Childhood trauma has an impact that lasts a lifetime. Trauma-focused treatment and trauma-informed care is critical, but oftentimes lacking in rural America. Southern Illinois is fortunate to be the home of the Stress and Trauma Treatment Center, where Dr. Matt Buckman and his team provide these services in multiple communities. “This is the most important work that any of us can do.” ~Dr. Matt Buckman Dr. Matt Buckman is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Executive Director of the Stress & Trauma Treatment Center. He also serves in various part-time leadership and consultative roles. Dr. Buckman is the PI of the Southern Illinois Resiliency Project at the Center. He is the Co-PI of the IL HEALS (Helping Everyone Access Linked Systems) Demonstration Site Project and Early Childhood System of Care Project under Egyptian Health Department, the Bullying Prevention/Trauma Responsive Schools initiative and the Trauma Based Behavioral Health Fellowship at the Center for Rural Health & Social Services Development within SIU’s School of Medicine, and the Southern Illinois Violence Prevention Project at the Illinois Association of Juvenile Justice Councils. Throughout his roles, Dr. Buckman provides supervision, consultation, and training as well as direct services to children, teens, young adults, and families to help improve a variety of emotional and behavioral health issues. He has worked in various schools, medical, and clinical settings with a specialization in childhood trauma and certifications in Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Managing & Adapting Practices, Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, and Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics. He has extensive experience working with victims of abuse and their families as they recover and heal from significant adversities and considers his work in this area to be his calling in life. Click here to learn more about the Stress & Trauma Treatment Center.

Rural Health Leadership Radio™

269: A Conversation with Dr. Matt Buckman

We may not like to talk about it, but sexual assaults happen in rural America, and something needs to be done. In Tennessee, they are doing something! By way of a grant, an initiative is underway to provide funding for education, training, certification, and retention of Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE). SANE programs are designed to train nurses to address survivors' needs and provide trauma-informed care. The 21 counties of West Tennessee have only five certified SANE nurses, four of whom practice in Shelby County. But the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation received nearly 1,600 reports of sexual assault in West Tennessee in 2019, indicating a significant shortage of nurses certified to meet the need for this care. “The grant was awarded to increase the supply of Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners in West Tennessee.” ~Linda Beasley, DNP, APRN, NP-C, RN Lisa Beasley joined the UTHSC CON faculty in September 2020. Prior to joining UT, Lisa was previously at the University of Memphis Loewenberg College of Nursing for 10 years, serving as a Clinical Associate Professor and the Director of Clinical Education for the last 6 years of her time there. Lisa’s practice as a Family Nurse Practitioner has been in hospice and palliative care for the last 9 years serving patients in rural and underserved communities. Prior to becoming a nurse, Lisa enjoyed an 18-year career in the radio industry. Click here to learn more about this program.

268: A Conversation with Lisa Beasley

A little over 5 years ago, Hanover Hospital was on the brink of closing its doors. Turning things around was going to be a difficult and challenging journey but knowing how much the hospital meant to the community, a dedicated team of rural health workers turned things around. “We were hanging on by a thread, just trying to figure out how to make payroll and keep the doors open.” ~Brittni Oehmke, CEO Brittni is the Administrator at Hanover Hospital, located in Hanover, KS, where she has been for 5 years. She is also a Medical Laboratory Scientist and the current Lab Manager. Brittni has three beautiful children: Kaylee, Dalton and Cole. Her family loves animals, being outdoors and playing sports. Brittni also coaches high school girls’ basketball and is a Kentucky basketball fanatic.

267: A Conversation with Brittni Oehmke

Access to care in rural America is a recurring theme, particularly when it comes to cancer care. Transportation is one of the top challenges rural cancer patients must overcome to receive the treatment they need. But there are people trying to do something about that. One of those persons is Dr. Whitney Zahnd, and that’s one of the things we’re talking about in this week’s episode of Rural Health Leadership Radio. “The best way to reduce cancer disparities and improve cancer rates is to prevent cancer or to find it earlier.” ~Whitney Zahnd, Ph.D. Whitney Zahnd, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Health Management and Policy in the College of Public Health at the University of Iowa. Her research employs health services research, social epidemiological, and spatial methods to address rural cancer disparities across the continuum and to evaluate access to health care services. Dr. Zahnd is a 2021 National Rural Health Association Rural Health Fellow and a board member with the Iowa Rural Health Association. She is a full member of the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center and a member of the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network (CPCRN). Before joining the University of Iowa faculty, Dr. Zahnd completed post-doctoral training and served as research faculty at the Rural & Minority Health Research Center at the University of South Carolina. Prior to earning her doctorate in community health from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2018, she worked for eleven years as a master’s trained researcher at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine supporting rural health and cancer disparities research. Click here to find out more about the Cancer Prevention & Control Research Network (CPCRN).

