Equitas Health board chair resigns
Longtime Equitas Health Board Chair Sam Rinehart has resigned from the executive committee, said interim CEO Robert Copeland, and will remain a member of the board until June 2022.
It's the latest resignation to occur in the aftermath of an Oct. 5 Columbus Dispatch report on claims of racial discrimination within Equitas Health, a health provider for the LGBTQ community.
Kaarina Ornelas, previously the board vice chair, has been named interim board chair.
Rinehart declined to comment to the Dispatch.
Former CEO Bill Hardy, as well as Daphne Kackloudis, chief public policy and administrative officer, and Carol Zimmer Clark, senior director of marketing, stepped down last month.
The board hired an interim chief people and culture officer and employed law firm Lawrence & Bundy to conduct an independent investigation of the alleged racist culture at the organization.
Equitas Health did not immediately share the duration of Rinehart's tenure, but IRS documents show he has been a board member since at least 2010, and board chair since 2016. Former Equitas Health Chief Marketing and Community Affairs Officer Joel Diaz said Rinehart also served as board chair in 2010, even though he is listed as a trustee on the 2011 IRS Form 990.
According to Equitas Health's bylaws, board members may serve no more than three consecutive threeyear terms, while board officers may serve no more than three consecutive one-year terms in a single office. However, the limitations can be waived by a majority vote, but they must be used sparingly to ensure “reasonable, periodic change in board leadership.”
Current and former employees have voiced concerns that Equitas Health's board members and officers have not changed regularly enough to maintain proper checks and balances on senior leadership – especially amid longstanding accusations of racial discrim
ination within the organization.
Prior to being elected vice chair, Ornelas served as secretary for multiple years, and as a trustee since at least 2010. A former trustee since at least 2014, Rich Machinksi recently became treasurer, succeeding Carol Bauer, who held the position for at least a decade until she died in 2021.
Some current and former employees called for the executive committee to step down following the Dispatch report.
Mimi Rivard, a nurse practitioner and the director of gender-affirming care, praised the selection of Robert Copeland as interim CEO, but said she was worried about the board’s executive committee.
“I don’t have confidence in their leadership,” said Rivard, 54, of Dublin, who stressed that she was speaking as an individual and not on behalf of Equitas. “And I think that it’s very unusual for an executive board to be sitting for more than two years in a nonprofit agency.”
Last month, current and former employees hosted a demonstration outside of the Columbus Museum of Art during Equitas Health’s Art for Life charity art auction. They set up a table encouraging guests to sign a petition featuring a list of demands, including the resignation of executive board committee members as well as others in senior leadership.
They also passed out over 300 ribbons for guests to wear to show solidarity with Black, Indigenous and workers of color.
Former Equitas Health Communications Manager Alyssa Chenault helped organize the event and expressed some concerns about the board overseeing the investigation into the alleged racial discrimination.
“We feel if you’re a longstanding board member, which those executive committee members are, you either were complicit or ignorant and not doing your job,” said Chenault, 33, of Grove City. “We would encourage leadership to work with active employees or striking employees, as well as Black and brown people within the organization, as a sounding board.”
Chenault also stressed that she believes in the organization’s mission.
“If Equitas goes away, there are very little other resources," she said. "We don’t want to see that happen, but we want to be an integral part in building it back better to a place where it should’ve been from the beginning.”
If you are a current Equitas Health employee, former Equitas Health employee or community member who wishes to be interviewed in Lawrence & Bundy’s investigation into issues of racial discrimination, you can email Ehinvestigation@lawrencebundy.com or call (614) 472-4655 to schedule a time. ethompson@dispatch.com @miss_ethompson