Princess Health and Mary Hass of Louisville gets national brain-injury advocacy award. Princessiccia

Princess Health and Mary Hass of Louisville gets national brain-injury advocacy award. Princessiccia

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Mary Hass (image
from BIAK Facebook page)

Mary Hass, the volunteer advocacy director at the Brain Injury Association of Kentucky, was one of four medical professionals recognized for their accomplishments in the field of brain injury during the North American Brain Injury Society's 13th annual conference.

Hass, of Louisville, is the first ever recipient of the NABIS Michael Davis Advocacy Award, named in recognition of a board member who passed away last year.

The award was given in honor of her "commitment and dedication to the field of brain injury and her advocacy work to establish programs and service for persons with brain injury in Kentucky, many of which serve as models for similar efforts around the country," says the release.

The conference, recently held in Florida, was attended by almost 400 multidisciplinary brain injury professionals from around North America who gathered to learn and share the latest developments from the field of brain injury. The principal mission of the organization is moving brain-injury science into practice.

Princess Health and Rice Leach, battling cancer and headed for hospice, gets Public Health Hero Award that Fayette health board will name for him. Princessiccia

Princess Health and Rice Leach, battling cancer and headed for hospice, gets Public Health Hero Award that Fayette health board will name for him. Princessiccia

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Rice Leach

Dr. Rice Leach, a state and national leader in public health for decades, was honored March 14 with the Public Health Hero Award from the Lexington-Fayette County Board of Health, for which he is commissioner -- but is unable to work because he is battling cancer at home.

�When your peers recognize you, there�s nothing like it,� Leach told a crowd at the health department via Skype. �And when your peers you love recognize you, it�s got to be the best.� The board plans to rename the award for Leach, whose outspoken nature has endeared him to public-health officials not as disposed to strong public statements.

The award is usually given in April, during part of National Public Health Awareness Week. "It was presented Monday because of Leach�s medical condition," Karla Ward reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader. "Leach, 75, sent an email to the health department�s staff two weeks ago, updating them about his lymphoma and telling them he would not be back to work. He said palliative care and hospice would be 'not too far in the future'."

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/counties/fayette-county/article66083207.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/counties/fayette-county/article66083207.html#storylink=cpy

Ward writes, "Leach�s five-year tenure as Lexington�s health commissioner was preceded by decades of work in the public health field that included a stint as chief of staff to the U.S. surgeon general, and international work in Guatemala, Bolivia and Panama. He was Kentucky commissioner of public health from 1992 to 2004; from 2004 to 2010 he was medical director and executive director of the health department�s primary care center."

Princess Health and Retired UK professor Dr. Ardis Dee Hoven elected first female chair of World Medical Association.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Retired UK professor Dr. Ardis Dee Hoven elected first female chair of World Medical Association.Princessiccia

awards elections Kentucky Medical Association University of Kentucky

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Retired University of Kentucky professor Dr. Ardis Dee Hoven, who was the president of the American Medical Association in 2013-14, was elected the first female chair of the World Medical Association at the organization's 200th council meeting in Oslo, Norway

For the past few years, Hoven was the chair of the AMA's delegation to the WMA and will now serve as the chair of the WMA for a two-year term. WMA represents physicians from 111 national medical associations.

"I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to do this," Hoven said in a UK news release. "I see myself not so much as a woman in this role but as a leader of a global organization of physicians who are working to support their peers around the the world and improve the lives of their patients."

Hoven earned an undergraduate degree in microbiology then a medical degree from UK. She finished her internal medicine and infectious disease training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Now she is a member of the American College of Physicians and the Infectious Disease Society of America.

Hoven has received the University of Kentucky College of Medicine Distinguished Alumnus Award and the Kentucky Medical Association Distinguished Service Award, and in 2015, she was inducted into the Hall of Distinguished Alumni for UK. "Hoven hopes for the WMA to raise its profile internationally and increase the impact of its policies and advocacy on behalf of physicians and patients," the release says.

"I want to make our footprint bigger and our voice stronger," Hoven said.

