Each year, in collaboration with the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), the Geiger Gibson Program recognizes and celebrates young leaders whose work and dedication have helped further the health center mission of health care and better health for medically underserved people, communities, and special populations.
Candidates for the awards are nominated by their organization’s leadership, and awardees are selected by a committee drawn from the Geiger Gibson Distinguished Visitors program.
Alexandra Zeleski was recognized as one of fourteen Emerging Leaders in 2026.
Alexandra Zeleski, PharmD, RPh is the Director of Pharmacy at Heart of Ohio Family Health in Columbus, Ohio. She joined the organization in 2022 as a Pharmacy Manager, and helped build out their first in-house pharmacy. In her current role, she has worked with leadership to develop a second pharmacy site, and is responsible for managing operations across retail pharmacy locations and building out their team at these locations.
The patient-centered approach and range of service options for CHC patients drew her to the health center. This focus on patient and community need and experience were a sharp contrast to the barriers patients faced in corporate pharmacy, where she started her career.
“In corporate pharmacy, there’s just so much that stands in the way of us helping our patients and most of the time those are financial burdens,” Dr, Zeleski said. “Being able to help those patients and that patient population by working for a federally qualified health center has been rewarding and is what is really keeping me here. I know that there are many avenues to explore before I’ve exhausted all of my options in pursuit of providing high quality care on an individualized basis.”
A significant challenge currently faced by community health centers, including Zeleski’s pharmacy department at HOFH, is the threat to the 340B program, which helps CHCs and other safety-net providers purchase medications at reduced prices.
“It’s not just complete elimination that looms but even the administrative burden that could be added to the program should policies move forward, like the rebate model,” Zeleski said. “As an FQHC, we respect the original intent of the 340B program, in that our goal is to stretch federal resources by providing more comprehensive care to more patients. But administrative burdens on an already complex program with existing oversight only takes away from the resources that we can put back into our communities.”
Zeleski champions federal and local advocacy efforts to ensure that legislators are educated about the benefits of the 340B program, and on the health center’s commitment to transparency, accountability, and the best interests of their patients– the very constituents these legislators represent.
To Zeleski, leadership means setting the standard of high-quality care. In the FQHC world, she has found an important balance: working directly with her patients, staff and community while collaborating with local, state and national CHC advocates.
At Heart of Ohio Family Health, leadership models an emphasis on quality, value-based patient care, and investment in staff development. In turn, this has helped Zeleski grow in her role and develop her own strengths as a leader invested in her patients, dedicated to her team, intentional about mentorship, and committed to advocacy. She describes health centers as a nexus for meaningful work with a real-world impact.
Zeleski has found hope in her work at Heart of Ohio. “My experience over the last four years in the health center world has really restored my hope in healthcare. I think a lot of us come into healthcare wanting to make a difference, and then we encounter burnout and systems that feel so disconnected from the people we’re trying to serve. What I’ve found in the health center movement is this really unique balance,” Zeleski said.
“My advice to people considering the health center movement is if you’re looking for meaningful work and to make a real impact where leadership development and mission actually coexist, this is worth exploring,” Zeleski said.
This story was published in 2026.
