The Community Health Training Institute (the Training Institute) provides targeted skills development to individuals and teams working to build healthy communities in Massachusetts. We customize our in-person trainings and webinars around core competencies that include: Coalition Building; Leadership; Policy and Systems Change; Communications; Health Equity; Youth Development; Strategic Planning and Evaluation.

Our overarching goal is to increase the capacity and skills of community health leaders and stakeholders to build and sustain coalitions and partnerships that support healthy communities and actively address systemic racism to improve health outcomes across the Commonwealth.

The Training Institute is a new partnership between the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) and Health Resources in Action (HRiA), funded by MDPH.

Staff

Training Institute staff members are experts in creating, planning, and evaluating high-impact training experiences. Because we are seasoned community health professionals, we understand your unique training needs from firsthand experience.

Daisy Ortega, Managing Director 

Daisy Ortega, M.Ed, serves as the Project Director at the Community Health Training Institute. In this role, she ensures the development and delivery of an innovative, high-quality set of training services. She develops and monitors the work and budget; manages the team; and provides overall project direction and vision.

Gina Rodriguez, Senior Project Manager

Gina Rodriguez serves as the Project Manager for the Community Health Training Institute. Gina identifies and manages trainers; provides guidance on training curricula; builds and manages online courses; leads participant recruitment efforts; leads all marketing and communication activities; and manages the analysis of evaluation data to support ongoing quality monitoring and improvement.

Kelly Danckert, Training Associate

Kelly Danckert serves as the Training Associate for the Community Health Training Institute and the Opioid Overdose Prevention Training Project. In this role, Kelly takes the lead on engaging community coalitions, working with trainers to develop and edit written materials, creating content for the website and social media channels, and assisting with training development. 

Tonayo Crow, Administrative Coordinator

Tonayo Crow serves as the Administrative Assistant for the Community Health Training Institute. In this role, Tonayo oversees events coordination; marketing and communications; training/webinar logistics; and provides overall administrative support to the project and team.