Each year, members of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council nominate the outstanding caretakers and advocates in the field of homeless health care for the Council’s four awards plus a conference scholarship for someone who’s never been.
Each year it’s our enormous privilege to honor and celebrate the amazing people driving our movement. Read on to learn about our 2025 honorees, who were celebrated May 14 at an Awards Luncheon at the National Health Care for the Homeless Conference & Policy Symposium in Baltimore.
Philip W. Brickner National Leadership Award

Heidi Romans Nelson, CEO (Retired), Duffy Health Center (Cape Cod, Mass.)
Heidi Nelson recently retired from Duffy Health Center where she served as CEO since September 2010. Duffy Health Center provides health care to persons who are homeless and at risk for homelessness on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. For 18 years prior, Heidi was the Executive Director of Heartland Health Outreach, Inc., in Chicago.
She has chaired the National Health Care for the Homeless Council board of directors, the Alliance for Chicago Community Health Services and the Chicago Health Executives Forum, and supported the Council in many other capacities over the years.
Ms. Nelson received a master’s degree in health administration from the University of Michigan, and a bachelor’s degree in community health education from the University of Illinois. Ms. Nelson became a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives in 2008.
Ellen Dailey Consumer Advocate Award

Derek Winbush, Health & Homelessness Advocate, Consumer Representative (Boston, Mass.)
Derek Winbush is a passionate and dedicated advocate for individuals experiencing homelessness and navigating complex healthcare systems. Drawing from over two decades of leadership and lived experience, Derek has helped shape health policy and service delivery in Boston and beyond.
Since 2007, he has served on the Board of Directors at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP), where he is one of three consumer representatives. Derek is also the longest-serving member of both BHCHP’s Consumer Advisory Board and its HIV Subcommittee, where he leads the annual HIV Network Luncheon.
Beyond BHCHP, Derek serves on the board of the Boston Accountable Care Organization (BACO), providing vital insight into patient experiences and care quality. From 2012 to 2021, he represented the Northeast on the National Health Care for the Homeless Council’s Consumer Advisory Board, supporting organizations across the region in strengthening consumer engagement. Derek’s advocacy extends to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, where he serves on four subcommittees.
Derek completed the prestigious Leaders in Health program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Fall 2024.
A sought-after speaker and panelist, Derek has been invited to present at the Harvard Advanced Leadership Institute, the Camden Coalition Annual Conference, and multiple National Health Care for the Homeless Council events. He also appeared in a segment on CBS’s Changemakers and has been featured in several BHCHP media campaigns.
Karen Rotondo Award for Outstanding Service

Christianna Reinhardt, Care Coordinator, Circle the City (Phoenix, Ariz.)
As Care Coordinator at Circle the City in, Christianna has played an integral role in expanding services, ensuring access for more patients and providing high quality, culturally appropriate care. Christianna’s colleagues share that, “She is not only an exceptional nurse and leader but also a driving force behind numerous initiatives that have expanded access to care, improved health outcomes, and built meaningful connections with our patient population.”
William J. Mackey National Medical Respite Award

Jordan Wilhelms, Director, Recuperative Care, Recuperative Care Program, Central City Concern (Portland, Ore.)
Jordan Wilhelms serves as Central City Concern’s (CCC) Director of Recuperative Care. He has worked in a spectrum of non-profit health and social service settings over two decades in Seattle, San Francisco, and Portland. Jordan has been the leader of CCC’s Recuperative Care Program (RCP) since 2012, serving medical respite operations, offshoot services and sub-programs in an evolving leadership capacity. Prior to this, Jordan worked in respite care since 2010 and in direct service to vulnerable populations since 2002. Through his background in complex mental health, substance use, and social support services, he has led CCC’s medical respite program through several phases of development, from a small operation embedded within a housing facility to a now-standalone program that is a major intersection in the community’s continuum of care.
Jordan has worked across a multitude of systems to advance respite care locally, regionally, and nationally. He has collaborated with care plans and hospital systems, has helped community-based organizations, local and regional government, and has supported active and prospective medical respite operators in development around the country. Jordan is always eager to laugh with his colleagues despite the challenges of medical respite work.
When away from respite care work, Jordan hikes and camps with his family in both good and poor weather, might like to be a park ranger/archaeologist in another life, and eats a fair amount of trail mix in the city.
John N. Lozier Scholarship for New Members
Dr. Kaitlyn Ike, Whole Person Care Physician Lead, Ventura County Ambulatory Care Agency

Dr. Ike has been working with patients experiencing homelessness, addiction, and those who are uninsured, underinsured and undocumented since starting Family Medicine residency at Ventura County Medical Center in 2013. Recently, she transitioned to working more specifically with the unhoused population through the Center’s local street medicine program and Medicaid case management program. Her clinical time is divided between Backpack Medicine, mobile clinics at shelters, and traditional primary care through a county clinic. Dr. Ike is honored to be a part of expanding access for members of her community who face obstacles with the traditional brick-and-mortar healthcare structure.