Susan Alford is a graduate of Virginia Tech and earned a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Averett University. She is currently the Community Liaison for Southwest Virginia GMEC/AHEC and serves the 21 westernmost counties in Virginia. Prior to employment with GMEC/AHEC, Ms. Alford was a human resources director and a social worker.
Ms. Alford serves as a Board member of the Virginia Rural Health Association and the Cumberland Plateau PACE program. She is a volunteer with the Southwest Virginia Medical Reserve Corps and the Commonwealth ChalleNGe Youth Academy. She is also an active member of Virginia’s Health Workforce Council and the National AHEC Organization.
Terry Axelrod - founder and CEO of BenevonTM, has worked in the fund development field for over 30 years. In the early 1990s, she served as development consultant to an inner-city school in Seattle, where she designed and implemented the fundraising and marketing programs which raised over $7 million in 2 1/2 years, including a one-hour breakfast event which raised over $1 million. This program was featured as a cover story in the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
A dynamic, sought-after speaker both nationally and internationally, Terry's high-energy trainings take the fear out of individual fundraising and give participants a practical, do-able system for long-term financial sustainability.
Benevon trains and coaches nonprofit organizations to implement a mission-based system for raising sustainable funding from individual donors. This system ends the suffering about fundraising and builds passionate and committed lifelong donors.
Robert "Bob" Barlow has served as the Executive Director - Free Clinic of Central Virginia (Lynchburg) since 2002. Previous positions include the Regional Coordinator - Job Corps Mid-Atlantic Region, Center Director - Old Dominion Job Corps Center, Dean of Student Affairs - Sweet Briar College, and Assistant Dean of Students - University of Hartford.
His educational back ground includes a M.Ed. in Counseling, a C.A.G.S. (Sixth Year Certificate) in Counseling and he has completed his PhD Coursework in Administration.
Susan Bonner, PA-C is a 1973 graduate of the Northeastern University PA program, after 3 years as a hospital corpsman during the Vietnam era. After graduation, she worked in a rural Maine hospital, 15 years in the emergency room, and 12 years in family practice. Upon moving to Virginia, she worked in an internal medicine practice for 5 years, before taking a 2 year sabbatical spent sailing the east coast and the Bahamas.
For the last 3 years, she has run the Chronic Care Clinic at Gloucester- Mathews Free Clinic in Gloucester, Va. where the bulk of the patients have diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease- many with co-morbid psychiatric diagnoses. Susan feels that the clinic is fortunate to have access to both free medication for our patients, and the time to address their medical issues and provide them with the skills to improve their outcome.
Jerry Canaan, Esq. is a partner in the Richmond, Virginia office of the healthcare law firm of Hancock, Daniel, Johnson & Nagle, P.C. where he focuses on risk management, legislative lobbying, and the defense of medical malpractice claims. He monitors important regulatory developments in healthcare and regularly defends dentists, hospitals, physicians, nurses, and pharmacists. Mr. Canaan also represents individual health care practitioners with licensing disputes before the Board of Medicine, Board of Nursing, Board of Pharmacy, Board of Dentistry, Board of Physical Therapy and Board of Optometry. He frequently appears before the Virginia General Assembly, the Department of Health Professions, and other regulatory boards in Virginia.
Mr. Canaan earned his B.A. in political science and English from Virginia Tech, and his J.D. from the T. C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond. Upon graduation from law school, he was a clerk in the Chief Staff Attorney's Office of the Virginia Supreme Court.
Mary Beth Carr has worked as a Family Nurse Practitioner with the Chesapeake Care Free Clinic for the past four years. Before that she volunteered at Chesapeake Care for two years. After receiving her NP degree from George Mason University in 2000 and a post-Master’s certificate from George Washington University, she has served as a health care provider for military communities located in North Carolina and Virginia. Prior to settling in Chesapeake with her husband Damian and their three teenaged children, she lived on the East Coast, in the Midwest and in Germany.
Whitney J. A. Caudill is Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, Associate General Counsel and Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Law at the Appalachian College of Pharmacy. Ms. Caudill provides instruction and training in the areas of pharmacy law, business law, ethics, the Heath Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Family Educational Rights to Privacy Act. Ms. Caudill has also served as Assistant Dean of Student & Alumni Affairs at the College.
Ms. Caudill is a Buchanan County, Virginia native and a 1995 graduate of Grundy Senior High School. Ms. Caudill received her Bachelor’s degree (1999) from the University of Virginia and her Doctor of Jurisprudence (2003) from the University of Tennessee College of Law.
