Columbus CEO - March 2022 issue

Charles Hillman Housing authority leader focusing on access.

End the stigma

Region executives speaking out about mental health coping strategies.

PAGE 6

PAGE 38

PACT’s new exec Shayla Favor all in on the Near East Side.

PAGE 12

March 2022

H E A LTH C A R E

Achievement Awards 2022 Meet the health care leaders working tirelessly to protect us.

PAGE 15

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Contents

Photo ROB HARDIN

The Mobile Vaccine Clinic crew at OhioHealth

15

Departments 04 Editor’s Note Thanks to the healers and the innovators among us.

H E A LTH C A R E Achievement Awards 2022

ACHIEVERS INDEED

This year’s Healthcare Achievement Awards honor the hard work, ingenuity and courage of those who have never lost sight of their missions even amid the continuing challenges of the pandemic. Many of their efforts are helping not only the sick but the poor, the elderly and the marginalized.

47 Leaderboard Columbus region online degree programs.

48 Breakdown Diversity in Franklin County

MARCH 2022 Cover photo by

ROB HARDIN

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Photo ROB HARDIN

62 E. Broad St., P.O. Box 1289 Columbus, Ohio 43216 Phone: 614-540-8900 • Fax: 614-461-8746

ColumbusCEO.com

VOLUME 31 / NUMBER 3 PUBLISHER/GENERAL MANAGER

Ray Paprocki E DITORIAL

EDITOR

Katy Smith ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Jess Deyo CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Jeff Bell, Linda Deitch D E S I G N & P RODUCT ION

PRODUCTION/DESIGN DIRECTOR

Craig Rusnak ART DIRECTOR

Yogesh Chaudhary DIGITAL

EDITOR

Julanne Hohbach ASSISTANT DIGITAL EDITOR

Jack Long

Charles Hillman

P H OTOGRAP HY

PHOTO EDITOR

Insider

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A DVE RT ISING

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06 Profile

38 Health Watch

Charles Hillman has spent much of his life focused on the work of public housing authorities. Now all that experience is shaping his strategy to address the affordable housing crisis in Columbus.

Executives in the region are focused on the importance of mental health selfcare, both for themselves and those who work for them.

10 Tech Talk

43 CEO Roundtable

Advertising Section

A Columbus firm is getting attention – and financing – for its personal data protection app.

What’s new in cybersecurity.

Corrections

12 Spotlight: Nonprofit As gentrification increases on the Near East Side, a Columbus partnership has made a PACT to ensure that elderly and lower-income residents don’t get squeezed out of their neighborhoods.

Shayla Favor

Photo ROB HARDIN

Rob Hardin

In-Depth

Adaptive Sports Connection’s capital campaign is for $6.6 million. Maddison Mattey went to Ohio University. And the organization leases its land from city of Columbus Recreation and Parks. A story on Page 14 of the February print issue contained incorrect information.

An image on Pages 2 and 14 of the January print issue was incorrectly identified as Bio-Detection K9 CEO Wade Morrell. It was dog trainer Shawn Reed.

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Editor’s Notes * ksmith@ColumbusCEO.com

D

Basecamp Recovery Center on West Broad Street.

Courtesy FRANKLIN COUNTY AUDITOR

Seeing the potential Celebrating 18 winners and finalists in Columbus CEO’s annual Healthcare Achievement Awards.

r. Robert Graessle worked nights as an emergency room physician at Grant Medical Center in Downtown Columbus for eight years. Night after night, he watched the opioid epidemic unfold.

Patients came in having overdosed, and they’d be treated and sent away with Naloxone or Narcan. Then they’d return within just a few weeks.

They were ER regulars. And those were the ones who lived. Graessle spent a sad amount of time informing families—at least for patients who had families—that their loved ones didn’t make it this time.

Plenty of patients are referred to addiction treatment centers after their close calls, but so much of the time, those centers have waiting lists for weeks. That wait can be defeating for someone in crisis. And sometimes it means the difference between life and death.

The winner of this year’s Healthcare Trailblazer award did something about it. With empathy and courage, Graessle established a treatment center of his own—Basecamp Recovery Center, which opened in Franklinton in summer 2020. It now has 32 employees.

You can read the rest of his story on Page 15.

The Hilltop native joins 17 other winners and finalists in Columbus CEO’s annual Healthcare Achievement Awards. These are people we can’t do without. Please join me in celebrating them.

