Congrats to Nathan Hale!

Have to brag slightly on one of our own, Dr. Nathan Hale.  Dr. Hale's paper, "Postpartum Screening for Diabetes among Medicaid-Eligible South Carolina Women with Gestational Diabetes," was chosen by the Board of the journal Women's Health Issues as winner of the annual Charles E. Gibbs Leadership Prize for the journal's best paper of 2012.  Prize and a plaque! 

For those who might want to view it, Dr. Hale's paper appeared in the March, 2012 issue of WHI, issue 2, Pages e163-e196.  Sorry, no free link.

Exciting times at ECU

It was wonderful to represent the SCRHRC at the ninth annual Jean Elaine Mills Health Symposium at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. The symposium honors the memory of Ms. Mills, a 1984 MPA graduate of ECU’s master of public administration / community health program who died of breast cancer in 2000.

ECU offers a sparkling new health sciences campus and Deans across multiple health fields – medicine, dentistry, nursing and allied health – who are each committed to 1] enhancing diversity in education and 2] reducing rural health disparities.  Wonderful folks doing wonderful work!

And ECU really did a terrific job of making the keynote speech, by one of our very own, available as video.  Folks who can stand an hour of Jan talking about rural health may also spot two one-time locals, Libby Baxley and Minnjuan Flournoy, in the audience.  

News summary (text) 

Video (about 1 hour)

 

Jan Probst receives USC’s MLK Social Justice award

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Dr. Jan Probst, Director of the SCRHRC, received the faculty 2012 Martin Luther King Day Social Justice Award on January 18, 2013.  The Social Justice Award is presented annually to a USC faculty member, a student and a staff member, each of whom have exemplified the philosophies of the late civil rights leader through random or ongoing acts of community service, social justice or racial reconciliation.  Dr. Probst’s continuing work in the field of rural minority health was noted during the award ceremony.  

Dr. Probst joins Dr Saundra Glover of the Center as a recipient of the USC’s MLK award.   Dr. Glover received the Social Justice award in 2010.

Dr. Saundra Glover receives Alpha Phi Alpha Distinguished Service Award

Congratulations to the SCRHRC's Associate Director, Dr. Saundra Glover!

At the Martin Luther King, Jr. Unity Breakfast held by the Delta Zeta Lambda Chapter of Alphi Phi Alpha on January 12, Dr. Glover was one of three recipients  with the group's Distinguished Service award.  The award recognizes her contributions as Director of the Institute for Partnerships to Eliminate Health Disparities and Associate Director of the South Carolina Rural Health Research Center, which focuses on rural poor and minority populations. 

To see the full article, click here.

NRHA Multiracial and Multicultural Health Conference

Since the NRHA Multiracial and Multicultural Health Conference was held in nearby North Carolina, the SCRHRC sent a significant delegation:  faculty members Saundra Glover, Amy Martin, Kevin Bennett, Jessica Bellinger and Jan Probst, along with student John Stewart.  We presented on a range of topic relevant to rural multiracial and multicultural populations, including HIV and ESRD service availability, cervical cancer interventions, oral health practice issues, and distance to trauma care.

Lots of good networking with rural practitioners from all over.  Most impressive was the contingent, including two allied health students, who flew down from Barrow, Alaska.  [The visiting professor from Norway was interesting as well, but since she was already in the US visiting family....]  For those of us who stayed to the end, Don Warne's presentation on American Indian health was inspiring.

SCRHRC and NRHA

Congrats to SCRHRC faculty Amy Martin and Kevin Bennett on being elected to the Research and Education Group of the National Rural Health Association!  NRHA election results

Visiting rural, lots of us

The SCRHRC staff went all out for National Rural Health Day (November 15, 2012) –  all the way out to Edgefield, SC to join the South Carolina Office of Rural Health and assorted others in celebrating at Edgefield County Hospital, a Critical Access Hospital in a definitely rural community. [ http://www.edgefieldadvertiser.com/2012/11/national-rural-health-day-celebrated-at-ech/ ] Visits  to actual rural communities and actual health care providers  inspire us to keep doing what we do.

After the ceremonies, we participated in the cultural activities that Dr. Amy Martin organized for us.  First, a visit to the historic Edgefield Pottery. [http://www.sciway.net/south-carolina/edgefield-district-pottery.html]  (Thanks to Dr. Naveed Sadiq for the group photo.)

Pots and other once simply utilitarian devises produced by the slave laborers in Edgefield are now worth thousands, and occasionally hundreds of thousands, to collectors.  One slave, Dave, is individually known because he was literate and signed much of his work.  He is imagined on the mural next to the pottery.  And the docent for the Edgefield County Historical Society, himself a working pottery, gave us a demonstration at the end of the tour. The demo, complete with history lesson, was captured on film by Dr. Sadiq:  demo film

One last note:  in addition to a critical access hospital, Edgefield houses the national headquarters for the National Wild Turkey Foundation, leading to turkey art throughout the main square.