Prior to joining the College’s administration and faculty, Ms. Caudill served as an Associate attorney at the Abingdon, Virginia law firm of Penn, Stuart & Eskridge. At Penn, Stuart & Eskridge, Ms. Caudill’s practice focused on general litigation, including commercial litigation, insurance defense, and real estate matters. Ms. Caudill is licensed to practice law in Virginia, Tennessee and in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia.
Mark Crabtree currently serves as Chairman of the American Dental Association’s Council on Access, Prevention, and Interprofessional Relations(CAPIR). A graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Medical College of Virginia School of Dentistry, Dr. Crabtree also earned a B.A. in biology from Wake Forest University and has achieved Fellowship in the Academy of General Dentistry.
Currently Dr. Crabtree practices General Dentistry in private practice and is President of the Piedmont Virginia Dental Health Foundation, which provides dental care to needy citizens through its Dental Education and Safetynet Center. He is a Trustee of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research and a Board Member of the Virginia Institute for Performance Engineering and Research (VIPER). He is past president of the Patrick Henry Dental Society, the Piedmont Dental Society and the Virginia Dental Association. He serves as an ADA delegate. Dr. Crabtree has previously served the Commonwealth of Virginia as a member and past president of the Virginia Board of Dentistry and as a former member of the Virginia Board of Health Professions. He is a member of the American Association of Dental Examiners and serves as a Southern Regional Testing Agency Examiner. Dr. Crabtree has been involved in higher education and has served on the Boards of Visitors of Wake Forest University and Longwood University, where he served as Rector as well as being a Commissioner for the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). As an involved member of his community, Dr. Crabtree is a past President of the Martinsville/Henry County Chamber of Commerce, past member of City Council and the former Mayor of Martinsville, Virginia. He has served on numerous local Boards and Commissions including the Governor’s Commission on Government Finance Reform for the 21st Century and the Joint Subcommittee of the Virginia General Assembly Studying Availability of Dental Hygienists. Dr. Crabtree has been awarded Fellowships by the American College of Dentists, the Pierre Fauchard Academy, the Academy of General Dentistry, the International College of Dentists, the Virginia Dental Association as well as being recognized as an Outstanding Young Virginian by the Virginia Jaycees and as the Virginia Exchange Club’s 2007 Outstanding Virginian for his role is establishing a low income dental clinic in Martinsville, Virginia. In 2008, he was honored by the Virginia Section of the Pierre Fauchard Academy with their Award of Honor. During the Virginia Commonwealth University 2008 Commencement Ceremony, Dr. Crabtree was honored as the 2008 VCU School of Dentistry Alumni Star. He and his wife, Rebecca, live in Martinsville, with their daughters; Virginia who is in the eighth grade and Sarah who is a junior at Wake Forest University.
Kimberly Douglas, SPHR, President of FireFly Facilitation, Inc. is an expert at helping leaders create a compelling strategic plan - and then building the strong team needed to make that vision for success a reality. She has worked with hundreds of teams over the last 15 years, in such organizations as Coca-Cola, Home Depot, United Way, Habitat for Humanity, Kaiser Permanente, and even the U.S. Marine Corps. Kimberly holds a master of science in industrial/organizational psychology and has been certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources for Life. Prior to founding FireFly ten years ago, Kimberly was an organization effectiveness manager for Coca-Cola; a Director of Consulting with the Hay Group; and served in HR leadership roles in the healthcare, telecommunications, and hospitality industries.
Her book, The Firefly Effect: Build Teams that Capture Creativity and Catapult Results, was just published by Wiley in May 2009 and will be your gift for attending the conference!
Juliana Frosch, PMHNP-BC is a Psychiatric Clinical Nurse Specialist and Adult Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse Practitioner in practice at Blue Ridge Medical Center, a community health center in Nelson County. She also provides psychiatric services to rural and remote communities at the University of Virginia Health System Telemedicine Clinic through the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Science.
Ms. Frosch completed her BSN at Lynchburg College and her MSN and nurse practitioner education in psychiatric nursing at UVA. She has practiced in a variety of inpatient and outpatient mental health settings in central Virginia, and has been associated with Blue Ridge Medical Center through various roles since 1992.
Kim Isringhausen joined the faculty of the VCU School of Dentistry in 2002 in the Division of Dental Hygiene. During that time she also completed a Master of Public Health degree at VCU in the School of Medicine. In 2005 Ms. Isringhausen was named division chair of dental hygiene. Based on her public health education and her accomplishments as a division director, Dean Ron Hunt asked her take on additional leadership responsibility as Director of Preceptorship Programs for the school’s dental and dental hygiene students.
