New director is familiar face at CHI

Tuesday, November 1, 2022; Silver City, NM: After conducting a nation-wide search, the Center for Health Innovation (CHI) announced a familiar face would be returning to the nonprofit as the new director of prevention and community collaborations – Joseph Hill.

“I am excited to do this work and proud to return to CHI. The staff at the prevention and community collaboration department is plugged into their communities and deeply care for the people they serve,” Hill said about the department which currently administers prevention and community coalitions in five New Mexico counties: Doña Ana, Grant, Hidalgo, Luna, and Sierra.

“Prevention work is very dynamic in nature and grows best organically – I want to give space for these coalitions to express the personalities and strengths of the communities they serve,” Hill said.

A long-time resident of Lordsburg, Hill was previously part of the CHI team as the coordinator for the Hidalgo County Health Council. He also worked in New Mexico’s remote bootheel region as the coordinator for what is now the Substance Prevention Network of Hidalgo County (SPIN).

“It is wonderful to see the legacy and trajectory of CHI’s original intent continue onward. I was there when it became a nonprofit after it grew from a department at Hidalgo Medical Services,” Hill recalled of his prior association with CHI which is now one of two nationally-recognized public health institutes in the state – the other is the University of New Mexico’s Center for Native American Health (CNAH).

CHI Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Stacey Cox said of Hill’s return to the nonprofit, “I have been lucky to work with Joseph over the last several years; his thoughtfulness, understanding of complex public health issues, communities, and relational dynamics make him an asset to any community and any organization.  I am so glad he chose to work with CHI, we feel very lucky to have him.”

Hill moved to New Mexico a decade ago with a yearning to be more connected with the community he lived. Once a minister at a metropolitan megachurch, he longed to know the people he was serving.

“I came from a city the size of Las Cruces, and we thought we were in the middle of nowhere! I intentionally live in a frontier community where everyone knows each other.” Hill said, which he believes plays a major role in shaping his career. “Prevention is about managing relationships on a personal level – its true grassroots work.”

Most recently, Hill coordinated health policy efforts with New Mexico’s most remote counties – like Quay and Catron – as Director of Community Wellness for the National Center for Frontier Communities, a nonprofit that champions the most hard-to-reach regions of the nation.

Hill also served as president of the New Mexico Public Health Association and on the New Mexico Health Equity Partnership giving him a broader perspective on the state initiatives and policy-change efforts he plans to bring to the department.

“I took this new position because it gives the opportunity to build a model of excellence in prevention state-wide,” Hill said. “Our state has the raw materials and interconnectedness to achieve that goal. My aim is to see the troubling health statistics go down and save lives – that is my dream.”

For more information contact Hill at (575) 590-5265 or jhill@chi-phi.org or visit: chi-phi.org.