1/16/23 — As the first employee of the nation’s first health center in n Mound Bayou, Mississippi, Dr. John W. Hatch is a pillar of the Community Health Center Movement and a nationally known public health leader. In this episode, NACHC Senior Vice President Ben Money talks with Dr. Hatch about the intersection of the health center and the Civil Rights movements, citizen participation, and Dr. Hatch’s early work to address social drivers of health. Watch episode and read transcript.

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10/10/22 — What happens when health center care teams know more about a patient’s occupation? This data can be especially important if the patient is an essential worker, as the Health Choice Network, a health center-controlled network based in Miami, and their partners at La Casa Family Health Center in New Mexico, learned during the COVID pandemic when treating a high-risk group of dairy farmworkers. Watch episode and read transcript.

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7/20/22 — In this episode, Wanda Montalvo, PhD, RN, FAAN, our senior fellow and team lead for public health integration and innovation at NACHC, interviews pediatrician Lisa Costello, M.D., MPH, of the West Virginia University School of Medicine, about vaccine benefits as well as answers some commonly asked questions. For more resources about vaccines, view the HHS We Can Do This provider and patient education materials on pediatric COVID-19 vaccines. Watch episode video or read transcript.

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6/29/2022 –On June 18, 2022, the COVID-19 vaccine was approved by the federal government for children under 5. In this short episode of the “Health Centers on the Front Lines” podcast, our Senior Fellows Wanda Montalvo, PhD, RN, FAAN, and Jennie McLaurin, MD, MPH, MA, draw on their experience as healthcare providers and parents to discuss the benefits of vaccination and common parent concerns. Watch video and read transcript.

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3/15/2022 — Early March marked two years since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, and health care workers, who may have been stressed and strained before, are now experiencing emotional exhaustion. This episode features an interview with NACHC Senior Fellows Dr. Jennie McLaurin and Dr. Grace Wang about ways to support the emotional and mental health of health center workers.

Dr. McLaurin is a pediatrician with 30 years of experience caring for underserved families at the local, state, and national level, including as medical director of migrant and community health centers. Dr. Wang is a family physician who worked for more than 30 years at health centers and public health departments in New York City and Seattle, most recently at International Community Health Services in Seattle. Watch video of the interview. Learn more about moral injury.

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Episode 8: Community Health Centers Mark One Year of Ensuring Equity in COVID Vaccinations

2/15/2022 — Approximately 1 year ago, the Biden administration began supplying health centers directly with COVID-19 vaccines as part of the strategy to ensure that communities hardest hit by the pandemic have equal access to vaccines. NACHC’s Senior Vice President for Public Health Priorities, Ben Money, talked with Jim Macrae, associate administrator for primary health care in the HHS Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) about this unprecedented year and how the pandemic response is going. Watch video.

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Episode 7: Battling the Pandemic and Systemic Racism in North Carolina

12/20/2021 — In this episode NACHC’s Senior Vice President for Public Health Priorities, Ben Money, talks with Reuben Blackwell and Sherri Bryant of Rocky Mount OIC Health Center about how they are battling systemic racism in addition to the pandemic as they protect their community from COVID-19. OIC  managed to mobilize its community to operate outside of local government entities and reach the people impacted the hardest — Black and brown frontline essential workers and their communities. Watch video.

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EPISODE 6: The Effort to Vaccinate Kids for COVID-19

12/2/2021 — Rising concerns about the spread of the Omicron variant have Community Health Center racing to protect families, including kids 5 to 11 years old in underserved communities. There are over 2,500 School-Based Health Centers (SBHCs) across the United States. We spoke with experts to learn more about SBHCs and why they are critical to protecting the health and well-being of pediatric populations.

Guests: Paula Fields, MSN, BSN, RN; and Anna Goddard, Ph.D., APRN, CPNP-PC; of the School-Based Health Alliance; and Jennie McLaurin, MD, MPH, MA, FAAP, NACHC.

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