United Way of Central Alabama’s Vice President of Community Impact for Health, Kadie Peters, is one of three Jefferson County Health Action Partnership team members selected to participate in the Culture of Health Leaders national program.
Kadie Peters was selected along with other two other members of the Health Action Partnership, Monica Baskin, Ph.D., Professor and Vice Chair for Culture and Diversity at the UAB Department of Medicine, and Gregory Townsend, Health Service Administrator at the Jefferson County Department of Health, as three of only 40 participants selected to join Culture of Health Leaders, a new program co-led by the National Collaborative for Health Equity and CommonHealth ACTION with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
A shared goal of the Health Action Partnership and the Culture of Health Leaders program is advancing the cause of health equity. According to the Centers for Disease Control, health equity is achieved when every individual has the opportunity to “attain his or her full health potential” and no one is “disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of social position or other socially determined circumstances.”
“When we saw this opportunity we thought it would be a good fit with our Health Action Partnership in Jefferson County,” Peters said. “One of our current focus areas is Advancing Health Equity in Jefferson County, and this three-year leadership program is designed to equip leaders from throughout the United States with the tools to incorporate healthy equity within their communities and improve health outcomes for all individuals.”
The three team members will join other participants from across the country in the training program, which will help participants network and develop the skills to provide innovative solutions to solving persistent challenges and advance a Culture of Health – one that the program says “places wellbeing at the center of every aspect of life.” During the program, participants will develop high-level leadership skills through professional coaching, networking and an advanced leadership curriculum. While participating in the program they apply new knowledge, competencies, and leadership in the community and field.
“We feel like the leadership skills we’ll gain through the three-year program will help strengthen the Health Action Partnership and provide an opportunity to build connections and collaborate with national partners as we move to incorporate health equity in our local work,” Peters said.
Peters has worked at United Way for six years and is currently focused on building collaborative partnerships and improving health outcomes in the five Central Alabama counties served by UWCA. Information about the Culture of Health Leaders program can be found at cultureofhealth-leaders.org. You can learn more about the Jefferson County Health Action Partnership at http://www.healthactionpartnership.org