Root of the Issue

In this very special episode, we revisit our conversation with Melissa Fox the Chief Operating Officer for Acenda Integrated Health. Acenda is an integrated health care organization dedicated to world-class prevention, treatment and wellness services. Their care is compassionately delivered to ensure that every individual, family and community achieves their greatest potential.

Fox’s dedication to serving communities who are typically denied adequate levels of care and services stems from her childhood. She speaks of the challenges she encountered growing up, “There weren't really good systems in place to help people. When you saw people dying and getting really ill, people just accepted it because there was nowhere to send them and no way to really treat them.”

Inspired by the women role models in her life, including her mother who worked as a nurse, Fox brings a sense of urgency to her work. She says, “The longer we take to get these programs in place and get the communities to help, the more people are dying and the more people are hurting and we can't have that on us. So, that's what's really driven me. And that's what continues to drive me every day.”

This week on Root of the Issue our host Barbara Petee is joined by Susan Benigas, the Executive Director of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM). Susan shares the powerful work of the ACLM, and its focus on lifestyle medicine, a medical specialty that uses therapeutic lifestyle interventions as a primary modality to treat chronic conditions. Applying the six pillars of lifestyle medicine – a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and positive social connections – also provides effective prevention for these conditions. When asked about what drives her motivation at the ACLM, Susan shared this powerful perspective:   

 “We are on a mission to add years to life and life to years. Each and every one of us has the opportunity to benefit from what evidence so overwhelmingly supports. In that the power of what we eat each and every day, how we move, how we sleep, how we manage our stress, the power of our social connections; these pillars empower us to determine our health destiny.”

This week on Root of the Issue our host Barbara Petee is joined by Cathryn Couch, the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of the Ceres Community Project. Cathryn shares how her time in both the corporate and non-profit worlds honed her leadership skills, the significance of food as medicine, as well as the importance of providing the next generation with the tools they need to be capable of sufficiently feeding both body and mind. When asked what motivated her to launch the Ceres Project, Couch noted the crucial role that providing meals can play when re-connecting some of our nation’s most vulnerable back into a sense of community:

“And so we started to realize that food was the vehicle for so much more than just the nutrients in the food and that we were doing much more than just providing a meal to someone. We were connecting them to a community.”

This week on Root of the Issue our host Barbara Petee is joined by Gary Cates, the Chief Philanthropy and Government Relations Officer for ProMedica. Gary shares his story on how he became involved in the movement towards addressing the social determinants of health as well as some of those that influenced and inspired him along the way. When asked why health equity is such an important issue for the country to address, Gary responded powerfully with this:

“In this nation, it never should be that the color of your skin, the size of your wallet, or the ZIP code you live in…none of those factors should ever dictate the number of days you'll walk the face of this earth.”

Denise Scott, President of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), joins host Barbara Petee to provide a breakdown of the intersectional approach her organization takes towards tackling social determinants of health across a variety of communities. When asked how she keeps going when things seem so challenging, Denise simply said:

"I have seen the success of the intentionality around this work. We've made significant accomplishments because we work together, across industries, across sectors. I find that to be one of the most powerful tools that we have. So for me, the North Star really is the rear view mirror telling me that we have some strategies that really work. That focus, that intentionality is what makes the difference." 

Larry Burns, President and CEO of the Children’s Foundation, joins host Barbara Petee to discuss the work he leads as well as how the vision and focus of the organization has evolved over the last few years in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. When asked how he would defined health equity, Larry had this to say:

“[health equity] … is having everybody, regardless of where they live, where they come from, or their social economic background have access to healthcare. The United States - to me - is the best country in the world. Healthcare is amazing, but not everybody has the access that I have or that maybe you have. And so just creating programs that give people the opportunity to have the great healthcare that's available to them, [thats important] The solution is complicated, but the problem is easy to identify,”

Billy Shore, founder and executive chair of Share Our Strength, the parent organization for the No Kid Hungry campaign, joins host Barbara Petee to discuss what is possible when organizations work together, lending their unique strengths, to tackle the overwhelming social determinant of childhood hunger. When asked what keeps his team going, Billy commented:

“We look for something that the writer, Jonathan Kozol talks about in terms of picking battles that are big enough to matter, but small enough to win. And we're constantly asking ourselves, ‘What would that be?’ And…our first answer to it was that when it comes to kids in this country who are hungry on a regular basis, that is exactly big enough to matter, but small enough to win. And I think, also, just the notion of holding ourselves accountable to getting specific results. When somebody gives us a donation, whether it's $5 or, or $5,000, they're parting with something that they worked hard for that was precious to them, that they have every right to keep and to use on their own behalf, yet they're giving it away. And we have an obligation, I think of it as a sacred trust to take those resources and turn them into measurable, tangible impact. And so being accountable to that, being willing to invest in measuring the impact that we've had and communicating it and being transparent about where we are against our objectives, those are all the things that I, I think, animate and motivate the team at Share Our Strength.” 

DeAnna Minus-Vincent, who currently serves as the Chief Social Justice and Accountability Officer for RWJBarnabas Health, joins host Barbara Petee to discuss the work that must be done in the nation’s efforts towards instituting an anti-racist framework in the health care community. She recounts drawing inspiration from her mother’s activist work, as well as her own experience of dealing with health inequity firsthand. When asked what keeps her going, DeAnna commented:

“What most excites me is creating true change. I think we have embedded social factors into the clinical setting. I think we have changed some policies… and I think we've changed some minds and hearts. It’s been a true collaborative effort. And I think when we train people and there's a-ha moments, like “I didn't know that that was a micro-aggression”; or moving from just talk to action, really giving people the tools…seeing people empowered, seeing the systems change, that’s what keeps us going. And… even though they're small steps and they're baby steps, they're steps in the right direction.”

On this week’s episode Marc Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League (NUL), joins host Barbara Petee to discuss the role of social advocacy groups and community organizing in the long term fight toward achieving health equity.

Here, Morial speaks on the power of volunteerism in creating change; “I think my advice is to find a purpose, or a cause or an organization and volunteer some time. In other words, get in the game. Get in the mix. I am blessed that I have a day job that allows me to do this work full-time. But wherever you sit, corporate America, state, federal or local government, in a non-profit agency in higher ed, you can be a transformative change agent. By working to change that institution, by using the power you have.”

On this week’s episode, host Barbara Petee is joined by Susan Fuehrer of the MetroHealth System in Cleveland, Ohio. Susan, who serves as President of the Institute of H.O.P.E. (Health, Opportunity, Partnership, and Empowerment), works with her team to address the social determinants of health in an ambitious, comprehensive, and coordinated manner.

Susan goes on to say that, “You know, people are recognizing that none of us can do this alone anymore. And we are breaking down barriers amongst healthcare institutions and there's organizations like The Root Cause Coalition that are really stepping up and bringing the collective voice together. [We are] relying on each other to share best practices, identify lessons learned from things that don't work so others don't make the same mistakes. I think what's really brings me hope is that we are, in many ways, working much better together and recognizing that none of us can do this alone, and that the only way we're going to be successful is to form alliances and coalitions and do this work together.”