Wayne M. Detmer, MD, is the Chief Clinical Officer of Operations at Lawndale Christian Health Center, a large Federally Qualified Health Center serving Chicago’s West Side. Dr. Detmer’s work focuses on advancing community-based models of care that address food insecurity, opioid use disorder, housing insecurity, and population health.
He has led nationally recognized initiatives in protective housing for people experiencing homelessness, as well as the development of the Farm on Ogden, an innovative urban agriculture initiative in partnership with the Chicago Botanic Garden. The Farm provides locally grown produce to the community, job training programs for justice-involved individuals, a summer training program for high school students and a produce prescription program. VeggieRx enables medical providers to prescribe boxes of fresh produce and includes access to nutrition counseling and cooking demonstrations. This year, the program will provide 30,000 boxes of produce to participants.
Dr. Detmer earned his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. After completing his residency at the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Detmer and his wife, Gina, a pediatrician, have lived and worked in Lawndale for the past 27 years.
CEO
Feeding America
