Ch, ch, ch, ch, changes

For the past couple of months, David Bowie’s Ch, ch ch, changes has run through my head. It seems like things keep moving faster and faster.

I want to take a moment to share with you all just how proud I am of the work BHT has done in the past two and a half years.

We have helped enroll or re-enroll over 100,000 people in health insurance plans.
In partnership with Empire Health Foundation, we launched two new Community Health Worker programs, FAR & DENT which are giving people in our region resources to be healthier.
We revitalized the Hot Spotter Program with better care coordination, better outcomes management and more diversity of local funding.
We secured over $1 million in funding in Prevention dollars to launch an organized approach to our region’s efforts to reduce Obesity, Diabetes and Hypertension.
We positioned ourselves as a leader within our regional Accountable Community of Health region, and across the state.
We started off as a staff of 5, and now we’re 16!

And, we have barely scratched the surface of what is possible, and honestly, what will be needed if we’re going to achieve our mission of radically improving the health of our region. Each day I am more and more convinced that we need more community alignment of programs and activities.

To help us align our strategies and push forward, the EHF board has created a new entity, Philanthropy in Action. This new entity will offer more leverage and flexibility to do the cutting edge, cross sector, cross-region work that is necessary to create big change in the community. It is still in the formation stage, but we envision an organization that will provide much needed community capacity, with best in class back office services, a shared workforce, and cross sector collaborations to drive innovation and leverage investment.

April 1, I will start a new job as the Chief Strategy Officer for Community Development at Philanthropy in Action. As part of this role, I will retain the Executive Director role for our Accountable Community of Health work. Alisha Fehrenhabcher will serve as the Interim Director of Better Health Together programs, overseeing all BHT program work. 

Alisha also serves EHF’s Chief Strategy Officer for Health Systems, overseeing the Foundation’s efforts to achieve the Triple Aim of better health, better care, and lower costs. She is dedicated to health care reform and experienced at community activation and collaboration. Alisha previously served as the CEO of the Whatcom Alliance for Health Advancement and founded the nonprofit health collaborative, Health Matters in Oregon. Alisha holds a Master’s degrees in Health Administration and Geriatric Health, and she recently became a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, the nation’s leading professional society for healthcare leaders. We are thrilled to welcome Alisha to the team, and know that her entrepreneurial spirit will be put to great use in expanding our capacity to radically improve our regions health. 

Here's to radically improving health,

Alison