African American Health Network gears up to fight disparities
Health Matters
Health Matters
Participants in the AAHN planning
session: Standing: Hershey
Barnett-Bridges (l-r), Karen Johnson,
Doris Franklin, Dr. Mamadou Ndiaye
and Dr. Earlise Ward. Sitting: Dr.
Gloria Hawkins (l-r), Dr. Gloria
Johnson-Powell, Dr. Michelle
DeBose. Also attending the planning
sessions but not shown: Betty Banks,
Lucretia Sullivan-Wade, Shelley
King-Curry, Gale Johnson, Earnestine
Moss, Dr. Eva Vivian and Carola
Peterson Gaines.
session: Standing: Hershey
Barnett-Bridges (l-r), Karen Johnson,
Doris Franklin, Dr. Mamadou Ndiaye
and Dr. Earlise Ward. Sitting: Dr.
Gloria Hawkins (l-r), Dr. Gloria
Johnson-Powell, Dr. Michelle
DeBose. Also attending the planning
sessions but not shown: Betty Banks,
Lucretia Sullivan-Wade, Shelley
King-Curry, Gale Johnson, Earnestine
Moss, Dr. Eva Vivian and Carola
Peterson Gaines.
By Jonathan Gramling
Part 1 of 2
When the African American Health Network of Dane County (AAHN) was established by Denise
Carty, the Wisconsin minority health officer at that time and Earnise Williams who worked at St.
Mary's Hospital and is now a Ph.D. candidate at the UW-Madison, the network was seen primarily as
a way for African American health professionals to get together, share information and provide
support to each other.
But with what seems to be an everlasting health care crisis in the African American community,
AAHN was soon pulled into “active duty” to fight the chronic illnesses that plague the African
American community.
“We began to look at the needs assessments of the community,” said Michelle DeBose Ph.D.,
the current Wisconsin minority health officer and chair of AAHN. “They had been identified as
asthma, cardiovascular disease, mental health and cancer. And so Denise had written a grant that
had been funded by the Wisconsin Partnership Fund. It was a planning grant and we used it to look
at what the triggers were in the African American community for asthma. After that, we were being
called upon by different agencies such as the United Way to do projects. So we started doing
programming and projects based on the funding that came to us. We had no staff. We assigned
volunteer members of our organization to coordinate those programs. When one project would end,
another would start up.”
It also coordinated the annual Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS activities
each March, which they are now hoping that the African American Council of Churches, which is now
acting as AAHN’s fiscal agent, will now take responsibility for with AAHN acting as facilitators of the
activities.
And so, AAHN is at a crossroads in terms of what the members want it to be and how it can best
impact the health crisis facing the African American community. On two consecutive Saturdays in
September, members of AAHN and their community partners met to plan AAHN’s future. In the next
issue of The Capital City Hues, AAHN will outline its new strategies to further its mission.
Part 1 of 2
When the African American Health Network of Dane County (AAHN) was established by Denise
Carty, the Wisconsin minority health officer at that time and Earnise Williams who worked at St.
Mary's Hospital and is now a Ph.D. candidate at the UW-Madison, the network was seen primarily as
a way for African American health professionals to get together, share information and provide
support to each other.
But with what seems to be an everlasting health care crisis in the African American community,
AAHN was soon pulled into “active duty” to fight the chronic illnesses that plague the African
American community.
“We began to look at the needs assessments of the community,” said Michelle DeBose Ph.D.,
the current Wisconsin minority health officer and chair of AAHN. “They had been identified as
asthma, cardiovascular disease, mental health and cancer. And so Denise had written a grant that
had been funded by the Wisconsin Partnership Fund. It was a planning grant and we used it to look
at what the triggers were in the African American community for asthma. After that, we were being
called upon by different agencies such as the United Way to do projects. So we started doing
programming and projects based on the funding that came to us. We had no staff. We assigned
volunteer members of our organization to coordinate those programs. When one project would end,
another would start up.”
It also coordinated the annual Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS activities
each March, which they are now hoping that the African American Council of Churches, which is now
acting as AAHN’s fiscal agent, will now take responsibility for with AAHN acting as facilitators of the
activities.
And so, AAHN is at a crossroads in terms of what the members want it to be and how it can best
impact the health crisis facing the African American community. On two consecutive Saturdays in
September, members of AAHN and their community partners met to plan AAHN’s future. In the next
issue of The Capital City Hues, AAHN will outline its new strategies to further its mission.