2005 Public Health Genius Award Winners
2005 Public Health Genius Award
2005 Exceptional Achievement Award
2005 Public Health Merit Awards
2005 Public Health Genius Award
Merwyn (Mitch) Greenlick
Researcher, Teacher, Leader, and State Legislator
Mitch Greenlick is the recipient of the 2005 Genius Award. Dr. Greenlick is a familiar and respected name in both Oregon and national public health. An academician, researcher, visionary and tireless practitioner of collaboration, he is responsible for improving the public’s health on many fronts – through research, policy and practice. He is founding Director of the Kaiser Center for Health Research (CHR). Under Greenlick’s leadership, CHR became a national leader in health research making innumerable improvements in health services, both locally and globally. As a result of Mitch Greenlick’s vision and leadership, researchers, providers, consumers and communities worked together to develop an evidence-based model for Community-Based Drug and Alcohol Treatment. As a result of this collaborative effort countless lives have been improved. CHR’s early and groundbreaking work on a comprehensive model of care connecting medical, environmental and social services resulted in the SHMO (Social Health Maintenance Organization) for frail elderly that has been replicated across the country. Sentinel work on tobacco cessation and prevention, healthy diet and exercise, and other health and health policy issues would not have been completed had Mitch Greenlick not had the vision to create CHR more than thirty years ago. Upon retiring from CHR, Greenlick was not ready to retire from public health. Rather, he moved to OHSU where he worked with academic and public health practice colleagues to form the educational collaborative that is now the Oregon MPH Program. This unique three university (OHSU, PSU and OSU) graduate MPH program currently serves 300 students enrolled in eight tracts on three campuses.
Retirement from his leadership position at OHSU has not given Greenlick much time to reminisce about the past. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors of the Northwest Health Foundation, he won election to the Oregon House of Representatives where he is recognized as a health care expert and leader. His latest cause is to qualify the HOPE amendment to the Oregon constitution that will recognize healthcare as a basic right for all Oregonians. All Oregonians are exceedingly fortunate to have the untiring Mitch Greenlick as their Public Health Genius.
2005 Exceptional Achievement Award
Barbara Alexander-Brown
Third Year Medical Student - OHSU
Barbara Alexander-Brown is the recipient of 2005 Exceptional Achievement Award. In the words of nominator Jennifer Boyd, Ph.D, OHSU School of Medicine, “As a third year medical student, Barbara Alexander-Brown represents the future of medicine. Like most medical students, she is excited and nervous. Uniquely, however, Alexander-Brown is already working diligently to shape the future in ways that will better serve underserved minority populations.” Recognizing access and outcome disparities for minorities, Alexander-Brown took the initiative to apply for a grant from Pfizer. As a result of her compelling proposal, she was awarded a $50,000 unrestricted educational grant for multicultural activities. It was the largest grant Pfizer awarded in 2004 and the first ever awarded to a medical student. Alexander-Brown has used the money to organize and stage the “Bridging the Gap Health Care Conference” which occurred on September 17, 2005. The conference addressed health care disparities in Oregon minorities with a practical, hands-on approach.
In addition, participants were able to explore the underlying reasons for disparities in morbidity and mortality as well as discuss how ethnicity and/or cultural heritage may shape physician-patient interactions and subsequent treatment options. The conference also offered consumers free screenings and wellness events. Alexander-Brown’s life experiences have given her a special passion for violence prevention, especially domestic violence. Upon graduation, she is considering the field of Emergency Medicine and Public Health research related to minority health access and decreasing outcome disparities.
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2005 Public Health Merit Awards
Thomas Aschenbrener
Supporting Health Organizations
Thomas Aschenbrener, President of the Northwest Health Foundation (NWHF) and a 2005 Merit Award recipient, has been instrumental in establishing a new model of philanthropic investment in Oregon’s communities. Aschenbrener’s vision is one of service that involves the community as a true partner, not merely the passive recipient of funds. He recognizes and understands the root causes affecting a community’s health and has provided leadership that supports strategic investment, and not just project to project funding. Thomas Aschenbrener continually “walks the talk” of collaboration, bringing other foundations and community partners together to tackle some of the most deep rooted and significant health issues facing Oregon. With Aschenbrener’s leadership, NWHF recognized the need for collaboration between nursing educators and nurses in the practice setting as the conditions for a potentially devastating, long-term nursing shortage loomed on the horizon. The result of his vision, facilitation, determination, collaboration and NWHF’s financial assistance has resulted in Oregon’s unique strategic plan for nursing and the development of The Oregon Center for Nursing. Aschenbrener has also guided the foundation in focusing on other vital public health issues including the environment, children’s mental health, and access to quality healthcare – especially for the most underserved and vulnerable. CHP joins with the Board of Northwest Health Foundation in recognizing the outstanding public health work of Thomas Aschenbrener.
Sharon Johnson
Rural Advocate for Older Adults
Sharon Johnson, a 2005 Merit Award recipient, is recognized for her dedication and leadership in addressing the health needs of older adults in Jackson and Josephine Counties. As an Assistant Professor and Field Faculty member at the OSU Extension in Central Point, OR, Johnson identifies needs, puts together practical and well-evaluated programs and works at a broad community level to impact overall community systems. This approach is exemplified by the program, Maximizing Brief Encounters: Realizing Measurable Gains, an 8 week training program for community volunteers who deliver food to home-bound elders. Volunteers perform simple health-related interventions to assist seniors in continuing to live independently.
Currently volunteers trained in this program are serving 800 seniors in the two counties. Johnson writes a weekly column in the Medford Mail Tribune, “Healthy Aging” and is host of a monthly community cable television program, “Healthy Aging Through the Lifespan.” For the past two years, she has organized an Optimal Aging Conference which attracts 200 seniors from Southern Oregon. Johnson is truly committed to addressing the public health needs of seniors, especially rural seniors.
Elaine Severson
Supporting Women and Children in Deschutes County
Elaine Severson, retired public health nurse and recipient of a 2005 Merit Award, has spent the past 23 years identifying needs of women and children in Deschutes County and creating sustainable programs in response. Identifying a lack of support for teen parents, she worked with school personnel to develop the Bend Teen Parent Program. She brought together a diverse community coalition to create Grandma’s House, a residential program which provides a nurturing shelter to homeless and/or abused pregnant teens and teen mothers and their babies.
She was instrumental in developing the school-based health center in LaPine to serve low income medically underserved students. Recognizing the lack of dental services for low income children, she became involved in the development of the Oral Health Coalition of Deschutes County which provides WIC dental screenings, referrals to pediatric dental specialists and dental education materials.
Recently retired from the Deschutes County Health Department, Severson continues to serve teens with her involvement in the county’s Teen Suicide Prevention Project. In the words of Dan Peddycord, Director of the Deschutes County Health Department and Catherine Quas, Central Oregon Dental Society President, “Complex planning and community coalition building are perfect for someone with Elaine’s compassion, creativity and skill. She brings together diverse services to weave a wonderful fabric of care.”
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