I am a lifelong New Englander, born and raised in a multi-generational home in Rhode Island. As the oldest daughter of a bus driver/insurance salesman father and stay-at-home mom, I developed a deep sense of responsibility as I helped care for my four siblings and infirmed grandmother. I’m part of the generation that watched Walter Cronkite report on the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Rights Movement, NASA missions and the War on Poverty. A first-generation college graduate, the first to graduate with a master’s degree, I paid my own way through both public universities following my father’s example of working multiple jobs.
My professional life in public health began in the paper mills of Maine. But I found my passion to serve the underserved as a young administrator at Boston City Hospital. While there, I was privileged to work on the foundations of primary care and to develop multi-modal programs for the elderly and, as the epidemic escalated, for those with HIV/AIDS. I learned a lot about myself, the complexity of our health care and social service systems and the importance of government policy on funding to support those most in need. Although I couldn’t imagine doing anything else, I stepped aside from the climb of the traditional professional ladder as I suffered with infertility; I count my now-adult sons, born in my forties, as true blessings. And I’m thankful for still enjoying life’s adventures with their father, my husband.
I spent 12+ years serving as an independent consultant working with a myriad of health care, community-based and human service organizations before returning to my full-time professional career. Overwhelmingly, this work focused on supporting new service development and operational improvement for care for the underserved. I spent another 12 years as a member of the executive teams at Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), Central Maine Medical Center (CMMC), and Community Care Cooperative (C3), an accountable care organization for community health centers. In each role, I tackled the cultural and operational challenges of large system transformation while managing often dwindling resources. I learned to trust myself, the importance of a true collaborative team, and how to make difficult decisions and tradeoffs on programs, systems, and people. I am most proud of my work championing and implementing integrated primary care and behavioral health at CHA and the expansion of behavioral health and addiction treatment access at both CMMC and C3. As family and friends struggled with both mental health and addictions, I was able to see the critical value of destigmatizing the issues and bringing them into “usual” care.
I returned to being an independent consultant in 2021 as part of an intentional re-crafting of this phase of my life. I’ve had multiple and varied clients and assignments these past three+ years; my work at Commonwealth Care Alliance, a program serving complex elderly and disabled members and my continuing work at Yuvo, a venture capital-backed start up focused on supporting community health centers, have been especially rewarding. I have also supported Housing Family Inc as they’ve become a HRSN services provider for MassHealth and conducted a needs assessment with a robust team at Rhode Island Community Food bank. These latter two organizations have allowed me to support some critical but albeit non-traditional members of the health care continuum.
I like to think of myself as a textile artist, although those who truly are may not agree! Still, the skills I’ve developed in being able to envision the finished quilt and/or select just the right light and dark shading in my hooked rugs have been a joy and frankly, useful for other parts of my life as well. Stand back and get the big picture, set the goal, be willing to adjust the pattern as you move forward: great approaches to the textile arts and to most of life!
I’ve served on several volunteer Boards for non-profits; two were small, struggling organizations which relied heavily on-Board involvement and contributions. One was as the organizational representative to a membership organization. I appreciate that different organizations need different support from their Board. I’m looking forward to rolling up my sleeves, as needed, to contribute to a mission-driven organization serving society’s most vulnerable.
LinkedIn: Lynn Budlong