Saint Agnes Hospital Foundation recently welcomed five new members to its board of directors. They will be joining sixteen other board members and will each serve a three-year term, providing strategic oversight and governance to the foundation and supporting its mission to raise funds to support Saint Agnes Healthcare, a member of Ascension, the nation’s largest Catholic and not-for-profit health system.
The new board members – Nicolas T. Abrams, Katie Counselman Caple, Dr. Eugene de Lara, Syeetah Hampton-El and Rosa Scharf – bring extensive financial, community outreach, risk management, legal and healthcare expertise to the board.
Nicolas T. Abrams, CFP, founder and CEO of AJW Financial Partners, LLC, has more than 15 years of experience in the financial services industry. Abrams is the former host of Radio One’s WOLB The 1st Friday Show, which focused on economic empowerment and wealth creation. Experienced in community outreach, Abrams co-founded the He Matters Conference, a program promoting life skills for young men ages 7-17, in 2010. He has previously served as chairperson of the St. Mary’s College of Maryland Baltimore City Scholarship Initiative, and is a past member of the board of directors of the Financial Planning Association of Maryland, the Baltimore chapter of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, and the Baltimore City Chamber of Commerce.
Katie Counselman Caple, CPCU, ARM, AAI, is the corporate vice president of education and outreach for RCM&D, an insurance and risk management firm. She has more than 15 years of experience working in risk management and professional development. A leader in community outreach, Caple manages RCM&D’s Corporate Outreach Program, organizing volunteer events and opportunities throughout the year. She has also held various board positions for the CPCU Society, Mid-Atlantic Chesapeake Region, the Maryland CPCU Society Chapter, the Greater Chesapeake Charitable Foundation and the RCM&D Foundation.
Eugene de Lara, PharmD, MBA, is a retired U.S. Navy Captain and the current Chief of Pharmacy Services for the Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System (VAMHCS). Dr. de Lara has more than 25 years of experience in pharmacy and the health industry, having led a variety of clinical and administrative operations throughout his career. He has won numerous awards and decorations, including the Bronze Star Medal. He is active in various civic and professional associations, including the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists (ASHP), the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) and was a past president of the National Capitol Area (NCA) Medical Service Corps Association.
Syeetah Hampton-El, Esq., is the family advocacy attorney for the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative (GHHI). She previously served as assistant state’s attorney for Baltimore City and has had an extensive legal career prosecuting domestic violence cases, preparing criminal jury trial cases and handling district court cases. Hampton-El is active in many legal and civic organizations including the Maryland State Bar Association, for which she serves on the ethics committee; the St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center Board of Directors, for which she is a board member; and the Monumental City Bar Association, for which she is a past president.
Rosa Scharf is vice president and small business administration specialist for M&T Bank’s Maryland region where she provides SBA loan solutions to small businesses across a variety of industries. She has more than 30 years of experience in financial sales, commercial lending and management experience. Scharf has had a rich banking career at a variety of different banks including Howard Bank, Citizens National Bank, Commercial and Farmers Bank, First National Bank of Maryland and more. She won the Maryland Banker’s Association Individual Achievement Honor in 2015 and was named one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women in 2008 – 2011.
The new board members will continue to support the success of Saint Agnes Hospital Foundation through strategic fundraisers and notable events such as “The Supper,” a live-action cooking competition between award-winning chefs.
About Saint Agnes Foundation
The Saint Agnes Foundation is a nonprofit corporation that raises millions of dollars annually in support of Saint Agnes HealthCare. Its focus is on the strategic expansion of the six centers of excellence, new health programs, campus expansion, supplemental education for healthcare professionals, and leading-edge medical equipment and technology.
About Saint Agnes Healthcare
For more than 150 years, Saint Agnes Healthcare has been dedicated to the art of healing by providing exceptional care to the greater Baltimore area, with a special focus on the poor and vulnerable. Saint Agnes Healthcare offers a full range of services on the hospital campus as well as locations and offerings throughout the community. Saint Agnes encompasses Saint Agnes Hospital, a full-service teaching hospital and the first Catholic hospital in Baltimore founded by the Daughters of Charity in 1862; Saint Agnes Medical Group, an extensive network of primary care, pediatric and OB/GYN physicians and specialists in locations throughout Baltimore and Howard County; Seton Imaging Center, offering the most advanced and safe imaging techniques provided by a team of board-certified radiologists; Gibbons Commons, a 32-acre mixed-use community being developed to improve the overall well-being of the community by providing innovative housing solutions, recreational facilities, healthy food options, urban green space, and medical office and administrative space to southwest Baltimore; and Saint Agnes Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising money to strategically expand Saint Agnes, support supplemental education for its healthcare professionals, fund cutting-edge medical equipment and provide patient support. Saint Agnes Healthcare is a part of Ascension, the nation’s largest Catholic and not-for-profit health system.
About Ascension
Ascension (www.ascension.org) is a faith-based healthcare organization dedicated to transformation through innovation across the continuum of care. As the largest non-profit health system in the U.S. and the world’s largest Catholic health system, Ascension is committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all, with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable. In FY2015, Ascension provided nearly $2 billion in care of persons living in poverty and other community benefit programs. Approximately 160,000 associates and 36,000 aligned providers serve in 2,500 sites of care – including 142 hospitals and more than 30 senior living facilities – in 24 states and the District of Columbia. In addition to healthcare delivery, Ascension subsidiaries provide a variety of services and solutions including physician practice management, venture capital investing, investment management, biomedical engineering, clinical care management, information services, risk management, and contracting through Ascension’s own group purchasing organization.
