Meet Our Team
Leadership
Adam Rose
Managing Director
Adam is a seasoned healthcare professional serving as Obran Chief Operating Officer and leading Obran’s healthcare group. Adam has led strategy and operations in primary care, as Strategy Director for Neighborcare Health, the largest Federally Qualified Health Clinic in Seattle, and in tertiary care centers, as Product Manager and Planner for telehealth programs at Providence St. Joseph’s Health. As a healthcare professional he is passionate about the power of teams and the role of organizations to create not just services for customers, but economies that work for everyone and the environment.
As an accomplished leader of people, teams and organizations, he knows that service leadership, which prizes clarity, candor and respect, builds organizations that change the world.
Adam holds a BA in Environmental Sciences from Wesleyan University and an MBA from Yale School of Management.
Aliza Gazek
Chief of Staff, Obran Health
Aliza Gazek brings her commitment to health equity to Obran Health. She has worked across sectors to create people-centered healthcare experiences that improve outcomes for patients and providers, from introducing digital food pantry reservations across NYC to recommending culturally-relevant care offerings for health insurance companies and health systems.
Aliza lives in Oakland, CA, where she enjoys year-round camping, baking challah, and coaching family and friends through colonoscopy prep.
She holds a BA in Human Biology from Stanford University and an MBA and MPH from UC Berkeley.
Susie Marks
Operations Manager, Obran Cooperative
Susie Marks has been building health care operations for over twenty years. Her experience has spanned developing comprehensive care models within a small nonprofit, to building the credentialing and licensing department for a large national home healthcare company. Susie believes operations are where the broader ethics of an organization get translated into the nitty gritty details of worker and patient lives.
Susie’s passion is being a member of a land collective in rural Washington. She can usually be found with her three cats in tow, doing odd jobs around the land like building a geodesic dome, managing a composting toilet, or trying to keep their rickety cabin warm in the winter.
Susie holds a BA in International Studies from University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Clark Arrington
Legal Council
Clark R. Arrington is general counsel for The Working World, an organization that provides non-extractive financing to businesses that are collectively owned and run by their workers, and is an active member on Obran Cooperative’s M&A Committee. He is an experienced attorney and educator who has supported socially responsible businesses around the world. Prior to joining The Working World, Arrington taught and practiced business law in Tanzania and Tunisia; served as chair, general counsel and capital coordinator for Equal Exchange; and served on the boards of the ICA Group, the Social Venture Network and the Cooperative Fund of New England.
Joseph Cureton
Chief Coordinating Officer
Joseph Cureton is the Chief Coordinating Officer at the Obran Cooperative, (the first worker-owned conglomerate) where his work focuses on bringing new worker directed enterprises to life. He is a serial entrepreneur and founding member of Core Staffing, Bmore Black Techies, and Tribe Works all projects that fight to overcome the challenges faced by modern workers. He is also a software engineer (Drexel University) and classically trained chef (Johnson and Wales) by trade. Joseph is leading membership development and people engagement.
Advisory Committee
Adria Powell, MPA
As President and CEO of Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA), the largest employee owned cooperative business in the country, Adria is responsible for the oversight of more than 2,000 home care workers and over 100 administrative staff. CHCA is a 32-year-old Licensed Home Care Service Agency (LHCSA), firmly anchored in the Bronx. Adria joined the agency as a Coordinator in 1993 and has since fulfilled progressively higher levels of responsibility. She leads the organization with the belief that investing in the home care workforce will result in quality outcomes and higher consumer satisfaction.
Adria holds a BA in Psychology from Boston College and an MPA in Health Policy & Management from New York University.
Jeremy Berman, MD
Jeremy is an Emergency Medical Doctor by training and Medical Director for the Pacific Northwest region at Landmark Health. Landmark Health is a pioneering managed care and delivery organization that provides home based healthcare for seniors and medically fragile patients. Landmark’s model includes a fully integrated care team consisting of doctors, nurses, social workers, and therapists to provide comprehensive home-based care. As Medical Director, Jeremy is responsible for the development and deployment of this integrated care model.
Jeremy holds a BA in Psychology from University of Washington and an MD from The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Charlene Brown, MD, MPH
My identities as a public health professional and physician at the intersection of technology, education, workforce, and social entrepreneurship are intertwined in ways that may not be obvious, at first glance.
Long before I became a doctor, I was in love with public health. Now, I'm a bona fide public health doc with Board-certification in Preventive Medicine. I think of my "patients" as populations across countries, cities, communities, and, in the case of my startup, a workforce. I've loved working on local and global strategies, policies, and program efforts to expand disease diagnosis and linkages to care, improve the quality of care, keep the drug supply safe, and oversee the safety net of free public health clinical services while Deputy Commissioner at the Health Department in Baltimore City. Along the way, I became enamored with the power of technology to impact population health.
With the pandemic, I saw how barriers to clinical training for nursing assistants were blocking the pipeline of frontline workers who care for one of the most vulnerable populations: older adults. I founded CNA Simulations VR to unblock the pipeline of essential, frontline workers who impact health outcomes for older adults. Through CNA Simulations VR, Learn Care Together (my consulting company), and my first startup (Caregiver Jobs Now), I’ve been able to bridge my passion for social impact with my inherent curiosity as a physician committed to public health and population health.
Charlene holds a BSE in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University, an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health, and a MD from Harvard Medical School.
Jodi Sturgeon, MBA
Jodi M. Sturgeon is President of PHI, a nonprofit committed to improving quality care for older adults and people with disabilities by creating quality jobs for direct care workers. Under her leadership, PHI has worked with hundreds of employers and achieved state and national policy victories elevating compensation for millions of home care workers.
Jodi has worked in nonprofit management for 20 years. She previously held Vice President and Chief Operating and Financial Officer roles at PHI, introducing innovations that strengthened the organization’s infrastructure and programs. Prior to PHI, Jodi was Vice President of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, where she directed investment in housing, jobs, and services for low-income individuals and families. Jodi is currently the Board Treasurer of Cooperative Home Care Associates in the Bronx, the largest worker-owned company in the country. She serves on the Board of Directors for Independence Care System in New York and Home Care Associates of Philadelphia.
Jodi received a BS in Accounting from Franklin Pierce University. She received an Advanced Certificate in Governmental Finance Administration from Southern New Hampshire University and completed the Senior Leaders Program for Nonprofit Professionals at Columbia Business School.