Princess Health and Bourbon Co. teen named South's top youth anti-tobacco advocate for his efforts in pushing for county smoking ban.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Bourbon Co. teen named South's top youth anti-tobacco advocate for his efforts in pushing for county smoking ban.Princessiccia

awards e-cigarettes schools smoking smoking ban smoking bans smoking ordinances tobacco youth

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Tyler Boyle (Photo from
Lexington Herald-Leader)

Tyler Boyle, a Bourbon County High School senior and president of Students Making A Change in the Community, was named the South Region Youth Advocate of the Year by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids for his efforts to push a smoking ban in Bourbon County, Lashana Harney reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Boyle has been a part of SMACC since it was re-established in 2013. The club is a place for youth voices to be heard on smoking issues, with the ultimate goal of a countywide smoking ban -- but in the meantime, working for a school regulation that would ban electronic cigarettes.

The smoking ban has yet to pass, but the schools have added e-cigarettes to their comprehensive tobacco policy, which banned tobacco products of any kind on school grounds.

Boyle told the Herald-Leader that he applied for the award in hopes of bringing more attention to the anti-tobacco cause in his county, which has a long history of tobacco production and sales.

"I applied for this award because of all of the work that I've done in my home community and state for tobacco control," he told Harney. "I thought that if I could make national attention, maybe, it would make the officials in my community take this issue more seriously."

Boyle said that he was honored to receive the award, which was presented at a gala in Washington, D.C., in mid-May. He plans to attend a symposium sponsored by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids in Washington in July and the Philip Morris Cos. international shareholder meeting next May.

Boyle told Harney that sometimes he gets frustrated because change is slow to take place, but the will to keep pushing forward always comes back.

"After attending the award gala, I was revitalized and I'm ready for the next step in tobacco control," he said.

Boyle will attend Vassar College in the fall to study political science with a focus on advocacy work and said he would continue his work with the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.

"Tobacco advocacy is something near to my heart," Boyle said. "Vassar is actually going smoke free in July 2015. So, I plan to work hard to implement and support their new policy."

Princess Health and Herald-Leader reporter wins Nieman fellowship to study at Harvard; her goal is to help other papers cover Obamacare.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Herald-Leader reporter wins Nieman fellowship to study at Harvard; her goal is to help other papers cover Obamacare.Princessiccia

awards health journalism journalism newspapers

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Photo by Pablo Alcala,
Lexington Herald-Leader

Mary Meehan, a reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader, has been selected for the 2016 class of Nieman fellows at Harvard University.
She is one of 24 journalists chosen for this prestigious honor and will begin her year of study at Harvard in September.

"I am going to Harvard to study for nine months. I hope to learn things I didn't know I yearn to learn, learn about healthcare and the massive social experiment underway." Meehan said in her shared blog, Menopausal Moms of Kentucky. "I also hope to learn something that can help in some small way to keep the newspaper industry upright."

Meehan has been with the Herald-Leader for 15 years, but began her career as a journalist 34 years ago as a columnist for The Voice of St. Mathews in Louisville at the age of 16. Before returning to Kentucky, she worked for the Tribune Newspapers in Phoenix, AZ, The Orlando Sentinel in Florida, and also as a freelance journalist in Florida.

She said that her "life changing" experience as a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation Health Coverage Fellow last year is what prompted her to apply for the fellowship. She said she returned from the first fellowship energized to write about health, and has written "as many stories as I could" with information from that experience.

Still, she said, "I just came across stories that I couldn't get to, that were too complicated because I didn't have a good, deep foundation of health-care reform and the complex issues involving how people access health care, or what makes them seek it out even if they have insurance, and so that prompted me to file an application for the Nieman fellowship."

Meehan said that she made it clear on her application that she is not a full-time health journalist and that during any given week she has covered "a tractor parade, monster trucks and Salem the wonder cat." But she also said that while covering health, she has found that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has accountability measures that apply everywhere, but are "very difficult to digest on the fly."

Each Nieman fellow proposes a study project. Meehan plans to examine the impact of the law and barriers to sustained health improvement among the previously uninsured.