Students and professional organizations alike recognize Ms. Isringhausen’s leadership ability. Recent awards given by students include Dental Hygiene Faculty Member of the Year and Best Student Advocate. She received prestigious professional association awards from the American Dental Education Association (ADEA), including selection for the ADEA Allied Dental Faculty Leadership Development Program and the ADEA/GlaxoSmithKline Teaching Fellowship. In the fall of 2008, during VCU's 40th Anniversary Celebration, Ms. Isringhausen's preceptorship program won a 40 Acts of Caring Award for service to the community. Most recently, she was recognized for professional achievement in dentistry by the Women in Science, Dentistry and Medicine Organization.
Ms. Isringhausen resides in Providence Forge, Virginia with her husband Barry and son Zach. In her leisure time, she enjoys showing Arabian horses on the National Show circuit.
Don LeMond is the Director of the Division of Risk Management in the Commonwealth’s Department of the Treasury. He has been resolving risk management issues for public entities and non-profit organizations in two state governments for 30 years. The former president of two national public risk management associations, he holds various professional certifications and degrees from the Universities of Missouri and Maryland.
Cathy Lewis, MPH, CHES currently serves as a member of the board of directors for The Virginia Association of Free Clinics. She served as the Executive Director of Chesapeake Care Free Clinic for five and a half years. Prior to joining the clinic staff, she lived in New Jersey where she served as Director of Development for an inner city school in Newark. Throughout her career, she has enjoyed working with underserved individuals in various settings including hospitals, schools, health departments and non profit organizations.
She enjoys building relationships and partnerships throughout the community as a way to preserve scarce resources and best meet local needs. She lives in Virginia Beach with her husband, Jack. She has two grown sons and one grandson.
Wendy McGrady, vice president of The Curtis Group, is a seasoned and successful development and marketing professional. Wendy’s career includes more than a decade of development experience and seven years of marketing experience.
Wendy’s work with The Curtis Group includes campaign planning and management, feasibility studies, development assessments, donor and volunteer cultivation, grant writing, and board training. Her background in marketing provides our clients with unique insight into brand enhancement, public relations, and advertising. In addition, Wendy oversees The Curtis Group’s executive search services and frequently speaks to nonprofit organizations and associations about how to enhance development capacity and other fundraising issues.
Serving her community has always been important to Wendy, as proven by her history of membership on many nonprofit boards. She is vice president of the board of The Ballentine, a residence for older adults; president-elect of the Hampton Roads chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals; and recently served on the alumni board of Hollins University. Wendy is also a member of the Giving USA Editorial Review Board and the Virginia Fund Raising Institute Caucus Board.
Sarah T. Melton, Pharm.D., BCPP, CGP is an Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice at the Appalachian College of Pharmacy. Dr. Melton received her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy (1991) and Doctor of Pharmacy (1994) degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University/Medical College of Virginia School of Pharmacy (VCU). She completed a Fellowship in Psychiatric Pharmacy at VCU in 1996, under the preceptorship of Dr. Cynthia Kirkwood. She has been a board certified psychiatric pharmacist (Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties) since 1997. She has been a Certified Geriatric Pharmacist since 2005. She performs Medication Therapy Management in the areas of psychiatric and neurologic pharmacy, tobacco cessation, and other primary care disorders. Her practice sites are C-Health PC in Lebanon, VA and AllCARE for Seniors in Cedar Bluff, Virginia. She also directs the RxAssist program at C-Health, which is a program designed to help indigent patients obtain the medications from patient assistance programs.
Dr. Melton was recently awarded the prestigious Health Care Hero Cup of Kindness Award by The Business Journal and King Pharmaceuticals. This award was given in recognition of her community service and contribution to the health and welfare of underserved patients in Southwest Virginia. She was the recipient of the Appalachian College of Pharmacy 2007 Professor of the Year Award, the 2008 and 2009 Clinical Faculty of the Year Awards, and the 2009 Preceptor of the Year Award. She was awarded the 2009 Innovative Practice Award by the College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists for her presentation regarding the “Role of the Pharmacist in Collaborative Care for Mental Health and Addiction Treatment in Medically Underserved Appalachia”
Richard Lawrence (“Larry”) Merkel, MD, PhD graduated from University of Virginia School of Medicine and then did a residency in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. Afterwards he was a Robert Woods Johnson Clinical Scholar and a Senior Fellow at The Leonard Davis Institute of Health Care Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. He later received his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania.
