From Aron’s Desk

Last year’s changes to Medicaid and the ACA are expected to leave about 15 million more Americans without access to health insurance. When those people get sick, they often end up in emergency departments or free clinics like those we run at RFU. I have written before about our remarkable student run Interprofessional Community Clinic, and this week I visited the university’s Community Care Connection. 

I visited during its morning visit in the parking lot of the Holy Family Food Pantry and across the street from the Roberti Community House, which is a gem. Gina Guadarrama gave me a heartfelt and thoughtful tour of the community house, while volunteers prepared food boxes in the garden. The House provides cooking classes, yoga, community resources, and a safe place for kids and adults in an area where safe spaces are especially needed. 

While people signed up for our care at the registration tent outside, I had a quick tour of the two exam rooms of the mobile clinic. Our team focuses on screening, referral to social services and primary care, and providing vaccinations. One of the most popular services is the free sports physicals for kids, which gives the team a chance to talk about vaccines folks might have missed. 

I was so impressed by our team members, from the drivers and registration staff on the outside to the providers on the inside of the coach. The coach rotates through 11 sites in the county serving more than 2,100 patients a year, saving the health safety net about $30 million each year. Much of the costs of the program are paid for by philanthropy, including the Endeavor Health Community Investment Fund, the Healthcare Foundation of Northern Lake County, Schreiber Philanthropy, and the Julian Grace Foundation. In addition, RFU is currently in the final stages with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) for the release of $1 million in state funding specifically for the CCC that was appropriated in the FY26 state budget.  Again, thanks to Governor Pritzker and our Lake County legislators for their support in securing funding in a tight state budget.

The week started with a great celebration of the clinical partnership between RFU and the Lake County Child Advocacy Center (LCCAC), which cares for child survivors of physical and sexual abuse in Lake County. The room was full to the brim with dedicated people from the LCCAC, our RFU Health Clinics, and key regional leaders who have supported this project like Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart, Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham, our own board member Ernest Vasseur, and the partnership’s great champion, Illinois State Senator Julie Morrison. 

I’ve written about this partnership before, before, and before, so I will not repeat myself too much. Carrie Flanigan, executive director of the LCCAC, and Julie Creaden, DNP, medical director on the RFU side, are great leaders for this work. Our vice president for clinical services, Jeff Espina, MBA, has pushed this project forward just as he shepherds the Community Care Connection- Jeff even has a commercial driver’s license so he can be the back-up driver of the mobile clinic! We have a great team!

One of our former faculty, Beth Coulson, PT, MBA, who is a former RFU board chair and also a former state legislator, created the Elizabeth Shafernich Coulson Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning to fund new faculty  ideas and projects. Susanna Calkins, PhD, director of the Nexus for Faculty Success, designed a thoughtful and formative presentation and revision process for choosing the faculty awardees. At this week’s award luncheon, Beth literally opened the envelope for this year’s project and awardee. Next year, Rachel Neff Greenley, PhD (Psychology) will develop her project, "An Interprofessional Training Program to Improve Health Professional Students’ Skills in Managing Patient Medication Adherence.” The highly interprofessional group of co-authors for this proposal are Marilyn Hanson, EdD; Jeanette Morrison, MD; Khyati Patel, PharmD; and Jason Radke, MMS, PA-C.

The people of RFU are great innovators, solving society’s challenges through community partnerships, direct care, discovery, and improving the work of teaching and learning. What a great group of staff, faculty, students, and community partners!

Improving the wellness of all people with you,

Aron