266: A Conversation with Dr. Whitney Zahnd

Would you like to become a more effective leader if it only took you 5 minutes a day? If that sounds like a winning idea to you, you need to listen to our conversation with Jo Anne Preston, author of Lead the Way in 5 Minutes a Day: Sparking High Performance in Yourself and Your Team. “Healthcare workers have really been gutted because there has been so much stress, so much pressure.” ~Jo Anne Preston Jo Anne Preston is the Workforce and Organizational Development Sr. Mgr. at the Rural WI Health Cooperative, where she brings over four decades of her healthcare leadership experience to designing and delivering leadership and employee education for rural healthcare throughout WI and the U.S. She has an M.S. in Educational Psychology/Community Counseling from Eastern Illinois University and is the author of Lead the Way in Five Minutes a Day: Sparking High Performance in Yourself and Your Team. She also writes a monthly leadership blog. Click here to order your copy of Lead the Way in Five Minutes a Day: Sparking High Performance in Yourself and Your Team.

265: A Conversation with Jo Anne Preston

Humble people doing great things is always inspirational. Prepare yourself to be inspired today by listening to our conversation with Walter Panzirer, Trustee of the Helmsley Charitable Trust. Having lived and worked in rural America, Walter immediately knew where he could make a difference and improve lives when he found out he had been named as a Trustee. “We were given a blank slate to see how we can improve lives around the world.” ~Walter Panzirer Walter Panzirer, is a grandson of Leona Helmsley. Raised in California, he adopted South Dakota as his home. Having worked as a first responder in both states, Walter witnessed personally the significant disparities in quality health care available close to home – disparities that demanded attention. Serving as a paramedic, firefighter, and police officer also made him acutely aware of the range of situations encountered by these professionals – from cardiac and stroke events, to individuals facing a mental health crisis. Upon the death of his grandmother, Walter was to his great surprise named a Trustee of the Helmsley Charitable Trust. He realized the opportunity for investing in better healthcare for Americans in rural communities as well as for supporting communities across rural Africa to build resilience. A passionate advocate for telehealth, Walter is committed to shortening the distance between a medical emergency and life-saving treatment, including outfitting first responders with modern equipment for managing emergencies. His curiosity, coupled with a get-it-done acumen, means that he’s always looking for healthcare leapfrog opportunities that can be readily implemented. Walter studied business and history at Black Hills State University, and pursued pastoral studies at MidAmerica Nazarene University. An inductee to American Telehealth Association’s College of Fellows as well the South Dakota Hall of Fame, Walter has served on a number of nonprofit and educational boards. He, his wife, and their family own and operate a hunting lodge in rural South Dakota.

264: A Conversation with Walter Panzirer

This week we’re talking about the quality of care in rural America, antibiotic stewardship, taking care of cancer patients and rural hospital turnarounds. We’re having that conversation with Bob Milvet, CEO of Grant Memorial Hospital in Petersburg, West Virginia. “What started out as a difficult conversation turned into a very meaningful discussion and dialog.” ~Bob Milvet Bob Milvet is the Chief Executive Officer at Grant Memorial Hospital in Petersburg, West Virginia. He has served in multiple, progressive leadership capacities since 1999 in the areas of Academic Medicine, Community Acute Care Hospitals, Physician Group Practices and Critical Access Hospitals. He is most passionate about rural medicine, and has led financial turnarounds, a new hospital construction project and merger transactions. In his new role as CEO, he is leading the development of a Cancer Center and multiple other renovation projects to greatly improve access to care in his 5-county service area.

