Nora Dillon, Clarks Summit, has been promoted to the position of director of government relations for The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education. She has held various administrative roles with the Scranton-based nonprofit enterprise since March 2019, and most recently served as executive assistant and legislative liaison.

In her new post, Dillon will build and foster relationships with local, state and federal legislators, and administrators and other government stakeholders, while communicating The Wright Center’s key public health and health workforce priorities to meet community needs. She will work closely with The Wright Center’s senior vice president of enterprise integrity as well as the vice president of primary care and public health policy, who operates from Harrisburg to maintain contact with state government and policy-making networks.

Dillon received her Master of Arts in public administration with a concentration in nonprofit management from Marywood University in Scranton and a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York. She also has earned a certification in nonprofit management from Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.

Prior to joining The Wright Center, Dillon worked in multiple nonprofit and academic settings in Northeast Pennsylvania, honing skills including grant writing and administration as well as fundraising and donor relations.

Nora Dillon

She previously served as director of development for the Women’s Resource Center in Scranton. She also had been an assistant director at Keystone College in La Plume, working first in its Environmental Education Institute, then in similar capacities for its Corporate & Foundation Relations and Campus Engagement offices. While at Keystone College, she was active on various committees, including as vice chair of its Administrative Council, and acted for several years as the college’s sustainability outreach coordinator.

A 2011 graduate of Leadership Lackawanna, Dillon has experience in conference and event planning and program coordination. Her new role will involve the orchestration of various advocacy events and forums. She also will educate employees, resident physicians and fellows about the enterprise’s public health priorities, engaging them in advocacy-related activities to advance The Wright Center’s mission.

The Wright Center’s mission is to improve the health and welfare of the communities it serves through inclusive and responsive health services and the sustainable renewal of an inspired, competent workforce that is privileged to serve.

The Wright Center achieves its mission through two complementary organizations: The Wright Center for Community Health and The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education. The former organization operates a growing network of primary health care practices in Lackawanna, Luzerne and Wayne counties, offering high-quality, affordable care to individuals of all income levels, including the underinsured and uninsured. The latter organization annually trains more than 200 highly skilled and compassionate physicians in residency and fellowship programs, helping to address the nation’s shortage of primary care providers and related health care inequities.

A board-certified family medicine physician, with a deep interest in the integration of oral health into primary care, has joined The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education where she will train and educate the next generation of physicians and collaboratively provide primary care for adults and children of all ages as a preceptor alongside a high-quality empaneled care team of resident physicians.

Dr. Stephanie A. Gill

Dr. Stephanie A. Gill received her Doctor of Medicine from Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and completed her residency in family medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s St. Margaret Hospital in Aspinwall, Pennsylvania. Gill completed a fellowship in faculty development at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where she also earned a multidisciplinary Master of Public Health degree.

As the associate program director and a member of the physician faculty for The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education’s Regional Family Medicine Residency, Gill will provide administrative and clinical oversight of the educational program, provide patient care, precept family medicine residents, and teach and supervise resident physicians and medical students at clinical sites. She is accepting patients at the Kingston Practice, 2 Sharpe St.

Overall, more than 250 resident physicians are enrolled in The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education’s five residency and three fellowship programs.

For the past 10 years, Gill has served as a physician faculty member and as an assistant professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Penn State College of Medicine (PSCOM).

She continues to serve as an adjunct faculty member at PSCOM. She was also a physician at the Penn State Medical Group Camp Hill where she provided a full spectrum of family medicine care and was an attending physician at Penn State Health Hershey Medical Center where she provided inpatient services for family and community medicine.

Gill is a member of the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians, American Association of Family Physicians, The Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, Family Medicine Education Consortium, American Academy of Family Physicians Oral Health Member Interest Group and North American Primary Care Research Group. 

Her scholarly research interests include the integration of oral health and pediatric caries prevention into primary care. Gill is the chairperson of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Oral Health Collaborative, an advisory board member of Harvard University’s One Hundred Million Mouths Project and a steering committee member of Smiles for Life: A National Oral Health Curriculum.

Patients can schedule appointments at the most convenient location by using the express online scheduling service at TheWrightCenter.org. To learn more about The Wright Center’s mission and integrated health care services, call 570-230-0019 or visit TheWrightCenter.org.

Children as young as 5 years old can receive the updated coronavirus booster vaccines at several of The Wright Center for Community Health’s primary care practices, helping to defend themselves, their families and the broader population from sickness.

The updated boosters, also called bivalent vaccines, offer protection against the now-prevalent omicron variant that accounts for most new COVID-19 infections in this region and across the United States.

Federal health officials had previously authorized the use of the new shots in adults and teens, and on Oct. 12 expanded those eligible to also include elementary-age kids. Age restrictions vary by product.

The Pfizer-made pediatric booster has been approved for children 5 to 11 years old, while the Moderna pediatric booster is available for individuals ages 6 to 17. Both companies’ pediatric boosters are approved for use at least two months after a child has completed the initial two-shot series.