"My goal is to help mid-size and small papers cover the Affordable Care Act in a meaningful way," she said. "The other part is highlighting positive things that are happening in communities, with a critical eye. Looking at not only what works, but also the challenges."

Meehan said being selected for the top fellowship in journalism hasn't really "soaked in yet," but she anticipates, based on previous fellows' comments, that she will discover "something that is amazing" that can't be predicted yet.

She said she is looking forward to working with the other fellows, half of whom will come from all over the world, and going back to college.

"I am a 50-year-old woman with white hair; I just love the visual of me sitting in a Harvard class," she said with pure joy in her voice. She earned her bachelor's degree at Western Kentucky University where she majored in political science and journalism.

In addition to taking classes, fellows attend Nieman seminars, workshops and master classes and work closely with Harvard scholars and other leading thinkers in the Cambridge, Mass., area.

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism has educated more than 1,400 accomplished journalists from 93 countries since 1938.

Princess Health and Beshear is Communicator of the Year for efforts with Kynect.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Beshear is Communicator of the Year for efforts with Kynect.Princessiccia

Affordable Care Act awards governor health insurance

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Governor Steve Beshear ?has been named 2014 Communicator of the Year by ?the Public Relations Society of America's Thoroughbred chapter.

He received the award for his communication to Kentucky residents about Kynect, the state's online healthcare marketplace created under federal health-care reform.

More than half a million Kentuckians have gotten coverage through Kynect, most of them through Medicaid, which Beshear expanded under the federal law.

Princess Health and Princess Health andCenters for Disease Control honors Lexington physician for her work in promoting immunizations in Kentucky.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Princess Health andCenters for Disease Control honors Lexington physician for her work in promoting immunizations in Kentucky.Princessiccia

awards doctors immunizations physicians public health

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Grace F. Maguire

Grace F. Maguire, medical director of the Thomas H. Pinkstaff Medical Home Clinic in Lexington, has been named 2014 Childhood Immunization Champion in Kentucky by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for her efforts to promote childhood immunization in central Kentucky.

As a pediatrician, Maguire has seen patients with almost every vaccine-preventable disease and has long been a vaccine information resource for her medical colleagues.

For many years, she was the primary immunization educator for trainees at the University of Kentucky in the Department of Pediatrics. She led the immunization programs for the university's outpatient clinics and helped develop the state's immunization registry.

Now she is medical director of a clinic that serves a unique population of children � those in foster care and those with birth defects, brain injury, cerebral palsy, and other special health care needs. The clinic, under her direction, assures these children receive all appropriate vaccines, including those indicated for high-risk populations.

�Dr. Maguire's leadership and dedication to protecting vulnerable children against disease is not only admirable, but vital to public health�s work in preventing the spread of communicable disease,� Stephanie Mayfield, commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health, said in a news release.

Each year, the CDC and its foundation honor health professionals and community leaders around the country with immunization-champion awards to acknowledge exemplary individuals who go above and beyond to promote immunization among children in their communities.

Princess Health and Princess Health andNorton Healthcare chief, Hardin judge-executive, former Lincoln coroner receive awards from Kentucky Hospital Association.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Princess Health andNorton Healthcare chief, Hardin judge-executive, former Lincoln coroner receive awards from Kentucky Hospital Association.Princessiccia

awards Kentucky Hospital Association

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The Kentucky Hospital Association gave some awards during its annual convention in Lexington on May 9, according to a KHA press release. Stephen A. Williams, chief executive officer of Norton Healthcare in Louisville, received KHA's highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award. Recipients of this award must have not only provided extraordinary service to the association but also shown exceptional leadership in the health-care field.

Hardin County Judge-Executive Harry Berry, board chair of Hardin Memorial Health in Elizabethtown, and Bill Demrow, Stanford funeral director and former Lincoln County coroner who is vice board chair of Ephraim McDowell Health in Danville, received the Health Care Governance Leadership Award. It is bestowed upon people "who have had a positive and sustainable impact on the quality of care in their community," according to the release.