263: Bob Milvet

Once again I ask, where will our future rural health leaders come from? And once again we have found one future rural health leader, this time in the state of New York. Her name is Emma Dening, and Emma is this year’s recipient of the Rural Health Leadership Radio Juanita Bartholomew Scholarship. The Juanita Bartholomew Scholarship was established to assist high school graduates who want to continue their education in a healthcare field with the goal of working in Rural America. “Leadership is having the courage to speak against the most common opinion.” ~Emma Dening Growing up in a county with more cows than people, Emma saw the epidemic facing rural youth, especially the population of young girls. Not COVID, rather losing confidence in themselves because of the expectations of their surroundings, many youth in her area surrendered their potential to the opinions of those around them. Throughout high school, Emma captained her Varsity Basketball and Softball teams, lead her Cleats for Athletes program that provided in-need student-athletes with free sports equipment, co-coached several youth girls basketball teams, began a tutoring program and started a program connecting young athletes to their varsity teams, in hopes of inspiring the youth to take control of their own futures and be their own greatest activists. This fall, she will be entering Le Moyne College’s 5-year Physician Assistant program, granting her a Master’s in Biology and her PA license. Initially, Emma committed to St. Lawrence University to further her basketball career with the intent of entering medical school before deciding a career as a PA better suited her desired lifestyle.

262: Emma Dening

Where will our future rural health leaders come from? We have found one future rural health leader in Louisiana and we’re having a conversation with her. Her name is Ellyn Kate Boothe, and Ellyn Kate is the recipient of the Rural Health Leadership Radio Earl Bartholomew Scholarship. The Earl Bartholomew Scholarship was established to assist high school graduates who want to continue their education in a healthcare field with the goal of working in Rural America. “My definition of leadership would be to carry yourself with grace and determination.” ~Elynn Kate Boothe Elynn Kate Boothe is a recent graduate of Minden High School in Minden, Louisiana. She is an active member of her youth group at First Baptist Minden where she loves to fellowship and serve others in her community. In her free time, you can find her with a book, hanging out with family and friends, and online shopping. She is excited to be starting a new chapter in her life by attending Northwestern State University in the fall to pursue a degree in nursing.

261: Elynn Kate Boothe

How do you create a healthier rural community? Collaboration is certainly a key ingredient to making that happen, but how do you go about that? Dr. Sameer Vohra and his team of collaborators are trying to make a difference in rural Southern Illinois with the ‘Building a Healthier Rural Illinois’ initiative. “People in rural areas were more likely before the pandemic to die from the five leading causes of death in America.” ~Dr. Sameer Vohra Dr. Vohra was born and raised in Chicago and received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Northwestern University. He then went on to receive a dual degree from Southern Illinois University’s Medicine and Law Dual Degree Program, as well as traveling to India on a United States Department of State Fulbright Scholarship. He has a passion for improving people’s health as well as the one-on-one connection that comes with being a physician, fueled by his desire to understand how he could work to improve society’s health. Dr. Vohra would go on to attend the University of Chicago where he was the first to follow the pediatric public policy track, where he trained as a general pediatrician and received advanced public policy training. Dr. Sameer Vohra settled back into Southern Illinois University and began his journey into population health and science, taking steps to make a concrete difference in the communities he served. He was able to lead the creation of the Office of Population Science and Policy to determine if there would be support, funding, and interest in the community to launch the office as an academic department. The Department of Population Science and Policy was officially launched in July 2018, and is only one of 25 such departments in the country.

260: Dr. Sameer Vohra

Oftentimes we feel like we cannot make a difference. We say to ourselves, “I’m only one voice. How can I make a difference? I work at a little hospital in the middle of nowhere, who’s going to listen to me” I’ve heard numerous rural health leaders say that or something similar. Yet I know firsthand that one voice can make a big difference. “Small things make a big difference.” ~Bill Auxier Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, explains how trends in behavior, marketing, or business have a ‘magic moment’ when they rapidly spread like an epidemic. He calls this moment the ‘tipping point.’ I thought it was appropriate to revisit this book with its epidemic analogy and the idea that little things can make a big impact. Rural Health Leadership Radio was created to share rural health leadership best practices at no cost. Each week, we have a different rural health leader as a guest sharing what works, what they have tried that didn’t work, and the unique approaches they are implementing. Thank you for listening!