While at the University of Pennsylvania he worked at the Student Mental Health Center focusing on international and minority students. He was also coordinator of the Transcultural Psychiatry Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the refuge mental health center in conjunction with the Nationalities Service Center refugee resettlement agency. Since coming to the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia in 1990 he has been Director of Psychiatric Medicine and Specialty Care Core of the Southeastern Mental Health Research Center at UVa. He is presently an Associate Professor and spends about half his time teaching social and cultural psychiatry and psychotherapy to psychiatry residents. He has been working over the last several years to expand the telepsychiatry section of the Psychiatry Department at UVA.
Besides International and minority university students, he has had clinical and research experience with various refugee groups, the Maori of New Zealand, and is presently focusing on Appalachian populations. He has also worked with Middle Eastern Psychiatrists in establishing training programs for Middle Eastern Primary Care doctors in diagnosing and treating mental health concerns. He has won teaching awards at the University of Virginia and is a member of the Academy of Distinguished Educators at the University of Virginia. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and in 2007 was presented with the Irma Bland Award for Excellence in Teaching Psychiatry Residents, by the American Psychiatric Association.
Gary E. Michael, MD is a 1987 graduate from the Medical College of Pennsylvania. He is board certified in Family Medicine, completing his residency at The Sacred Heart Family Practice in Allentown, Pennsylvania. A National Health Service Corp Scholar, Dr. Michael continues to practice in a Community Health Center since 1990. As Medical Director of Clinch River Health Services since 1991, Dr. Michael has participated on and held office in many committees including the Co-chair of the Bureau of Primary Healthcare Data Workgroup, President of the Region III Clinical Regional Advisory Network, Chair of the EHealth Committee for the Community Care Network of Virginia, and the CareSpark Chair of the Outcomes & Evaluation Committee.
Luanne Osborne is has been Executive Director of the Alleghany Highlands Free Clinic since August 2003. She has 11 years nonprofit management experience. She holds a Bachelors in psychology from Averett University and will complete a Masters in Education focusing on Health Education from Virginia Tech in December.
Prior to coming to the Free Clinic, she was Executive Director of the local domestic violence program and served on Governor Warner’s task force on Domestic Violence. She was certified by the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center as a domestic violence trainer. Additional skills include being a trained mediator.
Luanne is past president of Community Alternatives for Positive Prevention, a regional coalition of service agencies. She is involved locally with the Alleghany Humane Society and Kiwanis. She is a certified Master Naturalist and serves as Treasurer of the Board of Directors.
Karen Seawell Purcell is the Executive Director of the Capitol Area Health Education Center. She holds a MLS/ET and a MA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Prior to moving to Virginia, she worked with the North Carolina AHEC program working at the grassroots level for a decade. As Director of Information Services for the Greensboro AHEC, she collaborated with community hospital librarians to create the first hospital based information network in the United States through The Duke Endowment. This initiative led to a long-term funding relationship with North Carolina AHEC and The Duke Endowment. In addition to providing consultation, technical assistance, and training to health care providers, Ms Purcell endeavored to improve access to information for mental/behavioral health service providers and institutions. In Virginia, Ms. Purcell led Capital AHEC, newly established in late 2004, to 501(c)3 status in 2005 without benefit of Basic AHEC funding.
Child health/behavioral health is a particular area of need in the CAHEC region. Ms Purcell and other community and state leaders developed the first collaborative conference for families and providers on the topic special health care needs children. Ms. Purcell also served as a member of the planning committee for the first transformational care conference for children and youth held in Virginia. Currently, she is a member of two state committees to improve child/adolescent behavioral health. One committee has a particular focus on planning for behavioral health care services within the foster care population.
Tony Ramsey is a Family Nurse Practitioner who volunteers at the Free Clinic of the New River Valley. He holds a migraine clinic as well as a diabetic clinic with another Nurse Practitioner, Carol Ballard. Tony is a Radford, Virginia native and is employed as a full time faculty member in the School of Nursing at Radford University. Tony is completing his PhD at west Virginia University with plans to graduate in 2011.
