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Recognized for their inspiring, creative and life-preserving leadership in the post- hurricane Gulf, five to receive a special Robert Wood Johnson Gulf Coast Community Health Leadership Award
Boston, Mass. – With the desire to illuminate the extraordinary efforts of people who are working to provide life-saving services to the most vulnerable in the aftermath of the hurricanes that struck the gulf coast in 2005, the Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leadership Program (CHLP) has named five people to receive a special one-time leadership award. The honorees from, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas will receive $120,000
“Each of these people exemplifies leadership,” said Catherine M. Dunham, Ed. D, CHLP Program Director. “In the midst of the devastation, they were thinkers, collaborators, innovators, planners, and doers… but first and foremost compassionate souls who, in many cases, rose above their own traumatic personal situations, to help others."
The recipients are:
JOE DAWSEY, Executive Director, Coastal Family Health Center, Biloxi, Mississippi
Joe Dawsey may not be superman, but he applied almost superhuman organizational skills to keep health services going to victims of the storms when so many providers failed to go on. Only someone with Dawsey’s passion, leadership and experience to help people and the commitment to see the organization survive could collaborate with others in his own and the extended community to make it happen. When the country of Qatar asked the state’s governor to help them identify recipients of the $100 million they were donating to the relief effort, Dawsey and his work stood out. Coastal will receive $3.4 million from Qatar to rebuild infrastructure and resume much needed health services to the 32,000 Coastal Mississippians Coastal serves.
KIM DILOSA, Founder and Executive Director, YOUTHanasia Foundation, Inc., Harvey, Louisiana
Kim Dilosa devotes her life to improving the lives of low-income, at-risk young people through her health promotion, education and leadership development organization. Not even the nation’s worst natural disaster could stop her from focusing on her mission. Her worry over what the kids would be doing, while the adults were busy rebuilding led her to create TEENZMatter Productions, a company that keeps teens excited and involved by enabling them to audition, produce and participate in citywide entertainment shows. Two thousand kids were involved in the first show and grateful adults came up to her and asked, “What would these teenagers be doing on a Saturday night if not for TEENZMatter?”
ELISE HOUGH, Executive Director, United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Houston, Houston, Texas
It was hard enough for able-bodied people to find basic necessities after Katrina hit. For people with disabilities and their families, it was almost impossible. Foremost among their concerns was gaining access to the adaptive medical equipment many need for their survival, but which in many cases had to be abandoned or was destroyed during the hurricanes. Elise Hough came to their rescue and she and her staff became their guardian angels. They never gave up in finding wheelchairs, lifts, walkers, hospital beds and other equipment for people with disabilities of all ages. With the help of numerous disability organizations and a dedicated staff, she turned United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Houston into the central coordinating group for Katrina evacuees with disabilities.
VIEN NGUYEN, Pastor, MQVN Community Development Corporation, New Orleans, Louisiana
The New Orleans Vietnamese-American community is the third largest in the U.S. and Father Nguyen has been described as its “cornerstone.” He has dedicated his life to preserving and strengthening this new community with modest means. Just before Katrina hit, he opened the 2-story rectory and school as shelters to poor and elderly residents who could not evacuate. During the storm, he organized boat rescues for people stranded in their homes. Shortly after the hurricane, Nguyen got temporary water, power, and organized worship services for over 6,000 community members. And he traveled 10,000 miles to evacuees in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas to ensure that members of the Vietnamese-American community received the relief services that they needed and to facilitate their return to New Orleans. And he worked tirelessly to prevent the city from using a nearby landfill as a dumping ground for contaminated debris from the storms.
BEVERLY WRIGHT, Ph.D., Executive Director, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice/Dillard University, New Orleans, Louisiana
Shortly before Hurricane Katrina, Beverly Wright’s mother and only brother died. Then the storm destroyed her home and office. Beverly Wright looked beyond her personal tragedy and loss, and focused instead on the environmental issues that threatened low lying areas, and the health of the mostly minority and low-income people who live there. In early 2006 she initiated a project that involved collaboration with the United Steel Workers Union as well as with volunteer, faith-based, and neighborhood organizations. It was a pilot clean-up effort on Aberdeen Road in New Orleans East. More than 180 volunteers showed up for training and work. Tainted soil was removed from each yard and replaced with new topsoil and sod and contaminated dirt was safely removed as part of the “A Safe Way Back Home” project. It resulted in a cleaner street, the return of residents, and many requests from other communities for a similar program.
“The hurricanes of 2005 magnified how much the American people depend on the skills and leadership of people in our health and health care systems,” said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “We are proud to honor these five extraordinary community health leaders and are humbled by their devotion to restore and rejuvenate the lives of people in their communities.”
The Gulf Coast Community Health Leaders will be honored at a special ceremony on Thursday, October 12, during CHLP’s annual meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona.
CHLP also awards $1.2 million each year to health leaders who have surmounted substantial obstacles to improve the health of their communities. Since 1992, the program has distributed 140 awards in 47 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Those chosen are nominated by civic leaders, health professionals, government representatives and others inspired by their efforts to provide essential health services in the communities they serve. For more information, go to www.communityhealthleaders.org.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change. For more than 30 years the Foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. When it comes to helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need, the Foundation expects to make a difference in your lifetime. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org.
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