The Healthy Edit

At HealthCorps, not only do we work with teens to live healthier lifestyles — their families, schools, and local community get involved to sustain this positive culture of wellness!In this episode of The Healthy Edit, HealthCorps Program Coordinators Mari Arandia and Erin Spillane share their experiences with connecting and nurturing healthier communities with the San Diego Unified High School District.In order to support the health of their students, Mari and Erin first needed to encourage teachers and faculty to care for their own health — a challenge for many overwhelmed educators across the country. But with HealthCorps and SDUHSD's Wellness Council, schools now have empowered students, supported teachers, and local resources to live happier, healthier lives.Special thank you to San Diego Unified High School District for supporting Teens Make Health Happen.Support the show

One goal for the HealthCorps team is making nutrition and food a passion for teens. Margarita Moran, our Program Coordinator in Oxnard, CA, has seen how that passion results in advocacy and positive health behaviors – particularly with her student, Lena, who joins her on this episode of The Healthy Edit.Margarita and Lena reflect on food at home and in schools and the changes they are seeing through the HealthCorps program. They also discuss their entry for last year’s Project Health Showcase: Fresh Fridays, where Lena and her team work with local farmers to introduce new fruits and vegetables to their peers. Margarita and Lena are just one of the many near-peer mentorships that HealthCorps supports to champion teens to be the healthy change they want to see.Special thank you to Oxnard Union High School District for supporting Teens Make Health Happen.Support the show

One of HealthCorps' values is empowerment in diversity, which reiterates our belief that the community members are the catalysts for change in their own communities.Taneesha Watson and Eileen Carrell embody this value in our latest Healthy Edit episode, where they share how growing up in their respective tribes have allowed them to make unique impact on their communities through action and education with HealthCorps.Special thank you to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona's Foundation for Community & Health Advancement for supporting Teens Make Health Happen.-Welcome to the Healthy Edit! A podcast focused on — you guessed it — health and wellness, but from the perspective of HealthCorps, a national not-for-profit dedicated to teen wellness.On this season of the Healthy Edit, you’ll be hearing directly from our staff, students, and other health advocates to discover the secret to what makes our wellness programming so impactful, inclusive, and sustainable and how you – just like our teens – can make health happen.Support the show

Welcome to the Healthy Edit! A podcast focused on — you guessed it — health and wellness, but from the perspective of HealthCorps, a national not-for-profit dedicated to teen wellness.On this season of the Healthy Edit, you’ll be hearing directly from our staff, students, and other health advocates to discover the secret to what makes our wellness programming so impactful, inclusive, and sustainable and how you – just like our teens – can make health happen.In our first episode, we meet Lindsey Maurice-Walker — former HealthCorps Coordinator and now Regional Program Manager in Oklahoma. She shares her passion for working with teens and how to inspire them to give back to their community. Her experience helps us understand why HealthCorps is dedicated to working with teens and what exactly makes these change-makers so powerful.Support the show

In this episode of Healthy Chats, Amy speaks with Pam Kehaly, President and CEO of Blue Cross® Blue Shield® of Arizona, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Amy and Pam discuss the disturbing spike in depression and anxiety adults and teens are experiencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic — and how HealthCorps and BCBSAZ are addressing it. Both agree that part of being mentally healthy is to be physically healthy. Amy and Pam share personal insights and organizational resources to combat the pandemic’s toll on mental health, including HealthCorps’ #Walktober and #Stride4Students step challenges for students and adults.Through Pam’s leadership, the 2,500 BCBSAZ employees work to inspire health across their state, by providing support and resources to help residents across their state achieve optimal health. Part of that commitment is sponsorship of HealthCorps in multiple Phoenix schools.Pam’s engagement in youth health and wellness extends beyond her role as CEO of BCBSAZ; she also volunteers as a member of HealthCorps’ Board of Directors.  HealthCorps has been part of the Phoenix community for several years and currently works in the following schools —  Academy of Math & Science South Mountain, North High School, Phoenix Elementary School District #1, and Pinnacle Peak Preparatory. Learn more about HealthCorps, its programs and online resources here (www.healthcorps.org).Support the show

