Alumni

Michael Howard

Michael Howard
Location: Madisonville, Kentucky Cohort Start Year: 2016 Project Topic: Health Care Access Population Served: Rural Communities
Vice President for Education and Research
Baptist Health Madisonville
COALITION BUILDING TO RAISE THE TIDE IN RURAL WELLNESS

FOCUS
I live in rural western Kentucky, which is a particularly unhealthy part of a particularly unhealthy state. Our focus is on harnessing our existing community resources across all areas from economic development to education to health care. We will build a coalition of partners who will be able to work together to address the socioeconomic barriers that are preventing some of those in our communities from accessing and fully utilizing health care and other social programs that can positively impact their well-being and quality of life.

STRATEGIC INITIATIVE: Western Kentucky Multidisciplinary Stakeholders Coalition for Community Health
We are building a multidisciplinary coalition of local stakeholders to improve community health in rural western Kentucky. Our two-phase project will initially focus on community health education and expanding access to healthcare through outreach. Phase two will identify client families and systematically identify and address the root causes of dysfunction in the family, thus addressing fundamental causes of poor health and low prosperity.

MORE ABOUT MICHAEL
I’m the VP for Education and Research at the unusually large medical center in my hometown. I just moved back here after a career in biomedical research and academia. My position here and the support of my hospital allows us to be the engine that helps to spark a change that will bring the Culture of Health to rural Kentucky and allow us to be an example of what rural communities can become.

Click here to watch Michael’s Legacy Project video.