The American Legion Keith Powell Post 78 Claremont is hosting a dinner meeting with Felice L. Loverso, CEO and president of Casa Colina Center for Rehabilitation, who will discuss “Rehabilitation for Veterans.”

The dinner meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 3 at St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, 830 W. Bonita Ave., in Claremont. The cost is $13.

With a first professional career as a practicing speech pathologist for 20 years, Dr. Loverso transitioned to health care administration and was brought to Pomona in 1998 to serve as the CEO and President at Casa Colina Hospital and Centers for Healthcare.

With the aim of refocusing Casa Colina back to its core business of acute-hospital based rehabilitation, Dr. Loverso spearheaded rebuilding the entire 20-acre campus that is anchored by a 68-bed hospital, which opened in 2005. Casa Colina Hospital offers a diagnostic imaging center, an ambulatory surgery center, physician specialty clinics and a medical office building. A 31-bed medical-surgical addition with three operating rooms and an ICU was opened in April 2016.

Before coming to Casa Colina, Dr. Loverso worked at Braintree Hospital, outside Boston, Massachusetts for 10 years, serving as COO and CEO. He earned his master’s and PhD degrees in speech pathology from the University of Colorado in Boulder and has published 33 articles in professional journals, while serving on the editorial boards of five journals. He has made more than 60 national and international presentations, and has been awarded five major grants as principal or co-investigator.

While serving as the chairman of the board of the American Medical Rehabilitation Providers Association (AMRPA), the national association of acute rehabilitation facilities, Dr. Loverso was instrumental in developing a national web-based data system to monitor costs and outcomes of rehabilitation services and has been a leader in representing the interests of people with need for rehabilitation services before Congress and other governmental agencies.

Dr. Loverso continues to serve on the AMRPA board of directors and upholds the need for acute rehabilitation while responding to ongoing governmental challenges that threaten the future of access to this level of care for Medicare recipients and others. Dr. Loverso serves on the executive committee of the FAIR Fund, a national organization that raises awareness of, and builds support for, policies that will preserve and increase access to inpatient hospital rehabilitation.

To RSVP for the dinner, please call Allen Rodriguez Post 78 Commander, at (909) 244-4549.