March 10, 2010
Wednesday

Esther Hammerschlag of Craig has been selected as one of twenty-four people nationwide to participate in the "Rural Voices Leadership and Policy Workshop" sponsored by the federal Office of Rural Health Policy.

Hammerschlag is the Network Director of the Prince of Wales Health Network. Her role is to facilitate collaboration between network members to improve the access to and quality of healthcare for the residents of POW. Network members are the City of Craig, PeaceHealth, SEARHC, Craig Public Health, and Alaska Island Community Services.

The primary intent of the workshop is to provide a leadership development program tailored for rural health care leaders and to ensure a diversity of leadership for rural communities. The meetings will be March 29-31 in Washington D.C and will cover health policy issues at the national level to help participants understand how these issues will affect local communities.

Hammerschlag said, "It will further enhance my ability to lead the Prince of Wales Health Network to improve the health of POW's residents, in addition to creating a model collaboration that can be used in other parts of the region to positively impact the health of rural communities in Alaska."

Hammerschlag previously was at Children's Hospital in Seattle where she facilitated the implementation of universal newborn hearing screening programs in birthing hospitals throughout Washington and coordinated research in late onset hearing loss in children.

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