Kansas City, Mo. (May 19) – Swope Health, a leading provider of community health in the Kansas City region, announces Governor Laura Kelly as the inaugural honoree of the Dr. Dhana Rengachary Excellence in Healthcare Award. Governor Kelly will be recognized at Swope Health’s Honoring Women in Healthcare luncheon on Wednesday, May 21, 11:30 a.m., at Grand Street Café (4740 Grand Ave., Kansas City, MO). The award, named in honor of Dr. Dhana Rengachary, a retired obstetrician and gynecologist whose career at Swope Health spanned more than 50 years, will be presented to Governor Kelly in person at the luncheon.
Award-winning Kansas City-based journalist Cynthia Newsome will emcee the event and lead a conversation with nationally renowned physician, health equity activist, and author Uché Blackstock, M.D., who recently penned “Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine,” a New York Times bestseller.
Throughout her time in office, Governor Kelly has prioritized investing in crucial healthcare programs to ensure all Kansans have access to affordable, high-quality care. She has fought to protect and expand Medicaid, extended Medicaid postpartum coverage for new moms from two to 12 months, created the statewide 9-8-8 suicide prevention and crisis hotline, and signed a bill that laid the groundwork for the most significant transformation of the Kansas community mental health system in decades.
Blackstock, a second-generation Harvard-trained physician and founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, works with organizations throughout the nation to dismantle racism in healthcare. During the event, she will discuss insights from her book and will focus on current opportunities and challenges in health equity.
“I am surrounded by excellence in healthcare every day,” said Swope Health President and CEO Jeron Ravin, J.D. “Women continue to mold the future of healthcare leadership, and that is true at Swope Health; there are many women who hold prominent positions at our health center—including seven on our executive team. Recognizing the brilliance and compassion of additional women leaders who are leading the way toward transformational change in healthcare seems a natural extension of our legacy and the most appropriate way to champion their work while garnering support for our own.”
Proceeds from the event will benefit Swope Health’s medical assistant training program.