In this episode of Healthy Chats, HealthCorps CEO Amy Braun welcomes Jack D. Hidary a successful serial entrepreneur and leader in AI and Quantum Technologies.  Jack is currently the head of Sandbox, an Alphabet unit that focuses on AI and Quantum.   Jack is the author of Quantum Computing: An Applied Approach, a leading textbook in the field.Jack is also the catalyst behind HealthCorps’ Save the Students campaign that delivered thousands of “health saving” kits to students across the country.  Each kit included a connected thermometer, masks and HealthCorps resources for the students and their families.In September 2021, Jack will be among the honorees at HealthCorps’ annual benefit for his contributions to health and wellness.It’s a fascinating conversation that explores the impact of AI and Quantum Computing on the future of healthcare, lessons learned from the pandemic and helping students reach their potential.Support the show

With the Tokyo Olympics right around the corner, what better way to usher in what will be non-traditional Olympic games, than with a conversation about mental strength, resilience and believing in yourself.In this episode of Healthy Chats, HealthCorps CEO Amy Braun sits down with Board of Advisor member, the legendary Jackie Joyner-Kersee.  Having been dubbed ‘The Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th Century’ by Sports Illustrated, Jackie Joyner-Kersee’s athletic accomplishments are literally second to none.  By the conclusion of her career in the heptathlon and long jump events she had amassed six Olympic medals (3 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze) and four World Champion titles over four consecutive Olympic Games. Jackie was the first woman in history to earn more than 7,000 points in the heptathlon and today, over 20 years later, she still holds the world heptathlon record of 7,291 points. She continues to hold the Olympic and national records in the long jump and her 1994 performance in the long jump remains the second longest in history.Jackie came from very humble beginnings and describes her early home life as being full of love, principle and discipline.  These ingrained values have served Jackie well both on and off the field through her life.  She has been described by the sports media as one of the warmest, most even-tempered, grace-filled persons in all of athletics.In 1988, Jackie established the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation as the vehicle through which she provides youth, adults and families with the resources to improve their quality of life, HealthCorps is proud to partner with her foundation and provide our programming to the teens it serves.Her advice to all of us, young and old?  Believe in yourself.  Never miss an episode of Healthy Chats by subscribing on your favorite platform and following us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @healthcorps and on our teen channel @teenhealthvibe on Instagram.Support the show

Last summer, experts issued warnings that the mental health of our nation’s teachers could be impacted when school resumed. Those warnings appear to be playing out.  Teachers are reporting that their mental health is suffering in ways they have never experienced.  They are anxiety ridden and exhausted.  For teachers who have been operating in crisis mode for well over a year – the constant unpredictability of school opening and closing, the isolation, a new host of challenges in reaching their students – whose mental health they also worry about, are only compounded by the stress of the pandemic the rest of the country feels.May 3- 7, is teacher appreciation week, and May is mental health month. It’s only fitting that we have a conversation to recognize (and appreciate) the expanded role teachers have been asked to play during the pandemic and the toll their willingness to do whatever it takes for their students may be taking on their mental health.Joining HealthCorps CEO, Amy Braun (herself and educator) to discuss causes and solutions as we prepare for a return to the classroom next year are Dr. Mark Goulston, a member of the HealthCorps Board of Advisors, a board-certified psychiatrist and author of Why Cope When You Can Heal – which was created for essential healthcare workers suffering from anxiety and depression as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic and Michelle Benedict, the director of USANA’s Kids Eat who through her work in feeding students, saw the impact of the pandemic on teachers in Salt Lake City and created a program to support them.Please follow @healthcorps on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and for our teen programming go to @teenhealthvibe on Instagram.Support the show

