CELINA, OH – Since launching the “Rise. Shine,” Campaign for Wright State University (WSU) this past March, the Lake Campus has continued to see support from the community for the initiatives outlined by the project. According to Lake Campus Director of Development Julie Miller, the Mercer County Civic Foundation has gifted $400,000 to support the Wright Rural Health Initiative (WRHI).
The WRHI, announced in Fall 2014, is dedicated to improving access to health care services by increasing the number of students and residents who train and practice in rural communities. Goals of the initiative include:
- Create an inter-professional longitudinal education opportunity in rural settings for medical, nursing, and pharmacy students.
- Expand residency training sites supported through Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine (BSOM) to include a track in a rural community(s).
- Increase the number of health professional students making the commitment to practice in rural communities.
- Increase in financial aid and other support for underrepresented students in health professions
- Increase in number of primary care and/or dental students and residents participating in community based training programs serving underserved populations.
This past June, the Lake Campus announced collaboration with BSOM in which students pursuing the rural track will study at Lake Campus. Currently, plans to implement the medical degree at Lake Campus are moving forward, and medical students assigned to rotations in Mercer and Auglaize county health care facilities are already staying in the Lake Campus Housing Villas during their rotations.
Dean Jay Albayyari, Ph.D., is excited about the growing partnership with BSOM, and the gift from the Mercer County Civic Foundation Health Care Fund exemplifies the community response. “We are thrilled and grateful that the community is behind the Lake Campus as we provide the degrees and programs that are needed for this area,” states Albayyari.
John Irmscher, chair of the Health Care Fund advisory committee comments, "We believe the Wright State Rural Health Initiative will benefit health care in our area for many years to come and are very pleased to be able to support it."
Since 1995 the Health Care Foundation and Health Care Fund of the Civic Foundation have donated approximately $1 million in support of health care needs in the local communities. These donations have included support of the Wright State nursing program, local EMS squads and elderly transportation for medical needs addressed through the Mercer County Council on Aging.
Additional partners dedicated to the goals of the WRHI include health professions faculty and staff from both the Dayton and Lake campuses of Wright State University (Departments of Family Medicine, Pediatrics, and Surgery from the BSOM, College of Nursing and Health, Science, and Social Science and Education Units); faculty from Ohio Northern University, Raabe College of Pharmacy; Grand Lake and Mercer Health Systems; staff from the Western Ohio Education Foundation/WSU-Lake Campus; representatives from the West Central Ohio Regional Healthcare Alliance (WCORHA) group; and multiple community foundations including Community Foundation of Shelby County, Mercer Health Med Foundation, St. Mary’s Community Foundation, Van Wert Community Foundation, and Mercer County Civic Foundation-Health Fund.
For more information about the WRHI, please go to https://medicine.wright.edu/about/news-and-events/vital-signs/article/health-care-in-the-heartland. For more information about the WSU Rise.Shine Campaign, please go to https://lake.wright.edu/connect/rise-shine or contact the Development Office at Lake Campus at 419-586-0375.
