Rural Matters

In Part IV of our four-part series on rural economic and community development, produced in collaboration with and supported by the Thomas USAF Group, Michelle chats with Matt Dunne, Founder and Executive Director of the Center on Rural Innovation and Anna Johnson, who has led the agricultural policy portfolio at the Center for Rural Affairs for almost four years. Dunne discusses how the Center on Rural Innovation’s Action Tank enables rural communities and entrepreneurs to create digital economy ecosystems that build jobs for the future, including those involving coding and software. Johnson describes how the Center for Rural Affairs does small business lending and community inclusion work in Nebraska, as well as farm bill advocacy and agricultural policy development. Dunne discusses how the Center on Rural Innovation’s mapping program addresses the rural economic gap that developed after the economic crisis of 2008 by enabling policymakers to determine broadband needs, identify health care gaps, and locate valuable resources, such as nearby colleges and universiti4es. Recently, Dunne notes, the Center helped provide a Health Preparedness Index that enables decision-makers to determine where a community could be overwhelmed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Johnson also talks about the work her organization does with farmers and the how small farmers have been impacted by the lack of broadband access. This episode is sponsored by Thomas USAF Group, www.thomasusaf.com.

In Part III of this four-part series on rural economic and community development, produced in collaboration with and supported by the Thomas USAF Group, Michelle welcomes back Thomas Kimsey, president and CEO of the Thomas USAF Group, and also chats with Bette Brand, Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development at the Department of Agriculture since February 20, and with Mark Lee, Chief Executive Officer and President of Rhino Health Inc., the first United States manufacturer of nitrile rubber gloves about governmental and private sector collaboration in the rural economic and  development space. Through its partnership with the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Office, Thomas USAF is able to provide capital to both small and large businesses and entrepreneurs, Kimsey notes.

In the final segment of our four-part series on rural poverty and the 2020 elections, developed in collaboration with and underwritten by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Michelle chats with Dee Davis, founder and president of the Center for Rural Strategies; Jonathan Rodden, professor of political science at Stanford University, and author of Why Cities Lose: The Deep Roots of the Urban-Rural Political Divide; and Pakou Hang, a trainer at Vote Run Lead, about the upcoming elections.  People vote on the basis of whether they think a candidate truly represent people like themselves, notes Davis. They vote more on the basis of candidates they like and whose values they support, rather than on policy issues, he adds. Hang discusses the important role of women in agriculture today, who tend to be the largest landowners, and are more interested in rural health, nutrition, and the ecosystem. Women in agriculture and in rural communities are coming together in social networks and exerting a greater influence than in the past, she explains. According to Rodden, the racial injustice movement has affected rural areas, which have become more heterogeneous, as well as urban areas. The episode concludes with insights about the importance of immigrants who are moving to rural communities for jobs (the majority of dairy farm workers are now Latino, notes Hang); whether democracy itself is in jeopardy; and the role of voting by mail in the 2020 elections. This episode is sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, www.rwjf.org

In Part III of our four-part series developed in collaboration with and underwritten by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which deals with rural poverty and key issues in the 2020 elections, Michelle chats with Nathan Ohle, CEO of the Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP), a national network of non-profits focused on water access, economic development, and capacity building for rural communities and Kate Cassling, a Director with the Bipartisan Policy Center Action, where she works on health care policy advocacy. Ohle discusses how the role of rural and small communities has evolved in the last decade through increased engagement in local, state, and federal elections because these voters often feel ignored when it comes public policy. Broadband accessibility, telehealth, and access to water are major policy issues for rural and small communities, according to Ohle.  Cassling says that there is broad agreement on topline issues among both Democrats and Republican rural voters in terms of increased funding and improving access to health care. In addition, she says, according to a recent poll her organization conducted, three of five voters say they would be more likely to vote for the candidate who would address rural health care issues. COVID-19 now is affecting more rural communities in terms of per capita deaths, and rural voters will want hospital infrastructure improvement, access, and services, she adds. This episode also includes incisive discussion on the policies that President Trump and former Vice President Biden are touting in terms of rural health care and perceptions of the urban-rural divide in the political environment. This episode is sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, rwjf.org.

This riveting episode is the second in our four-part series on rural poverty and issues impacting the 2020 elections presented this month in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Michelle chats with several graduate students at the University of Michigan who worked with the university’s Poverty Solutions program and saw first-hand, on the ground, what poverty looks like in rural America: Lanora Johnson, whose research focuses on gender inequality and rural poverty in Central Appalachia; Jasmine Simington, whose research explores how housing policies shape racialized spatial inequality; and Meg Duffy, a researcher  at Poverty Solutions who primarily works on a mixed methods study called Understanding Communities of Deep Disadvantage. Jasmine describes how the project holistically ranked the most disadvantaged counties and cities in the United States and notes those locations were spatially clustered in Appalachia, the rural Southeast, deep South, border towns in Texas, and tribal lands, Poverty Solutions researchers went on site visits to several of these counties and were embedded in these communities for a couple of months. Meg, was embedded in both Marion County, S.C. whose residents are mostly black and Clay County, Ky., whose population is mostly white. There were similar challenges in both counties, including access to transportation and jobs, but also certain similarities, such as volunteerism and resiliency. Lanora discusses a “true hero,” Mayor Hopkins, whose small town was devastated by flooding, and how community members had to deal with the cleanup and how residents still are struggling to live in a community whose homes often still smell from mold. The bottom line, she explains, is that, in terms of FEMA support, there was a notable disparity between assistance provided to white communities compared to those given to black communities. This episode truly paints a vivid portrait of several under-resourced communities in the United States and the challenges residents in those communities face every day. This episode is sponsored by Community Hospital Corporation, www.communityhspitalcorp.com and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, www.rwjf.org.