As we open our second season of Healthy Chats, we have a bonus episode with a representative from CVS Health, which we’re very happy about as the CVS Health Foundation is one of our favorite partners.In 2020, HealthCorps honored the CVS Health Foundation for its commitment to working in communities. We applauded CVS Health and its belief that everyone should have the opportunity to make healthy choices, regardless of the condition in which they are born, grow, live, work and age. The CVS Health Foundation provides strategic support to partners, like HealthCorps, that are helping to increase community-based access to health care for at-risk populations.A year ago no one could have imagined what the next 300 days would hold for us.  But here we are, emerging from the pandemic with optimism fueled by hope and science.CVS Health has remained on the front lines of our global battle with covid and it’s fitting that they are with us today to discuss how we can all engage to bring this chapter to an end.In this bonus episode of Healthy Chats, Amy speaks with Dr. Ulises Perez, a chief medical officer and senior director of clinical solutions for CVS Health.  This episode was recorded when the fate of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine was in limbo.  Spoiler alert, Dr. Perez predicted it would be back in use within a week.Our bonus episode provides great insight into the different vaccines, why pharmacies are playing such an important role in vaccine distribution and the vaccines roll out to teens.For more information about HealthCorps, please visit www.healthcorps.org  For more information about CVS Health and the CVS Foundation, go to www.cvshealth.com Support the show

In this episode of Healthy Chats, Amy and her guests discuss the importance of diversity in medicine, specifically as it relates to inequity in health care for Black Americans and practices that can be taken to bridge that health care divide in communities of color.Last fall, The Survey on Race and Health, a joint project between Kaiser Family Foundation and ESPN’s The Undefeated, explored the public’s views and experiences on the topics of health care, racial discrimination, and the coronavirus pandemic, with a special focus on Black adults, a group that has borne a disproportionate burden of COVID-19 cases and deaths. That survey found that 7 in 10 Black Americans believe that people are treated unfairly based on race or ethnicity when they seek medical care.HealthCorps mission and steps taken since the organization’s inception is to combat inequity in healthcare.  To that point, 55% of HealthCorps’ coordinators have gone into medical or health professions.  And while not all HealthCorps coordinators are of color, they have all worked with communities of color, with a goal of providing long-term awareness of the communities they serve.Joining Amy for this important discussion are two health care activists, working to address these inequities and are truly the future of medicine.Jasmyne Jackson, is a former HealthCorps Coordinator at the Ginn Academy in Cleveland, Ohio.  Jasmyne received her Medical Degree and her MBA from the University of Michigan, where she also served as president of the Black Medical Association which focuses on health care disparities, education activism, and mentorship. Jasmyne is currently a Pediatric Resident at Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center. She is also the author of a very personal and poignant opinion piece published by the Journal of American Medical Association – Pediatrics -- The Doctor Is Out—Reflections on Being a Black, Queer Physician (see attached).Jahmil Lacy is the winner of the second HealthCorps and Dr. Oz Diversity in Medicine Scholarship.  Jahmil is a graduate of Morehouse College, the London of Economics, the Charles R Drew University of Medicine and Science and is currently enrolled in medical school at UCLA.   Jahmil is also the founder of TRAP Medicine -- https://www.trapmedicine.org/ For more information on HealthCorps please visit our website www.healthcorps.org and for teen specific programs, visit @Teenhealthvibe on Instagram.Support the show

