LCHC Celebrates 55 Years

This week, Lynn Community Health Center reached an exciting milestone: the final beam was placed atop the Hayes Building expansion at 269 Union Street, marking the highest point of our growing downtown campus. The expansion is part of our plan to create a Health & Wellness Campus in the heart of the city, bringing more care together, expanding access and creating a better experience for the more than 46,000 people who rely on LCHC each year.

A vision rooted in whole-person care

That vision is also personal for our CEO, Brenda Rodriguez, who experienced community health centers as a patient long before she became LCHC’s leader. Her experience shaped her understanding of what community healthcare can mean—not simply providing medical care, but supporting people through the many circumstances that shape their health and well-being. Today, that perspective is part of how we sees the future of LCHC: not as a health center that simply grows larger, but as an organization that continues to reimagine what community healthcare can be.

For 55 years, we’ve understood that health is about far more than what happens in an exam room. It’s healthy pregnancies and growing families. It’s mental wellness, stable housing and opportunity. It’s making sure people can get the care and support they need, when they need it.

That vision already reaches far beyond our downtown campus. More than 700 LCHC team members provide primary care, behavioral health, dental, vision, OB/GYN, pediatrics and recuperative care, alongside community health workers, patient navigators and recovery coaches.

Through 18 school-based health centers, Lynn students can access care in familiar, trusted environments. Our WIC program supports more than 8,500 women, infants and children across the North Shore, while our Mobile Food Market distributes 150,000 pounds of produce each year.

The new campus builds on that foundation while creating room to think bigger—to bring more services together, strengthen connections across care, and create new possibilities for how we serve our community. It’s the next evolution of LCHC’s whole-person approach to care, built for what Lynn needs today and what our community will need tomorrow.

Lynn has always been a city shaped by people who see what’s possible and are willing to build toward it.

Our communities are facing growing challenges, from chronic disease and behavioral health needs to persistent maternal health disparities and barriers to affordable, high-quality care. Community health centers exist to meet those challenges. And meeting the moment means continuing to evolve, invest and imagine what healthcare could look like when it’s designed around the whole person and the whole community.

That’s what this project represents, says CEO Brenda Rodriguez.

It represents hope.
It represents possibility.
It represents our moonshot: a future where every person has access to the highest quality healthcare and the opportunity to live a healthy, meaningful life.

The topping off comes at a meaningful moment for LCHC. As we celebrate 55 years of serving our community, we’re also looking ahead—to the next 55 years and beyond.

The Hayes Building expansion and redesign is scheduled for completion in November 2027. But the work of building the future of community healthcare will continue long after construction is complete.

The beam now stands at the highest point of the building. For us, it marks the beginning of what comes next: a more connected campus, greater access to care, and a continued commitment to building healthcare around the people and community we serve.

Community health centers play a vital role in our healthcare system, providing accessible, high-quality care while helping reduce costs and strengthen the communities they serve. The impact reaches far beyond the exam room, contributing to healthier communities, a stronger workforce and a more sustainable healthcare system.

At Lynn Community Health Center, that impact shows up every day: in the patients who get care close to home, students who can see a provider at school, families who access nutrition support, and people who find behavioral health, recovery and other services in one place.

Our new Impact Report takes a closer look at that work, including the difference community health centers make for patients, our community and the broader healthcare system.

Celebrating Our Team

Of course, none of this happens without the people behind it.

More than 700 LCHC team members bring their skills, compassion and creativity to this work every day. From providers and nurses to patient navigators, community health workers, pharmacists, front desk teams, interpreters and facilities staff, it takes all of us to make whole-person care possible.

We asked some of our staff to share what LCHC means to them and why they’re proud to be part of this community. Their answers are different, but together they tell a familiar story: community health is about people caring for people.

25 Years of Building a Better Model for Community Dental Care

Twenty-five years ago, Lynn Community Health Center had a vision for what dental care could look like in a community health center. Today, that vision has grown into one of LCHC’s most established and innovative departments.

LCHC recently celebrated 25 years of dental care—and the people who helped build it.

The story began with a bold idea from former CEO Lori Berry, who envisioned bringing dental care to LCHC patients. With support, that vision became a reality, and Dr. Bill Eaves was recruited to help build the department.

What started with 6 dental chairs has grown to 12, with plans to expand to 22 chairs. Today, the department provides more than 50,000 visits each year and has become a destination for patients from Lynn and communities across the region.

And the department’s growth is about more than numbers. From the beginning, LCHC Dental has built its reputation on excellent clinical care, collaboration, education and a commitment to serving the whole person.

At the anniversary celebration, Assistant Dental Director Dr. Herlivi Linares recognized the many people across LCHC who have helped make that work possible—from dental providers and assistants to billing, HR, facilities, IT, pediatrics and many others who support the department every day.

Dr. Eaves, who has spent decades in community dentistry and has led LCHC Dental since its early days, reflected on the people who made the department what it is today. He remembered Lori Berry’s belief that “if you hire good people, they make you look good.”

For Brenda Rodriguez, LCHC CEO, the department’s 25-year history represents exactly what happens when people set a high standard and keep pushing forward.

“Whether it’s engagement, whether it’s clinical expertise, collaborations, academic partnerships, teaching the next generation,” Brenda said, “you set the bar so high.”

That spirit is already carrying LCHC Dental into its next chapter. As the department prepares to expand, its 25th anniversary is both a celebration of how far it has come and a reminder of what’s possible when a community health center is willing to think bigger.

Twenty-five years ago, it started with a vision. Today, that vision is building the future of community dental care.