Savolia Ellis Spottswood is a native of West Virginia. Married with four children, she attributes the values that she lives by to her family’s legacy of lifelong service, educational attainment, and faith. A temporary detour from medical school to public health led her to her true passion. Savolia believes that integrated, culturally appropriate approaches are critical for significantly improving the health status of underserved populations. Professionally rewarding experiences related to drug abuse prevention, immunization, minority health, health insurance, and AmeriCorps have all shaped her perspective. The importance of data-driven decision-making is what led Savolia to her current work.

Savolia is currently the Director of Program Development and Evaluation for the Community HealthCorps, a national AmeriCorps program of the National Association of Community Health Centers. She provides leadership for program development and expansion initiatives, including program design and strategic partnerships; serves a leadership role for VISTA programs in New York State and California; and leads performance measurement and program evaluation efforts.

She received a Master’s of Science degree in Community Health Promotion from the West Virginia University, School of Medicine. Savolia has spent the last 15 years of her career addressing the health needs of disenfranchised people. For three of those years she ran a successful consulting business that assisted non-profit organizations with strategic planning, program development, and collaboration for community health initiatives.

About NACHC

Founded in 1995 by the National Association of Community Health Centers, Community HealthCorps is the largest health-focused, national AmeriCorps program that promotes health care for America’s underserved, while developing tomorrow’s health care workforce. The mission is to improve health care access and enhance workforce development through community health center sponsored AmeriCorps including VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), and related programs. Each year, more than 650 Community HealthCorps members serve through 35 partner organizations and 4 affiliate organizations at more than 150 delivery sites across 20 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Focused on direct services, these members provide a variety of health services/programs for patients and community by serving as community health workers. Community HealthCorps*VISTAs are other AmeriCorps members that focus on indirect services, and work to alleviate poverty by improving the capacity of health centers to provide quality health services and programs to medically underserved people in New York and California.