Morris D. Reese is the Executive Director of the Near Southwest Preparedness Alliance in Roanoke VA. In this capacity Mr Reece functions as the Regional Hospital Preparedness Coordinator for the Near Southwest Region of Virginia for the Hospital Preparedness Program of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response within the Department of Health and Human Services. He has served as Vice President of Roanoke Memorial Hospital and CEO of Giles Memorial Hospital in Pearisburg. He has also served as Chair of the State Trauma System Oversight and Management Committee for the Office of EMS, was appointed by Governor Warner as a Member of the Virginia EMS Advisory Board, and is an Administrative Officer with the Virginia-1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team.
He has been a Board member of the Free Clinic of New River Valley and served a term as President of that organization. He served several years on the Board of Directors of the Virginia Rural Health Association. Other activities have included President of the Giles County Rotary Club, President of the New River Valley Habitat for Humanity Board of Directors, President of the Giles County Chamber of Commerce, Member of the Board of Directors of the Governors School of S.W. VA Foundation, and Chair of the New River Valley Junior Achievement Advisory Council. Mr. Reece received a Masters of Health Administration from the Medical College of Virginia in 1985.
John Reuwer, MD received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Virginia, then trained in Grand Rapids Michigan before becoming board-certified in emergency medicine. While most of his career has been practicing emergency medicine in Radford, he has maintained an interest in primary care, through locum tenums and volunteer work. After 25 years of volunteering and serving on the board of the Free Clinic of the New River Valley, he joined the staff there in February of 2009 seeing patients four days a week.
His current interest is studying barriers to patient compliance, particularly in managing diabetes. In 1989 he founded the Free Clinic’s Program for Special Medical Care ( PSMC). The program is a volunteer alternative that benefits the patient and physician by letting the physician provide care to free clinic patients on an ongoing basis through a “clinic without walls” concept. Dr. Reuwer has done numerous overseas medical and peace missions. He is an avid student of nonviolent conflict resolution.
Sarah Jane Stewart As a Program Officer of the Virginia Health Care Foundation (VHCF) for the past three years, Sarah Jane Stewart works with community non-profit organizations that receive funding for Medication Assistance Caseworkers (MACs). These Caseworkers access the pharmaceutical companies Patient Assistance Programs through The Pharmacy Connection (TPC) software to obtain free medicines for uninsured patients. Free Clinics, Community Health Centers, hospitals, and human service agencies are recipients of these funds made available through the RxRelief Virginia initiative of the General Assembly.
Sarah Jane has been active on the board of the Virginia Rural Health Association since its inception in 1994 until 2009. Currently she is the President of the Virginia Rural Health Resource Center. She lives in rural Nelson County where she is on the Advisory Committee of the Nelson Dental Clinic, and the board of the local community center. She enjoys cooking, gardening, walking, and taking care of 3 cats and a dog.
Ms. Stewart has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and a Masters of Public Administration from Auburn University at Montgomery
Wayne G. Terry, PhD, FACHE, Executive Director of the Southside Area Health Education Center located at Longwood University, Farmville, Virginia.
For much of Dr Terry's career he has been engaged in healthcare administration, education and as a healthcare consultant. He has extensive local, state, national and international healthcare experience. Served in the US Air Force for 30 years; worked internationally for another 20 years, primarily in the Middle East in commissioning, operationalizing and managing major healthcare facilities in Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries. For the past ten years he has served as the Executive Director of the Southside Area Health Education Center at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.
Susan Triggs, RN, MPH is a Health Equity Specialist with the Office of Minority Health and Public Health Policy. She is responsible for developing coalitions, programs, initiatives and/or recommending changes impacting VDH and its external stakeholders to ensure the provision of health equity social justice for all Virginians. Ms. Triggs was previously a Public Health Nurse Senior with Peninsula Health Department in Newport News, Virginia. She was responsible for coordinating the Newport News focused Heal-thy Generations: A Southeast Community Health Movement. Susan served as the Facilitator for the Coalition for Obesity Prevention – Peninsula (COP-P), as Vice Chair for the Consortium for Infant and Child Health (CINCH) in Norfolk, Virginia, and as Chair for the CINCH Health Disparities Work Group.
Susan grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she earned a Masters Degree in Public Health (MPH), focused in the area of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences. She received her MPH from the University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health. She is currently completing the research portion of her dissertation as partial requirement for a PhD degree in Public Health from Walden University. The focus area for this degree is Community Health Promotion and Education.
Susan’s Public Health career began in 1996 while helping to develop a Pediatric Outreach Program for at-risk children and their families that were patients at an inner-city Christian health care center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The methodological framework for the Pediatric Outreach Program became the subject of the paper she wrote for her MPH.
