Trish Collett Named 2026 Outstanding Advocacy Leader

Community Care of West Virginia CEO Trish Collett has been named a 2026 Outstanding Advocacy Leader by the West Virginia Primary Care Association (WVPCA). The award was presented by WVPCA CEO Sherri Ferrell this week during the association’s annual Leadership Forum at Stonewall Resort.

Her nominator shared, "It is an honor to nominate Trish Collett for recognition for her outstanding advocacy on behalf of West Virginia’s Community Health Centers.

I have had the opportunity to see firsthand how much of herself Trish gives to this work. While she is a fierce advocate for Community Care of West Virginia, she never looks at an issue from the perspective of just one organization. She is always thinking about all of West Virginia’s health centers and the patients and communities that depend on them.

When a new policy manual or guidance document is released, Trish reads it—front to back. She asks staff for their input, listens to the people doing the work every day, identifies where policies may create challenges, and then works tirelessly to make sure those concerns are heard and necessary changes are considered.

Her dedication to the 340B program is a perfect example. Trish has made it her mission to understand every detail of this incredibly complex program. I know there have been many nights when she has stayed up late reading and others when she has gotten up at 3:00 a.m. to continue. She does it because she wants to be fully informed when she sits down with policymakers and speaks on behalf of health centers and the patients they serve.

Trish has traveled to Washington, D.C., many times to advocate for Community Health Centers and has been deeply involved in state policy issues as well, including the policies being developed around Senate Bill 231 and addiction medicine services. Before she speaks on an issue, she seeks out the people closest to the work and asks what they are seeing, what their patients need, and what needs to change.

That is what makes Trish such an effective advocate. She listens, she learns, she does her homework, and then she shows up and fights for what is right.

Much of advocacy happens when no one is watching—the late nights reading, the early mornings preparing, the phone calls, the meetings, the trips to Charleston and Washington, and the persistence it takes to keep pushing for change. I have watched Trish do all of those things throughout 2026.

Her commitment has strengthened not only Community Care of West Virginia, but the entire Community Health Center movement in our state. Trish has truly been a leader and a voice for West Virginia’s health centers in 2026, and I can think of no one more deserving of recognition for advocacy.”