Before becoming president and CEO of Harbor Health Services— the agency that operates three health center facilities in Dorchester and Mattapan— Chuck Jones worked in community health at Thundermist Health Center in Woonsocket, R.I. Later this month he will return to his Ocean State roots hoping to lead his former health center out of a fiscal crisis. 

“Thundermist gave me my introduction to community health,” Jones said in an interview last week. “Before that, I was mainly in IT and consultant services, and before that, the military. I found that really nothing gave me a sense of purpose that I found in community health and my first work at Thundermist.”

Jones brought his expertise to Harbor Health in 2015 and has since led the Dorchester-based organization’s five centers and its Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) that has spread throughout Boston, the South Shore, and on Cape Cod. 

“We run the very first health center in the country at Geiger Gibson,” Jones said. “That was a real privilege and was one of the reasons I came to Harbor. At my previous and future organization, I would show videos of Jack Geiger in my CEO orientation. The opportunity to come and be part of that legacy was a big deal to me.”

He added: “Taking over an organization with such history and a well-known CEO like Dan Driscoll, it was both a privilege and a challenge to follow in his footsteps.”

Jones has made quite an impact during his tenure at Harbor Health. Some of his accomplishments include further developing the Plymouth Center, expanding the PACE program across Southeastern Massachusetts, and, recently, reopening medical services at Geiger Gibson, which had paused some in-person appointments during the pandemic. 

One of his biggest challenges came just two and a half years into his tenure when he led over 600 staff members through the long days of Covid infections.  

“In 2019-2020, Covid hit. I’m just exceptionally proud of how the organization responded,” Jones told The Reporter. “It was a really hard and trying time for our staff, but they responded and rose to a higher level than anybody could have rightfully asked from them.”

He is especially proud of the 30,000 vaccines distributed in Dorchester alone and the 24/7 elderly care offered in Mattapan. 

Jones has also stepped up during the Compass Medical and Steward Hospital crises to try to ensure that the health needs of all community members were being met. 

“We’re in the middle of those crises responding, not only trying to maintain but grow and focus on what the members of our community need,” he said.

Moving to helping out in trying circumstances seems to be a Chuck Jones thing, so when he heard about Thundermist’s financial challenges he knew he had to help. 

“I worked with the board and a great interim CEO to stabilize the organization,” he said. “It became clear to them shortly thereafter that to ensure that Thundermist could make it out of crisis, they were going to need someone who understands the Rhode Island healthcare environment and understands Thundermist and health centers, and they asked me to come back.”

He officially returned to Thundermist on Monday this week as interim CEO John O’Hara took over at Harbor Health. O’Hara has spent the past two years serving on Harbor Health’s board and the last year as the organization’s treasurer.

Jones said Harbor Health is in “good hands,” and is thankful O’Hara has “offered to step in.”

He noted: “I’ve done a lot of work while I was here in Massachusetts on behalf of health centers in general and I don’t feel like I’m really completely leaving a job and going to a different one; it’s more of finding a different, most important, relevant way to focus on the mission all community health centers share.”