Community Health Data Scan

Connecticut Health Foundation Selects 2012 Health Leadership Fellows Class

October 18, 2011

HARTFORD – Oct. 18, 2011 – In a continuing effort to cultivate leaders with a passion for achieving health equity throughout the state, the Connecticut Health Foundation (CT Health) selected its 2012 class of Health Leadership Fellows.

“CT Health created this program to partner with and nurture outstanding, like-minded individuals who are committed to creating public will and affecting public opinion to decrease existing gaps in health outcomes that are based solely on race and/or ethnic origin,” says Patricia Baker, President & CEO of CT Health.  “National research illustrates that even when you take income level and access to health insurance into consideration, people of color do not have equal opportunities to achieve optimal health.”

Selected through a competitive process, the Fellows make a 10-month commitment to attend monthly, half-day seminars, two weekend retreats, a group leadership project, and outside coursework. The program fosters a learning-intensive environment for participants to challenge themselves and each other.  The cultivation of leaders takes place through a variety of activities, including:

  • Listening to state and national health leaders, policy-makers, trainers, and peers
  • Developing expertise about racial and ethnic health disparities and systems change
  • Learning about collaborative leadership
  • Enhancing communication skills
  • Strengthening their readiness, ability, and opportunities to act for health equity
  • Expanding professional networks both inside and outside the Health Leadership Fellows program

“Because advancing health equity is about relationships and multi-sector collaboration, it is important to think of the incoming class in the context of the diverse and powerful statewide network of leaders that CT Health has fostered over the preceding six classes of 120 individuals,” says CT Health Senior Program Officer Elizabeth Krause, who oversees the Fellows program.

“For many Fellows, this program has been the catalyst for them to become agents of social change in health.  These leaders were given tools and information to create new programs, implement new policies, and develop educational campaigns,” says Krause. “Now, they are collectively spearheading change in their places of employment, local communities, and statewide.   Many are now serving on boards of directors, state and local committees such as the Connecticut Commission on Health Equity, SustiNet committees, the Connecticut Multicultural Health Partnership, and nonprofit boards.”

“I hope that the 2012 Fellows class  take full advantage of the opportunities that are presented to them through the Fellowship, the speakers and the leadership opportunities,” says Christi Holmes, a 2010 Fellows graduate and Director of Educational Outreach & Grant Coordinator for the Connecticut State Medical Society.

The opportunities that Holmes speaks about include working with national communications experts from Spitfire Strategies and Yellow Brick Road who provided training on strategic, values-based communications, an important skill needed in building public will to influence opinion and action. They also learned first-hand from a conflict transformation practitioner who worked on apartheid in South Africa, and also happens to be a 2009 Fellow, Margaret Steinegger Keyser. They’ve also met with local and state policy-makers, public health professionals, researchers, and leadership experts.

Members of the 2012 Health Leadership Fellows Class:

  • Heather Crockett-Washington, Yankee Family Dental Care, General Dentist, (West Haven)
  • Sarah Diamond, PhD, Diamond Research Consulting, LLC, Director (West Hartford)
  • Charise M. DePierro, Community Health Center, Inc., Program Manager, Mobile Dental and Community Wellness Programs (Middletown)
  • Lucia Goicoechea-Hernandez, Connecticut General Assembly’s Latino & Puerto Rican Affairs Commission, Special Projects Director (Hartford)
  • Daileann L. Hemmings, Hartford Hospital, Registered Nurse (Hartford)
  • Nancy Kingwood, Greater Bridgeport Area Prevention Program (GBAPP), Inc., Deputy Director of HIV Services (Bridgeport)
  • Ann Martha Levie, Ann Levie Associates, Principal (West Hartford)
  • Fernando Marroquin-Saavedra, MD, Grassroots Strategies (Hartford)
  • Marcus M. McKinney, DMin, Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, Vice President, Community Health Equity and Health Policy (Hartford)
  • Carle-Marie P. Memnon, Yale School of Medicine, Assistant Administrator, Diagnostic Radiology (New Haven)
  • Mari S. Merwin, Asian Family Services, Clinician (Hartford)
  • Betty C. Murray, Connecticut Cancer Partnership and Hartford Hospital Helen & Harry Gray Cancer Center, Disparities Project Coordinator (Hartford)
  • Konjit V. Page, Yale University, Psychology Fellow (New Haven)
  • Otis Pitts, J.D., Hartford Department of Health and Human Services, Operations Manager (Hartford)
  • Leslie Sofia Prado, Aetna Ambulance, Emergency Medical Technician (Hartford)
  • Michael Reid, Connecticut Department of Social Services, Program Assistant Technician (Hartford)
  • Raja Staggers, PhD, Connecticut Commission on Health Equity, Executive Director (Hartford)
  • John P. Torello, State of Connecticut, Judicial Branch, Program Manager, Court Support Services Division (Hartford)
  • Alex Tsarkov, Connecticut General Assembly, Clerk of the Judiciary Committee (Hartford)
  • Jenn Whinnem, Connecticut Health Foundation, Communications Officer (Hartford)
  • Tonya L. Wiley, United Way of Connecticut/211, 211 Health & Human Services Supervisor & Trainer (Rocky Hill)

For more detailed information about the Fellows, please visit http://www.cthealth.org/initiatives/health-leadership-fellows-program.  Applications for the 2013 class of Health Leadership Fellows will be available online starting in early 2012.

About the Connecticut Health Foundation

The Connecticut Health Foundation is the state’s largest independent, philanthropic organization dedicated to improving lives by changing health systems.  Since it was established in July 1999, the foundation has supported innovative grant-making, public health policy research, technical assistance and convening to achieve its mission – to improve the health of the people of Connecticut.

Since 1999, CT Health has awarded grants totaling $44.7 million throughout the state in the following priority areas:

  • Improving access to children’s mental health services
  • Reducing racial and ethnic health disparities
  • Expanding access to and use of children’s oral health services
  • Supporting advocacy and public policy research to create enduring state-wide change

For more information, please visit www.cthealth.org or contact Senior Communications Officer Maryland Grier at Maryland@cthealth.org or 860.724.1580, ext. 21.

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