PHI Board Members

Rick Surpin is the founder and president of Independence Care System (ICS), a nonprofit Medicaid managed long-term care organization for adults with physical disabilities.

He is also the founder and chairperson of Cooperative Home Care Associates, a worker-owned home care agency in the South Bronx, which initiated the "quality jobs, quality care" model that PHI promotes.

The Schwab Foundation named Mr. Surpin a 2004 “Outstanding Social Entrepreneur.”

Steven Dawson is president of the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute and the author or co-author of a number of widely cited papers analyzing the direct-care labor crisis.

His writings include Direct Care Health Workers: The Unnecessary Crisis in Long-Term Care; Cheating Dignity: The Direct Care Wage Crisis in America; and Long-Term Care Financing and the Long-Term Care Workforce Crisis: Causes and Solutions.

Before joining PHI, he founded the Industrial Cooperative Association (now The ICA Group).

Michael Elsas is president of Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA), a licensed home health care agency located in the South Bronx. With over 900 paraprofessional workers and an administrative staff of 50, CHCA has been nationally recognized for its worker-centered philosophy, which links quality jobs to quality home care services.

Before joining CHCA in 2000, Mr. Elsas was the chief operating officer of the Visiting Nurse Association of Hudson Valley, and he has over 30 years of experience in the home care industry. He is a trustee of the 1199 SEIU Home Health Aide Benefit Fund and a member of the Home Care Association of New York State, Catholic Charities, and the Medical Society of New York.

Mr. Elsas received a BA from the C.W. Post Center of Long Island University.

Peggy Powell is the Director of Workforce Strategies for PHI. She has over 20 years experience in community economic development and adult education and training. Ms. Powell co-founded Cooperative Home Care Associates and was formerly its director of education. For 15 years, she has planned, designed, and implemented employer-based education programs enabling low-income women to make the transition from welfare to work.

Her work has included entry-level and career ladder curriculum design, developing outreach and recruitment programs, and assessing the quality of the design and implementation of recruitment and training programs. A graduate of the City University of New York, she has completed graduate courses in counseling and personal development at Fordham University.

John Booker is executive director of the National Association of Direct-Care Workers of Color and a veteran certified nursing assistant (CNA). A former long-term care ombudsman, he is a certified trainer in the coaching method of supervision for long-term care. He has worked as a CNA in both long-term and acute care and as a team leader, mentor, and staff liaison.

His professional and civic affiliations include chairing the National Task Force on Male Nursing Assistants of the Career Nursing Assistants Program of Norton, Ohio; serving on the executive committee of the Direct Care Alliance; and membership in the 21st Century Strategic Skills Initiative of the Northern Indiana Workforce Investment Board of South Bend, Indiana.

Denise Clark has been with Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA) since 1992. She worked there as a home health aide for six years and then worked part-time as an aide while assisting in the agency’s training and fiscal departments.

She is currently employed as a service delivery coordinator, supervising home health aides in the field. In addition, she has been coordinator of CHCA’s Policy Action Group since 2002.

Jennifer Craigue is a licensed nursing assistant at Quality Care Partners, where she also serves as a peer mentor and basic life support instructor. She has over nine years of experience as a direct-care worker in hospitals, nursing homes, and independent and assisted living facilities as well as home care.

A member of QCP’s board of directors, she also serves on the board of the Direct Care Alliance, and she presented workshops at the 2005 conference co-produced by the DCA and the Pioneer Network.

Anna Fay is director of member services at Independence Care System. Prior to assuming this position, she was director of program development at the Westchester Independent Living Center and coordinated Consumer-Directed Personal Assistance Services in Westchester County, acting as liaison between the Department of Social Services and the fiscal intermediary for the program. She is also the founder and former director of the Yonkers Independent Living Center.

Her professional affiliations include serving on the boards of directors of the Direct Care Alliance and the Consumer-Directed Personal Assistance Association of New York State.

Karen Kulp has served as the President/CEO of Home Care Associates, a worker-owned home health care company based in Philadelphia, since July 2002. Prior to joining HCA, she served as a management consultant to nonprofit organizations, as project director of the Improving School Readiness Project for the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, as chief of staff and campaign manager to a Pennsylvania state senator, and as executive director of Women Organized Against Rape in Philadelphia.

Ms. Kulp serves on the boards of directors of a Philadelphia senior center, a community development corporation, the Delaware Valley Council for Early Care and Learning, and the Valley Green Bank.

Joann Poue is a Level 2 peer mentor and home health aide at Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA), where she has worked as a home health aide since 1988. She served two years on CHCA’s board of directors and two years as a worker council representative, and she has been a member of CHCA’s Policy Action Group since its formation in 2000.

As a Level 2 peer mentor, she supports both trainees and peer mentors during and after their initial training and orientation. She is also a member of the board of directors of the Direct Care Alliance.

Esmin Robinson

Home Care Associates

Julie Trocchio is senior director of long-term care for the Catholic Health Association of the United States, where her responsibilities include developing educational materials, serving as liaison with other organizations concerned with the well-being of aging and chronically ill persons, and advocacy in the areas of payment for post-acute care, long-term care quality, and federal housing policy.

She was co-author of the CHA/AAHSA Social Accountability Program: Continuing the Community Benefit Tradition of Not-for-Profit Homes and Services for the Aging.

Prior to joining CHA she was responsible for standards and quality issues at the American Health Care Association. Ms. Trocchio has nursing degrees from Georgetown University and the University of Maryland.