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Rural Health Leadership Radio™

Over the last ten years, over 100 rural hospitals have closed their doors. Roughly one in three rural hospitals have been identified as “at risk.” If there was ever a need for strong leadership, that time is now. RHLR’s mission is to provide a forum to have conversations with rural health leaders to discuss and share ideas about what is working, what is not working, lessons learned, success stories, strategies, things to avoid and anything else you want to talk and hear about. RHLR provides a voice for rural health. The only investment is your time, and our goal is to make sure you receive a huge return on your investment. For more information, visit www.rhlradio.com or e-mail bill@billauxier.com.
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Now displaying: June, 2020
Jun 30, 2020

This week on Rural Health Leadership Radio we are talking about foundations of wellness. We are having that conversation with Bill Reger-Nash, EdD, Professor Emeritus, at the School of Public Health, West Virginia University.

“Mindfulness is learning to be more present moment by moment nonjudgmentally and all of us could use a good dose in being more aware and more present.”

~Bill Reger-Nash, EdD

Dr. Bill Reger-Nash is professor emeritus in the WVU School of Public Health. He has a doctoral degree in exercise physiology (1984) from West Virginia University and master’s degrees in educational psychology (1973) and political science (1974) from the University of Hawaii. He was an undergraduate French Major (Marist College 1965). He worked as a high school French teacher, school guidance counselor, research coordinator at a hospital Cardiac and Wellness Center, executive director of the Bayer Community Wellness Program, Director of Wellness for Ohio Valley Health Services and Education in West Virginia and eastern Ohio, and was the founding director of the West Virginia University Wellness Program. He coached football, basketball, track, soccer, and sailing.

Given his interest in population issues, Bill ran for and was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1985. Human Kinetics published his mindfulness-based Foundations of Wellness in 2015. He taught wellness and stress management courses at West Virginia University since 1991. Bill began a regular meditation practice as a religious monk in 1959 to help manage stress, increase inner peace, and keep his life in balance.

Bill and his wife Jan have a daily mindfulness practice. He enjoys spending time in the outdoor cross-country skiing, sailing, bicycling, walking in the woods, and gardening.

Jun 23, 2020

This week on Rural Health Leadership Radio we are talking about breaking the intergenerational cycles of poverty and education, and any other continuous cycle that has a negative impact on health and wellbeing. We are having that conversation with Dr. Randy Wykoff, Dean of the College of Public Health, and Director of the Center for Rural Health Research, at East Tennessee State University.

“If we can’t break the intergenerational cycles of poverty, we’re not going to be effective in improving rural health.”

~Randy Wykoff, MD

Randy Wykoff, MD, MPH & TM became the founding dean, College of Public Health at East Tennessee State University in 2006.  He is a physician, board-certified in both Pediatrics and Preventive Medicine, with additional training and certification in Tropical Medicine.  He teaches courses in Social Justice, Public Health Leadership, and in various aspects of applied public health, and he lectures extensively on the social determinants of health. 

His research focuses on the inter-relationship of poverty and health, with a specific interest in how to improve the health status of people living in poor and/or rural areas. In 2019, he was asked to Direct the newly created Center for Rural Health Research.     
Prior to his current position, he served as Senior Vice President for International Operations at Project HOPE, overseeing health education, disaster response, and humanitarian programs in over 30 countries around the world. 

He previously served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health (Disease Prevention and Health Promotion) in the US Department of Health and Human Services.  In this position, he oversaw the release and implementation of Healthy People 2010, and the Surgeon General’s first Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease and Overweight and Obesity, and served for one year as the acting Executive Director of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sport.   

He served for 11 years at the Food and Drug Administration, holding the positions of Associate Commissioner for AIDS and Special Health Issues, and, later, Associate Commissioner for Operations.  In this latter capacity, he served for 18 months as the deputy to the Acting Commissioner.   While at FDA, he also led the Science Team for the Tobacco Working Group, served as the Executive Director of the National Task Force on AIDS Drug Development, and completed a detail with Senator Edward Kennedy and the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee.   He began his career as District Medical Director of the Upper Savannah Health District in the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, responsible for all public health activities in a rural six-county region. 
He and his wife, Janine, have five children.

Jun 16, 2020

This week on Rural Health Leadership Radio we are talking about bridging the divide between behavioral health and physical health to promote access across the care continuum. We are having that conversation with Chris Molaro, CEO & Co-Founder of NeuroFlow.

“We try to solve the problem of access and engagement with behavioral healthcare.”

~Chris Molaro

Chris Molaro is the CEO and co-founder of NeuroFlow, a digital health technology and analytics company promoting behavioral health access and engagement in all care settings. Chris is a West Point graduate who served in the army for 5 years, including a tour of duty in Iraq as a platoon leader. Coming back home, he experienced firsthand the gaps in the behavioral health systems and how veterans and civilians alike face too many barriers when it comes to receiving appropriate, timely care.

Chris earned his MBA at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where he also spent time as digital health consultant at Mckinsey. Chris was also the founder of the literacy non-profit Things We Read.

Use this link to learn more about NeuroFlow and the solutions they provide:  https://www.neuroflow.com/rural/

Jun 9, 2020

This week on Rural Health Leadership Radio we are talking about the transformation of care. We are having that conversation with Josh Martin, CEO of Summit Pacific Medical Center, a Critical Access Hospital in Elma, Washington.

“We set a very bold vision that through Summit Care, we will build one of the healthiest communities in the nation.”

~Josh Martin

Josh Martin joined Summit Pacific Medical Center in 2016 with more than 18 years of healthcare experience in both large health systems and rural community hospitals. Josh has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Healthcare, and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration, both from Northwest Nazarene University in Idaho.

He has a certification in Lean Process Improvement from the University of Washington and a Social Marketing certification from Boise State University. Josh currently serves on the Washington State Hospital Association Public Policy Committee as well as the Rural Health Committee. He is an active board member on the Washington Rural Health Collaborative, Greater Grays Harbor Regional Chamber of Commerce, and acts as Vice-Chair for CHOICE Regional Health Network.

Josh understands the healthcare delivery system and enjoys the challenge of rural hospitals. He strives to create an organizational culture that embodies excellence, compassion, and quality while advocating at a state and national level to transform our healthcare delivery system. In his free time, Josh enjoys mountain biking, playing soccer, volunteering in the community, and spending time with his wife and 3 young children.

Jun 2, 2020

This week on Rural Health Leadership Radio we are talking about the importance of the relationship between the hospital board and the hospital CEO. We are having that conversation with Andrew “Drew” Hooper, Chairman of the Board at Summit Pacific Medical Center, a Critical Access Hospital in Elma, Washington.

“There are generally two problems that organizations see when it comes to that relationship between Board Chair and CEO.”

~Drew Hooper

Andrew “Drew” Hooper grew up in the Pacific Northwest and met his wife while auditioning for a college play in 1999. Little did they know that when they were married in the play it would bind them in a life-long commitment to one another. Five years after that amazing encounter they were married (by the same man who married them in the play!) and have worked as a team ever since.

After college Drew worked in the retail sector prior to moving to financial services. Drew became self-employed when he opened his first financial services business in Montesano, Washington, eventually opening an office in Tacoma, and now calling Olympia the base of operations for Hooper Financial.

Drew has been an active leader in the community through his involvement as a publicly elected hospital district commissioner to advocating for rural health care and financial services in Washington D.C.

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