Our Leadership

Chief Executive Officer:

Fran Hagerty – Chief Executive Officer

Fran Hagerty assumed the position of chief executive officer in 2006. In joining WHFPT, Ms. Hagerty continues her exemplary career in health care leadership, which has spanned more than 25 years.

Ms. Hagerty has served in various senior management positions within the non-profit world beginning in 1979 where she served as health screening manager for the Baton Rouge Area Agency on Aging. Her non-profit leadership skills were honed as the executive director for the Big Sister League and ElderHelp, both in San Diego, CA. Before moving to Austin in 2005, Fran served for nearly a decade as the executive director of Hospice of the North Coast in Carlsbad, CA.

Ms. Hagerty received a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Louisiana State University and a doctorate in industrial/organizational psychology from the United States International University in San Diego, CA.

Officers:

Tama Shaw – President

Tama Shaw has served on the WHFPT board since 2007. She has been the Executive Director of Hill Country Community Action Association, Inc; Hill Country Transit District and Hill Country Community Housing Corporation since 1996.

Ms. Shaw has been blessed with 33 years of employment in an organization through which she has been able to help others help themselves. For many years she worked as a consultant providing technical assistance and training for Family Planning providers and Administrative staff at the Texas Department of Health, primarily in the area of statistics and cost account reporting. In 2009, she presented a session on cost analysis reporting at the DSHS annual conference.

Ms. Shaw has received numerous awards in recognition of her dedication to providing exemplary health care including “Person of the Year” from the Texas Family Planning Association, a Certificate of Appreciation by the Texas Board of Health and most recently a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

Martha F. Zuniga – Immediate Past President

Martha F. Zuniga, MPA, joined the WHFPT board in 2008 and served as the president for 2 years from 2009 through 2010. Ms. Zuniga continues her exemplary career in health care leadership, which has spanned more than 22 years.

After serving in various management positions, Ms. Zuniga was promoted in 1999 to executive director of South Texas Family Planning and Health Corporation (STFPHC) which provides services throughout 19 counties in South Texas to primarily low-income and uninsured persons. Among her many accomplishments, Ms. Zuniga and her management team have expanded the different programs administered by STFPHC to include infertility prevention through the Texas Infertility Prevention Project, obesity awareness through the Healthy Weight Project, cancer diagnosis and treatment through the Breast and Cervical Cancer Services Program, and Immunizations for children and adults.

She is proud to house the largest publicly-funded, faith-based natural family planning & fertility project in Texas. This program encourages strong families, open communication, and offers a natural approach to family planning. Her agency also participates in the Health Education Services Project which promotes abstinence and character development.

Ms. Zuniga holds a bachelors degree in business administration and a master’s in public administration from Texas A & M University – Corpus Christi.

Diane Molina – Vice-President

Diane Molina, RN, BSN, began her service on the WHFPT board in 2008. Her career in health care spans over 31 years. She has been with the Brazos Valley CAA, Inc for the past 18 years and serving as its Administrator of Program Operations since 2000.

Ms. Molina earned a B.S.N and R.N. degrees from the University of Texas Health Science Center Houston.

Paula Turicchi – Secretary

Paula Turicchi, FACHE, has served on the WHFPT board since 2007. She is the senior vice president of Women and Infants Specialty Health (WISH) at Parkland Health & Hospital System in Dallas. She oversees Women and Infants services including one of the largest maternity services in the U.S. She is responsible for labor and delivery, inpatient post partum, newborn nursery services, the neonatal intensive care unit, 12 women’s ambulatory clinics and an obstetrics and gynecology urgent care center. Grant programs include family planning, breast and cervical services, Dallas Healthy Start and Parkland’s Nurse Family Partnership. Ms. Turicchi has spent more than 14 years at Parkland, beginning in 1988 as an administrative resident. She went on to become administrative director and then vice president of Women and Children’s Services before forming Paula Turicchi Health Care Consulting in 1998. Ms. Turicchi returned to Parkland in 2006 as program administrator for Family Planning. She became vice president of WISH and was named to senior vice president in 2008.

Ms. Turicchi is a member of the American College of Health care Executives as well as the DFW ACHE Forum. National Association of Public Hospitals honored her as a 1997 Fellow for designing and implementing managed care programs in safety net institutions, and is a recipient of Parkland’s Above and Beyond Award. She is a board certified in health care management as a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE). Ms. Turicchi received her bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Arkansas in 1986 and a master’s in health care administration from Trinity University in 1988.

Patrice Capan – Treasurer

Patrice Capan, RN, CNS-BC, has served on the WHFPT board since 2009. Ms. Capan’s health care career began 22 years ago, when she was the founding member of a non-profit clinic in Denton, Texas. Since beginning employment with Family Health Care Inc. in 1994, she has held several positions including Project Director, Director of Research and for the past 16 years as its Executive Director. Her son and daughter each inherited the health care delivery gene. Her son is an ER nurse and Captain in the Army Nurse Corps and her daughter is a plastic surgeon.

Ms. Capan’s long-standing commitment to excellence has been rewarded several times over. She was named one of the Great 100 Nurses in 1994 and received Sigma Theta Tau’s Clinical Excellence Award in 1998. Ms. Capan earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Texas Women’s University.

Trustees:

Ron Barwick, PhD

Ms. Carole Belver, MEd, has been a member of WHFPT for over 13 years, serving as its President in 2003 and 2004. She began her second term on the board in 2010. As a long time resident of San Marcos, Ms. Belver continues her exemplary career in health care leadership and community service. She began her health care administrative experience with Community Action, Inc. of Hays, Caldwell and Blanco Counties as Director of Health Services. In 2007, she was promoted to their executive director.

In recognition of her leadership skills, San Marcos League of Women Voters elected her as their president. She has also served as a board member for Envision Central Texas and Village of San Marcos. Ms. Belver earned a bachelor’s degree in Health Education and Master’s of Education both from Texas State University.

Carolyn S. Nelson-Becker, EdD, CNM, has served on the WHFPT board since 2008. She is currently the Administrative Director of the Regional Maternal & Child Health Program Maternal Health Specialist, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB). Concurrently she is a Clinical Assistance Professor in their Nurse-Midwifery Program.

She has been bestowed numerous awards for her service. She was named Woman of Excellence in 1994 by the Houston Federation of Professional Women, and received the New Horizon Award from the Nebraska Methodist College Alumni Association and the 2007 Betty Lee Evans Nursing Excellence Award.

Ms. Nelson-Becker earned a bachelor’s degree in Nursing from Hastings College, a certificate in nurse-midwifery from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, a master’s in Nursing from the OBGYN Nurse Practitioner Program at UTMB, and Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership and Cultural Studies from the University of Houston.

Bonnie J. Scurzi, BSN, WHNP-BC

Lee Whitacre, NP