The John F. Benjamin Exceptional
Service Award

Stephanie D. Willding, MPA (Steph) is the Chief Executive Officer of CommunityHealth, the nation’s largest volunteer-based free health center. Prior to joining CommunityHealth, Steph served in leadership roles at Erie Family Health Centers and Chicago Family Health Center. In 2022, Steph was named one of Crain’s Chicago’s Top 40 Under 40.

Steph’s leadership and unwavering dedication to advancing and advocating for lasting health solutions has made a huge impact on the health of Chicagoans.

Joining CommunityHealth shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Steph initiated extensive programming to support community members, programming that is now supporting migrants displaced in Chicago. From orchestrating temporary pharmacy deliveries and organizing food support, Steph goes beyond traditional health care to address patient’s needs.

Early in 2020, Steph lead the development of a pilot project that placed health care microsites in community centers, offering health screenings and support via telehealth with physicians, ensuring people’s health needs could be met wherever they are.

Steph embodies the belief that everyone, no matter who you are or where you live, deserves and is entitled to quality, equitable care. When she’s not championing healthcare justice, Steph can be found volunteering for animal rescue and youth running organizations, training for a marathon, container gardening with her husband at their home in Chicago, and caring for her two rescue dogs, Jezzy and Cooper.

Christine Haley, Chief Homelessness Officer for the State of Illinois, was honored in 2023 in recognition of her dedication to advancing health equity and fierce efforts in the homelessness sector.

Christine works with 16 state agencies to implement a strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness for Illinois residents. Christine chairs of the Illinois Interagency Task Force on Homelessness and co-chairs the Community Advisory Council on Homelessness.

Before joining the state, Christine was the Director of Housing for Cook County Health (CCH), one of the nation’s largest public safety-net health systems. Together with Housing Forward, she was the clinical administrator of a 19-bed medical respite center in Oak Park.

Before joining CCH, Christine worked as an administrator in the housing sector with the CSH, Housing Opportunities for Women and Heartland Alliance.  She previously served in health equity positions within the Massachusetts and Cleveland Departments of Public Health. She was the founding Executive Director of the Chicago Torture Justice Center.

Christine holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of Science in Social Administration from Case Western Reserve University. Christine lives in Chicago with her husband Peter and three children.

2022’s honoree was Dr. Ngozi Ezike, Immediate Past Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health and current President and CEO of Sinai Chicago. Dr. Ezike was honored for her unwavering courage and leadership to the state of Illinois throughout the first three years of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Dr. Ezike is the second woman and the first Black woman appointed to lead the nearly 150-year-old state agency. In this leadership role, Dr. Ezike guided the state and its 12.7 million residents through the worst pandemic in its history, while simultaneously working to promote health equity, particularly within communities of need.

Dr. Ezike is a board-certified internist and pediatrician, who worked at Cook County Health, serving for more than 15 years in various direct patient care and administrative roles, including medical directorships at the Austin Health Center and Juvenile Detention Center. She also delivered inpatient care at Stroger Hospital and primary and preventive care in community and school-based clinics.

She is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, and Diplomate of both the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Pediatrics. She is the recipient of honorary doctorates from Southern Illinois University, Rosalind Franklin University, and Knox College.

The inaugural John F. Benjamin Exceptional Service Award was given to Dr. Larry Goodman who, at the time, had recently retired as the CEO of the Rush System and as the CEO of Rush University Medical Center, positions he had held since 2002. Since that date, he also served as the President of Rush University. Dr. Goodman is currently serving as CEO of Rush once again.

Before his appointments as CEO, Goodman served as senior vice president of medical affairs and dean of Rush Medical College. From 1995 to 1998, he was the medical director of Cook County Hospital (now the John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County). Dr. Goodman is a 1976 graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School, and he completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in infectious disease at Rush University Medical Center. During his fellowship he served as chief medical resident before joining the faculty.

During his tenure the University has more than doubled in size with numerous programs attaining national recognition; RUMC has been recognized for nursing excellence with five consecutive Magnet designations; overall quality has been ranked #1 in the nation by Vizient; Rush has revitalized its facilities with the new butterfly-shaped bed tower and new out-patient facilities; the Rush System was formed; and Rush adopted a new approach to partnerships to better address health care inequities on the West Side which led to the formation of West Side United.

From 2002 to 2019, Goodman served on the Board of The CORE Foundation, a model public-private venture between Cook County and Rush University Medical Center that established The Ruth M. Rothstein CORE Center, which cares for approximately 7,000 patients with HIV/AIDS. He is currently a board member of the Civic Consulting Alliance, which provides pro bono consulting services to the City of Chicago and Cook County in areas of greatest public need.