It is with distinct pleasure that Central Texas Community Health Centers (dba CommUnityCare) announces Dr. Nicholas Yagoda as our chief medical officer (CMO).

As CMO, Dr. Yagoda is responsible for the overall clinical leadership, provider practice, and overall performance and advancement of a diverse provider group that has the privilege of caring for underserved residents of Austin and its surrounding areas.

Yagoda joined CommUnityCare in 2014 and throughout his tenure with us has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to strengthening the health and well-being of the patients and families we are so privileged to care for. He currently serves as CommUnityCare’s associate CMO and has been intimately involved in our response to the coronavirus pandemic and our recent implementation of Epic systemwide.

Yagoda has also been a physician champion with several other initiatives including the continued evolution of our care model and is a demonstrated champion for health equity. Since 2014, he has continuously cared for our communities as a family medicine physician with a focus on HIV and addiction medicine. He further helped develop the region’s first treatment program for uninsured people with opioid use disorders and is a founding member of the Fast Track Cities/Getting to Zero task force to end the HIV epidemic in Travis County.

Yagoda is also an assistant professor of population health at The University of Texas at Austin’s Dell Medical School, and his writing has been published in peer-reviewed journals including the Annals of Family Medicine, The Journal of Family Practice, and Nature. A native of New York’s Brooklyn borough, he completed his medical education at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, and his postgraduate training at the FQHC-based Lawrence Family Medicine Residency in northeastern Massachusetts.

“We are very much looking forward to our continued efforts at CommUnityCare in advancing health equity for all within Central Texas, but especially for the low-income and underserved communities we are so privileged to serve,” said CommUnityCare’s president and CEO, Jaeson Fournier. “Dr. Yagoda is an exceptional physician, but more importantly an extraordinary individual with a steadfast commitment to enhancing the lives through the delivery of robust, evidence-based, and high-quality primary care.”