COPH Faculty and Staff Members Named Healthcare Heroes
From the Tri-Cities Business Journal:
For the last 23 years, The Business Journal of Tri-Cities, TN/VA has called the attention of the business community to the individuals and organizations that have helped make the provision of health care the largest single industry in the region. This year, Randy Wykoff, Mike Stoots, Ginny Kidwell, and Rob Pack were selected as Healthcare Heroes.
What defines Healthcare Heroes? They have earned the respect and admiration of their colleagues, the individuals for whom they care, and the communities in which they work. Nominations for the program come from those populations.
A link to the full article can be found here: http://bjournal.com/healthcare-heroes-2016/
The Community Service Award
Dr. Randy Wykoff
The Community Service Award is presented to an individual or organization for excellence in the area of public health. This year’s honoree is Dr. Randy Wykoff, dean of the East Tennessee State University College of Public Health.
There may be no individual more focused on improving population health in Appalachia than Randy Wykoff. Under his leadership, ETSU has partnered with local health systems and other agencies to improve services to those most in need. His important concept of the “Three-Legged Stool: Economic Development, Health, and Education” has been featured across disciplines and in industry. Thanks to Dr. Wykoff, the region’s medical, education and business communities have a better understanding of what we’re facing, and of how we can succeed, as we work to improve population health in Appalachia.
The Innovation Award
Dr. Mike Stoots
The Innovation Award rewards innovative thinking in the region’s healthcare community. The 2016 honoree is Dr. Mike Stoots, one of the longest-serving faculty members in the ETSU College of Public Health. He is highly innovative in developing new ways of teaching, which can be seen in his development of the “Essential Skills, Strategies and Expertise Necessary To Improve and Advance Low-resource Settings,” or ESSENTIALS, course at ETSU.
The ESSENTIALS course is part of Project EARTH, designed to train students in low-resource situations such as disasters, refugee situations or isolated regions how to use whatever resources are available to improve health. Late last year, Dr. Stoots hosted the Holston Valley Medical Center leadership team for an all-day “Refugee Experience” at the Valleybrook campus. HVMC President Tim Attebery praised it as an excellent innovative experience.
Healthcare Hero
Ginny Kidwell
Ginny Kidwell is executive director of the Tennessee Institute of Public Health. As such, she has built a coalition of check-writers to support mini-grants that bring together community leaders from health care, economic development, education and business from across the state.
Recently, she was successful in enlarging a grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield to support 20 community-based health initiatives in rural counties of East Tennessee. Those initiatives address substance abuse, cancer, diabetes, cultural factors, lack of education and economic issues.
Kidwell and the TNIPH are where the rubber meets the road in driving rural healthcare improvements, playing a major role in fostering measurable improvements through data-driven planning, health education, public awareness, and research and advocacy for effective health-related policy.
Healthcare Hero
Dr. Rob Pack
Dr. Rob Pack is director of ETSU’s newly established Center for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment.
Pack has spent years researching the issue of prescription drug abuse. In 2012, under his leadership, a group of ETSU scholars, regional health professionals, elected officials and other interested parties came together to discuss the dramatic increase in prescription drug abuse and drug overdose death rates in the Appalachian region. That group collaborated to generate a National Institute of Drug Abuse proposal that culminated in the five-year, $2.2 million grant.
Much of Pack’s work over the past four years culminated in the recent announcement of the approval from the Tennessee Board of Regents for ETSU to create a Center of Excellence for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment.