Tom Welliver joined Health Care for the Homeless as Chief Financial Officer on Monday, April 10.

Tom comes to us most recently from CHAI (Comprehensive Housing Assistance, Inc.), where he was CFO, and a series of financial leadership roles before that, including 10 years at the commercial real estate firm, Merritt Properties LLC. He has coupled his career in finance with a lifelong interest in health care and in helping underserved populations to access care. He has served on the boards of numerous health care nonprofits and institutions, and currently sits on the board of Carroll Hospital Center and is a founder and board member of Access Carroll Medical Clinic. Coming to Health Care for the Homeless for him, he says, allows him to combine his professional experience with a personal passion.

Tom is a native Marylander, born and raised in Westminster, MD. He continues to live in Westminster with his wife, daughter and labradoodle; his son is away at college.  

“I grew up in the medical field – my father was an old-style country doctor and I remember the house calls – and I always had an appreciation for providing good medical care to everyone, “ Tom says. “But I quickly realized I didn’t have his gifts – I’d faint in his office – and I did have a financial aptitude.”

In college, he wrestled with ways to help his father, who was retiring, to provide free health care to those in need and learned first-hand the complexities of the health care system. In 2001, he immersed himself in those complexities, when he joined the Carroll County Health Department, the local hospital and a handful of community volunteers as the group’s finance guru and helped found Access Carroll to provide primary care to Carroll County’s uninsured and underinsured residents. The clinic opened in 2004 and served 2,000 patients in its first year. It has since added dental and behavioral health care, and in 2016, it cared for 8,000 people. In 2012, Tom joined the board of Carroll Hospital to grow his health care knowledge and experience.

When working at CHAI, a provider of housing to low-income seniors, Tom heard about Health Care for the Homeless. When he learned of the CFO opening at the agency, “it spoke to my calling,” he says. It was, at long last, a chance to marry his financial expertise with his personal interest in ensuring access to health care for those in need.

In his first week here, he’s been struck by the way staff members embrace – and embody, really – the agency’s mission. “It’s so impressive,” he says. “You can just feel how excited people are.”

And we are excited to have you aboard, Tom. Welcome.