December 2020

by | Dec 23, 2020 | News

A Christmas Message from Susan Post, Executive Director

This Christmas we celebrate the birth of our Savior, and the many ways Esperanza Health Center has been blessed in 2020. Those blessings have come through you – our friends, staff, patients, and supporters—whose faithfulness inspire us onward in this work. Our challenges this year were great, but your caring and support have been greater. For this, we truly celebrate Christmas and the reminder of hope it brings.

HRSA Administrator Visits EHC

On Friday, December 18th Esperanza Health Center was honored to have a special guest visit from HRSA Administrator Thomas Engels, who joined EHC staff for a tour of our new K&A location.

Esperanza Welcomes Family Nurse Practitioner Katherine Yori-Biermaas

Katherine Yori-Biermaas, CRNP, joined the Esperanza staff in 2020 as a Family Nurse Practitioner. Born and raised in the Philadelphia suburbs, Katherine completed her education close to home receiving a BS in Kinesiology at Temple University, and an accelerated BSN at Drexel. She felt God’s leading over her life to serve in healthcare and loves to care for people’s well-being. A pastor of hers from over 10 years ago shared the mission of Esperanza with her, and as she prayed for where to work, Esperanza became a home. She strives to listen to her patients well and hear their thoughts and concerns, all while trying to implement quality and evidence-based care. Katherine enjoys running, cycling, and swimming and has very much enjoyed being on the Philly marathon pace team.

Volunteer News Feature

We are thankful for our many volunteers helping in various capacities at Esperanza Health Center! Today, we’d like to highlight two of our volunteers, with important news to share:

Russell Elliott, retired Licensed Clinical Social Worker, volunteered at Esperanza for almost seven years. Until COVID, he came faithfully two days a week to support Social Services, Human Resources and other more “back of the house” tasks. But his big claim to fame is the role he played in supporting the senior program, Young At Heart. He helped to get us off the ground in the start-up of the program and served regularly and with zeal. Sadly, Russell is not able to 
continue volunteering due to concerns related to potential COVID exposure. Best wishes always to a really great volunteer!

Kishan Patel, a Temple University Senior, has been serving as a front door COVID screener at our Fifth Street site for the past three months. He is not only a pre-med student but has studied Spanish and came to Esperanza for an internship where there would be ample opportunity to speak Spanish with patients. The big news is that Kishan has been accepted into Thomas Jefferson’s School of Medicine! Maybe he’ll return to Esperanza one day as Dr. Patel! Congratulations to another exceptional volunteer.

Give a Gift of Hope — Esperanza!

As 2020 comes to a close, please consider making a gift of hope—esperanza—that will have a real impact for our patients and our community in 2021! Your generous gift will provide high-quality, compassionate care for our uninsured patients, and will help us to address the COVID-19 pandemic through expanded testing, medical care, and  administration of vaccines later in 2021. We are grateful for your partnership with us!

Give the Gift of Esperanza!