James E. Tyler, MS, MA, MSBA currently is the Hospital Administrator of Carilion Giles Memorial Hospital (CGMH) in Pearisburg, Virginia. The hospital is located in the mountains of Southwest Virginia approximately 30 miles from Blacksburg and the campus of Virginia Tech. He has been the Administrator at CGMH, a Critical Access Hospital, since September of 2003. Prior to that time, he was the Administrator of the CAH hospital in Washington, Georgia. Mr. Tyler has also served as a Chief Financial Officer and as an Executive Vice President of Operations. Mr. Tyler has served and serves on numerous Boards and is currently the President of the Virginia Rural Health Association. In addition, he is a member of the Rural Hospital Constituency Group with the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy. He holds a Masters of Science in Clinical Psychology, a Masters of Arts in Theology and a Masters of Science in Business Administration. He recently completed a year long Fellowship program in Rural Health Policy with the National Rural Health Association.
Dr. James L. Werth, Jr. - is a Professor of Psychology and the Director of the Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.) Program in Counseling Psychology at Radford University. The Psy.D. Program has foci on rural mental health, social justice, cultural diversity, and evidence-based practice. He also serves as the Editor of the Journal of Rural Healthcare and Culture and is a member of the American Psychological Association's Committee on Rural Health. He is a licensed psychologist who provides free counseling services through a local women's resource center and a mental health association's pro bono counseling program. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Virginia Rural Health Association and several agencies.
Dr. Lori S. Wilson, DDS, MPH - is originally from the sunshine state of Florida, but spent most of her childhood traveling with her military family. Dr. Wilson's formative years was spent in Germany and other parts of Europe in the American school system. Dr. Wilson admired military doctors and vowed at an early age to become just like them. She attended Florida A&M University in Tallahassee and received an B.S. Degree in Pre-medicine. She then attended Meharry Medical College and soon completed the Doctor of Dental Surgery Degree. She also received the Master of Public Health degree from Eastern Virginia Medical School.
Dr. Wilson is a former United States Public Health Service Commissioned Officer and is currently in the Inactive reserves. Dr. Wilson was recently featured in the July 2009 Readers Digest.
Amy Yarcich began serving as the Executive Director of the Rx Partnership, a nonprofit public/private partnership dedicated to increasing access to medications for Virginia’s uninsured, in April of 2007. During her time with Rx Partnership, Ms. Yarcich has worked to raise awareness of Rx Partnership’s accomplishments, increase the efficiency of the organization through the use of a new database system, improve operating procedures and systems and ensure that more medication gets to eligible uninsured patients in Virginia. During the past year alone, Rx Partnership was recognized as a Merit Finalist for the 2008 Mutual of America Community Partnership Award, added a new pharmaceutical partner (currently six participating companies) and coordinated the distribution of over $8.7 million in free medication to over 10,000 eligible patients.
Ms. Yarcich’s experience in nonprofit management ranges from a previous tenure as executive director of a community economic development nonprofit in Wisconsin, to ten years providing direct technical assistance to a variety of nonprofit organizations across the Commonwealth of Virginia. Ms. Yarcich most recently served as the Program Manager for two well-respected and successful initiatives of the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, where she focused on asset-building for disadvantaged populations through entrepreneurship development and community economic development. Her strengths include facilitating partnership development, an extensive communications and marketing background and a commitment to mission-based advocacy.
Ms. Yarcich holds a Masters in Public Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University with a Certificate in Nonprofit Management and received her undergraduate degree from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.
John Young, LCSW is currently the Clinical Services Director at Rockbridge Area Community Services Board in Lexington Virginia. Rockbridge Area Community Services provides mental health, substance abuse, and developmental disability services to residents of Rockbridge and Bath Counties as well as the cities of Lexington and Buena Vista. John oversees the following services: Emergency Services, Mobile Crisis, Crisis Intervention Task Force (CIT), Access and Referral, Outpatient Services (Adult, Child, and Family), Psychiatric Services, Adult MH Day Treatment, Child/Adolescent Day Treatment, and Mental Health Support Services including two transitional living housing programs for clients with mental illness. John is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he received his Masters of Social Work Degree in 1996 and has been a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in VA since 2003.
John has worked in the public mental health system in both NC and Virginia for a combined 21 years. Previous positions have included working as a Psychiatric Emergency Services Clinician, Program Manager for a 12 bed crisis stabilization and detox unit, Clinical Manager of an outpatient program. John and his wife Linda and three children, Caitlin, Christopher and Eric reside in Raphine VA.
