2026 Primary Care Conference

Tess Stack Kuenning, CNS, MS, RN, has dedicated her 45-year career as a nurse, a trusted public health leader, and national health policy expert to serving and advocating for individuals and communities in need of quality, affordable, comprehensive primary care and preventive health services.   

Since 1995, Ms. Kuenning has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Bi-State Primary Care Association, a nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization that provides advocacy, education, and training and technical assistance to its 27 member organizations across New Hampshire and Vermont, which include Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). Bi-State was founded in 1986 by a small group of committed individuals with a shared goal of enhancing access to primary care services to residents of New Hampshire and Vermont. Bi-State’s journey began with just one FQHC in each state, collectively serving 10,000. Under Ms. Kuenning’s leadership, Bi-State’s workforce has grown from 6 employees to over 20 and its membership has grown to encompass 21 FQHCs, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, and several affiliated organizations, serving over 330,000 patients across both states. 

Bi-State’s goal is to ensure the people of New Hampshire and Vermont have access to high-quality, affordable, comprehensive, and team-based medical, dental, mental and behavioral health, including MAT/SUD, and pharmacy services. Ms. Kuenning works with federal and state policymakers, health policy organizations, foundations, and payers to develop strategies and programs that promote, sustain, and build community based primary health care services and infrastructure.  

Prior to joining Bi-State, Ms. Kuenning worked for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as the principal public health advisor throughout New England, and as a nurse consultant for the Health Care Finance Administration.  

Ms. Kuenning holds a master’s degree in Nursing and Public/Community Health and is a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Maternal and Child Health. Her practice experience includes tertiary care in hospital cardiac specialty and ICU and serving as a Clinical Nurse Specialist primary care provider and educator, designing Maternal Child Health Programs for clinics in Kathmandu and rural Nepal.  

In November 2021, Ms. Kuenning was honored with the Marc Wetherhorn Advocate of the Year Award by the ACU. The awar

Tom Ward is the Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Farmingdale State College-State University of New York. A native of Annapolis, Maryland, Dr. Ward received his education at Hampden-Sydney College (B.A., 1991), Clemson University (M.A., 1993), and the University of Southern Mississippi (Ph.D., 1999). Before coming to Farmingdale, Dr. Ward was the chair of history department at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama. He has held previous teaching positions at Rockhurst University (Kansas City, Mo.) and University College Cork, in Ireland. Dr. Ward has written numerous articles on African-American history, the history of health care in the American South, and prisoners-of-war. His work has appeared in various outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Army History, The Journal of African American History, the Journal of Mississippi History, and Louisiana History. He is the author of two books, Black Physicians in the Jim Crow South (University of Arkansas Press, 2003), and Out in the Rural: A Mississippi Health Center and its War on Poverty (Oxford University Press, 2017), which received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly and the 2018 Alpha Sigma Nu Book Award from the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. In 2018 he contributed a new foreword to the re-release of Robert Coles’ and Al Clayton’s classic work, Still Hungry in America (University of Georgia Press). Dr. Ward has received several awards for his work, including those from the Association of American Publishers, the Langum Charitable Trust, the Gulf South Historical Association, The Mississippi Historical Society, and the Virginia Military Institute. Dr. Ward is currently working on a book project on healthcare and the Civil Rights Movement, which is under contract with Columbia University Press. He and his wife Margaret have three sons, Patrick, Jack, and Teague. They live in Northport, NY.

Tess Stack Kuenning, CNS, MS, RN, has dedicated her 45-year career as a nurse, a trusted public health leader, and national health policy expert to serving and advocating for individuals and communities in need of quality, affordable, comprehensive primary care and preventive health services.   

Since 1995, Ms. Kuenning has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Bi-State Primary Care Association, a nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization that provides advocacy, education, and training and technical assistance to its 27 member organizations across New Hampshire and Vermont, which include Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). Bi-State was founded in 1986 by a small group of committed individuals with a shared goal of enhancing access to primary care services to residents of New Hampshire and Vermont. Bi-State’s journey began with just one FQHC in each state, collectively serving 10,000. Under Ms. Kuenning’s leadership, Bi-State’s workforce has grown from 6 employees to over 20 and its membership has grown to encompass 21 FQHCs, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, and several affiliated organizations, serving over 330,000 patients across both states. 

Bi-State’s goal is to ensure the people of New Hampshire and Vermont have access to high-quality, affordable, comprehensive, and team-based medical, dental, mental and behavioral health, including MAT/SUD, and pharmacy services. Ms. Kuenning works with federal and state policymakers, health policy organizations, foundations, and payers to develop strategies and programs that promote, sustain, and build community based primary health care services and infrastructure.  

Prior to joining Bi-State, Ms. Kuenning worked for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as the principal public health advisor throughout New England, and as a nurse consultant for the Health Care Finance Administration.  

