{"id":299472,"date":"2026-10-04T05:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T05:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/299472\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T05:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T05:36:11","slug":"people-on-the-move-october-4-2026-scranton-times-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/299472\/","title":{"rendered":"People on the Move, October 4, 2026 \u2013 Scranton Times-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Wright Center
\n\"Beggin,Beggin, Wright Center (SUBMITTED PHOTO)
\n\"Durkin,Durkin, Wright Center (SUBMITTED)
\n\"Smith,Smith, Wright Cente (SUBMITTED)
\n\"WilckWilck Summa, Wright Center (SUBMITTED)
\n\"Clark,Clark, Wright Center (SUBMITTED)
\n\"Cognetti,Cognetti, Wright Center (SUBMITTED)
\n\"Mongia,Mongia, Wright Center (SUBMITTED)
\n\"Aamer,Aamer, Wright Center (SUBMITTED)
\n\"Rabat,Rabat, Wright Center (SUBMITTED)
\n\"Oberto,Oberto, Wright Center (SUBMITTED)<\/p>\n

The Wright Centers for Community Health, Graduate Medical Education, and Patient & Community Engagement have appointed eight new members to their governing boards, bringing decades of combined experience in healthcare, business, education and community service to the nonprofit enterprise.<\/p>\n

The new board members will help guide The Wright Center\u2019s mission to improve the health and welfare of communities through responsive, whole-person health services for all and the sustainable renewal of an inspired, competent workforce that is privileged to serve.<\/p>\n

Joining The Wright Center for Community Health\u2019s board of directors are:<\/p>\n

Marie Beggin, the CEO of Penn East Federal Credit Union. A current patient of the Wright Center for Community Health, Beggin brings nearly 40 years of experience in the financial services industry. She also serves on the boards of Metro Action, Leadership Lackawanna and the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia\u2019s Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council.<\/p>\n

Jill Durkin, of Factoryville, an attorney with a longstanding career in civil law. Durkin is active in community service through her work on several regional boards, including Meals on Wheels NEPA, Widener University Commonwealth Law School Advisory Board and the Pennsylvania Bar Association.<\/p>\n

Kirsten Smith, of Clifford Twp., director of career services at Fortis Institute. Formerly director of grants and education at WVIA, Smith has extensive experience in education, workforce development, grant and program management, and community partnerships. She also serves on the boards of Meals on Wheels NEPA and WRC (formerly the Women\u2019s Resource Center) in Scranton.<\/p>\n

Adrian Wilck Summa, O.D., of Clarks Summit, a retired optometrist with more than 30 years of experience in clinical and hospital settings across New York. A patient of the Wright Center for Community Health, she brings extensive expertise in clinical care, healthcare delivery and managed care.<\/p>\n

Joining The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education\u2019s board of directors are:<\/p>\n

Michael Clark, of Pittston, the CEO of Wilkes-Barre General Hospital. With more than 30 years of healthcare leadership experience, Clark brings a deep understanding of hospital operations, physician engagement and performance improvement to the board. Before joining Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, he served as division president at LifePoint Health, a nationally recognized healthcare system.<\/p>\n

Peter Cognetti, M.D., of Waverly, director of medical education at Regional Hospital in Scranton. He has more than 40 years of experience providing patient care and mentoring future physicians.<\/p>\n

Himani Mongia, M.D., an internal medicine resident physician at the Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education, where she serves as president of the Housestaff Council and chief resident for advocacy. Prior to beginning her residency, Mongia worked in the humanitarian sector with Doctors Without Borders in India and served on the board of directors for Doctors Without Borders South Asia.<\/p>\n

Joining the Wright Center for Patient & Community Engagement board is:<\/p>\n

Syeda Neha Aamer, M.D., an internal medicine resident physician at the Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education and a graduate of Federal Medical and Dental College in Pakistan. A third-generation physician, Aamer\u2019s commitment to medicine is rooted in a long-standing family tradition of service. She will serve as the resident leader liaison to the board, which supports programs and initiatives that assist under-resourced individuals and families in Northeast Pennsylvania, including those experiencing food and housing insecurity, social isolation, poverty or other hardships.<\/p>\n

The Wright Center is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2026. Founded in 1976, the Wright Centers for Community Health, Graduate Medical Education, and Patient & Community Engagement is a physician-led, community-owned nonprofit and a cornerstone of healthcare in the region. The enterprise employs nearly 680 professionals, including nearly 200 resident and fellow physicians, and trains more than 200 interprofessional healthcare learners each year.<\/p>\n

A graduate of the Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education\u2019s Internal Medicine Residency Program has returned to the Wright Center for Community Health to serve patients while helping train the next generation of physicians and advance health policy and advocacy efforts.<\/p>\n

Dr. Sandra Rabat, who completed her internal medicine residency at the Wright Center in June, is accepting adult patients of all ages at the Wright Center for Community Health Mid Valley. In addition to providing whole-person primary and preventive health services, she will serve as an internal medicine physician faculty member and physician liaison for health policy and advocacy.<\/p>\n

Originally from Erie, Rabat spent three years in Scranton as a member of the inaugural cohort from A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona. During medical school, she completed her clinical rotations at the Wright Center for Community Health, an experience that ultimately led her to remain in the region for residency training.<\/p>\n

In her new role, Rabat will have medical, educational and administrative responsibilities focused on high-quality patient care and clinical education. She will teach and supervise resident and fellow physicians, medical students and interprofessional learners participating in clinical education at the Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education.<\/p>\n

During medical school, Rabat participated in the Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center\u2019s prestigious Scholars Program. She received an honorable mention for the 2024 AHEC Alumni\/Advocate of the Year Award.<\/p>\n

A bilingual doctor with more than a decade of experience in emergency medicine, general medicine and pediatrics is accepting pediatric patients at the Wright Center for Community Health Wilkes-Barre.<\/p>\n

A board-certified pediatrician, Dr. Carlos Luis Oberto Araujo is accepting appointments at the Wright Center for Community Health Wilkes-Barre for pediatric and adolescent well visits, same-day sick appointments, routine vaccinations, newborn care, back-to-school\/daycare physicals, sports and camp physicals, asthma management, mental health screenings and more.<\/p>\n

After earning his medical degree from the Central University of Venezuela\u2019s Luis Razetti School of Medicine, Dr. Oberto Araujo completed his residency in pediatrics at NYC Health and Hospitals Lincoln Medical Center. Prior to that, the doctor worked as a general and emergency physician in Caracas, Venezuela. He speaks fluent Spanish and English.<\/p>\n

He has also worked as a research assistant in the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics\u2019 Department of Pediatrics Pulmonology and as an invited instructor, research adviser and co-tutor at the Central University of Venezuela\u2019s Dentistry School.<\/p>\n

In addition to treating patients, Oberto Araujo will serve as a pediatrician physician faculty member, teaching and supervising physicians participating in the Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education\u2019s Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-accredited residency programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Wright Center Beggin, Wright Center (SUBMITTED PHOTO) Durkin, Wright Center (SUBMITTED) Smith, Wright Cente (SUBMITTED) Wilck Summa,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[60,201,182,803,28,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-299472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-business","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}