This year the Georgia Health Policy Center is celebrating its 20th anniversary. The center has grown from a local policy adviser to a national thought leader, but remains committed to tackling the nation’s biggest challenges in health and health care with a focus on improving well-being one community at a time.
Karen Minyard has overseen tremendous growth of the center since taking the helm in 2001. In the past five years the center has cemented its role as respected national health policy leader with numerous recognitions.
- Improving Outcomes from Hemoglobin Disorders – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention names GHPC as a coordinating center for projects to characterize the complications associated with therapeutic blood transfusions in persons with hemoglobin disorders and improve their outcomes.
- Developing Tool to Aid Community Health Initiatives – The Georgia Health Policy Center’s Community Development Team creates the nationally adopted Sustainability Framework© to address to address the common issues of: strategic vision, collaboration, leadership, relevance and return on investment in community health initiative development.
- Recognizing Health in All Policies – GHPC is designated as a national Health Impact Assessment training center.
- Bringing Together Non-Traditional Partners to Improve Community Health – Along with the United Way and the Atlanta Regional Commission, GHPC develops the cross-sector Atlanta Regional Collaborative for Health Improvement to address regional health needs in a collaborative, multidisciplinary way.
- Supporting a System of Care for Behavioral Health – In partnership with the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, the Georgia Health Policy Center establishes the Center of Excellence for Children’s Behavioral Health to provide monitoring, evaluation, policy analysis, and workforce development for Georgia’s behavioral health system.
- Translating the Affordable Care Act – The Georgia Health Policy Center continues its work with national partners to develop the Leading through Health System Change Planning Tool, a learning framework for public health leaders to better understand the Affordable Care Act. The planning tool received clearance from by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the White House. It is currently used by more than 1,400 public health entities in all 50 states.
- Improving Community Health Through Innovations in Financing – The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation names the Georgia Health Policy Center as its national coordinating center for Bridging for Health.
- Informing Research Through Patient Involvement – The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute selects the Georgia Health Policy Center as one of four regional Pipeline Award Program offices to provide support and technical assistance for southern state awardees.
Minyard says that the center’s collective knowledge base continues to broaden with each project undertaken and community served. The center plans to continue applying its core competencies to expand the reach of its services, partnerships, and impact over the coming decades. In the coming years the center will continue to: Learn – Connect – Transform to advance health and well-being.
GHPC By-the-Numbers
[tabs position=”left”][item title=”Year Founded:”]1995 [/item][item title=”Current Staff:”]50+[/item][item title=”Annual Projects:”]70+[/item][item title=”Communities Served to Date:”]1,000+[/item][/tabs]
Please click here to watch our commemorative anniversary video.
http://ghpc.gsu.edu/ghpc-celebrates-20-years/