Meet Delaware’s Most Influential People in health care in 2024

Shane Darby: Founder of Black Mothers in Power, doula training program developer

Shane Darby, founder of Black Mothers in Power and Wilmington city councilperson, continues to lead in helping Black parents across Delaware access necessary resources and services in reproductive health. The advocacy group helps to train doulas to assist during pregnancy, which Darby was trained in when she set up the program within the Black Mothers in Power. The doula training program aims to increase the number of Black providers to bridge disparities in how Black mothers are prioritized in the state’s health care system.

Delaware has a long history of high rates of infant mortality, especially among Black babies, and those statistics are what prompted the doula program. The nonprofit advocacy group has trained nearly two dozen doulas in New Castle County, and collaborated with the Wilmington Housing Authority to provide doula services to people living in the authority’s public housing units.

Carrie Casey: Division of Community Development and Housing for New Castle County, manager

Carrie Casey runs and oversees New Castle County's Hope Center, which provides temporary emergency shelter to people experiencing homelessness. She spearheaded the efforts to get the Hope Center up and running and is now working to come up with a sustainable plan to keep the Hope Center running in the future.

Leslie Palladino: Harm Reduction and Outreach at Impact Life, director

Leslie Palladino is the director of harm reduction and outreach Impact Life, a non-profit focused on helping people struggling with addiction. Palladino regularly leads community outreach efforts, giving out harm reduction tools like the overdose-reversing drug naloxone and connecting people to treatment. The organization recently opened a recovery farm in Seaford, which provides services to pregnant and parenting women in recovery from addiction.

Josette Manning: Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, secretary

Josette Manning is the secretary of the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services. She helps lead the overarching agency that oversees all aspects of public health and wellness in Delaware, from disease prevention to homelessness to aging to animal welfare.

Brad Why: Bancroft Behavioral Health, psychiatric nurse practitioner

Brad Why is a psychiatric nurse practitioner Bancroft Behavioral Health, his private practice in Milltown. In April, Why gathered a coalition of nurse practitioners after noticing that Highmark Health Options, a subsidiary of Highmark Health and an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, had stopped reimbursing him and other advance practice registered nurses at the full rate. He ultimately helped convince Highmark Health to reverse their policy and return to reimbursing advance practice registered nurses at the same rate as physicians providing the same services.

Tiffany Chalk and Mona Liza Hamlin: Well Woman/Black Maternal Health Committee chairs

Tiffany Chalk and Mona Liza Hamlin chair the Well Woman/Black Maternal Health Committee, part of the Delaware Healthy Mother & Infant Consortium (DHMIC) of the Division of Public Health's DE Thrives program. The committee works to raise awareness and address the health disparities affecting Black women and their infants. Recently, Chalk and Hamlin have led efforts to improve access to perinatal resources and strengthening connections in non-traditional Maternal and Child Health spaces.

Ruth Lytle-Barnaby: Planned Parenthood Delaware, former director

Ruth Lytle-Barnaby led Planned Parenthood Delaware at a time of unprecedented need for reproductive services. Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Delaware has seen an uptick in people traveling from out of state to get abortions where they are still legal.

Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, Sen. Bryan Townsend and House Rep. Paul Baumbach: State Retiree Healthcare Benefits Advisory Subcommittee members

The fraught rollout of Delaware’s switch to Medicare Advantage for state retirees’ health care coverage prompted the legislative formation of the State Healthcare Benefits Advisory Subcommittee, led by Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, House Rep. Paul Baumbach and Sen. Bryan Townsend. The group was tasked with making suggestions on controlling health care pricing in a transparent and public manner, holding multiple public meetings to discuss options and final recommendations. Among the suggestions made by the subcommittee to the State Employee Benefits Committee was for it not to consider a Medicare Advantage Plan in its new request for proposals for retiree health care coverage — an earlier proposal to switch to Medicare Advantage has landed the state in court.

Sean Dwyer: Alzheimer’s Association Delaware Valley Chapter

Sean Dwyer, the Delaware Director of State Government Affairs for the Alzheimer's Association Delaware Valley Chapter, has led the association’s efforts to push for enhanced training standards and sufficient staffing in long term care facilities through Senate Bill 150 with a focus on dementia care. The bill was borne out of a legislative task force that Dwyer was a part of. The legislation specifically defines dementia, and would require nursing homes and assisted living facilities to provide dementia care to have sufficient staffing to meet the “individual needs of each resident.”

Candace and Lucilla Esham: Delaware family advocating for long-term care reforms

Mother-daughter duo Lucilla and Candace Esham formed the Delaware Elder Care Advocacy Coalition to fight for long-term care reform across the state after the family matriarch Mary Claudia Jones Barthelmeh died in assisted living care. Barthelmeh, Lucilla’s mother and Candace’s grandmother, developed pressure ulcers that became infected and led to the matriarch’s hospitalization. She died two weeks later, prompting Candace Esham to file a complaint with the state Department of Health and Social Services over her grandmother’s care while at Dover Place. Through the coalition, the Eshams have pushed for legislative changes at the Delaware General Assembly and have called for transparency and accountability on assisted living facility operations and complaints.

Don and Jeanne Keister: atTAck Addiction founders

Don and Jeanne Keister created atTAck Addiction as the first grassroots nonprofit in the state to address addiction following the passing of their son. Over the years, the nonprofit has grown in its reach and the services it provides, most recently opening a resource center in Glasgow in Peoples Plaza and began offering a “small food closet” at the center in late-January. The organization also provides supportive housing, support groups, weekly NA meetings and Narcan training. Beyond the services provided, the Keisters have been key champions for legislative changes and reform for addiction treatment and recovery in Delaware.

Jennifer Staley: Suicide awareness DMV plate proponent

A year after Jennifer Staley’s brother-in-law Jason died by suicide in November 2020, Staley was looking for a way to honor his memory while supporting other people who struggle or are suicide loss survivors. The Marydel resident and her husband had purchased the truck Jason “cherished,” Staley said, and got to work on establishing a specialty license plate program for suicide prevention in Delaware.

Staley helped get a bill passed in 2022 that offers American Foundation for Suicide Prevention specialty license plates to raise awareness and support for suicide prevention. Plates can be purchased for $50 and $35 of that goes to the foundation. With the creation of the program, Delaware joins the only other state Indiana — with an American Foundation for Suicide Prevention license plate.

“My hope is that the plate will keep their memory alive and help others going through the same thing,” Staley said. “Let’s build a community where no one feels alone in their grief.”

Doctors Eric Johnson and Drew Brady: Delaware's first Black adult orthopaedic surgeons

Doctors Eric Johnson and Drew Brady became Delaware’s first Black orthopedic surgeons when they joined First State Orthopaedics, a specialized surgical field that the doctors said has struggled to diversify.

Johnson graduated from Milton Hershey School of Medicine at Penn State University and completed an orthopedic trauma fellowship in New Jersey, before settling in Wilmington where he became the first “fellowship trained orthopaedic trauma surgeon," according to First State Orthopaedics. He established Delaware’s only Level 1 trauma center at ChristianaCare.

Brady is a Wilmington native who graduated from Dartmouth College and Harvard Medical School. He also participated in the University of Pittsburgh’s orthopedic residency program, which First State Orthopaedics said is known for its diversity. Brady served as physician president of First State, and is the current chief of orthopedic trauma at ChristianaCare.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Here are Delaware’s most influential people in health in 2024