May 15, 2025
Employee honored for bridging tech gaps in communities
Kevin L. Hart wins the 2025 George Halvorson Community Health Leadership Award for helping community health centers upgrade their technology to provide better care.
Hart helped community health centers launch a new electronic health record system.
Throughout his career, Kevin L. Hart has seen how technology and electronic health records can transform health care.
These tools help patients stay in touch with their doctors, help keep records accurate, and make medical services faster and easier.
Unfortunately, not everyone has access to this technology.
Hart is working to change that.
To honor Kevin Hart for his commitment to making technology more accessible to communities in need, Kaiser Permanente named him the winner of our 2025 George Halvorson Community Health Leadership Award.
The award is named for Kaiser Permanente’s chairman and CEO from 2002 to 2013. It honors outstanding leadership in improving the health of our communities. One current or former Kaiser Permanente employee wins the award each year.
Connecting community health clinics
Hart is the senior vice president of strategic development and technology at Kaiser Permanente. In 2017, Hart met Ralph Silber, who was then the chief executive officer of the Community Health Center Network.
The Community Health Center Network is made up of 8 community health centers operating sites in the San Francisco Bay Area. These nonprofit clinics offer affordable care to people with low incomes, people without insurance, and people with public insurance like Medicaid.
Silber and his team needed help getting started with a new electronic health record system.
They contacted Kaiser Permanente and OCHIN, where Hart was a board member. OCHIN is a nonprofit organization that provides technology and support to community health centers, clinics, and other health care providers.
Hart immediately understood the challenges and provided expertise and staff support. He also helped secure funding.
By the time the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, most of the health centers in the Community Health Center Network were using the new electronic health record system. This allowed them to care for patients remotely.
“Doctors and nurses were able to continue caring for our patients, many of whom were very sick,” Silber said. “This tool really allowed us to take care of our communities when they needed us most.”
The health centers in the Community Health Center Network serve more than 285,000 patients.
“It’s incredible to think about the lives that were saved because these clinics could do virtual care,” Hart said. “I’m honored and blessed to be a part of a project that had that kind of impact.”
Inspiring future leaders
Hart has also worked with and been a board member of The Hidden Genius Project, a nonprofit that helps young men gain skills and mentorship in technology.
Founded in Oakland in 2012, the program has expanded to cities across the country. Hart has seen how the program can change lives.
“We have graduates from the program who have gone to college and who are now entrepreneurs themselves,” Hart said. “These young geniuses go well beyond what any of us could have imagined. It’s wonderful to watch them grow and thrive.”
As part of the annual award, Hart received a $10,000 contribution to a charity of his choice.
He selected OCHIN and The Hidden Genius Project.
