SHLB Webinar: Transforming Rural Health: Understanding and Leveraging the Rural Health Transformation Program

Description: The $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program (RHT Program) represents a major opportunity to strengthen rural healthcare systems. The purpose of the program is to transform the rural health ecosystem by strengthening care delivery, improving health outcomes, expanding access to essential services, and stabilizing the financial future of rural providers. This webinar will provide a comprehensive overview of the program, including what it funds and its overarching goals, and examine how various states are approaching implementation. 

Speakers will also discuss how anchor institutions, nonprofits and rural providers can benefit from RHT funding, and how it differs from existing funding opportunities such as the FCC’s Rural Health Care Program.

Finally, the webinar will explore opportunities to better integrate digital opportunity initiatives—such as broadband access, digital skills, and technology adoption—into healthcare delivery systems, ensuring rural communities are positioned to fully realize the program’s impact.

Speakers:

• Sarah Bauman

  • Director of Stakeholder Engagement,  Utah Education and Telehealth Network. UETN provides a robust infrastructure of broadband technologies for education and telehealth statewide. UETN’s network links over 2,000 K-12 schools, higher education institutions, public libraries and telehealth sites in the state’s urban, suburban and rural areas. Sarah supports UETN’s healthcare members as the lead for the Utah Telehealth Network Consortium and UETN’s services for HCPs, including application filings to access Healthcare Connect Fund discounts, high-speed and secure broadband access, telehealth equipment and software, and managed security services. In addition, Sarah manages UETN’s school-based telehealth program and serves as the PI for the Northwest Telehealth Resource Center – a seven-state resource center funded by HRSA and sponsored by the University of Utah and UETN. Prior to joining UETN, Sarah worked in the healthcare sector as a development director for a behavioral healthcare provider, as well as the founder of a rural healthcare clinic. In addition she has served on numerous nonprofit boards aimed at improving healthcare access and outcomes in rural Utah. Sarah has a passion for healthcare and is dedicated to creating a positive impact by helping to transform our healthcare systems and the way we design, fund, implement, and evaluate programs.

• Michael Wallace

  • Assistant Director UAMS e-Link

  • Michael Wallace, MBA

Michael is the Assistant Director of University of Arkansas Medical Sciences,  Institute for Digital Health & Innovation,  e-Link.   Has responsibility for FCC Rural Healthcare Connect Fund (RHCF) financial management, compliance, vendor relationship management, team development, broadband telemedicine initiatives, telemedicine grants.

Prior to his current role at UAMS e-Link, Michael’s industry experience is in banking, technology services, electronic medical records systems, and accounting.   His primary e-Link duties are focused around RHCF portfolio development of vendor and e-Link members, bridging budgetary needs with funding sources, sourcing market innovations for e-Link sustainability.

• Shawn Daugherty

  • Principal, Digital Opportunity at HR&A Advisors

  • Shawn is Principal in the Digital Opportunity practice at HR&A Advisors where she promotes digital equity through partnerships with governments, organizations, and the communities they serve. In this role, she serves as the lead consultant for the California Department of Technology’s Office of Broadband and Digital Literacy. In this role, she led the development of the State’s Digital Equity Plan and supported the state in securing $70M in funding to implement that state’s plan.
    
    She has an extensive career in nonprofit and politics. Prior to joining HR&A, Shawn led Government Relations for Human-I-T, a digital equity social enterprise where she managed engagement with federal, state, and municipal governments. She led operations for a global, open research nonprofit, and she was a nonprofit public policy consultant as well. Shawn started her political career working for Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

Shawn holds a Master of Public Administration from Suffolk University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

• Jordan Rogers

  • Director of Relationship Marketing

Jordan Rogers is the Director of Relationship Marketing for the NC Telehealth Network Association (NCTNA). NCTNA is a member-led nonprofit that connects North Carolina’s public and nonprofit healthcare providers with reliable, medical-grade broadband by leveraging a partnership with NC's Research & Education Network (managed by MCNC). Through NCTNA, members access a secure statewide fiber optic network and FCC-funded broadband discounts. 

A first-generation college graduate from Appalachian State University, Jordan’s nonprofit journey began with sea turtle conservation on the NC coast. She later worked in the Seychelles of Africa, serving as a dual marketing and development specialist and conservationist on Fregate Private Island. When she returned to the U.S., she transitioned to marketing for nonprofit and private healthcare, supporting drug and alcohol rehabilitation hospitals and leading marketing & development efforts for surgical groups in South Carolina. 

One of her current areas of focus is preserving and modernizing the Universal Service Fund, which helps fund broadband for healthcare providers, schools, and libraries nationwide. Jordan is passionate about supporting healthcare providers and the communities they serve through her work with NCTNA. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Kramden Institute and the NC Chapter of HIMSS.