How Can We Achieve Equity: Potential Impacts of Health Reform

Tuesday, August 3, 2010  |  2 to 3pm

In our first Health Equity working group conference call, we will hear from health equity expert, Lisa Renee Holderby, who currently serves as Director of Health Equity at Community Catalyst. 

Lisa Renee has almost 20 years experience working to improve health in Massachusetts as a community health worker (CHW). She joined Community Catalyst, a national organization working to impact health care by strengthening the voice of consumers and communities, in September 2009 as the Director of Health Equity. Prior to joining Community Catalyst, she served as the founding executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Community Health Workers (MACHW). She was the first community health worker in the nation to be employed full-time as an executive director of a CHW association. Under her leadership MACHW became a national leader and a model for emerging CHW organizations. Ms. Holderby has worked to promote the full integration of CHWs in health care and human service delivery systems by engaging CHWs in policy development. She is a respected leader in the community health worker movement and has represented CHWs in several national initiatives. Ms. Holderby served as co-chair for the HRSA Community Health Worker Workforce Study’s Technical Advisory Group and has been an invited speaker at conferences across the nation. Lisa Renee is active in the American Public Health Association and is the current chair of the CHW section. She was honored as the recipient of APHA's 2008 Helen Rodriguez-Trias Social Justice Award for her work to increase access to health care and social services. 

Community Catalyst has recently released a report on health equity and community advocacy which Lisa Renee Holderby discussed on the call: A Path Toward Health Equity: Strategies to Strengthen Community Advocacy. Please find that report and other materials on health equity here.

Get a share of health reform grant funding!

States are preparing grant applications to the Department of Health and Human Services for money made available by the new health reform law. Act now to urge your state officials to include women’s health organizations in the grant proposals they will be submitting!

There is a pot of grant money available to help states strengthen their Consumer Assistance Programs so that ordinary folks will be able to learn how to use the reformed health system and get the insurance they need. States have the option to share these grants with community-based organizations, which could work directly with their constituencies – such as women – to educate them about the new law and answer questions. Read more about this grant opportunity here.