Katy Smith, Editor

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VOTE IN THE 15TH ANNUAL BEST OF BUSINESS AWARDS

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PROFILE

By VIRGINIA BROWN + Photos by ROB HARDIN

Charles Hillman President and CEO

Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority Age: 53 In position since: 2010 Education: Bachelor’s in business

administration, Bowling Green State University; MBA management certification, Loyola University Chicago; Next Generation Executive & Emerging Leader program, Harvard University

Family: Married, three children, one grandchild

A seat at the table CMHA President and CEO Charles Hillman is ready to contribute to the conversations about the future of Columbus.

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hen Charles Hillman was a youngster, his grandfather gave him advice that stuck with him. “I just remember him always telling me, ‘You cannot get something if you don’t let people know you need it,’” he says.

Today, the 53-year-old president and CEO of the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority keeps that advice in mind as he works to solve the city’s critical affordable housing needs. “We cannot solve the affordable-housing crisis unless we accept it and start working on it.”

Hillman has spent a lifetime around housing authorities. He was introduced to the field by his father-

Charles Hillman

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in-law, who ran the housing authority in Hillman’s native Cincinnati. “I just remember how people valued him in our community, and how well I thought they lived,” he says. “And I remember how interested he was in his work.”

It also helped that he drove a company car, which the young Hillman thought was cool. If his father-inlaw’s passion for his career isn’t what hooked Hillman, it’s the mission that kept him going.

“We believe people should have access to affordable housing, no matter who you are or what your situation is,” he says. “And affordability is required across all spectrums ... all levels of our community require affordable housing.”

Hillman’s own work in the affordable housing and housing authority industries began in Cincinnati as development manager for Nelson & Associates. Later, at the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority, Hillman developed a quality-control system that increased resident retention by 25 percent.

Eventually he left Cincinnati to join CMHA as assistant director of property management, a role in which he achieved over 98 percent occupancy while maintaining delinquency rates below 3 percent.

After a stint in Chicago where he served as senior vice president for the Chicago Housing Authority, the nation’s third largest housing author-

We believe people should have access to affordable housing, no matter who you are or what your situation is. And affordability is required across all spectrums .. all levels of our community require affordable housing.

Charles Hillman, president and CEO, Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority

ity, which manages over 25,000 units, he returned to Columbus in 2010 to lead CMHA. The move gave Hillman a wider perspective on Columbus. “I remember thinking, ‘This city’s got it going on.

They’re very progressive. … I’m a gay, Black man brought back here to work at a housing authority—that doesn’t happen in a lot of cities.’”

It was also a time during which housing authorities in general were evolving into development-minded organizations over custodial ones.

“There used to be a time when you had a maintenance staff and you painted the unit, and you got another apartment ready and you moved people in and out, and nothing ever changed,” Hillman says.

The shift is evident in recent numbers. In 2019, CMHA did more than paint, closing $53 million in development deals, including mixed-income acquisitions, new construction for special-needs populations and the preservation of existing developments.

Through deep fiscal responsibility, Hillman and his team also have worked to overcome a $3 million deficit.

A look at the numbers In 2021, the hourly wage needed in Franklin County to afford the average two-bedroom apartment was $19.83, up 24 percent in five years, according to the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio.

Ohio’s minimum wage, which was just raised in January 2022, is $9.30.

In Franklin County, roughly 54,000 families spend more than half of their income on housing, an issue Hillman fears will only continue to grow with the Columbus metro area’s population on pace to reach 3 million by 2050.

Of the people the CMHA serves in Franklin County, according to Hillman, 50 percent are disabled, 25 percent are elderly on fixed incomes, and about 70 percent are African American. The median income of a family served by CMHA is $15,000.

“The unfortunate part is that everyone’s comfortable with disparity,” Hillman says. “People know that some people are going to make more than other people, and that’s just the way life is. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about an impossibility. …We have an March 2022 l ColumbusCEO

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Charles Hillman

entire community in our community that, without some changes, don’t have options.”

Affordable housing is a complex issue connected to many other facets of a community, including population density, economic development, fair wages and social services.

Housing is also at the forefront of employers’ decisions to locate their businesses and how to compensate their staff. Stable housing supports employee productivity, engagement, and flexibility. Keeping these costs reasonable also builds the consumer base that ignites entrepreneurial ventures and fosters innovation.

With so much riding on housing, Hillman wants someone from affordable housing to be at the table of leadership for every development discussion in the city.

