NEWPORT – Healthcare access nonprofit Primary Care for All Americans has recognized Cassie Voll with a 2026 Community Hero Award for her efforts to save Newport Hospital’s Noreen Stonor Drexel Birthing Center.
Voll is the co-founder of Moms Over Margin, a community group dedicated to securing the unit’s future. In summer 2025, Newport Hospital owner and operator Brown University Health said that it would consider closing the birthing center – the only facility of its kind on Aquidneck Island – amid the health system’s broader financial concerns.
Through her group, which she co-founded with Brooke Cure, Voll led efforts to organize parents, clinicians and community members. Cure’s work also led to marches, rallies, a petition that gained more than 3,200 signatures and Town Council resolutions aimed at preserving the birthing center.
In April, Brown Health announced that the birthing center will remain open after a community advisory panel reported that the hospital provides high-quality, workforce sustainability and operational stability.
However, Brown Health noted that the hospital will require an additional $4.9 million in annual state funding and philanthropic investments, which the health system says it will aggressively pursue.
“This campaign has truly been a community effort,” Voll said in a statement. “Though we’ve been successful in our initial goals, there is still work to be done to ensure the longevity of the Noreen Stonor Drexel Birthing Center and maintain this essential community resource for generations to come.”
Voll said what’s happening in Newport is not an isolated story.
“Brown University Health now runs hospitals across the state line,” she said. “The same financial pressures that put our birthing center at risk can potentially affect any community.”
Voll will receive the award at Primary Care for All Americans’ inaugural Health Care Renaissance Summit on May 20 in Cambridge, Mass. The nationally focused Primary Care for All Americans group is led by Dr. Michael Fine, formerly the director of the R.I. Department of Health.
Jacquelyn Voghel is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Voghel@PBN.com.
