Driscoll’s legacy forever will be tied to his stewardship of the nation’s first community health center — Geiger Gibson Community Health Center — founded at Columbia Point, Dorchester in 1965,” said James W. Hunt, Jr., president and CEO of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers. “Over his 40 years of service, Dan has always represented the very best qualities of health center leadership: passion, optimism and a true commitment to social justice and opportunity for all.”

Dan was selected as the Geiger Gibson Visiting Fellow at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University in 2015. He also serves in a host of leadership positions, including as member of the Board of Directors for the Massachusetts Association for Mental Health and the Massachusetts Association for Community Health. He is chair of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers Government Affairs Committee and vice chair of the Legislative Committee of the National Association of Community Health Centers.

Driscoll is the recipient of the National Association of Community Health Center’s John Gilbert Award for Meritorious Service in Community Health, the Massachusetts League of Community Health Center’s Edward M. Kennedy Founder Award for outstanding contributions to community health, the President’s Award from the New England Community Health Center Association, the Lesley J. Barnes Award from the Commonwealth Purchasing Group, the Outstanding Director’s Award from the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers and a Special Recognition Award from the Dorchester House Multi-Service Center.