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Our Celebration of Health Care Champions
Thanks to everyone who sent in nominations - it was wonderful to recieve so many affirmations of the amazing people in our community.
Below are the citations for each of our winning nominations.
Click here to review nomination criteria.
In our IPHCA Monthly for November 2023, you can read more about our Champions of Health Care Luncheon and our worthy winners.
This year's Awards Luncheon was sponsored by:
Provider of the Year Award -
Amanda Davis-Houchin of Lifespring
"Amanda Davis-Houchin is a Nurse Practitioner at our Jeffersonville Clinic. She serves a very marginalized population that is medically fragile and is well known to provide outstanding care for these individuals. She goes the extra mile to figure out ways to navigate the system to get her patients essential meds and into specialty appointments. Amanda also gives her time consistently outside of normal clinic hours to provide care at our local homeless shelter and street outreach. She also has set up numerous pop-up clinics at our local recovery organizations. And most importantly she provides all this care with kindness and grace that should be a model to all of us."
Amanda Davis-Houchin, FNP, CARN-AP, CEN
Provider of the Year Award -
Dr. Jerra Sharp-Williams of Indiana Health Centers
"Dr. Jerra Sharp-Williams has been a dentist at Indiana Health Centers since 2010. She was instrumental in developing the COVID-19 safety strategy for IHC’s dental program in 2020, and because of her leadership abilities and excellent patient care was named Deputy Chief Dental Officer for the organization in 2021. Dr. Sharp is dedicated to IHC’s mission but has also left an impression on her co-workers and patients. As a provider she has been described as selfless,thoughtful, caring, compassionate, and kind. Her co-workers have noted that she goes the extra mile to support patients in need of extra care.
This year she commuted four plus hours daily for six months to make sure we had provider coverage at one of our other dental locations. She has proven to be an asset and a role model for everyone within the organization, and we are grateful to have her as a part of our team."
Jerra Sharp-Williams, DMD
Employee of the Year Award -
Nancy Curd of Jane Pauley Community Health Center
"Nancy is the Enabling Services Senior Manager at the Jane Pauley Community Health Center. Nancy has built up our Health & Outreach Advocates (HOA's) (Community Health Workers) from a staff of one to now a staff of 12! The HOA's at our sites work with our patients by signing them up on Medicaid or on our Sliding Fee Scale. Also, the HOA's are SHIP certified and can help with Medicare questions. Nancy also has lead a new service for our patients, Food Pantries! We now have Food Pantries at all 10 of our JPCHC sites.
Nancy has hired a Community Services Coordinator to help with the logistics of the Food Pantries. Since opening in November, the Food Pantries have served over 3,700 patients and have given out 2,328 bags of food!"
Nancy Curd
Volunteer of the Year Award -
Mike Busch of Indiana Health Centers
"Mike Busch has been a member of the Indiana Health Centers Board of Directors since 1996. He joined when IHC opened its fifth medical center in Logansport, Indiana and has supported the organization in opening five additional locations since then. He has been a long-time proponent of Community Health Centers and has advocated at the state and national level on multiple occasions. Mike has also served as the chair of the finance committee and as the head of two CEO search committees. Mike’s passionate support and invaluable input have been a constant through IHC’s last 27 years, through their highs and lows, and the organization would like to recognize Mike Busch for his commitment to Indiana Health Centers and CHC’s nationwide."
Mike Busch
The Debra Meers Grassroots Advocacy Award -
Dr Beth Keeney - Lifespring
"Dr. Beth Keeney has been with LifeSpring for nearly 20 years. She has transformed what started as a Community Mental Health Center into a comprehensive FQHC/CMHC that integrates the best in primary care, behavioral health care, and addiction care. When she transitioned into the CEO role, she rapidly made changes that ensured patients were given every opportunity for high quality care. She eliminated barriers by changing outdated policies, she spearheaded efforts to ensure open access at every office, and is never afraid to get intricately involved in the every day workings to ensure that individuals are getting the service they deserve.
Dr. Keeney has expanded services into schools, mobile units, and rural areas. She has used creative access and strategic partnerships in the communities we serve to ensure that every single person in our service area has access to care. I am profoundly grateful to be working alongside her.
Dr. Keeney is an outstanding leader. Her advocacy for our Health Centers at Lifespring is nonstop. Having a CEO that operates with a philosophy of no barriers to care trickles down throughout the organization. She has been known to encounter patients on the street with a service need and bring them directly to our clinics for care. She has helped meet this need by creating open access programs for both medical and behavioral health, a crisis stabilitzation unit, and mobile outreach team. Our community is truly a better place as a result of Dr. Keeney's work."
Beth Keeney, DrPH
Philip L. Morphew Award -
Jennifer Emmons of Family Health Center
"Jennifer Emmons, CEO of the Family Health Center, continually leads our focus on delivering high-quality patient care. In 2022, the Family Health Center improved on 9 Quality Measures from 2021. The Family Health Center did so well on Quality they also outperformed in 10 Quality Measures above other IN FQHC LALs as well as US FQHC LALs.
Jennifer is very passionate about the patients and her staff. It doesn't matter what topic we are discussing, she is always putting herself in the patient's/employee's shoes. Her drive is not to be to be the biggest heatlthcare center, but for Family Helath Center to be know for delivering the best quality care! In July, the Family Health Center took over 6 other Behavioral Health Centers. Jennifer has gone from 25 employees to a little over 200. I have no doubt that withing the next couple of years, all 7 clinics will be surpassing quality under the direction of our CEO Jennifer Emmons."
Jennifer Emmons
Legislator of the Year Award -
Mike Braun, US Senator
(Awaiting citation)
Senator Michael Braun
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