Meet the Team

Dr. White is a nurse practitioner and diabetes care and education specialist. She received her Doctorate in Nursing Practice from Thomas Jefferson University in 2010.

In 2000, Dr. White joined Thomas Jefferson University Hospital’s Center for Urban Health (CUH). She has developed several community based chronic disease self-management education and support programs in underserved communities for Philadelphia.

Dr. White has worked on several National Institute of Health funded clinical trials that test the efficacy of diabetes education and behavioral activation to improve diabetes self-management in older African Americans. In collaboration with Drs. Rovner and Casten, she developed an extensive training program to prepare community health workers to deliver diabetes self-management education.

Dr. White is also the board president of Sugga Mamas Diabetes Prevention and Management.

Johnetta Frazier has functioned as a chef, nutritionist, and lifestyle counselor for more than 15+ years, working primarily with those having conditions such as type II diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.  She holds both B.A. and M.A. degrees and several post-graduate certifications. Additionally, she has served as an ambassador and worked on projects with the American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, and Fox Chase Cancer Center.

Cheryl White is a dedicated administrative assistant with 10 years of experience. She excels in organizing and streamlining office operations. In addition, she is a team player, committed to supporting the service and care that Frazier Family Coalition provides to underserved communities in Philadelphia.

My name is Nancy Porroa, I’m a Community Health Worker in the Philadelphia Collaborative for Health Equity. My passion has been to help the Community in many programs from guiding the uninsured to gain access to basic health care needs to educating the community about diabetes, hypertension, chronic disease, asthma and Tobacco. For 17 years in Peru, I worked as a Registered Nurse in the emergency department, oncology, surgery room, and community. In my free time, I like to travel to Peru and visit my mother, and spend time with my children and my grandchild. I am also a volunteer in an organization that helps people with cancer.

April currently coordinates and operationalizes the Personalized Stroke Prevention Program (PSPP) at Temple University Hospital’s Department of Family & Community Medicine, educating patients and families on stroke prevention and health justice. She is a dedicated nurse leader with extensive experience in patient care, healthcare administration, policy development, and cross-functional leadership. Energetic and compassionate, she has a proven track record of building high-performance teams and driving operational improvements that enhance patient outcomes and advance health equity.

Dr. Pitts directs the Farm-to-Families Program. He is Director of the Miriam Medical Clinics, Zion Baptist Church, Temple University (MZT) Collaborative, and the COVID-19 Vaccination Response Project in the Department of Urban Health and Population Sciences of the Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Temple University, where he is an Assistant Professor.

Dr. Robert H. Rosenwasser is among the country’s first dually trained Neurovascular neurosurgeons, meaning he is able to treat diseases of the brain’s circulatory system using both conventional microsurgical methods and minimally invasive interventional endovascular techniques. As a cerebrovascular neurosurgeon, he treats patients who have had strokes, aneurysms, AVMs, and carotid artery stenosis. He also serves as President/CEO of the Vickie and Jack Farber Institute for Neuroscience and is responsible for strategic directions in neuroscience.

He worked to establish the Jefferson Neuroscience Network (JNN)—a telemedicine system that affords Jefferson stroke physicians the ability to remotely assess and make treatment recommendations for people with suspected stroke throughout the region.

In 2014, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons awarded Dr. Rosenwasser the Cushing Award for Technical Excellence and Innovation in Neurosurgery, which recognized his career-long effort to include  all modalities and  techniques in neurosurgical training as it relates to treating all Vascular Diseases of the Brain and Spinal Cord.

He has authored/co-authored over 500 peer reviewed scientific publications and 6 textbooks on this topic.

Dr. Nina O’Connor began her career in academic family medicine before completing fellowship training in Hospice and Palliative Medicine. She joined the faculty at Penn in 2013 and later became Chief of Palliative Care for the University of Pennsylvania Health System, a role she held until 2021. She subsequently served as the Chief Medical Officer for Penn Medicine at Home which serves more than 5000 patients per day receiving various home-based services.

In 2022, Dr. O’Connor joined Temple University Health System as Chief Medical Officer for the Temple Center for Population Health. In this position, she was responsible for quality across Temple’s primary care network as well as diverse programming to address community partnerships and social determinants of health. She now serves as the Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine and the Director of the Primary Care Service Line for Temple Health. Dr. O’Connor’s academic interests include physician-patient communication, community health, and outpatient quality. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, and she is active in the education of medical students, residents, and fellows at Temple.

Mr. Carson is the Senior Vice President of Population Health for Temple University Health System, President and CEO of Temple Center of Population Health, LLC and serves as adjunct faculty for the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University

Mr. Carson has over 30 years of leadership experience in both academic and community based delivery systems, nursing leadership, inpatient and ambulatory quality improvement, clinical case management as well as value base care incentive programs.

A graduate of Gwynedd Mercy University with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, and a Master’s of Science from Saint Joseph’s University, Mr. Carson is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives, and the Pennsylvania Organization of Nurse Executives. He holds an appointment to the Pennsylvania Patient Centered Medical Home Committee, which serves to develop recommendations for the Pennsylvania Human Services, medical assistance program.

Recent regional collaborations have included the Temple Center for Population Health, LLC’s development of hub and spoke model for the management of opioid use disorder in Philadelphia through the Pennsylvania Coordinated Medication-Assisted Treatment grant program. The program was recently awarded an honorable mention Gage award from America’s Essential Hospitals.

Mr. Carson serves on the Board of the HealthShare Exchange and has recently been listed as one of the 2021 Modern Healthcare Top 25 Innovators.