Mālama I Ke Ola CEO Retires, Replacement Named

Dana Alonzo-Howeth, Chief Executive Officer of Community Clinic of Maui, Inc. dba Mālama I Ke Ola Health Center, has retired from the organization after 22 years of service.

Community Clinic of Maui, photo by Wendy Osher.

CCM’s board of directors named B.J. Ott to succeed Alonzo-Howeth as chief executive officer, effective April 1, 2017. Ott has been with the organization for 23 years as chief financial officer and deputy director.

“Both Dana and B.J. have worked hand-in-hand to develop and expand the Community Clinic of Maui. Dana provided tremendous leadership and commitment. We will miss her energy and wish her the best in her new endeavors. At the same time, we are excited that B.J. has taken on this leadership role to carry on the vision of the Mālama I Ke Ola Health Center,” said Board President Vanessa Medeiros.

Alonzo-Howeth joined CCM in 1995 as program specialist, and was later promoted to deputy director, then executive director in 2001. Her title was changed to chief executive officer in 2016 to better reflect the operational nature of the organization and the position’s membership on the board.

CCM is one of 13 federally qualified health centers in Hawai‘i, which by law services medically underserved areas and populations with limited access to health care and a proven need and ability to impact poor health status.  FQHC’s serve the working poor and uninsured as well as vulnerable and high-risk populations, such as pregnant women, migrant farm workers, the homeless, the disabled, the frail elderly and others.

Alonzo-Howeth oversaw the renovation and addition of CCM’s two satellite clinics in Wailuku and Lahaina, relocation of the main clinic to its present site in the former Ooka Supermarket building in Wailuku, and the addition of a dental clinic, increasing the number of individuals served to over 11,100 in 2016.

She was the recipient of Maui Non-Profit Directors Association’s O‘o Award honoring Maui County’s Outstanding Non-Profit Executive Director in 2011, and served as board president for the Hawai‘i Primary Care Association and recently for AlohaCare.

Ott joined CCM in 1994 as chief financial officer, and assumed the additional responsibilities of deputy director in 2001. She was appointed by Governor Lingle to the Hawai‘i Health Systems Corporation Maui Regional Board from 2008 to 2015, where she chaired both the Audit and the IT Committees. She served twice on the Maui AIDS Foundation Board for a total of 12 years, eight years as Board President. Together with the chief financial officer of Wai‘anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, she negotiated a State Plan Amendment with the Hawai‘i Department of Human Services in relation to the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000.

The SPA sets forth procedures to implement rate adjustments related to change in scope and an alternative methodology for Prospective Payment System reimbursements to Federally-Qualified Health Centers and Rural Health Clinics.

In 2011 Ott received The Brenda Mathias Community Health Center Financial Leadership Legacy Award from the Hawai‘i Primary Care Association.