PBN 2025 DIVERSITY EQUITY & INCLUSION AWARDS
Health Care (MidSize Company): Rhode Island Free Clinic
Rhode Island Free Clinic, based in Providence, focuses on providing comprehensive free medical care to those who don’t have health insurance and trains future health care professionals.
CEO Jessica Eagles said the clinic also helps those who would not be able to navigate the health care system. Its donor base and patient population have become increasingly diverse.
“It’s really important for us to be reflective of the patients we serve, and be culturally sensitive to lifestyle, to diet, to language, to being all of the reasons that is extremely important to be culturally sensitive in general, but then also especially in health care,” Eagles said.
The clinic launched a strategic plan for 2024 to 2027, focused on financial sustainability, expanding its workforce development and increasing patient services.
The Rhode Island Free Clinic provides primary care, labs and diagnostics, prescription medication and specialty care such as physical therapy.
The team has restructured its workforce to bring in new roles and created advancement opportunities. It has also worked to broaden applicant pools and reduce bias throughout the hiring process. Employees have the option of structured trainings to keep up professional development, including effective communication and workplace conflict resolution workshops.
“We’re trying to be as inclusive as possible when we hire, understanding that everything that can be brought to our team makes us stronger, better, more knowledgeable and better able to serve the patients,” Eagles said.
The clinic has strengthened academic partnerships to allow medical, dental, nursing, pharmacy and public health students to regularly train at the clinic, growing the list of health care professionals who are trained in inclusive care. Eagles said the clinic leans on academic and community partnerships to make sure organizers are reaching everyone they should be during hiring or when recruiting volunteers.
“We’ve partnered with [University of Rhode Island] and the School of Business to come out and do workforce training on improved communication, navigating conflict, all of those kinds of things that help break down the barriers in any workplace but [also] improves our ability to communicate and function as a team,” Eagles said.
The clinic is dedicated to the belief that everyone deserves access to health care. The team is also focused on addressing systemic health disparities across the state. It has partnered with nonprofits and safety net organizations to collaborate on referral networks and shared trainings.
“You want to make sure that you’re making the best decision that is inclusive of everyone. And that tends to work out the best,” Eagles said, advising those who might want to have a role like hers.
“The risk of not doing those things is far greater than the time and the place that we’re in right now in this country,” she said. “[We’re] staying strong and steadfast in our mission to serve the underserved and to making sure that we’re inclusive, diverse and that all of those things just make us a better workforce and just better people, frankly.”
Gabe Grochowski, clinical operations manager, has been collaborating with the volunteer coordinator to ensure the clinic is doing outreach to get its name out there.
“We’re doing more work to ensure that getting access to care is more streamlined,” he said. “And we want to make sure that the patients in Rhode Island, anywhere in Rhode Island, know that they have a safe place that [they] can go regardless of status or whatever their case may be.”
He said there’s been an outpouring of gratitude from patients lately.
“What I want people to understand is that whatever opinions that you might think about somebody because they don’t have insurance or their status here as a resident, these are really great, hardworking, caring individuals,” Grochowski said. “[Diversity, equity and inclusion is] what makes us, as a nation, unique, really supporting each other and lifting each other up. And I think that with the Rhode Island Free Clinic, being able to offer this to folks that are struggling in whatever way, shape or form, I think that really makes us stand out.”