Princess Health and Princess Health andChildren 8-12 can submit a healthy lunch recipe by April 5 to get chance for trip to Kids' 'State Dinner' at White House.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Princess Health andChildren 8-12 can submit a healthy lunch recipe by April 5 to get chance for trip to Kids' 'State Dinner' at White House.Princessiccia

awards children food nutrition

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First Lady Michelle Obama is again teaming up with the Education and Agriculture departments to run a nationwide recipe contest to promote cooking and healthy eating by young people.

"Teaching kids to cook is a great way to ensure our children learn healthy habits early in life," a white House press release said. "Research shows that children who help with cooking and meal preparation are more likely to consume fruits and vegetables, and they are more aware of the importance of making healthier food choices.'

The third annual Healthy Lunchtime Challenge & Kids' �State Dinner� encourages students across the country to come up with healthy, original creations. It invites parents or guardians and their children, ages 8 through 12, to create and submit an original lunch recipe that is healthy, affordable and tasty.

The recipe must follow the guidance that supports USDA�s MyPlate to ensure that the criteria of a healthy meal are met. Entries must include each major food group, either in one dish or as parts of a lunch meal, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins and low-fat dairy foods, with fruits and veggies making up roughly half of the plate or recipe.

Recipes can be submitted through April 5, online at www.recipechallenge.epicurious.com, or via mail to The Healthy Lunchtime Challenge c/o Epicurious.com, 1166 Ave. of the Americas, 15th Floor, New York NY 10036.

This summer, Delta Air Lines will fly 56 children and their parent/guardian (one pair from each of the 50 states, plus the U.S. territories, D.C., and Puerto Rico) to the nation�s capital where they will have the opportunity to attend a Kids� �State Dinner� at the White House hosted by Mrs. Obama. A selection of the winning healthy recipes will be served. Winners will be notified in May. For more information and contest rules visit www.recipechallenge.epicurious.com.

Princess Health and Ky. Rural Health Association seeks entries in reporting contest.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Ky. Rural Health Association seeks entries in reporting contest.Princessiccia

awards health journalism newspapers rural health

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The Kentucky Rural Health Association invites nominations for its annual rural health reporting awards, which aim to encourage more and better coverage of Kentucky�s rural health-related issues by the state�s newspapers.

The contest has daily and non-daily divisions, each with two categories: series and single story. Each of the four winners gets a plaque and a $100 prize at KRHA's summer conference. Articles must originally have been published during the preceding fiscal year. Entries will be accepted from staff writers, editors, freelance writers and others affiliated with a Kentucky-based newspaper, and from KRHA members and community members at large on the writers� or newspapers� behalf. Each entry should include three copies of the article as it originally appeared in the newspaper. The awards will be based on relevance to rural health, quality of reporting, impact on health care policy and new insights generated by the reporting.

For entry information, contact Ernie L. Scott of the Kentucky Office of Rural Health at 750 Morton Blvd., Hazard KY 41701, or 606.439.3557 ext. 83689, or ernie.scott@uky.edu.

Princess Health and Floyd County woman is Kentucky's smoke-free advocate of year.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Floyd County woman is Kentucky's smoke-free advocate of year.Princessiccia

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For her work spreading the word about second-hand smoke and founding the coalition that ultimately helped Prestonsburg pass a smoke-free ordinance in 2009, Floyd County's Jean V. Rosenberg was named 2012 advocate of the year at the annual Smoke-Free Policy Conference hosted by the University of Kentucky's Kentucky Center for Smoke-Free Policy. She stands with center Director Dr. Ellen Hahn, left, and Dr. Melissa Walton-Shirley, right, the Glasgow cardiologist who won in 2011.

Rosenberg started her work in 2005 when she began working for the Floyd County Health Department as a program specialist to increase awareness about the dangers of second-hand smoke, reports Ann Blackford reports in a university press release. During that time, she founded the Breathe Easy Floyd County Coalition, which educated people about second-hand smoke and supported local smoke-free initiatives.

On Nov. 1, 2009, the City of Prestonsburg implemented a 100 percent smoke-free ordinance in all workplaces and enclosed public places, with Rosenberg at the helm to propel the effort forward. (Read more)