Joining Amy is Dr. Beth Frates, a member of HealthCorps Board of Advisors and a trainedphysiatrist and a health and wellness coach. Her expertise is in lifestyle medicine, and she works to empower patients to reach their optimal level of wellness by adopting healthy habits. She is co-author of the book Life After Stroke: The Guide to Recovering Your Health and Preventing Another Stroke and co-author of three chapters on behavior change in different medical textbooks. Dr. Frates also co-authored The Lifestyle Medicine Handbook: An Introduction to the Power of Healthy Habits which was ranked in the top 20 by Book Authority for medical book released in 2018. She recently published The Teen Lifestyle Medicine Handbook: The power of healthy living. In August of 2020, Dr. Frates was voted President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. Learn more about Dr. Frates and her work here - https://www.bethfratesmd.com/Also joining Amy is Sarah Martin, HealthCorps Vice President of Programs and Evaluation.Sarah received her Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University ofSouthern California and her Master’s in Public Health from NYU. After a decade in commercial research, Sarah shifted her focus toward behavioral science, conducting research and developing interventions focused on school-based health and wellness programming. Sarah has worked on multiple NIH funded grant teams in both academia and the non-profit sectors and her expertise in school-based health and wellness programming has been featured in several publications and presentations, many of which include HealthCorps. Sarah oversees HealthCorps programming.Access HealthCorps resources here - https://www.healthcorps.org/program-resourcesTogether Amy, Beth and Sarah discuss easy changes that teens (and parents) can make to combat stress and emerge happier and healthier. Find more tips for teens from HealthCorps@teenhealthvibe on InstagramSupport the show

This episode of Healthy Chats originally aired on December 18 as a virtual Town Hall with a full focus on the Covid-19 vaccine.  The Town Hall was made available to anyone interested in attending via HealthCorps’ social media channels.   The conversation between HealthCorps CEO Amy Braun and the panel of experts was  determined by questions submitted by those attending the virtual Town Hall.  Based on those questions, experts discussed the FDA's approval process and the distribution process; how states plan on providing the vaccine (such as who receives it after healthcare workers); the vaccine's efficacy and the challenges public health officials face to ensure the vaccine is equitably distributed, specifically historic and cultural mistrust within the Black and Brown communities.  Joining Amy for the conversation are:Mr. Victor Vandell, a participant in Pfizer’s Covid 19 vaccine trials.Dr. John Whyte, Chief Medical Officer of WebMD.  Formerly he was the Director of Professional Affairs and Stakeholder Engagement at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.Dr. Josh Sharfstein  Vice Dean for Public Health Practice & Community Engagement at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Previously, he served as Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, as Principal Deputy Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and as Commissioner of Health for Baltimore City.Dr. Mena Mirhom Board Certified Psychiatrist at Columbia University is a Board Certified Psychiatrist who specializes in the treatment of Adults and Adolescents. He completed his adult psychiatry training in the Mount Sinai health system in New York City and his fellowship training at Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Marjorie Bessel is the chief clinical officer at Banner Health in Arizona.  Dr. Bessel earned a B.S. in biology, magna cum laude, from Syracuse University and she attended Rush Medical College in Chicago, Illinois, where she was presented with the James B. Herrick award for most outstanding performance in internal medicine.HealthCorps’ founder and Chairman, Dr. Oz also joined us towards the end of our conversation to share his insights.Support the show

In this very special episode of Healthy Chats, HealthCorps CEO, Amy Braun speaks with medical student, Michelle Walls, the first recipient of the HealthCorps/Dr. Oz Show Diversity in Medicine Scholarship.A second year medical student at Michigan State, Michelle shares her story of determination and resilience that took her from a foster home to a period of homelessness to medical school and founding her own organization to help vulnerable populations lead a healthy lifestyle - https://www.lifestylempower.com/?fbclid=IwAR24N75S65isYdqJBfMgIvy-NxAUzkov45WYIQWVDpzHf-HF3p5a-t52LdsMichelle’s vision and desire to give back could not come at a more crucial time for our country’s Black population.  COVID-19 ripped has ripped back the curtain on health inequities.Black people in the U.S. are more likely than white people to suffer from hypertension and heart disease and more likely to die at younger ages. They have accounted for a disproportionate share of COVID-19 cases – both hospitalizations and deaths. Research also tells us that Black people are also more likely to enjoy healthier lives if treated by Black doctors, but there aren’t enough – only 5 percent of our country’s practicing physicians are Black.Dr. Judith Joseph, a board certified child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist and member of HealthCorps Board of Advisors, shares her personal challenges as a Black med student & doctor and her renewed call for more doctors of color.  Certified Master Coach, World Martial Arts Champion and member of HealthCorps Board of Directors, Sifu Karl Romain notes the importance of preparation and resilience to overcome life’s challenges – like those Michelle faced.         A second Diversity in Medicine Scholarship is now OPEN.  Interested applicants can apply here  -- https://www.healthcorps.org/the-diversity-in-medicine-scholarship-award/ Prior entrants from the October 2020 Diversity in Medicine Scholarship Contest are automatically eligible and enrolled in the Extended Contest and need not resubmit a new Entry.  The extended contest is open until 11:59PM ET on December 9, 2020Learn more about and follow Michelle, Dr. Joseph and Sifu Romain through their social media platformsMichelle WallsInstagram @Lifestylefitnessempower_inc Facebook @Lifestyle Fitness Empowerment- Life Inc. Tik Tok :futuredrmichelleFacebook  @drjudithjoseph  http://www.judithjosephmd.com/Facebook @SifuKarlRomainFanPage https://sifukarlromain.com/Support the show