Ms. Kuenning holds a master’s degree in Nursing and Public/Community Health and is a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Maternal and Child Health. Her practice experience includes tertiary care in hospital cardiac specialty and ICU and serving as a Clinical Nurse Specialist primary care provider and educator, designing Maternal Child Health Programs for clinics in Kathmandu and rural Nepal.  

In November 2021, Ms. Kuenning was honored with the Marc Wetherhorn Advocate of the Year Award by the ACU. The awar

Georgia Maheras is Bi-State’s Senior Vice President of Policy and Strategy and previously served as its Vermont Director of Public Policy. Before joining Bi-State, she was Vermont’s Deputy Director of Health Care Reform and the Vermont Health Care Innovation Project Director for Governors Shumlin and Scott. She also served as the inaugural Executive Director of the Green Mountain Care Board.

At Bi-State, Georgia leads teams responsible for training and technical assistance, grant implementation, marketing and communications, workforce recruitment and retention, data analytics, and public policy efforts in New Hampshire and Vermont. She also supports federal policy and technical assistance with a focus on regulatory activities.

Georgia has held leadership roles across the health care sector as an advocate, policy leader, and business owner. Before relocating to Vermont, she worked in Massachusetts as a consumer advocate focused on expanding health insurance coverage and improving health care quality. She served as counsel of record on an Amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court defending Vermont’s confidentiality law and represented consumers with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).

She is a graduate of Suffolk University Law School and holds a Master of Theological Studies from Boston University’s School of Theology.

David Reynolds has served as a senior health policy advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders, Governor Peter Shumlin, and Senator Patrick Leahy. He drafted and negotiated key provisions of the Affordable Care Act, focusing on primary care and workforce issues. David received his Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Public Health from the University of Michigan, specializing in health policy.

In 1976, David founded, and led for 30 years, Northern Counties Health Care in rural northeastern Vermont, the state's first FQHC network. During his tenure with Senator Sanders, he advised and assisted in the development of FQHCs throughout Vermont. He was a co-founder of the Bi-State Primary Care Association in 1986. Among numerous awards and national and international fellowships from the Pew and Kellogg Foundations, he is proudest of receiving NACHC's Cornell Scott Excellence in Leadership Award in 2010. In 2012, the New England College of Optometry awarded him an honorary doctorate.

Mr. White has been with Lamprey Health Care as its CEO since 2013, and joined the organization with many years of experience working in Federally Qualified Health Centers. For over three decades Mr. White has been committed to the mission of Community Health Centers, previously serving as Chief Financial Officer for the Lowell Community Health Center, in Lowell, MA and Manchester Community Health Center in Manchester, NH. 

Mr. White is a Certified Public Accountant and attended Babson College where he received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting. He has achieved the Certified Health Financial Professional designation from the Healthcare Financial Management Association and has been involved in numerous non-profit agencies in the Southern NH area.  

Mr. White is a member of and has previously been the Board Chair of Bi-State Primary Care Association and actively serves on the Boards of Directors for SHARE Outreach, the Kaley Foundation and Milford Historical Society. He has previously served as an adjunct instructor at the Peter T. Paul College School of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire and has been a volunteer EMT and staff officer with Milford Ambulance Service. He resides in Milford with his wife Michelle.  

Ms. Howe has over 20 years of experience in healthcare revenue cycle management, billing, coding, credentialing, and privileging, and documentation auditing with 10 of those years being in the FQHC Community. Ms. Howe's academic background includes a Bachelors in Business Administration (BA), Certified Professional Medical Auditor (CPMA) through the National Alliance of Medical Accreditation Services (NAMAS), a certified Community Health Coding and Billing Specialist (CH-CBS) by the ARCHPRO Coding and Consulting.  Ms. Howe has successfully obtained NCQA CVO Certification for multiple organizations, scoring near perfect and perfect scores on these. 

Christopher Koller served as president of the Milbank Memorial Fund from July 2014 to December 2025. Before joining the Fund, he served the State of Rhode Island as the country’s first health insurance commissioner, an appointment he held between 2005 and 2013. Under Mr. Koller’s leadership, the Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner was nationally recognized for its rate review process and its efforts to use insurance regulation to promote payment reform, primary care revitalization, and delivery system transformation. The office was also one of the lead agencies in implementing the Affordable Care Act in Rhode Island.

Prior to serving as health insurance commissioner, Mr. Koller was the CEO of Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island for nine years. In this role, he was the founding chair of the Association of Community Affiliated Plans. Mr. Koller has a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Dartmouth College and master’s degrees in social ethics and public/private management from Yale University. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. He has also served in numerous national and state health policy advisory capacities and was the recipient of the Primary Care Collaborative’s Starfield Award in 2019. Mr. Koller is a professor of the practice in the department of health services, policy and practice in the School of Public Health at Brown University.