Carolyn Emanuel-McClain

CHC: Rural Health Services
Position: CEO

Carolyn Emanuel-McClain graduated UNC-School of Public Health (Chapel Hill, NC) with a Masters in Public Health (Administration).  She was employed by Pembroke Medical Services, a free standing NHSC site) immediately upon completing graduate school.  She founded the Lumbee Medical Center in Pembroke and was responsible for obtaining the first PHS Section 330 funding for a health center in Robeson County, NC.  Lumbee Medical Center formed a consortium with other health care facilities in the county and the name became Robeson Health Care Corporation with the principal office located in Pembroke, NC.  Mrs. Emanuel-McClain became the Executive Director of Family Health Centers, Inc. in Orangeburg, SC where she remained for the next 15 years and was responsible for the health center being the first CHC to become JCHO accredited in SC.  From June 2001 until August 2009 she worked as an independent consultant with numerous health centers in SC and the southeast.  She also worked as a consultant with the SC Primary Health Care Association and for Management Solutions Group, Inc.   Effective August 14, 2009. Carolyn Emanuel-McClain became the Chief Executive Officer for Rural Health Services, Inc.

Mrs. Emanuel-McClain has served as a past Chair of the National Association of Community Health Centers and past President of the SC Primary Health Care Association. She was the 2018 recipient of the John Gilbert Award and Aiken’s Woman of the Year,2022.

She has an abundance of experience in turning around troubled health care organizations and bringing resources to provide health care to rural underserved areas.