About CC Health Development
Community-centered public health infrastructure since 2012, rooted in Baltimore and reaching across the mid-Atlantic region.
Our Mission
CC Health Development (Community-Centered Health Development) exists to build the public health infrastructure that underserved communities need to achieve lasting health equity. We do this by training community members as certified Community Health Workers, conducting rigorous neighborhood health needs assessments, developing mobile and fixed-site clinic capacity, and generating the evidence base that informs equitable health policy at the local, state, and federal levels.
Founded in 2012 in Baltimore's East Side, CC Health Dev grew from a single Community Health Worker training cohort of 12 participants into a comprehensive public health capacity-building organization serving communities across Baltimore City, Baltimore County, and the greater mid-Atlantic region. Our work is grounded in the conviction that the most effective public health interventions are designed with and delivered by the communities they serve, not imposed upon them from outside institutions.
We are a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization (EIN: 52-3018472), a certified Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Community Health Worker Training Partner (#MD-CHW-0193), and a designated CDC Community Health Assessment Partner organization. Our programs are funded through a combination of federal grants (HRSA, CDC, EPA, SAMHSA), state appropriations (Maryland DHMH), foundation support (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation), and healthcare system partnerships.
Dr. Kwame Asante, DrPH
Founder & Executive Director
Doctor of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
MPH, Health Policy & Management, University of Michigan
BA, Sociology, Morgan State University
Dr. Kwame Asante, DrPH
Dr. Kwame Asante is the founder and executive director of CC Health Development. A Baltimore native raised in the Belair-Edison neighborhood, Dr. Asante's career in public health began as a community organizer with the Baltimore City Health Department, where he coordinated neighborhood-level health promotion campaigns and witnessed firsthand the gap between institutional public health resources and the communities most in need of them.
After earning his Master of Public Health in Health Policy and Management from the University of Michigan, Dr. Asante returned to Baltimore to serve as Deputy Director of Community Health Services at the Baltimore City Health Department, where he oversaw the city's Community Health Worker integration pilot and helped design Maryland's first statewide CHW certification framework. His doctoral research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health focused on the economic evaluation of CHW-delivered chronic disease management interventions in urban safety-net settings, establishing the cost-effectiveness evidence that now supports Medicaid reimbursement for CHW services in Maryland.
Dr. Asante currently holds an adjunct faculty appointment at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he teaches a graduate seminar on community-participatory health assessment methods. He serves on the National Advisory Council of the American Public Health Association's Community Health Worker Section and the Maryland Governor's Advisory Commission on Health Workforce Development. He has authored or co-authored 18 peer-reviewed publications in journals including Health Affairs, the American Journal of Public Health, and the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Research Advisory Board
Our programs are guided by a multidisciplinary advisory board of leading public health researchers, practitioners, and community representatives.
Dr. Tamika Williams, PhD, MPH
Board Chair
Associate Professor of Health Behavior & Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Specialist in community-based participatory research and health equity measurement.
Dr. Samuel Rodriguez, MD, MPH
Vice Chair
Chief Medical Officer, Total Health Care FQHC. Board-certified in family medicine with 20 years of clinical practice in medically underserved communities.
Dr. Angela Patterson, DrPH, RN
Member
Assistant Professor, Morgan State University School of Community Health and Policy. Expert in CHW workforce development and mobile clinic service delivery models.
Marcus Jackson, MBA
Member
Vice President of Population Health, MedStar Health. Leads value-based care transformation and social determinants integration across 10-hospital system in Maryland and D.C.
Rev. Dorothy Harris
Community Representative
Senior Pastor, Greater Faith Baptist Church, East Baltimore. 30-year community health advocate and founding member of the East Baltimore Health Coalition.
Lisa Chen, JD, MPH
Member
Health Policy Director, Maryland Citizens' Health Initiative. Specialist in Medicaid policy, healthcare workforce legislation, and health equity regulatory frameworks.
Our Story
2012 — Foundation
Dr. Kwame Asante incorporates CC Health Development as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and launches the first CHW Training Academy cohort with 12 participants, funded by a HRSA Community Health Worker training grant and housed in a donated classroom at the East Baltimore Community Center.
2013 — First Needs Assessment
CC Health Dev conducts its first Neighborhood Health Needs Assessment in East Baltimore, training 18 community data collectors and surveying 1,200 households. The resulting report identifies healthcare access, food insecurity, and chronic disease management as top community health priorities.
2015 — Maryland DHMH Partnership
The organization is designated as an official Maryland DHMH Community Health Worker Certification Partner, enabling direct certification of Academy graduates. CC Health Dev helps design the state's standardized CHW competency evaluation framework.
2017 — Mobile Clinic Launch
First mobile health unit deployed, serving Cherry Hill and Brooklyn neighborhoods. The unit provides primary care screenings, chronic disease monitoring, and immunizations in areas with no fixed-site primary care clinics.
2019 — Johns Hopkins Partnership
Formal research partnership established with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, launching a joint evaluation of CHW program outcomes and the development of the Health Equity Data Dashboard.
2021 — Health Affairs Publication
Landmark Health Affairs article on the economic evaluation of CHW programs generates national attention, contributing to policy discussions about sustainable Medicaid financing for CHW services in multiple states.
2024 — Present Day
CC Health Dev operates three mobile health units, has trained 847 certified CHWs, completed 36 neighborhood health needs assessments, and partners with 23 clinical sites across Maryland and the District of Columbia. The organization's annual budget has grown from $180,000 in 2012 to $4.2 million.