Board of Directors
Jessica Russell
Chair, Board of Directors
A native of Falmouth, Massachusetts, Jessica Hough Russell now lives in West Tisbury and teaches in the English Department at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, where she works with students representing the diversity of the Island’s community. Among her students, she sees firsthand the need for inclusive, culturally responsive, and progressive healthcare here on Island, and she is honored to support the community’s health needs at IHC, particularly in its endeavors in behavioral/mental health and dentistry.
David Brush
Chair, Development Committee
Mr. Brush has over 39 years of experience as a real estate professional. He began his career at Philadelphia National Bank in 1983 and moved to Bankers Trust (now part of Deutsche Bank) as a Vice President in 1987. During his 20-year tenure at Bankers Trust/Deutsche Bank Real Estate, Mr. Brush founded the Real Estate Opportunistic Investing division, serving as Global Head and CIO for 13 years.
In this role, he supervised the completion of over 150 transactions, including real estate acquisitions, equity investments, corporate recapitalizations, and distressed loan portfolio acquisitions, with an enterprise value exceeding $50 billion. Most recently, Mr. Brush served as Managing Partner at Brookfield Property Group, responsible for the firm’s real estate investing activities in Europe. He notably closed the £500 million acquisition of Gazeley, a pan-European logistics company, in 2012.
Mr. Brush holds a B.A. degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and is a member of several real estate professional organizations.
Jim Gammill
Chair, Finance Committee
Jim Gammill has served as Treasurer of Island Health Inc. since 2024. He brings extensive experience in finance, nonprofit management, and public service. His career includes work on the Jimmy Carter 1976 presidential campaign and subsequent White House staff roles, faculty positions at Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School, and investment roles at Salomon Brothers and Invesco. Jim has also dedicated time to volunteer leadership, including five years as Treasurer of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and service on a regional vocational school district board. He and his family divide their time between Edgartown and Belmont, Massachusetts.
Karen Gear, DDS
Chair, Dental Committee
Dr. Karen Gear is the President and CEO of Martha’s Vineyard Endodontics, PC and has been an Island resident since 2012. She received her Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from Howard University in 1989 and completed her Endodontic Specialty Certificate training at The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in 1993.
Throughout her 37-year career (33 years as a practicing endontist), Dr. Gear has been dedicated to educating and training the next generation of dentists. She served as Assistant Clinical Professor at Harlem Hospital Center, teaching post-graduate dental residents in general dentistry, pediatric dentistry, and oral surgery. She currently lectures virtually to Howard University dental students and runs an active pre-dental summer internship program, giving students valuable hands-on experience in endodontics before entering dental school.
Dr. Gear was a member of the 9/11 World Trade Center Dental Identification Team. Her commitment to community health care also led her to serve as Chair of the Dukes County Oral Health Work Group, leading efforts to find a collaborative solution to replace the closed Martha’s Vineyard Dental Clinic serving uninsured and underinsured island residents. She currently serves as Co-Chair of Island Health Care’s Dental Advisory Committee.
Dr. Gear is an active member of the American Dental Association, American Association of Endodontists, and Massachusetts Dental Society.
Tommye-Ann Brown
Courtney Chapin
Courtney Chapin is a nonprofit leader who served as Chief of Staff and White House Liaison for the National Endowment for the Humanities during the Obama Administration and as Executive Director of The Better Angels Society, which supports filmmaker Ken Burns’s work and the work of other history documentary filmmakers on PBS. Based in Washington, DC, she treasures her time spent during the summer at her husband’s family’s camp on Tisbury Great Pond and is grateful to serve as a board member supporting Island Health Care’s mission of making high-quality healthcare accessible to all who live on Martha’s Vineyard. She graduated from Harvard College in 1986 and also serves as a trustee at Historic Deerfield, the Citizens Association of Georgetown, and National History Day.
Max Conway
Max is a venture capital investor focused on early-stage transactions across defense, aerospace, manufacturing, and adjacent sectors. He serves as General Partner at DYNE Ventures, an early-stage firm backing founders at the intersection of national security, defense, and the maritime domain, and as Founding Partner of Hydra Group, a privately held investment firm focused on manufacturing, defense, and advanced technology.
Max sits on the boards of LumiTerra, an early-stage manufacturing business; Island Health Care, a federally qualified community health center on Martha’s Vineyard; and the Vineyard Preservation Trust, which restores and maintains 20 of the island’s historic landmarks. He is also a board observer at Apeiron Labs, a DYNE portfolio company building low-cost autonomous underwater vehicles for subsurface ocean data.
Previously, Max was a Partner at Industrious Ventures, an early-stage firm investing in reindustrialization with an emphasis on aerospace and defense. Earlier in his career, he was Head of Business Development at AGC Partners, a boutique investment bank focused exclusively on technology companies. He holds a B.S. in Management from Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business.
Fred Khedouri
Frederick N. Khedouri retired in 2021 as a senior partner of Apollo Management, a global alternative asset management firm. From 1981 to 1985, he served in the White House as Principal Deputy in the Office of Management and Budget under President Reagan.
He served on the board of Island Health Care for several years after its founding and rejoined the board in 2024. He is an elected commissioner on the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank Commission, vice chair of the Chilmark Zoning Board of Appeals, and chair of the town’s Harbor Advisory Committee. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Chicago and attended law school at the University of Texas at Austin and was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in 1976. He is a resident of Chilmark.
Kathleen Samways
Kathleen is a long-time ally and advocate for public health, health promotion, and inclusion. She is a graduate of Boston University with a Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy, earned a Master of Arts with specialization in Adult Education from the University of Rhode Island and became a Doctor of Physical Therapy at Simmons College in Boston. Kathleen was the Clinical Director of the Vineyard Nursing Association, and is a past Associate Dukes County Commissioner for Disability Affairs. She is a member of the Dukes County Health Council (DCHC) and Co-Chair of the Data Committee of the DCHC. Kathleen is a master trainer for the evidence-based programs of Matter of Balance and Powerful Tools for Caregivers and facilitator for My Life My Health, the chronic disease self-management program. She joined the Island Health Care team in October of 2015, and the Board of Directors in 2025. She lives in Edgartown.