TANIA M. BARBER LEARNING INSTITUTE
training for the future
Do you have aspirations to work in healthcare? Are you interested in earning a certification and/or a license as a dental, medical, or phlebotomy assistant? Are you concerned about the cost of tuition? Are you looking for full-time employment with benefits?
The Tania M. Barber Learning Institute (TMB LI) at Caring Health Center is pioneering workforce development through its transformative paid on-the-job training and learning model. Founded by our visionary leader, President and CEO Dr. Tania M. Barber—who began her career as a front-entry switchboard operator—TMB LI is committed to addressing the local systemic critical shortage of skilled medical and dental assistants, community health workers, and front-end operations staff. Dr. Barber has long held a vision to address systemic workforce barriers. The vision is informed by her lived experience and unwavering commitment to never leave her community behind. This vision has been transformed into action with the Tania M. Barber Learning Institute–a relatable and accessible career entry point to the people of our community.
Under the leadership of the Executive Director of the TMB LI and CHC’s Chief Workforce Development Officer, Dr. Yedalis Ruíz, an educational researcher and scholar/practitioner with 24 years of experience working in community educational programming, leads the development and implementation of a workforce development model at Caring Health Center designed to enhance the success, retention, and personal development of a diverse employee community.
The TMB LI offers comprehensive curricula with emphasis on the Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) model taught by expert community health center instructors. These instructors bring their expertise in teaching, as licensed clinicians and doctors of education. Each brings a diverse set of skills. Dr. Ruiz brings her expertise in teaching adult learners and learning within historically minoritized communities to support participants in their education and in obtaining the certifications, expertise, and confidence needed to pursue and succeed in healthcare careers. This innovative program empowers individuals to achieve personal and professional success and strengthens communities by fostering a more equitable and skilled healthcare workforce
MISSION
To serve as a leader in access and workforce development in Federally Qualified Health Centers through a “lifting others up” framework for training, education, career advancement, and research founded on a commitment to caring.
AIMS
Respond to an opportunity gap in the workforce among diverse community members with entry-level skills by offering culturally responsive and sustaining careers in healthcare.
Maximize training and capacity that correspond with job satisfaction, retention, and career development/advancement.
Improve the health center’s delivery of high-quality, value-based care to its patient population, focusing on clinical quality, cost containment, and operational efficiency.
VALUES
We are committed to providing the FQHC workforce with equitable opportunities to develop and sustain thriving, satisfying, and upwardly mobile careers in community healthcare.
We are committed to providing holistic learning and career development grounded in community cultural wealth and a caring approach that fosters a professional commitment to FQHCs dedicated to quality health care.
CONVENIENTLY LOCATED
Our educational facility is easily accessible via public transportation and offers free parking.
The Tania M. Barber Learning Institute is located at 473-477 Sumner Avenue in Springfield’s Forest Park neighborhood.
Workforce Development Model for
Training and Learning
Our approach
We use culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogies that center community assets while recognizing and addressing systemic barriers.
We center humanizing approaches to training and learning in all aspects of our programming. We address intersectional needs and experiences of the community we serve.
We provide our community with opportunities to develop and sustain thriving, satisfying, and upwardly mobile careers in community healthcare.
We acknowledge education and employment as social determinants of health.
We offer teaching and academic advisement throughout the full program length and honor the learning experience of each employee-learner by providing individualized academic advisement
We hire each learner as a full-time employee at Caring Health Center during the academic training period, with benefits.
All components of the program are aligned to the specific context of Federally Qualified Health Centers.
We honor the aspirations and prior knowledge of our community applicants. 
Who can be enrolled and engaged:
1. Existing workforce seeking career development and advancement
2. Entry-level community members seeking a career opportunity in community healthcare
3. External stakeholders seeking training, engagement, and/or partnership with FQHCs workforce and patients
Training and Learning on the Job Program Components
We have 4 components tailored to each subject program:
• Online Didactic Training
• Workforce Professional Development Training
• Faculty In-Residence Lectures
• Clinical Learning Experience (Hands-on learning experience on the clinical floor)
Our current Training and Learning on the Job programs include:
• Dental Assisting
• Medical Assisting
• Phlebotomy Technician
• Community Health Worker
The Employee-Learner
Each participant in our TMB LI Training and Learning on the Job is hired full-time as a Caring Health Center employee during the academic training period, with benefits. Throughout the program, we provide consistent, culturally responsive, and sustaining support across academics and social determinants of work.
Social Care Support:
- We provide confidential 1:1 counseling to help navigate barriers to accessing social resources (e.g., childcare, healthcare, housing, access to food, transportation, utilities, digital access/navigation, etc.).
- We offer individual and group academic advising to support successful engagement with didactic learning materials and assessments.