This episode is the first of our timely four-part series on rural poverty and issues impacting the 2020 elections presented this month in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Michelle chats with Kathryn Edin and Luke Shaefer of the University of Michigan’s Poverty Solutions, an interdisciplinary initiative that seeks to partner communities and policymakers to find new ways to prevent and alleviate poverty.  Edin and Shaefer are authors of the landmark book, $2 a Day: The Art of Living on Virtually Nothing in America, which was listed as one of The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2015. Edin, one of the nation’s leading poverty researchers, describes how stunning it was to take a deep dive into interviewing entire rural communities to find out more about the social determinants of persistent poverty. Edin notes that, in several disadvantaged counties, including those in Marion County, South Carolina and LeFlore County, Mississippi, were comprised of a majority black population whose institutions are controlled by the minority white population. In those counties, she notes, there is virtually no institutional sharing, which perpetuates segregation. In addition, Edin says, in another county, she heard a consistent refrain from local residents:  “There’s nothing to do here except drug.”  Shaefer, Hermann and Amalie Kohn Professor of Social Justice and Social Policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and a Professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan, says that, for persistent poverty to be prevented and alleviated, we need to address inequitable situations in which emergency relief administered after natural disasters disarmingly favor those who have clear title to property, which is an integral, historical component of persistent poverty. Shaefer also describes how Poverty Solutions is bringing students into meaningful conversations about poverty through university courses and events and, most notably, through embedding them in communities of deep disadvantage to gain a real world perspective on this issue.  This episode is sponsored by Community Hospital Corporation, www.communityhspitalcorp.com; Rural Medical Education Collaborative. ruralhealthcme.com; and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, www.rwjf.org.

Michelle chats with Brian Doerr, Senior Vice President of Information Technology and Security, and Privacy Officer for Community Hospital Corporation of Plano, Texas; Carrie Zbierski, Chief Nursing Officer at North Texas Medical Center; and Andra Smith, Director of Practice Management at North Texas Medical Center about the evolving telemedicine presence in rural America and its capability to deliver specialty health services. Before the pandemic, Doerr notes, rural areas accesses telemedicine in a limited way, due to regulatory and reimbursement restrictions and lack of flexibility. But those barriers are being relaxed now, says Doerr. For example, he explains, remote telehealth visits by rural hospitals can be reimbursed by CMS or other payors, including commercial payors, who are moving cautiously in this area. Doeer expects continuing growth in this area, even after COVID-19, Zbierski says that more hospitals are interested in the use of telemedicine access specialty care providers, such as cardiologists and pulmonologists, to treat patients without them having to come into hospitals. Smith notes that because patients within her clinics are now learning how to use this new technology, their care management can becomes more than just annual visits. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the challenges and opportunities of telehealth and its incredibly dramatic use in rural areas. This episode is sponsored by CHCH, www.communityhospitalcorp.com.

Michelle chats with Eric Hargan, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As Deputy Secretary, Hargan is HSS’s Chief Operating Officer, responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations and management of the department in addition to leading policy and strategy development. In Part II of our special series on Rural Economic and Community Development, produced in collaboration with and supported by Thomas USAF, Hargan discusses four important rural health priorities for the Administration: preventing death and disease, especially in the areas of the opioid crisis and maternal health; creating sustainable rural health care models, by reviewing  systems that may not be appropriate for rural hospitals today; improving access through technology and innovation, including telehealth, remote patient monitoring, and improving broadband capability; and  developing a robust and dedicated rural workforce, which can help provide health care support and sustain rural communities. Hargan also described how the Administration on May 1 allocated $10 billion in COVID-19 relief to rural providers in four categories: rural acute care hospitals; critical care hospitals; rural health clinics; and community health centers in rural areas. Hargan also specifically describes the efforts of the Rural Communities Response Program, which has distributed more than $157 million in the last two years to about 1,000 rural communities in 47 states. For the first time in more than 20 years, he points out, drug overdose deaths actually declined in the U.S, and there also was a rise in life expectancy after a three-year decline. This episode was sponsored, by Thomas USAF, www.thomasusaf.com .

Michelle talks about economic development, access to capital, and assistance to rural businesses during the COVID era, with Thomas Kimsey, president and CEO of Thomas USAF Group. This episode is the first of a four-part series, called Rural Economic and Community Development, which Rural Matters is producing in cooperation with and support from Thomas USAF. With almost three decades of SBA and USDA lending experience, Kinsey has established his nationwide industry footprint and has closed a multitude of loans in various industries with a heavy concentration in the hospitality and healthcare sectors. During this COVID-19 era, Kimsey notes, his group has worked with these sectors to provide access to SBA’s PPP program and to help businesses navigate through these challenging times. There are several different economic opportunities, he explains, available to rural businesses, including the CARES Act stimulus packages. While the first round of money under this program went quickly, there are still funds available in the second round, Kimsey says. To date, he says, his group has provided about $120 million in loans, ranging from as little as $1,000 to as much as $7.5 million. It’s important to note, he says, that 75 percent of the PPP loans may be forgivable. In addition, Kimsey says, there are also loans and grants available from USDA. His group spent considerable time lobbying and advocating for rural businesses seeking different kinds of assistance. Despite these incredibly challenging times, Kimsey is encouraged by what he is now seeing. His group is   continuing to submit applications for new and existing projects (including solar) and is also continuing to receive e-mails and calls from businesses in rural American seeking new opportunities. This episode is sponsored by the National Rural Education Association, www.nrea.org; Community Hospital Corporation, community hospital corp.com; and Thomas USAF Group. www.thomasusaf.com

https://www.doitwithimpact.live/. This episode was sponsored by RME Collaborative, a division of

Talem Health, https://talemhealth.com/rme-collaborative/