Meet Lori Andrade, Executive Vice President
The Health Equity Alliance of Long Island (HEALI), a Social Care Network (SCN), was founded as a coalition within the Health and Welfare Council of Long Island (HWCLI) with support from the New York State Department of Health as part of the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP), a program that uses federal funds to help improve healthcare delivery systems. In 2024, HEALI was named Long Island’s SCN, with HWCLI as the lead entity.
The mission of HEALI is to engage health and human service agencies, community members, and other stakeholders to ensure equitable health and life outcomes for the Long Island community. HEALI’s vision is to build and provide an integrated, holistic, culturally and linguistically responsive health and human service delivery system that results in equitable health and life outcomes for all Long Islanders.
“What I always appreciate most about what I do is that balance between creating systemic change and serving people today,” said Lori Andrade, Executive Vice President, HEALI. “Ultimately, we have to create systemic change in order for people to have more equitable access to the things that they need. But we also need to provide people what they need today. People can’t wait until we’ve created systemic change for that — one informs the other.”
HEALI is unique both regionally as well as statewide in its grassroots, community-based origins. Established with strong support from community-based organizations (CBOs) spread across their entire service area and also with highly varied missions, programs, and populations of focus, HEALI united organizations under a shared commitment to set aside individual priorities and embrace a collective, regional approach to health equity. In addition to CBOs, the SCN’s members include healthcare providers, health-related service providers, and HWCLI. The network is governed by an independent body whose members have been nominated and elected by its membership — a unique arrangement among New York’s SCNs.
Lori, who has been working in Long Island’s nonprofit sector for nearly 25 years — 15 of those with the HWCLI — said, “The way in which we’re able to provide people services today is based on the changes we were able to make in the last months, and the way in which people access these services forms the types of changes we need to make. So that’s the thing that drives me with this work is that balance back and forth between the two.”
HEALI has been working with Intrepid Ascent from its very beginning stages in 2017. “They really helped us with our launch, with our strategy, with the RFP process, and with selecting our online referral platform, Unite Us, and with helping us onboard CBOs onto Unite Us over the years,” said Lori.
As HEALI transitioned to be the SCN for Long Island as part of the 1115 waiver, the organizations have ramped up their work together. “In terms of helping us staff up and build out a strategy and organizational structure for HEALI, transitioning from a coalition into the social care network, Intrepid really played a pivotal role,” said Lori. “The largest role they play is definitely in the healthcare technology piece, but also with other components of building out the social care network.”
Lori appreciates Intrepid’s support and also their ability to pump the brakes when needed. “They’ve eased off on some of the areas where we now have staff. So in terms of being able to really appropriately help us and then appropriately ease off because nobody ever wants a consultant who’s not able to ease off when it’s time to ease off,” explains Lori. “They really understand that their role is to help us stand up.”
HEALI is indeed standing up. The organization has been providing services since January 1, 2025, screening people for health-related social needs and connecting them to crucial resources. “Our Medicaid members are still happy to hear from us and so happy that someone is on the other line, ready to go, and happy to provide them with services,” explains Lori. “We started connecting them to nutrition services including pantry stocking and cooking supplies and housing services such as pre-tenancy support, and they’re really excited about that as well. We’re still at the beginning. We’ve screened more than 2,000 Medicaid members. We have a long way to go, but our initial 2,000 have been extremely positive and encouraging to connect people to services.”
When she’s not making a difference in her community, Lori spends her time enjoying all the beauty Long Island has to offer. “One of the nicest things about living on Long Island is enjoying all of our outdoor activities,” said Lori. “We have beautiful beaches and parks and so many beautiful outdoor places, and at the same time, we’re a short drive or train ride to New York City, where we have all that access to plays and museums and everything else. So I like to make sure that I’m really enjoying Long Island and the great place that we have.”
To learn about HEALI’s impact on the community it serves, visit https://healiny.org/.