America’s healthcare system is complex, fragmented, and in the view of Dr. Karen Hoffman Tepper, broken. Yet Tepper is optimistic, believing the organization she helms is uniquely positioned to effect monumental change.
Tepper is president and CEO of Terros Health, which provides primary care and specializes in mental health and substance use treatment. She took the reins of the 55-year organization in 2022
after serving more than seven years as chief operations officer. That experience and her unusual background of collaborating with state and federal agencies to support adolescents, working in the criminal justice system and leading a fiscal agent supporting Medicaid recipients has prepared her for the job. So do her exceptional leadership skills, deep knowledge and unbridled passion for moving the organization and an entire industry forward.
Suffice it to say, Tepper hasn’t wasted any time.
Thanks to her, Terros Health will soon have eight Federally Qualified Health Centers, giving individuals across Maricopa County access to health care regardless of their ability to pay. Under her direction, Terros Health has also led several first-in-the-nation collaborations, ensuring Boys & Girls Clubs members, those on probation and experiencing homelessness have access to quality health care.
The organization’s latest endeavor: a $2 million, three-year Outpatient Portable Pilot Program that sends Terros Health’s team deep into the community to provide comprehensive health care for racial and ethnic medically underserved individuals experiencing homelessness. Terros Health was one of three organizations nationwide awarded a minority AIDS/HIV grant focused on homelessness and HIV prevention by the U.S. Department of Health Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Tepper’s inspiration for this work comes from her 20-year-old daughter, who grapples with physical and behavioral health challenges. Seeing her daughter struggle puts her work into greater context. “We have a responsibility – I have a responsibility – to make sure the system doesn’t leave anyone behind,” she said.
The secret ingredient, she said, is people. Tepper knows that delivering quality, compassionate patient care starts by taking care of her staff and creating a culture of connection and belonging. As such, she has made building her team a top priority and making changes big and small – from relaxing the organization’s dress code to streamlining processes and investing in new leaders.
Because their jobs are “hard, hard, hard,” she has also continuously added benefits – all based on staff recommendations – to make her employees’ lives easier. Among them is an Empowerment Award to help employees in financial distress cover up to $2,000 for unexpected expenses, new certifications to enhance team members’ skills, interest-free loans to cover medical or vet bills and financial planning services. The results: hiring is up, and turnover is down. Terros Health is lauded as a top employer with an exceptional culture. And 89% of the organization’s employees say they feel appreciated.
Externally, Tepper’s leadership is also paying dividends during a time of sweeping change. She hired the organization’s first primary care chief medical officer, who is delivering meaningful integration for patients with physical and behavioral health conditions. She and her team established new processes to accommodate reimbursement changes by nearly three-quarters of its payors. And she is broadening Terros Health’s reach, embedding wellness coaches into Boys & Girls Clubs to prevent and treat behavioral health issues in thousands of youth, opening an outpatient clinic at the Mesa Courthouse, launching a domestic violence offender treatment program in Tucson and expanding Terros Health services in Kingman.
That’s a lot by any standard, but Tepper’s penchant for serving doesn’t end at Terros Health. Realizing people and organizations working together can have a bigger impact than going it alone, she collaborates with others to strengthen the healthcare system. She joined the board of Arizona Alliance for Community Health Centers in 2022 and was quickly elevated to the executive committee, where she is helping to guide the organization, improve understanding of what health centers need and lead cross-organization dialogue. She has worked with other stakeholders to address current and future workforce issues and the challenges of the state’s diverse communities as part of ASU’s College of Health Solutions Community Advisory Council and the Arizona Healthy Workforce Coalition, where she led the Workplace Culture Committee.
Closer to home, Tepper is making a profound impact as a health and human services commissioner for the City of Chandler, asking tough questions on public and other housing (which she believes is the great equalizer) and awarding millions of dollars in Federal Community Development Block Grants to the city’s nonprofit organizations each year.
Of all the hats she wears in the community, Tepper’s most meaningful role is as a proud mom. Like Tepper, her two young adult daughters are giving back to the community by volunteering to prepare and serve food to individuals with visual impairment at the Arizona Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, working with the City of Chandler Neighborhood Resources Department to create community events and, in the case of her eldest daughter, serving as a community advisory member for the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center. “Watching them learn to be leaders in the community will be my most important legacy,” she said.