THE TMBLI TEAM
Founding
President and CEO, Dr. Tania M. Barber’s long-standing vision to address systematic workforce barriers affecting communities in Springfield, MA was the catalyst for the development of the Learning Institute at Caring Health Center. The Dental Assistant Training On-the-Job Program was founded and developed in partnership with Dr. Barber and was led and taught by Dr. Lucila Bruno, DDS. Dr. Bruno’s curriculum was the inaugural program that served as the “proof of concept” for the Learning Institute.
Dr. Yedalis Ruiz, Ph.D., M. Ed.; Chief Workforce Development Officer and Executive Director of the Tania M. Barber Learning Institute
Dr. Yedalis Ruiz is a scholar/practitioner and the Chief Workforce Development Officer and Executive Director of the Tania M. Barber Learning Institute at Caring Health Center. Recruited as the consultant to conduct the initial feasibility study and proposal for Board of Directors review and approval, Dr. Ruiz was then hired to collaboratively lead the development of a workforce development model designed to enhance the success, retention, and personal development of FQHC’s diverse employee communities. 
Dr. Ruiz has expertise in educational access and equity, and workforce development among low-income, first-generation, BIPOC communities, and aims to bridge access to opportunities for career advancement in health care through critical and collaborative community engagement frameworks and practices. She earned her PhD and MEd at UMASS and her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Education from Mount Holyoke College. She presents nationally at research conferences and local forums and is a published author. Her most recent work, a co-edited, co-authored anthology “(Re)framing college access, by and with communities of color: Our knowledge, our process, our choice” has just been published by SUNY Press.
Johanna DeBari, M.A.; Director of Workforce Development and Training
Johanna DeBari, M.A., Director of Workforce Development and Training, is a scholar-practitioner who leads the development and implementation of a broad range of workforce development training initiatives to build a pipeline for development at Caring Health Center. She has over 10 years of experience designing learning environments and educational programs related to gender equity and intimate violence prevention, as well as direct advocacy work, in both non-profit, community-based, and university settings. She has training as a restorative justice facilitator and expertise as a trauma-informed practitioner. She earned her Bachelor’s in Sociology and Holocaust and Genocide Studies from Keene State College in 2014 and her MA in International Studies, with certificates in Human Rights and Feminist Studies from the University of Connecticut in 2016.
Research and Practice
Working with Dr. Barber as the founder of the TMB LI, Dr. Ruiz has established the FQHC-responsive and centered Workforce Development Training and Learning Model. This model is both published and funded by a wide range of local foundations and by state and federal grants. Among these are the development and implementation of training curricula for practice-based settings as part of NIH-funded research.
In her scholarship, she is the co-editor/author of the newly released SUNY Press anthology: (Re)Framing College Access by and with Communities of Color: Our Knowledge, Our Process, Our Choice. This text features a chapter authored by Tania M. Barber titled “When Impossible Becomes Possible!“ A Critical Access Model that Centers equity in Community Health, which features the TMB LI and corresponding Workforce Development Training and Learning Model.
Humanizing Workforce Development
in Community Health
The TMB LI scholar/practitioner leadership has been recruited at the local and state-levels to lead curriculum development, training, and program and intervention implementation to address humanizing strategies in community healthcare. Several recent projects have included developing and implementing a humanizing oral healthcare for oral health professionals, a National Institutes of Health research intervention partnership with Harvard University and the MassLeague of Community Health Centers for humanizing digital access to care for community health workers, a humanizing behavioral health cultural humility strategies for disability services for workforce with a local community based organization. Currently, the team is collaboratively developing humanizing trauma informed care in collaboration with its Accountable Care Organization (ACO) and humanizing a culture of safety in healthcare curriculums and trainings.
The collective partnership for oral health equity was funded by a CareQuest Institute for Oral Health grant and convened by the MassLeague, the Caring Health Center’s Tania M. Barber Learning Institute designed and delivered a four-part seminar on humanizing and community-centered approaches to oral health care in 2025. The interactive, asynchronous seminar was developed by and for members of the community health center workforce. It engaged the oral healthcare workforce from two MA FQHCs in a six-week reflective learning experience that integrated critical analysis of theory and frameworks, community-based learning, and reflection of their experiences in dental practice as an opportunity for personal, professional, and intellectual growth. It is a 6-week seminar providing actionable tools for daily practice that incorporate the history and founding of community health centers (CHCs), definitions of oral health equity, and foundational frameworks for humanizing and community-centered approaches in dental practice to improve care for diverse patient populations and communities. The model was presented at the 2026 National Yankee Dental Conference on 1/31/2026.
Future TMBLI Employee-Learners
If you are interested in learning more about our programs and/or applying, please click the button below and fill out the Google Form.
We will add your contact information to our Outreach List. You will receive email updates with information about upcoming programs and applications.
OUR FUNDERS
