By Evelyne Kane, Program Manager, Community Engagement

The final months of 2021 brought many exciting opportunities in our consumer engagement work. Our Amplify participants were featured presenters in several statewide and national events, and our 2022-2023 cohort of Consumer Scholars kicked off their program year!

AHE sunset session

In September 2021, Stephanie Burdick presented at the sunset session for the first cohort of the Advancing Health Equity Program’s grantees. These leaders had taken part in a three year national collaborative where teams made up of state Medicaid agencies, payers, and frontline health organizations worked to create payment models that support care delivery transformations and advance health equity. Stephanie’s remarks touched on both the “whys” and “hows” of advancing health equity, and drew from both her lived experience and her work advocating to bring greater value to Medicaid programs in her home state of Utah.

LICN Keynote

Janice Tufte was selected to present the Keynote speech at a grantee convening of California’s Local Indigent Care Needs (LICN) Program. LICN aims to expand the delivery of locally-directed indigent care services for low-income, uninsured, and under-insured adults that lack access to health, behavioral health, and associated support services in rural counties across California. Janice’s inspirational speech focused on the theme of “connection” and drew from her lived experiences as well as her extensive experience as a patient advisor.

QIP-NJ Learning Collaborative

Jonathon Harp joined the Camden Coalition’s Senior Director of Community Engagement & Capacity Building Victor Murray to co-lead a learning session on consumer engagement practices. The session was part of a learning collaborative meeting for participants of Quality Improvement Program-New Jersey (QIP-NJ). Administered by New Jersey’s Department of Health, QIP-NJ is a Medicaid pay-for-performance initiative for acute care hospitals to advance statewide quality improvements in maternal health and behavioral health. Jonathon’s lived experience and work as a peer recovery specialist enabled him to share specific recommendations for how providers can better partner with patients on both an interpersonal and systems level.

Nexus Summit

Cisily Brown presented on a panel at the 2021 Nexus Summit alongside Maritza Gomez, Program Manager for Community Engagement at the Camden Coalition . Together they shared their work with the Camden COVID Ambassadors program, as well as related lessons about how to authentically engage community members in complex care programs, community outreach and education, and emergency response work.

Conference plenary

Rebecca Esparza was featured as a plenary session panelist at our 2021 Putting Care at the Center conference. Speaking on the topic of building trust between patients and providers, Rebecca opened the session with a story about compassionate care she has received during her cancer treatments. In addition to sharing her lived experience through story, Rebecca continued the conversation alongside other panelists offering important insights on trust- building from the consumers’ point of view.

New Consumer Scholars

In August 2021 we welcomed twelve exceptional individuals to our 2021-2022 cohort of National Consumer Scholars. Over the next year, these Scholars will take part in the 2022 Putting Care at the Center conference; partner with Camden Coalition staff on projects related to: policy, clinical redesign, virtual learning, and field-building; and participate in storytelling training led by Storytellers for Change.

• Alyce Luna, North Carolina – Sponsored by Exceptional Children’s Assistance Center
• Aracelis Quinones, New York – Sponsored by Latino Commission on AIDS
• Connie Montgomery, South Carolina – Sponsored by PFCC Partners
• Cisily Brown, New Jersey – Sponsored by Camden Coalition
• Emily Almeda-Lopez, Massachusetts – Sponsored by Disability Policy Consortium
• Jamal Brown, New Jersey – Sponsored by Camden Coalition
• Katie Broeren, Colorado – Sponsored by Colorado Access
• LaRae Cantley, California – Sponsored by USC Initiative to Eliminate Homelessness
• Ren Pelley, New Jersey – Sponsored by Oaks Integrated Care
• Michael Jackson, New Jersey – Sponsored by Camden Coalition
• Naomi Williams, Georgia – Sponsored by PFCC Partners
• Sarah Perkins, Connecticut – Sponsored by Boston University- Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network to Advance Care for Children with Medical Complexity

Are you planning a project or event and want to make sure the voices of patients and consumers are authentically included? Check out Amplify: A consumer voices bureau to connect to a lived experience expert who can partner with you in your work.