Foundation for Community Health: Marshall Miles Interviews Nancy Heaton, CEO

Ms. Heaton has served as Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation for Community Health (FCH) since February, 2004.  Previously, she served as Executive Director of the Northwestern Connecticut AIDS Project, an HIV/AIDS service organization serving Litchfield County.  In 1991-1992 she worked with the Southeast Asian Family Empowerment Project in Chelsea, Massachusetts, as a community prevention specialist.  There, she developed outreach and parent education programs for Vietnamese and Cambodian families in the greater Boston area.  From 1987-1990 Ms. Heaton served as project coordinator at the Health Education and Training Center in San Jose, where she developed and implemented the first AIDS/HIV education and prevention project for the Latino community of Santa Clara County.  She also coordinated a training project for Home Health Aides and Certified Nursing Assistants. 

In early 1987 she served as a health educator at the San Jose Day Nursery in San Jose while completing a graduate student internship.  From 1982-1985 Ms. Heaton worked for the International Alliance for Children, an organization based in both Connecticut and the Philippines, serving as the director of field operations in Manila.  In that capacity, she managed a home for abandoned, orphaned and neglected children with a variety of physical and emotional problems.  Ms. Heaton served as chair of the Litchfield County HIV Care Consortium and as a member of the statewide HIV Care Consortium.  She is currently a member of the American Public Health Association and a Member of the Connecticut Commission on Women, Children and Seniors. 

Ms. Heaton received certification in non-profit management from the University of Connecticut in 1998 and an AIDS Educator Certificate from the Connecticut Department of Public Health in 1993.  She received a Masters of Public Health in Community Health Education from San Jose State University in 1988 and a BA in Government and Law from Lafayette College in 1982.