“My concern is that the affordable housing crisis in the community is going to grow,” Hillman says. “So we are going to have to have private-public partnerships to be able to create vibrant communities moving forward.”

Working with community partners will ensure that residents have the resources they need–internet, trans-

portation–to be successful long term.

During the COVID-19 pandemic when residents needed to connect with CMHA virtually, Hillman says, “We found that a lot of our residents, in particular our senior residents, couldn’t afford it. … CMHA now pays for broadband for all its residents. We are a barrier remover.”

For many large housing authorities, the solutions lie in these types of coordinated community efforts, public and private, that position those in need toward a more stable future.

“We understand that housing is absolutely critical, but that it isn’t sufficient in and of itself sometimes,” says Sunia Zaterman, executive director of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization that works with 70-member housing authorities across the country. “As housers, we need to connect to service providers, educators, health systems— and our members are actively engaged in that.”

“Charles is a clear leader. He’s innovative, creative and communityminded and very future-minded,” she adds.

Collaboration will be a key element to CMHA’s success moving forward, according to Hillman.

“We’ve had really good partnerships with private and nonprofit developers in our community,” he says. “And we have one of the most collaborative partnering communities I’ve ever worked in, and I’m proud of that.”

A creative partnership between CMHA and Beacon 360 Management, Harriet’s Hope, is a $13 million affordable housing community with onsite support systems for survivors of human trafficking, an issue that hits Ohio especially hard.

In December 2021, CMHA announced a $1 million federal grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati’s Affordable Housing Program, a major financial boost to help advance the project from blueprint to groundbreaking.

“There is an urgent need for diverse solutions that collaboratively address the human trafficking epidemic in central Ohio,” Hillman says in the announcement. “We envision Harriet’s Hope as a vessel to bring hope, restoration, rehabilitation and freedom for some of our community’s

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most vulnerable residents.”

Harriet’s Hope and the partnerships it takes to get an effort like it off the ground is a recent response, according to CMHA Chief Operating Officer Scott Scharlach, to the lack of coordinated housing and social services, namely for the most underserved populations.

The CMHA also recently announced the development of Sinclair Apartments, scheduled to open in 2023, at the site of former music club Alrosa Villa, where, in 2004, four people were murdered and three others wounded in a shooting.

Part of CMHA’s goal is to create 500 new affordable units annually. The Sinclair apartments will offer 180 new units, all ranging in price dependent on income.

A movement toward mixed-income housing is also part of Hillman’s plan.

“Compounds of poverty aren’t sustainable,” he says. “Mixed income communities do work … People want to be around amenities and the same things that all other striving communities deserve. Historically, none of the communities where our proper-

ties were located had access to any of those types of services and amenities.”

And, he adds, they were only made up of low-income residents.

“For years in this country, we have segregated public housing,” says Janet Jackson, a friend and mentor to Hillman and the former president and CEO of the United Way of Central Ohio. “And many times, we’ve put it in the poorest part of a community, without the resources that individuals who live there need to grow and prosper. I am so proud of Charles, because on more than one occasion … he has created mixed-income units.”

In mixed-income housing, people who are entitled to resources provided by CMHA live next door to those who pay market rates. “I think that’s critically important to the way we look at public housing and a pathway for people who are living in poverty to get to greater financial stability,” Jackson says.

Today, Hillman is proud of what he and his team and its partners are creating.

“When we drive to our communities now, they don’t look any different

than any other community,” he says.

“The goal in all of this is quality, affordable housing. And we can see it; it’s right there. It’s not a study. It’s not a test. You walk outside and look at the building and the people walking around. It’s very fulfilling.”

Now, in his latest chapter of life— becoming a grandfather to Cooper, who turns 2 in April—Hillman says the importance of his work means even more to him.

“I have a photo of him, and he reminds me about my responsibility to make this world a better place,” Hillman says. “It requires me to remain future-focused.”

“It’s been a recharge for me frankly, becoming a grandfather,” he says.

“You start to think about what your legacy will be like, how you want people to remember you.”

“Helping to solve the affordable housing crisis—helping to make sure that families have homes, helping to make sure kids have safe places to get back and forth to school—that will be what I’d like to be remembered for.”

Virginia Brown is a freelance writer.

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By CYNTHIA BENT FINDLAY

4Privacy

Data protector lets users control access—not tech giants

S

tart with blockchain technology, add a social media influencer, apply market research and Kickstart, and you’ve got a startup hitting the ground with wheels already burning rubber.