In this episode of Healthy Chats, HealthCorps CEO, Amy Braun welcomes Dr. John Whyte, Chief Medical Officer for WebMD (https://www.webmd.com/john-whyte ); Victor Cho, CEO of Evite and Kristy Gharabally, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications for Evite (www.evite.com ) for a lively conversation about safe and healthy holidays.Celebrations and holidays are certainly different in 2020.  The upcoming holiday season is coming at a time when most Americans are simply worn out with pandemic fatigue.  What is traditionally a time to gather with family and friends, will now have familiar pandemic elements of social distancing, masks and fist bumps rather than hugs.Dr. Whyte, Victor and Kristy will share their thoughts on the risks (and rewards) of holiday travel.  They will also help us create holiday celebrations that are not only safe –  you might even start a new tradition or two!HealthCorps has free health and wellness resources for teens, parents and teachers find them all at http://www.healthcorps.org Check out our Holiday Activity Guide and our Gratitude Wellness Challenge — both mentioned in this episode!Support the show

As students and faculty return to school – physically and virtually, their health is at the forefront of the national conversation. In the inaugural episode of Healthy Chats, Amy and her guests discuss the role technology can play in keeping kids healthy and schools open —  as well as the need to keep teens from feeling isolated as we move into the fall.Guests include Dr. Pedram Salimpour, a pediatrician, member of HealthCorps Board of Directors, and the CEO and founder of Pierce Health Solutions, focused on the creation of novel health delivery systems for Native American Tribes; Sharpstown (Texas) High School Athletic Director Carlos Quintero; Jaclyn Miller, HealthCorps Coordinator at Purcell High School in Oklahoma, and Jared Flamm, Kinsa Health VP of Growth. All are dedicated to keeping students healthy.  And all are engaged in HealthCorps and also discuss the  #SaveTheStudents campaign — https://www.healthcorps.org/savethestudentsYou can send a Safe Student Kit to a student at one of our participating HealthCorps Schools and a second kit will be sent for a classmate matched by a generous donor. That package includes:• A connected thermometer• Four (4) reusable masks• HealthCorps Program Resources• A school-wide program to monitor symptoms and protect from outbreakHealthCorps has partnered with Kinsa to monitor for outbreaks and prevent the spread of illness with their connected thermometers and digital screening program that prompts daily fever and symptom screenings to ensure only healthy students go to school. If a fever or symptom is present, families are reminded to stay home and guided to seek appropriate care and treatment to get better faster. The addition of a face covering is known to significantly reduce transmission, especially critical for asymptomatic cases which scientists suggest could be increasingly relevant in young carriers of the virus. By equipping families with these simple tools, schools can feel more confident in their ability to reopen, and parents can feel safe sending their kids to school.With your support, we will do our part to ensure students are healthy and able to learn this fall.  https://www.healthcorps.org/savethestudentsSupport the show