Rural Health & Business Development (Part III of Grantmakers In Health Series with Kim Davis, Shao-Chee Sim; Gary Nelson, and Adam Linker

Rural Matters

In Part III of our groundbreaking fabulous four-part series on Viewing Rural Health, Education, and Business Through an Equity Lens, produced in collaboration with Grantmakers in Health, Michelle chats with Kim Davis, Senior Advisor (Home Region Team) at the Walton Family Foundation; Shao-Chee Sim, Episcopal Health Foundation’s Vice President for Research, Innovation and Evaluation; Adam Linker, director of programs at the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, and Dr. Gary Nelson, President of Healthcare Georgia Foundation, Inc. Nelson describes The Two Georgias Initiative, which represents the Foundation’s focus on rural health and is opening the door to its work on the social determinants of health. Linker talks about a variety of important rural grassroots issues, including supporting rural entrepreneurship, providing innovative transportation solutions, fostering equity. and building more viable economies. Davis describes several innovative projects, including howe a long-time Arkansas business, Delta Dirty Distillery, which is launching a vodka spirit business based on utilizing sweet potatoes on their family-owned farm, and emphasizes the importance of coalition building. Shao Chee Sim details how the Episcopal Health Foundation get involved in addressing rural hospital closures and what the foundation learned from its first commissioned research report on this topic. This episode of Rural Matters and the entire series is sponsored by Grantmakers in Health, GIH's mission is to foster communication and collaboration among grantmakers and others, and to help strengthen the grantmaking community’s knowledge, skills, and effectiveness. Learn more by visiting www.gih.org