4Privacy is a personal data protection app using distributed zero knowledge identity, decentralized storage and encryption to protect customer’s personal data.

“Essentially, what we enable people to do is have true ownership and

File/Columbus CEO/ROB HARDIN

AJ Auld

4Privacy 250 W. Old Wilson Bridge Road, Suite 140 Columbus 43085 • 4Privacy.com BUSINESS: Personal data protection software CEO AND CO-FOUNDER: AJ Auld CO-FOUNDERS: Destin Sandlin, Eric Parker (CTO) EMPLOYEES: 6

control of their data,” says AJ Auld, CEO and co-founder of the company.

Cloud data storage services like Google or Dropbox let you stick your documents on their systems, and they hold the key to that data.

“Since they hold the keys, there are different risks and privacy concerns,” Auld says. One being hacks and ransom attacks and another being the potential for data being used in ways you may not want.

4Privacy aims to encrypt your data and give you the key before your data gets to the cloud, and then it is stored in multiple secure locations.

4Privacy started in 2018 as LockDown. Auld says the company was contemplating a name change just before COVID hit—and the term lockdown took on the opposite of a positive feel.

During that time, Auld says the team was deep-diving into the tech and its use, and pivoted to offer users help in both securing and then organizing and sharing the data they’re concerned about.

“We found your ID, your financial statements, insurance and estate docs, any family info, all that tends to be scattered in a lot of different areas. We have a guide for you to help fill in the holes, and then give your partner, say, or family secure access to that info.”

4Privacy has a built-in marketing ace in the hole—co-founder Destin Sandlin, an engineer, is also a highly popular science content creator on YouTube. In October, Sandlin released a video on his YouTube channel and pushed it out into a Kickstarter campaign.

The idea, Auld says, was not to raise backing so much as to generate users to help further test their messaging and software and provide proof of concept. But raise funds it did.

“We raised more than $600,000 in sales, with more than 12,000 customers paying for our initial product,” Auld says. “It ended up as the No. 3 all-time software Kickstart. People reached out from all over the world and offered to

Hyperion brings fuel-cell momentum to Ohio HYPERION’S NEW WEST Side factory could herald boom times for the hydrogen fuel cell industry both in Ohio and globally.

Hyperion is known best for its hydrogenpowered fuel cell car, the XP-1. But Hyperion will be building stationary fuel cells in Columbus, used for zero-emission power, heated buildings and other nonmoving applications as well.

“After production ramp-up, we do expect

Photo courtesy Matt Reese Photography

TECH TALK

Hyperion’s hydrogen-powered fuel cell car to transition to sustainable manufacturing using green hydrogen,”says Hyperion CEO Angelo Kafantaris.

That means zero carbon-emissions power to an entire manufacturing facility.

Hyperion has the power to jumpstart even more green hydrogen activity in Ohio, which has a good foothold in the space already, with Power to Hydrogen and PhMatter in Worthington and giant Plug Power making investments in the state.

“Hyperion has connectivity to many local H2 suppliers, which were certainly a factor in our decision to relocate to Ohio,” Kafantaris says. “We’ll have more to announce in the near future regarding our partnerships within Ohio’s hydrogen ecosystem.” get involved and help.”

4Privacy is now beta testing and making final refinements for a final release this spring. The company is also in talks with unnamed investors.

Auld says downstream the company sees huge potential with B2B and enterprise security, as well.

Cynthia Bent Findlay is a freelance writer.

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2022

TELL US ABOUT YOUR EVERYDAY HERO In these divisive times, The Dispatch family of brands again looks to honor those who perform extraordinary selfless acts to improve, heal and unite our community.

The Columbus Dispatch, Dispatch Magazines and ThisWeek Community News want your help to recognize the heroes among us. Consider the social activist righting a wrong or the volunteer quietly aiding those in need.

Later this year, we will publish a Dispatch section featuring their stories and honor them at an event.

Nominations accepted from March 1 through April 8.

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SPOTLIGHT

By STEVE WARTENBERG + Photos by ROB HARDIN

Nonprofit

Near East Side Transformation on tap for historically Black Columbus neighborhood.

T

he calls come on a regular basis. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t receive a phone call from someone who wants to buy my house,” says Shayla Favor, a member of Columbus City Council and the new executive director of Partners Achieving Community Transformation (PACT).

