Rural Health Leaders ...

About RHLI

What You'll Learn

In resource-constrained rural communities across New England, collaboration among sectors, organizations, and personnel is critical to address disparities in health and the social determinants of health and to increase health equity. Efficacious, inspired leadership is essential to ensure that collaborative work on behalf of rural populations yields desired outcomes, but few opportunities exist in New England to support the development of necessary leadership skills and knowledge among emerging leaders who work in rural areas, particularly in public health and primary care settings. RHLI strives to strengthen capacity among emerging leaders in public health and primary care to support effective collaboration across public health and primary care, and other sectors, to address disparities and improve health equity in resource-constrained rural areas of New England. 

Subject Matter Experts

David Merrigan,

EdD, MPH Associate Professor,

BUSPH Community Health Science

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Dan Merrigan is Associate Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the Department of Community Health Sciences. Dan was the founding director of the New England Alliance for Public Health Workforce Development and Director of the HIV/AIDS and Substance Abuse Certificate Education Program. Both projects provide innovative education/training that improve local public health infrastructure by increasing the skills and competencies of the currently employed public health workforce. Dan has been engaged in numerous research, education, training and leadership development initiatives for the past 30 years including two Robert Wood Johnson Foundation programs, the Join Together National Leadership Fellowship and the Reclaiming Futures National Leadership Fellowship. These initiatives promote shared local leadership and community-based solutions that address substance abuse, juvenile justice, public safety, emergency preparedness and other local public health issues. Dan has broad experience facilitating leadership collaborations among grassroots groups, policy advocates, the justice system, human service providers, and other community stakeholders including the business and faith community to adopt innovations that improve and protect community health. Dr. Merrigan has been a Fellow in the National Leadership Program funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. He holds Th.M. and M.Div. degrees from the Jesuit Weston School of Theology; M.P.H. and Ed.D. degrees from Boston University, an M.Ed. from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and a B.S. from Villanova University. He was also a Jesuit priest for twenty years.

Patricia Janulewicz Lloyd, 

DSc, MPH,

Associate Professor, 

BUSPH Environmental Health

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Dr. Janulewicz combines her expertise in environmental health, neurotoxicology and teratology to examine how environmental exposures impact the nervous system. Her work spans the life-course and examines prenatal, early postnatal, childhood and adult exposures. Dr. Janulewicz's ongoing projects include investigating the gene-environment interactions in multiple cohorts of Gulf War veterans in order to determine why some veterans became ill following in-theater exposures and other did not, examining the link between the microbiome and veterans health, exploring the role endocrine disrupting chemicals have on thyroid function, examining the effects of maternal medication use during pregnancy and child neurodevelopment, investigating the long-term developmental trajectories of children prenatally exposure to the Zika virus and assessing head impact exposures as a public health issue using an exposure assessment framework.

Andy Lowe, 

Executive Director, 

New England Rural Health Association

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Andy Lowe comes to the New England Rural Health Association with five years’ experience as a member of the NERHA Board of Directors, of which he is a Past President. Before joining NERHA, Andy served as Chief Strategy Officer at Outer Cape Health Services, a community health center serving the rural Outer Cape Cod region. While there, Andy also served as Director of the Cape & Islands Area Health Education Center. Previous work includes positions at the University of Vermont, where he worked on community-based research programs for rural veterans, and the State of Vermont, where he served as Associate CIO in the Agency of Human Services. Andy holds a faculty appointment at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. Andy and his wife Jayne, who met as undergraduates at Norwich University, live in rural Vermont. As a lifelong resident of rural New England who has lived in Vermont, Connecticut, and Cape Cod, Andy enjoys fishing, primitive arms hunting, hiking, biking, snowshoeing, gardening, boating, swimming, maple sugaring, cross country skiing, and anything else outdoors. A lifelong competitive endurance athlete, Andy has trained and raced as a runner, cross country skier, triathlete, and rower.

Ezekiel Baskin, 

Rural Health Program Manager, 

New England Rural Health Association

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Ezekiel Baskin is delighted to be a part of the NERHA team! They are a public health educator and administrator based in rural Western MA. Prior to joining NERHA, Ezekiel worked with Partners in Health on the Massachusetts COVID-19 Community Tracing Collaborative project, where they designed and implemented trainings for a range of internal and external audiences, advocated for equity, supported staff colleagues, and conducted call monitoring sessions for training and quality assurance. Ezekiel is also active as a theatre director and producer, with a focus on supporting new play development. Outside of work, Ezekiel raises chickens and enjoys playing board and card games.

Leo Blandford,

Director of Health Equity and Community Impact

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George “Leo” Blandford is the OCHS Director of Health Equity and Community Impact. His work incorporates health equity initiatives and community outreach services into the OCHS medical health setting. Prior to coming to OCHS, he worked in a range of social services in Massachusetts, including youth and families through the Children’s Behavioral Health Initiative, outpatient behavioral health therapy, and homeless outreach. He also worked as a clinical social worker at the Department of Children and Families and the Department of Mental Health, and in business operations with the American Red Cross. In his capacity at OCHS, Leo serves on numerous regional and state boards and advisory committees including the Family Pantry of Cape Cod, The Lily House, Nauset Interfaith Association, Barnstable County Regional Homeless Network Policy Committee, Barnstable County Human Rights Advisory Commission, Health Equity Compact, and the Massachusetts Rural Council on Health.

Registration

The program is free but limited to 30 participants so you must register and, if you’re accepted to join the cohort, you will receive an email about enrollment in the course Learning Management System (ETHOS). We will keep a waitlist if you’re not selected for this cohort.

If you have any questions about RHLI, contact support@nephtc.org.

Register

_{Acknowledgement: This project is/was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number UB6HP31685 “Regional Public Health Training Center Program.” This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.}