Ep. 46: Jennifer Bacani McKenney, MD, FAAFP, is a family physician in her hometown of Fredonia, Kansas, a community of approximately 2,200 people. She has owned and managed her practice Fredonia Family Care alongside her father and other great colleagues since 2009. McKenney was named the 2021 Rural Health Practitioner of the Year by the National Rural Health Association and received the Early Career Achievement Award by the University of Kansas School of Medicine in 2021.

McKenney is currently the associate dean for rural medical education for the KU School of Medicine. She also serves as the Wilson County health officer and is co-chair of the statewide Health Officers of Kansas group.

She was a member of the USD 484 school board, serving as the president for two years. She is a past president of the Kansas Academy of Family Physicians and was the resident member of the AAFP Board of Directors. She serves on the board of directors for the Kansas Health Foundation and is on the medical staff at Fredonia Regional Hospital, a 25-bed critical access hospital. She has made numerous appearances on national and local news covering COVID-19 and rural health.

Listen now, and learn how Dr. McKenney is an innovative leader in Kansas.

For more about the Health Fund: https://healthfund.org/

Ep. 45: Kathleen Sebelius served as the 21st secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services from 2009-14. As HHS secretary, Sebelius was instrumental in overseeing the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Before becoming secretary, she served as the 44th governor of Kansas from 2003-09, the second woman to hold that office. She currently serves as CEO of Sebelius Resources, LLC, as well as co-chair of the Aspen Institute Health Strategy Group, a nonpartisan group addressing critical U.S. health challenges. 

Listen now, and learn how Secretary Sebelius is an innovative leader in Kansas.

For more about the Health Fund: https://healthfund.org/

Ep. 44: Dr. Donna Ginther is the Roy A. Roberts & Regents Distinguished Professor of Economics and Director of the Institute for Policy & Social Research at the University of Kansas and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Prior to joining the University of Kansas faculty, she was a research economist and associate policy adviser in the regional group of the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta from 2000 to 2002 and taught at Washington University from 1997 to 2000 and Southern Methodist University from 1995 to 1997.

Her major fields of study are scientific labor markets, gender differences in employment outcomes, wage inequality, science policy, and investments in children.

A native of Wisconsin, Dr. Ginther received her doctorate in economics in 1995, master's degree in economics in 1991, and bachelor of arts in economics in 1987, all from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Listen now, and learn how Donna is an innovative leader in Kansas.

For more about the Health Fund: https://healthfund.org/

Ep. 43: The Rev. Dr. Beth Ludlum serves as vice president for strategic initiatives and executive director of The Hub for (Re)Imagining Ministry at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.

At Wesley Theological Seminary, she has completed both a Master of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry degree, the latter focused on the applications of human-centered design thinking for congregational flourishing. At Wesley, she creates new initiatives, partnerships and experiments to help students and the church live into God’s dream for the world; has launched and manages several programs focused on innovation with emerging generations and congregational thriving; and oversees strategic planning and marketing.

Her career path has included teaching English at a university in China, working for U.S. Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, directing programs at a national nonprofit, working in admissions at Wesley, and serving global United Methodist collegiate ministries. She is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. She is passionate about empowering young adults in leadership and revitalizing ministry.

Listen now, and learn how Beth is an innovative leader in Kansas.

For more about the Health Fund: https://healthfund.org/

Ep. 42: Kari Bruffett serves as president and CEO at Kansas Health Institute. With extensive experience in national and state health policy, she has advanced efforts at KHI to support effective policymaking through new and enhanced services while continuing to ensure high-quality, objective research, education and engagement.

She previously served as KHI’s vice president for policy and led the organization’s policy activities, business operations and strategic planning. Prior to KHI, Kari held executive leadership roles in the health and human services sector of state government. She served as secretary of the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services and as the director of the Division of Health Care Finance at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. She also served eight years in government affairs at The University of Kansas Hospital and four years in Washington, D.C., as a congressional staffer.

Kari currently serves on the board of directors for the National Network of Public Health Institutes and for Midland Care and is a member of the Strategic Advisory Board for the Healthcare Institute for Innovations in Quality.

Listen now, and learn how Kari is an innovative leader in Kansas.

For more about the Health Fund: https://healthfund.org/

Ep. 41: Chase Blasi serves as a Kansas senator and the Senate majority leader. He is a fifth-generation Kansan who grew up in West Sedgwick County. He represents Senate District 26 in the Kansas Legislature.