Favor lives on the Near East Side in a 100-year-old home. Her neighbors, including many elderly folks struggling to maintain their old homes, receive similar phone calls. “Those calls are dangerous and scary,” Favor says of the speculators hoping to buy homes at a reduced rate, slap on

“This work is personal for me. I’ll use my education and legal background to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves.”

SHAYLA FAVOR, executive director, PACT

Partners Achieving Community Transformation (PACT) 211 Taylor Ave., Columbus 43203 eastpact.org

MISSION: To help create a healthy, sustainable

community on the Near East Side.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Shayla Favor EMPLOYEES: Two FUNDING: $1.2 million annually

Shayla Favor some quick fixes and then sell them for a hefty profit as part of the gentrification of the Near East Side. “Someone could swift talk you, and you can find yourself in a bad predicament.”

Favor was named executive director of PACT in November. In her new role, Favor will lead PACT’s mission to revitalize the Near East Side, the city’s historic, once-thriving African American neighborhood with landmarks like the King Arts Complex.

The area is seeing signs of progress, which means even more phone calls.

“If we want to see revitalization on the Near East Side, we need to protect it from gentrification, from racism, and fight to ensure equity, housing, education, health care and economic opportunity,” Favor says.

From the courtroom to City Council After Capital University Law School and a brief stint in corporate law, Favor found her calling in public service law, working for the Columbus City Attorney’s Office. She was in the environmental division.

“I was assigned to the Near East Side, and our job was to abate public nuisances, the dilapidated properties that were used for illegal activities,” she says.

Councilwoman Jaiza Page was elected judge of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas in 2018, opening a seat on city council. Favor added her name to the long list of applicants and was

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appointed in January 2019.

One of Favor’s mentors is Donna James, a former Nationwide executive and current managing director of Lardon & Associates. “What really impressed me was how interested she was in personal growth and how to be a more effective leader,” James says. “She has a real passion to help people.”

MEET DAN. A Licensed Social Worker at Catholic Social Services.

Today, he helped an elderly person diagnosed with Parkinson’s and Dementia understand their needs.

PACT’s history

Visited and delivered food to rural homebound people experiencing isolation.

The Near East side is about 1 square mile in size, and the population is predominately African American.

PACT is a partnership between the city, Ohio State, Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority and area residents. The nonprofit organization was initially funded with $10 million from Ohio State in 2010. “We established PACT to guide that initial investment and leverage additional investments,” says Elizabeth Seely, chief administrative officer, hospital division at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

A master plan was developed, and one of the first successes was winning a $300,000 Housing and Urban Development Choice Neighborhoods Planning grant in January 2012.

Favor took over as executive director from Autumn Glover, who moved on to OhioHealth as a senior director. “[Favor] was so articulate in expressing her vision of what PACT could do,” Seely says. “Of taking something great and continuing on that trajectory.”

Helped a client navigate benefits because most of their income goes to rent.

Just one day of what we do.

Learn more at colscss.org.

PACT in action Fifth Third Bank announced plans in late 2021 to invest $20 million in the Near East Side in partnership with PACT, in collaboration with Enterprise Community Partners, a national nonprofit. The goals of the investment include developing a Black-owned bank and grocery store; creation of public art; down-payment support for “middle income and ladder-up” families; and the expansion of health, dental and optometry services.

“This work is personal for me,” Favor says. “I’ll use my education and legal background to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves.”

Steve Wartenberg is a freelance writer.

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Extraordinary People.

Making A Difference.

At Mount Carmel, our people make us who we are.

You know us through them and the extraordinary things they do. They make a difference in the lives of our patients and the community, both inside and outside of our hospitals. We’re proud to congratulate three members of our Mount Carmel family who have won or have been named finalists for the 2022 Columbus CEO Healthcare Achievement Awards. We see the hardwork and dedication of Lorraine Lutton, Virginia Ruef and Mary Smith exhibited every day, and we’re proud that effort is being recognized by our community.

Lorraine Lutton

Virginia Ruef, PharmD, MBA, BCPS

Mary Smith

President & CEO Finalist: Executive of the Year

Regional Pharmacy Officer Finalist: Practitioner of the Year

Hospice Volunteer Winner: Volunteer of the Year

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H E A LTH C A R E Achievement Awards 2022

The Columbus region is fortunate to be protected by a dedicated corps of health care heroes who have risked their lives for us every day since COVID-19 first came into our lexicon two grueling years ago.

