This week we’re having a conversation with Christy Hopkins. Christy serves as the director of Greeley County Community Development, a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring stability and growth for Unified Greeley County. She is also the secretary for Growing the Vision: A Foundation for the Future of Greeley County and treasurer of The Star Theater of Tribune, a community-owned movie theater.
“Greeley County ranks 105th out of 105 counties in the State of Kansas, but we’re eighth per capita in the number of college degrees for a population.”
Christy is a Class X graduate of the Kansas Agriculture and Rural Leadership (KARL) program and a Kansas Health Foundation Fellow. She serves on the Kansas Sampler Foundation board and is a core-team member of the PowerUps, a Kansas Sampler initiative dedicated to the empowerment and connection of Kansans aged 21-39 who are rural by choice. She also serves as president for wKREDA, the western Kansas Regional Economic Development Alliance.
Christy holds a bachelor’s degree in mass communications and film from Southwestern College in Winfield.
This week we’re having a conversation with Carrie Henning-Smith, Ph.D. Dr. Henning-Smith is the Deputy Director of the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center and an Assistant Professor in the Division of Health Policy and Management, University of Minnesota School of Public Health.
Dr. Henning-Smith has led multiple research projects at the Rural Health Research Center, with a wide range of topics including the social determinants of health, access to and quality of care, and aging and long-term care.
“Nobody wants to end up in a nursing home…”
She was chosen as a 2017 Rural Health Fellow by the National Rural Health Association and serves as a current editorial board member for the Journal of Rural Health.
She received her MPH and MSW from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!) and her Ph.D. in Health Services Research, Policy, and Administration from the University of Minnesota.
This week we’re having a conversation with Hilda Heady. Hilda has 50 years of experience as a rural health leader, direct service professional, health professions’ educator and strong advocate for rural families and rural women’s health care including childbearing services. Hilda is also an advocate for Veterans and communities.
“We developed a plan to establish the state’s [West Virginia] first alternative in-hospital birth center.”
Hilda Heady’s work and advocacy is focused on how best to inform policies and practices which impact rural people and the service institutions in their communities.
She served as a charter member of the VA Secretary’s Rural Health Advisory Committee from 2008 to 2013 and as the 2005 President of the National Rural Health Association. For 18 years, she was the associate vice president for rural health at the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center at WVU, and for seven years the senior vice president with Atlas Research, a service disabled veteran owned small business.
Hilda is a frequent national speaker on rural culture and resilience, maternal and child health in rural areas, rural health and mental health care and issues faced by rural veterans and their families.
This week we’re having a conversation with Tommy Barnhart, President of the National Rural Health Association. Tommy has over 45 years of experience in healthcare finance and operations, working with hospitals, long-term care providers, home health agencies, hospices, clinics and other healthcare entities.
“We need to provide that organization, the hospital organization, with a methodology to move into the future so that it can provide more of a community-based service.”
Tommy has a B.A. (Business Administration) from Bridgewater College and is the former CFO of a large rural hospital. He has consulted on a wide variety of financial management and operational issues in rural health.
This week we’re having a conversation with Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association. Alan is recognized as among the top 100 most influential people in healthcare by Modern Healthcare Magazine, He has more than 26 years’ experience in health policy development at the state and federal level, and is one of the nation’s leading experts on rural health policy.
“Global budgeting is probably 5 to 10 years off and the direction that it appears the nation is headed.”
As the CEO of the NRHA, Alan has observed the changes taking place in rural health from a front row seat. The National Rural Health Association is a national nonprofit membership organization with more than 20,000 members whose mission is to provide leadership on rural health issues through advocacy, communication, education and research. NRHA membership consists of a diverse collection of individuals and organizations, all of whom share the common bond of an interest in rural health.