He is entering his fourth year of service as a senator and his second year as senate majority leader. He became the youngest person to serve in either position.

In this episode, he discusses his journey into politics and how being a young senator has brought a new perspective to the Senate. He also discusses his focus on child health issues for this session.

Listen now, and learn how Senator Blasi is an innovative leader in Kansas.

For more about the Health Fund: https://healthfund.org/

RERUN - Pioneers in Health Episode 16, January 23, 2025 – Courtney Younglove, MD, FOMA, FACOG, DABOM

Dr. Younglove understands the battle with obesity.  She began her struggles with excess weight in adolescence.  Prior to getting her degree in Obesity Medicine, she gained and lost the same forty pounds at least twenty times.  She is also a busy single mother of three boys and understands how tempting it is to forego healthy foods in order to get something on the table between school, work, and obligations.  She brings her own personal life experience into the exam room along with her medical knowledge.  Dr. Younglove has a passion for living a healthy life and believes that everyone deserves the opportunity to live a life of wellness: physically, emotionally, and mentally.

Dr. Younglove is board-certified in both Obesity Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology. She recently earned her fellowship in the Obesity Medicine Association – a designation earned by only 70 people so far.  She received her undergraduate degree from The University of Kansas in 1997 and her Doctor of Medicine from The University of Kansas School of Medicine four years later. She has practiced medicine in the greater Kansas City area for over 18 years and has practiced Obesity Medicine since 2015. During the course of her career, Dr. Younglove has received many awards, including being named one of the “Best Doctors in America” for five years, as featured in the Kansas City Business Journal.

Ep. 39: Janet Stanek is the Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), appointed by Governor Laura Kelly. KDHE has three divisions, including Health, Environment, and Health Care Finance, which includes the Medicaid program (KanCare) and the State Employee Health Benefits Plan, where Stanek previously served as the Director.

Stanek holds a graduate certificate in population health from Thomas Jefferson University, an MBA from Alfred University (NY) and a Bachelor of Science degree in health information management from the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute, Utica, New York. She is also a Fellow of  the American College of Healthcare Executives and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, and is a Registered Health Information Administrator. 

Prior to her role with the State Employee Health Benefits Plan, Stanek spent more than 35 years in various health care leadership positions in Pennsylvania, western New York and Kansas, including 21 years of her career at Stormont Vail Health Topeka where she last served as chief operating officer and senior vice president. While with Stormont Vail, she oversaw a wide array of clinical and non-clinical functions and departments, as well as the strategic selection and rollout of a sophisticated electronic health record system across the region. Her most recent work involved focusing on population health, accountable care organization development and the transition to value-based care delivery. 

Listen now, and learn how Secretary Stanek is an innovative leader in health care.

For more about the Health Fund: https://healthfund.org/

Ep. 38: Mark Fleury, Ph.D. is a policy principal for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), where he has worked since 2013. He specializes in research, drug development, and regulatory policies along with other science and technology related projects.

He has worked on reform of diagnostic testing oversight, drug shortages, helped lead a coalition in 2016 that authored a landscape report on drug development challenges in pediatric cancer, and led another coalition in 2017 that created a report and recommendations focused on overcoming cancer clinical trial enrollment barriers. He is currently the principal investigator on a clinical trial testing the effectiveness of a new clinical trial screening tool.

Throughout his work, Mark has striven to incorporate patient perspectives into inherently science-based issues, advocating for the inclusion of patients as partners throughout the bench to bedside translation of science. He holds a PhD in bioengineering from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland, conducted post-doctoral research at MIT, and previous policy experience includes time as a staffer to a U.S senator.

Listen now, and learn how Mark is an innovative leader in health care.

For more about the Health Fund: https://healthfund.org/

Ep. 37: Jodi Schmidt serves as the executive director of the Care Collaborative at the University of Kansas Health System. The Care Collaborative is a patient safety organization dedicated to delivering high-quality clinical care to improve the health of people living in rural Kansas communities. Founded in 2014 and accredited by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the collaborative is a network of healthcare providers and care teams who use evidence-based treatment models to achieve the best outcomes.

Jodi is a past president of the National Rural Health Association and representative to the American Hospital Association’s Small and Rural Hospital Governing Council; past Chair of the Kansas Hospital Education and Research Foundation and member of the Kansas Hospital Association’s Rural Emergency Hospital task force; and Sunflower Health Plan’s rural and community advisory boards. 

Listen now, and learn how Jodi is an innovative leader in health care.

For more about the Health Fund: https://healthfund.org/