The sector employs more than 45,000 people at hospital systems and a nonprofit research institute that are among the best in the nation, where ground-breaking research advances us into the future. In any normal year, honoring our top researchers, care providers and innovators is a treat because their stories are so compelling. In 2022, it’s paramount.

This year’s judges scored nominations based on specific criteria for each category.

Accumulated results determine winners and finalists.

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HEALTHCARE TRAILBLAZER

J U D G E S H E A LT H C A R E AC H I E V E M E N T AWA R D S 2 0 2 2

With thanks for their invaluable contributions, we’re proud to partner with these judges:

Dr. Robert Graessle Founder and CEO, Basecamp Recovery Center AGE

46 EXPERIENCE

Emergency room physician, Grant Medical Center; Emergency medicine physician, Van Wert Hospital E D U C AT I O N

Dr. David Sabgir

Reed Fraley

Ray Paprocki

Dr. David Sabgir Dr. David Sabgir, a cardiovascular specialist at OhioHealth, is founder and CEO of Walk with a Doc, now operating in communities worldwide, and 2016 Columbus CEO Pathway to Population Health award winner. In 2015 he was recognized as a CNN Hero.

Sabgir holds a medical degree from Medical College of Ohio and served his internship, residency and fellowship at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. He still leads a local Walk with a Doc chapter every Saturday morning.

Reed Fraley Reed Fraley is an executive in residence at Ohio State University College of Public Health. He served as chief operating officer of Primary One Health, formerly known as Columbus Neighborhood Health Center; senior vice president of the Ohio Hospital Association; and as CEO of the Ohio State University Health System.

Ray Paprocki Ray Paprocki is publisher and general manager for Dispatch Magazines, which includes Columbus CEO.

B.A. in chemistry, Malone College; M.S. in exercise physiology, University of South Carolina; D.O. at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine; osteopathic internship at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center; emergency medicine resident physician residency at Michigan State University-Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies C O M M U N I T Y I N V O LV E M E N T

Graessle founded Basecamp Recovery in 2020 in Franklinton to help address the ongoing opioid epidemic at a local level.

STORY BY Jess Deyo PHOTO BY Rob Hardin

DR. ROBERT GRAESSLE spent 10 years at Grant Medical Center as an emergency room doctor and for more than eight of those years, he worked nights. That was often when patients who had overdosed would come in, and Graessle would spend his shift sitting with them, and as required, send them away with Naloxone, or Narcan, medicine used to treat overdoses, only to see them a few weeks later.

And most days, that’s the norm.

“I witnessed the opioid crisis firsthand in a number of ways,” Graessle

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Dr. Robert Graessle

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says. “I sat with patients that had relapsed and had been fighting this, and it was kind of a losing battle for them. They were struggling. I sat with many families, telling them that their loved one didn’t make it because we tried to save them, but we couldn’t get them back and that they had finally overdosed and died.”

So why aren’t we talking about it?

That’s the question that Graessle was asking himself and his peers—he would diagnose the patient with an addiction disorder but wasn’t able to treat them. While looking for a solution, he came across a Yale study that showed promising results for patients treated at a Yale hospital who were then referred to an affiliated treatment center at the time of the hospital visit.

Graessle felt hopeful in that and even tried referring his patients to nearby treatment centers, but the majority came back with the same message: there’s a weeks-long wait. So he left his job and opened a facility of his own: Basecamp Recovery Center.

Basecamp Recovery opened in August 2020 and serves anyone who walks through its doors, regardless of ability to pay. It offers a multi-faceted approach of medical care, counseling and case management.

Patients start their journey at Basecamp by showing up five days a week for the first month or two, tapering over time as they improve to allow time to attend events in the community, like support groups.

Graessle has served over 700 people in the past year.

For Graessle, a Hilltop native, opening the center in Franklinton was a no-brainer. Franklinton and the surrounding five zip codes are routinely on a list published by the state detailing highest overdose rates by loca-

“... it’s really about being able to fend for those who are unable to fend for themselves that everyone has counted out. And I see their potential. I see their amazing potential. ” DR. ROBERT GRAESSLE, founder and

CEO, Basecamp Recovery Center

tion, he says. But it’s not an isolated problem—during a 12-month period ending in April 2021 in the United States, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimated there were 100,306 drug overdose deaths.

