2026 Schedule
May 7, 2026 | 2:00 - 6:30 P.M.
El Rio Health Poster Fair
This year’s Poster Fair will feature 46 poster presentations showcasing research, quality improvement initiatives, and innovative care models emerging from community health centers and regional partners across Southern Arizona. Presenters will share real-world projects aimed at improving care delivery and health outcomes, with outstanding work recognized through the Summit’s Poster Awards Competition.
Detailed Schedule TBA!
May 8, 2026 | 9:15 A.M. - 3:15 P.M.
Continuing Education Sessions
The Southern Arizona AHEC at El Rio Health designates this live activity for a maximum of 5.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
8:30 A.M.
CHECK-IN + NETWORKING BREAKFAST
9:15 - 10:15 A.M.
KEYNOTE
From Movement to Mission: What the Founders of Community Health Centers Can Teach Us Now
Jennifer “Ginger” Ryan, MBA, PhD – Founder & CEO Emeritus,
Chiricahua Community Health Centers, Inc.
Jonathan Melk, MD – CEO, Chiricahua Community Health Centers, Inc.
Session Details
Dr. Jennifer “Ginger” Ryan, PhD, and Dr. Jonathan Melk, MD will open the Summit by tracing the civil-rights roots of the community health center movement and examining how its founding commitments to equity, community partnership, and shared leadership continue to shape the work of primary care today.
As the original founder and longtime CEO of Chiricahua Community Health Centers, Dr. Ryan brings firsthand experience building and sustaining a mission-driven organization grounded in access and justice. Dr. Melk, Chiricahua’s current CEO, carries that vision forward in today’s complex healthcare landscape.
Together, they will reflect on how reconnecting with these foundational commitments can help care teams and health system leaders interpret current moral distress and workforce strain not as personal shortcomings, but as predictable consequences of structural pressures. In doing so, they will invite participants to draw strength from the movement’s enduring moral purpose as they navigate the demands of contemporary practice.
Learning Objectives:
- Describe how the civil-rights origins of Community Health Centers shaped their mission, governance, and community accountability.
- Explain how contemporary workforce and system pressures reflect historical structural constraints faced by CHC founders.
- Articulate at least one way their professional role contributes to stewarding the CHC mission forward in today’s environment.
10:30 - 11:30 A.M.
SESSION 1
Understanding the Landscape: Recognizing, Naming, & Measuring Distress
Mark Schildt, MD – Chief Wellness Officer, El Rio Health
Session Details
Workforce distress in healthcare is increasingly discussed, but often inconsistently defined or measured. In this session, Dr. Mark Schildt will examine how burnout, moral distress, and related forms of strain manifest across clinical, operational, and leadership roles in primary care settings. Participants will explore common system-level contributors to distress, review approaches used to measure workforce well-being, and consider how data can be used responsibly to inform improvement efforts.
By establishing a shared vocabulary and framework, this session lays the groundwork for understanding how teams and organizations can respond effectively and sustainably.
Learning Objectives:
- Differentiate between burnout, moral distress, and related forms of workforce strain in clinical environments.
- Describe how distress manifests differently across frontline, team, and leadership roles, and identify key system-level contributors.
- Explain how workforce distress is measured and discuss appropriate and responsible uses of well-being metrics.
- Apply shared terminology to facilitate constructive, stigma-reducing conversations about workforce well-being within their own teams.
11:30 - 11:55 A.M.
GUIDED INTEGRATION
Integrating Mind–Body Tools for Clinician and Team Well-Being
Presented by El Rio Health – Health Builders Team
Session Details
Positioned as a transition between the morning and afternoon program, this guided integrative session introduces simple, accessible mind–body tools that support regulation and focus in high-stress care environments.
Drawing on the Capacitar model and brief examples from El Rio clinicians who use these practices in their work, participants will experience practical techniques that can be applied individually and within teams to support sustainable patient care.
Learning Objectives:
Demonstrate at least one brief mind–body regulation technique appropriate for use in clinical settings.
Describe how simple regulation practices can support individual and team functioning during periods of strain.
Identify one opportunity to integrate a grounding practice into their daily workflow or team routine.
11:55 A.M. - 12:30 P.M.
LUNCH BREAK
12:30 - 1:45 P.M.
SESSION 2
Teams Under Distress: Real-Time Decision-Making, Coordination, and Recovery in High-Acuity Settings
Vanessa Seaney, MSW, LCSW, CPHQ – VP of Behavioral Health Integrated Services, El Rio Health
Christina Arredondo, MD, MPH – Behavioral Health Medical Director, El Rio Health
Brittany Pace, MD – Psychiatry Residency Program Director, El Rio Health; Medical Director of Hospital-Based Psychiatry, Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry – University of Arizona
Joshua Sonkiss, MD – Psychiatrist, Tucson Medical Center, El Rio Psychiatry Residency Core Faculty, El Rio Health
Shannon Dinning, MA, LPC –Director of Integrated Behavioral Health Programs, El Rio Health
Session Details
High-acuity clinical environments place significant demands on interdisciplinary teams. In these moments, distress can surface quickly and affect decision-making, communication, and coordination of care.
This panel brings together clinical and behavioral health leaders to examine how teams function under pressure, how role clarity and leadership behaviors influence outcomes, and what practical strategies support recovery after acute events. Through real-world examples, participants will gain insight into how team-based approaches can mitigate strain and promote resilience in complex care settings.
Learning Objectives:
Describe common sources of team-based distress in high-acuity and behavioral health–integrated settings.
Analyze how communication patterns and role clarity influence team effectiveness under pressure.
Identify strategies used by interdisciplinary teams to coordinate care and recover after acute clinical events.
Recognize early warning signs of team strain and propose at least one intervention to strengthen coordination in their own setting.
2:00 - 3:00 P.M.
SESSION 3
Restoring Purpose & Meaning: Renewal, Advocacy, and Compassion Satisfaction
Philip Williams, MD – Associate Medical Director, Mariposa Community Health Center
Eladio Pereira, MD – Chief Medical Officer, Mariposa Community Health Center
Session Details
This session shifts the focus from response to renewal, exploring how healthcare professionals can reconnect with the core drivers of meaning in primary care—purpose, advocacy, and compassion satisfaction. Speakers will examine how compassion satisfaction relates to burnout and moral distress and discuss practical strategies that sustain meaning while serving patients and communities facing ongoing clinical and operational challenges.
Drawing on examples from community health settings, participants will explore organizational practices that promote renewal and identify actionable approaches that can be adapted within their own teams and systems to support resilience and long-term workforce sustainability.
Learning Objectives:
Explain the concept of compassion satisfaction and its relationship to moral distress and burnout.
Identify organizational practices that support renewal, advocacy, and meaning in primary care settings.
Discuss how collective voice and advocacy contribute to restoring meaning and professional sustainability within constrained systems.
Select at least one renewal or advocacy practice adaptable to their own CHC or primary care environment.
3:00 - 3:15 P.M.
CLOSING REMARKS
Felipe Perez, MD – DIO for El Rio Health Residency Programs; Director of Medical and Health Professions Education, El Rio Health
Session Details
The summit concludes with reflections on the day’s themes and key takeaways, reinforcing the connection between recognizing distress, responding together, and restoring purpose in healthcare work. Participants are invited to carry forward insights and practices that support both individual well-being and collective action
3:15 - 4:00 P.M.
NETWORKING ON THE PATIO
Featured Speakers
More details coming Soon!
Presenting PARTNERS