Updated boosters – the first redesigned coronavirus vaccines to be released in the U.S. since the initial rollout in late 2020 – are intended to help contain a possible surge of new cases this fall and winter. Vaccines have proven to be the most powerful tool against the highly contagious virus, with demonstrated effectiveness during the pandemic in reducing severe illness, hospitalization and death.

Dr. Jignesh Sheth

“These bivalent boosters pack a one-two punch against COVID-19, protecting against the initial virus as well as the variants responsible for the most suffering today,” said Dr. Jignesh Sheth, chief medical officer of The Wright Center for Community Health. “As the holiday season approaches, and more activities are conducted indoors, we hope to see more families taking the opportunity to safeguard their health, especially now that adults and most children are eligible to get the most up-to-date boosters.”

People can schedule appointments by visiting The Wright Center’s website at TheWrightCenter.org and using the express online scheduling service. Locations currently offering the updated pediatric boosters include the Kingston Practice, the Mid Valley Practice in Jermyn and the Scranton Practice. A patient may choose to receive the booster shot with or without a vital sign assessment and/or primary care office visit, for which out-of-pocket expenses might be billed by the patient’s health insurance provider.

The Wright Center for Community Health, headquartered in Scranton, is a Federally Qualified Health Center Look-Alike that operates eight primary care practices in Lackawanna, Luzerne and Wayne counties.

The Wright Center provides comprehensive primary and preventive health services – including medical, dental, behavioral health, addiction and recovery, and infectious disease services – that cover the lifespan from pediatrics to geriatrics. The Wright Center’s sliding-fee discount program ensures health care is affordable for everyone in need, regardless of a patient’s ability to pay. No patient is turned away due to an inability to pay.

A board-certified psychiatrist with more than 35 years of experience at clinical sites in Northeast Pennsylvania has joined The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education where she will train and educate the next generation of psychiatrists and provide behavioral health services to adult patients.

Dr. Jyoti R. Shah

A graduate of M.P. Shah Government Medical College in India, Dr. Jyoti R. Shah is an American Psychiatric Association Distinguished Life Fellow. She completed a psychiatry residency, including a rotation in neurology, at St. Vincent’s Hospital and Medical Center in New York. She will provide patient care, and education and administrative leadership as the medical director of The Wright Center for Community Health Behavioral Health Service Line. She will begin seeing patients ages 18 and above at the Scranton Practice, 501 S. Washington Ave., Scranton, on Nov. 1.

In addition, she will serve the nonprofit enterprise as a psychiatric physician faculty member and as the associate program director of the Psychiatry Residency. Shah will provide administrative and clinical oversight of the educational program, ensuring high-quality patient care, teaching and supervision of resident physicians. Overall, more than 250 resident physicians are enrolled in The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education’s five residency and three fellowship programs.

For the past two years, Shah has served as the medical director of Behavioral Health Services at Commonwealth Health First Hospital in Kingston after being the assistant medical director for nine years. She began her professional career in the local health care system at the VA Medical Center in Wilkes-Barre as a staff psychiatrist, before assuming the roles of acting chief and chief of the psychiatric service line for 20 years.

Shah is also active in her profession and community. She is a member of the American Psychiatric Association, and served as vice chairperson and chairperson of the National Alliance for Mentally Ill Keystone Pennsylvania chapter and president of the Pennsylvania Psychiatry Society. At King’s College in Wilkes-Barre and Penn State School of Health and Sciences in Williamsport, she held academic appointments in clinical medicine.

Patients can schedule appointments for behavioral health services by directly calling the primary care practice. To find a convenient location, go to The Wright Center’s website at TheWrightCenter.org. To learn more about The Wright Center’s mission and integrated health care services, call 570-230-0019.

As winter approaches, The Wright Center for Patient & Community Engagement aims to help underserved individuals and families in the community prepare for colder temperatures by offering free coats, warm clothes and personal care items.

Two distributions are scheduled for November in Lackawanna County. During these Community Closet events, patients and community members are invited to select items for children and adults from among an assortment of new and gently used coats, hats, boots, gloves and other outerwear.

Community Closet events are planned at these practice locations on the listed dates:

• The Wright Center for Community Health Mid Valley Practice
  5 S. Washington Ave., Jermyn
  Thursday, Nov. 3, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

• The Wright Center for Community Health Scranton Practice
  501 S. Washington Ave., Scranton
  Monday, Nov. 14, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Each attendee will be awarded 10 “points” to exchange for clothing and 5 “points” to exchange for hygiene items that will be marked with points, rather than prices. Quantities will be limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Organized by The Wright Center for Patient & Community Engagement, this year’s clothing distributions are made possible by generous donations from The Wright Center’s employees, board members and valued supporters such as Operation Warm.

The Wright Center for Patient & Community Engagement focuses on improving access to health care while addressing the negative social and economic determinants of health that can affect underserved patients, including food insecurity, limited educational opportunities, homelessness and poverty.

For more information about the Community Closet events, call Gerri McAndrew, director of community outreach and engagement, at 570-591-5273.