259: The Tipping Point

This week on Rural Health Leadership Radio we are having a conversation with Dr. Hannah Wenger, a clinical care specialist on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, and faculty member at Massachusetts General Hospital. Hannah is a physician who is passionate about providing culturally relevant care to the residents of the community she serves. “What does allopathic medicine have to do with a traditional ceremony like a sweat lodge? I would argue it has a lot to do with it” ~ Hannah Wenger M.D. Hannah Wenger, MD, is a general internist and faculty member at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) having just completed MGH’s Fellowship Program in Rural Health Leadership.  She obtained her undergraduate degree in biology at the University of Notre Dame and her medical degree at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.  She then completed an internal medicine residency and a clinical medical ethics fellowship at the University of Chicago.  As a rural health fellow at MGH, Dr. Wenger currently provides clinical care to the Sicangu Lakota Oyate on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota.  Her interests include Two Spirit and LGBTQ health, hepatitis C, and clinical ethics.

REPLAY: 207: A Conversation with Dr. Hannah Wenger

 This week on Rural Health Leadership Radio we’re talking about movement as medicine. We’re having that conversation with Dr. Anthony Fleg, Director of Running Medicine. “Movement is something we as leaders, as health professionals, need to remember is one of our simplest outlets that life gives us.” ~Anthony Fleg Dr. Fleg is a family physician who thinks of his work of healing as “occasionally done with a stethoscope, more often done in communities…done with youth and elders, done through art, language, culture, and love, and through listening more than through talking.” Through NHI, Dr. Fleg created the Running Medicine (www.runningmedicine.org) program in 2016, a unique approach to mind, body, and spiritual wellness through walking and running.  “Leadership is more about empowering people around you to see the best in themselves and to see their own ability to lead, to heal, and do for themselves.” ~Anthony Fleg Dr. Fleg is also a co-founder of the Native Health Initiative (www.lovingservice.us), a partnership to address health inequities through loving service.  He is also a faculty member at the University of New Mexico in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, and in the College of Population Health. Dr. Fleg considers himself a love activist, grounded in a deep belief that love can serve as a vehicle toward equity, justice and social transformation. For more information about Dr. Fleg’s work, see the links below! "What is Running Medicine" video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_m7L5lP1hs Annals of Family Medicine article: http://www.annfammed.org/content/17/5/466.full.pdf+html​ NHI Brochure: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mScFc3EfcLgcCBIxGvVWncmHtGvU74zW/view 2018 RM Report: https://www.dropbox.com/s/25nvujcdf3tpo4s/2018-Report%20022019.pdf?dl=0 2019 Running Medicine Report https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LsupYTCsxoLNGo6DIN_GpwDosxKtAvIY/view?usp=sharing 

REPLAY: Episode 190: A Conversation with Dr. Anthony Fleg

This week’s guest is Christian Curtis with the Fort Peck Tribes Health Promotion Disease Prevention program (HPDP). Christian is a registered nurse who started working with the Tribes in August 2015. Her plan to continue to work for this program to assist in providing medical services to children on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. “Anytime you work with a cultural group or a native population, it’s important to know their history and what they’ve gone through as a people.” Christian grew up on the Fort Peck Reservation and is an enrolled member of the Tribe. She graduated from one of the High Schools on the reservation in 2011 and continued her education at the Fort Peck Community College. While a student there, she was given several opportunities to pursue a nursing career. In August 2012, she continued her undergraduate studies at Crown College in St. Bonifacius, MN, where she graduated in May 2015, with dual degrees: a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Christian Studies. Christian chose to work for the HPDP program because of the unique opportunities to expand in providing services on the reservation. She loves the work and hopes to continue on this path in providing and enhancing healthcare for her community.

REPLAY: Episode 59 - A Conversation with Christian Curtis

First, it was hurricane Elsa. Then it was tropical storm Elsa. Then it became hurricane Elsa once again, and the Rural Health Leadership Radio studio was right in the projected path. Then once again it became tropical storm Elsa. As you might imagine, it was a bit of a roller coaster ride, trying to figure out how to prepare for the situation you might face. Does this type of scenario sound familiar? That’s why we’re talking about leadership resilience today. “The way you deal with difficult time is so important to leadership.” ~Bill Auxier Here is a link to the article referenced in this conversation: https://www.apa.org/topics/resilience Rural Health Leadership Radio was created to share rural health leadership best practices at no cost. Each week we have a different rural health leader as a guest sharing what they are doing that works, what they have tried that didn’t work and unique approaches they are implementing. Thank you for listening!

255: Leadership Resilience

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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Rural Health Leadership Radio™

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