Board
Joanne Cochran
Vice President
BA, BSN, MSN, Ph.D.
Joanne Cochran co-founded Keystone Health in 1986 to provide health care to the migrant agricultural workers in Franklin County. At that time Keystone was comprised of three volunteers providing part-time seasonal health care to migrant agricultural workers in Franklin County and saw 500 patients during its first season. In 2020, Keystone Health has more than 530 employees and sees over 56,000 patients annually and remains the only federally-qualified Community Health Center serving Franklin County. After serving for more than a decade in the Sisters of Mercy Convent, Dr. Cochran went on to hold a number of clinical leadership roles prior to her founding of the center, including at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh, DuBois Hospital in DuBois, Pennsylvania, and Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania. She has authored numerous papers and publications and been the recipient of more than two dozen prestigious awards across her career.
Dr. Cochran retains a number of important professional members including Sigma Theta Tau, American Nurses Association, Pennsylvania Nurses Association, American Public Health Association, and the National Migrant Clinicians Network. Dr. Cochran also served on Migrant Advisory Commissions to President Reagan, the first President Bush, and Dr. Marilyn Gaston, Assistant U.S. Surgeon General under President Clinton. Dr. Cochran holds a Bachelor’s in Elementary Education, Theology, and Nursing, a Master’s in Nursing, and a PhD in both Nursing from Catholic University and Anthropology from Georgetown University.