Heroes and celebrations

In the presence of heroes

Friday afternoon, I attended one of the most moving events I have been part of in a very long time. Led by Professor Ed Fisher, PhD, former Chair, the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education (HBHE) sponsored an event to examine the historical roots of the department.

They invited H. Jack Geiger, MD, MSciHyg, ScD (hon) and John W. Hatch, Jr., DrPH, MSW, to talk about their experiences developing the concept and reality of community health centers in Bolivar County, Mississippi, and Columbia Point, Boston, Massachusetts, the first two community health centers in the United States – the beginning of a movement.

Jack Geiger is the Arthur C. Logan Professor of Community Medicine at the Medical School of the City University of New York.  He has received numerous awards, including the Nobel Prize and an honorary degree from UNC.

Hatch also has been recognized with numerous awards, including Kenan Distinguished Professor. Ted Parrish, DrPH, former Chair of Health Education at North Carolina Central University, provided perspective on the importance of their work, as did Lynn Blanchard, PhD, MPH, Director of the Carolina Center for Public Service, and Jo Anne Earp, ScD, HBHE Interim Chair.

Professor Geni Eng, DrPH, moderated and showed a video filmed while Geiger and Hatch were in Mississippi in the late 1960s/1970s. It was almost overwhelming to observe the poverty that confronted them in Mississippi and how they created, out of dirt and poverty, first a health center, then fields and crops, a school that educated people and created a model of how to improve lives.

I thought about the fact that, over the years, we have developed sophisticated models to describe the multiple kinds of determinants that affect health. Yet, these men went to one of the poorest places in America and created a new model of health care, one in which they worked with the community to develop its educational resources, sending residents to college for the first time, buying acreage so they could grow their own food, defining health in all its complex multidimensionality and not merely as the provision of primary care, which millions of people still need in this country. Of course, health services are essential, but they are not enough. The studies that were done in the early days of the community health center movement provided the evidence that people got healthier as a result of interventions on multiple levels.

This is another example of the fact that UNC School of Public Health has been fighting for social justice and improved health and social conditions for the long run. Jack said that their ideas for the community health center concept were partly formed by a visit he’d made to health centers in South Africa where he met several people who were part of this movement and later emigrated to Chapel Hill—Sidney Kark, MD, Guy Steuart, PhD, MPH, and John Cassel, MD, MPH. Thus, Geiger and his colleagues transported and translated a model that was conceived in South Africa but came to maturity in the United States. John Hatch took much of what he learned in Bolivar County to improve health in Cameroon, Africa. Even in the earlier days of the School, these global/local connections were strong.

Geiger urged students to think boldly and courageously about what they could do to push the envelope to improve health. It was hard to walk out of there without feeling, “Yes, we can!” It made me think about UNC Tomorrow and how we can make a difference in North Carolina. How much more might accomplish if we could get out of our topical silos and think about how education, health and economics could fit together to improve people’s lives?

Couples

I am beginning to realize that there are a lot of happy marriages/relationships that came about thanks to the School of Public Health, where the couples met. Saturday night, my husband and I had the pleasure of attending the wedding of two of our HPM grads, Jimmy Rosen, MBA, MSPH, and Jennifer Casey, MHA. It was a lovely event, very thoughtfully done, and very inclusive. It was fun to talk with some of our current students and other alumni. Best wishes Jimmy and Jen!

Our celebration

Learning more about the heroic history of our School and the people here, our long traditions of working to end health disparities, the many years in which faculty, staff and students have learned from abroad and applied the lessons at home and vice versa, makes me even prouder of this School. One of the first Gillings Innovation Labs, led by Professor Alice Ammerman, DrPH, is focusing on the connections between sustainable farming and health, something that has its intellectual roots in some of the work that was done in Mississippi.

All the more reason to celebrate the naming of the School September 26th. We are going to have a fabulous picnic with local foods and music by Big Fat Gap after a brief ceremony with messages from Chancellor Holden Thorp, PhD, President Bowles, State Health Director and Director, Division of Public Health, NC DHHS, Leah Devlin, DDS, MPH, Board of Trustees Chair Roger Perry and Student Government Co-President Lauren Thie. I hope you all will join us!

Please register by going to www.sph.unc.edu/anticipate. We want everyone to come and enjoy the ceremony. But to be sure we have enough food for everyone, we need you to register.

I look forward to seeing a lot of our faculty, staff, students and friends on September 26th! Happy Monday. Barbara