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North Carolina forms rural healthcare advisory committee

rural farmland with a house with a red roof on the right
Kathan Gandhi
/
WFDD

State officials announced a new group to help steer future access to healthcare in rural areas.

The NC Rural Health Transformation Program’s Advisory Committee includes over 40 community members. They represent local organizations, healthcare providers, elected officials and other partners.

The goal is to address longstanding challenges to rural healthcare in North Carolina, which has over 3 million residents living in these areas.

NC Health and Human Services Secretary Dev Sangvai says community engagement will play a key role in meeting goals. He adds that the committee members will provide “real-world insight on access challenges, implementation barriers and sustainability opportunities.”

The committee is part of a state healthcare initiative supported by over $213 million in federal funding.

The first meeting will be held August 5 in Raleigh. The public is invited to attend either in person or virtually through the NCDHHS YouTube page.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.