Multnomah County Health Department announces 2008 Public Health Heroes
From the Health Dept.:
Multnomah County Health Department’s eighth annual Public Health Heroes award celebration recognizes the contributions of community members, through their work or volunteerism, to protect and promote the health of all of us in Multnomah County.
Public Health Hero awards are given in six categories, (listed with winners on page 2) three of which have been named for individuals who have made outstanding contributions to public health. Multnomah County established the Josiah Hill Community Leadership Award to honor his legacy as a powerful and dedicated champion in the fight for social, racial, health, and environmental justice. The Governor John Kitzhaber Public Health Leadership Award honors those in our community who have worked unceasingly to create policy solutions that assure, promote, and protect health for every member of the community. The Katie Jeans-Gail Award for Youth Heroes memorializes a young woman who was a champion for public health. She worked both locally and internationally to assure that the most vulnerable in our world could be healthy.
In conjunction with the National Public Health Week theme, “Climate Change: Our Health in the Balance,” Secretary of State Bill Bradbury will be conducting a presentation about how climate change affects Oregonians. Trained by Vice President Al Gore, Mr. Bradbury promotes policy solutions to global warming that will improve our quality of life and enhance our future prosperity, as well as provide individuals and businesses with the inspiration they need to make a real difference.
Multnomah County Health Department will celebrate the contribution of local health heroes at the Public Health Heroes award ceremony:
Thursday, April 10, 2008
10:00am – 10:45am (Secretary of State Bradbury’s presentation)
11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (Awards Celebration)
Multnomah Building Board Room
501 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland, Oregon 97214
2008 Public Health Hero Awardees
Josiah Hill Community Leadership Award for Community Member
Antonio Lopez is the Principal of Clarendon at Portsmouth K-8 School in North Portland. His school serves 380 students, with 88% living below the poverty level and children of color comprising nearly 75% of the student population. Through partnership with the Health Department’s Chronic Disease Prevention Program, Mr. Lopez established the Health Eating, Active Living (HEAL) Coalition. He recognized that overweight and obesity is a problem in his school community and this problem affects many facets of his students' lives, from their ability to learn to their general quality of life. He has transformed his recognition of this problem into concrete problem solving and action by serving as a champion for the HEAL Coalition.
Dr. Bob Sayson is the founder of Good News Community Health Center in the Gresham/Rockwood area. This clinic has provided health care to the uninsured and underinsured, who often cannot afford health care due to the high premiums. Since May 2007, the clinic served nearly 1200 patients and runs completely with community volunteers. Dr. Sayson left a lucrative practice at Mt. Hood Medical Center to establish Good News Community Health Center to help address the growing need for affordable, high quality health care in one of the areas of most need in Multnomah County.
Governor John Kitzhaber Public Health Leadership
Bill Bradbury The Secretary of State promotes policy solutions to global warming that will improve our quality of life and enhance our future prosperity, as well as providing individuals and businesses with the inspiration they need to make a difference. In doing so, he has inspired numerous local governments to take action by setting goals and developing local action plans. In addition, the Secretary of State has been instrumental in developing Oregon's progressive climate strategies and goals. With his personal and professional advocacy on climate change issues, Oregon and its residents stand as an example to the rest of the country and to the world.
Multnomah County Employee
Jessica Guernsey Camargo has worked on the development and implementation of the pandemic flu response. Utilizing the health promotion framework, her pandemic flu efforts have included work on a state, regional, and local policy development level as well as having a strong focus on community level education, training, and planning. She has recently been named co-chair to the Oregon State Council of Local Health Officials (CLHO) Emergency Preparedness Committee.
Matthew Lashua founded the county’s response to National LGBT Health Awareness week through the development of the Conference planning committee. The committee has grown over the past three years to include 18 organizations that have put resources, staff and funding toward achieving LGBTQ health equity. Through Matthew’s leadership, the LGBT Meaningful Care Conference has not only become a place where providers can receive information on the best practices to effectively serve LGBTQ patients, but it has been an opportunity for social service organizations to come together to strategize and effectively address community health.
Business
Medela, Inc. is a breast pump manufacturing company with global distribution, including a contract with the Western States Contracting Alliance of the USDA Women, Infants and Children Program (WIC). Through research development, Medela produced the Pump In Style Advanced which features 2-Phase Expression technology. The pump more closely mimics what the baby does by providing a stimulation phase and then an expression phase. Medela made this new model available to WIC clients at current pricing levels. These business decisions demonstrate a tremendous commitment to women, infant nutrition, and the underserved.
Community-Based Organization
MIKE (Multicultural Integrated Kidney Education) Program A unique, hands-on, project-based service learning curriculum that aligns with state and national standards for both health education and career-related learning skills. MIKE Program developed a mentor program that recruits, trains, and provides ongoing support and monitoring for group mentors placed in schools and organizations that serve youth in need of healthy relationships with caring, responsible adults. MIKE Program connects teenagers with various health occupations by integrating health professionals in training, such as medical students from OHSU, and practicing health care providers, such as medical doctors, nurses, and patient care technicians from dialysis clinics, as near-age mentors and content experts.
Katie Jeans-Gail Award for Young Heroes
Albert Le, Anatoliy Vlasenko, Thath Kim, Justine Grandbois, Louis Herbert, Jordan Pulver This group of Benson High School students discovered a lack of flu and pneumonia immunization in elders and children in Vietnamese and Russian populations in Multnomah County. They designed a project to increase immunization rates in these populations by coordinating a series of clinics at two Russian and Vietnamese churches in the area, translating all information into Vietnamese and Russian, working with the Health Department to have vaccine donated to the project, and identifying Vietnamese and Russian healthcare providers willing to donate their time to perform the vaccinations. The project resulted in over 180 people being vaccinated, and created permanent links between the Health Department and these communities so the program can be continued in future years.
Posted on April 7, 2008
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