“In 2017, I believe overdose deaths in the U.S. was 73,000, and for perspective, those were peak numbers,” Graessle says. “At that time, that was higher than the peak AIDS deaths in 1985, the peak gun violence deaths in 1993, the peak car accident deaths in 1937, yet nobody was talking about it. Now, three years later, we’re at 100,000 deaths.”

To aid in the epidemic we need more treatment centers and improvements to the existing ones. While the American Society of Addiction Medicine guidelines outline standard practices, many centers stray from it, he says. There’s also a significant need to break down the stigma.

“There’s a much stronger genetic component to this disease than we give it credit for,” Graessle says.

“To say they’re making bad choices or don’t have willpower is not the proper lens.”

Basecamp has 32 employees. On the team is Dr. Bryan Borland, its medical director and an original team member who has created several programs which Basecamp follows. Thanks to Graessle, the recovery center couldn’t have a more cohesive team, he says.

“Rob is a creative thinker, he is very true to the mission and values of Basecamp,” Borland says. “Because of that he has been able to create a team that is a cohesive group of individuals so focused on the mission and values.”

In the future, Graessle hopes to add additional clinics in other areas in need like Linden or Whitehall.

For now, he hopes to serve as many people as possible.

“I liked being an ER doc, don’t get me wrong,” Graessle says. “But that sense of purpose that I have today is vastly different from what I felt in the ER in my day-to-day life. I think some of that comes from giving back to my neighborhood, but it’s really about being able to fend for those who are unable to fend for themselves that everyone else has counted out. And I see their potential. I see their amazing potential.”

Jess Deyo is associate editor.

HEALTHCARE TRAILBLAZER

OhioHealth Community Mobile Vaccine Project Mobile units staffed by the community outreach team that allow OhioHealth to travel to communities and neighborhoods to provide education and easy access to vaccinations.

FOUNDED

OhioHealth has been providing mobile health services since 1993 and began the Community Mobile Vaccine Project in 2021.

TOP OFFICER

Karen Morrison F E AT U R E S

The mobile vaccine clinic was implemented through a multifaceted team including community health, medical education, pharmacy, real estate, legal, compliance and revenue cycle.

It established new clinic locations to improve access to communities of color and other neighborhoods in need. The mobile clinic uses existing Wellness on Wheels Mobile Units to increase flexibility and access.

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OhioHealth Community Mobile Vaccine Project team members.

STORY BY Tim Feran PHOTO BY Rob Hardin

AS THE LARGEST public health crisis in a century, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced medical professionals to react in innovative ways, even as the virus has exposed long-standing problems in our health care system.

In central Ohio, as elsewhere, one of those problems has been the inequity of care among demographic groups, particularly among communities of color. To take one startling example: During February 2021, the first month of OhioHealth’s Community COVID-19 Vaccine Clinics, 88 percent of first dose vaccines went to white patients even though approximately 59 percent of the population is white.

And even the number of appointments for vaccinations was disproportionately booked by white people.

That data immediately caught the attention of OhioHealth officials.

“We followed the data and we realized there was an opportunity to serve, to meet the need,” says Karen Morrison, president of the OhioHealth Foundation and senior vice president of external affairs at OhioHealth.

“Because we had the resources, and

community partners reached out to us as well, it was only a matter of days before we began to respond.”

OhioHealth activated its mobile clinics—in operation since 1993 beginning with prenatal care at high schools—and took them directly to underserved neighborhoods, not only to provide easy access to vaccinations but, crucially, education about the virus and the health system’s response to it.

“The thing that made us good is that the team is not only clinically capable but culturally competent, able to meet people where they are,” Morrison says. “That was very effective with populations who typically have issues of trust and other hesitancies.”

The mobile unit hosts four weekly clinics and one weekend clinic every month, traveling to 33 locations within local communities of color.

As a nonprofit, OhioHealth has leveraged its own resources in the effort and received federal funds to help with the vaccination clinics. “So there’s no charge,” Morrison said.

Partnering with community organizations has been a key element of the mobile unit’s success. Alongside more than 33 partners, such as Franklin

County, YMCA of Central Ohio, Urban League, IMPACT Community Action, Ohio Women’s Alliance and Pickerington Local School District, teams of pharmacists, nurses and community health workers have one-on-one conversations with residents. Translators in several languages are also available.

The approach has been incredibly effective, says Sonia Booker, a nurse who has been with the mobile clinics since they began more than 25 years ago.

“We went from a baseline of 11.3 percent [of the underserved population being vaccinated in February] to 23.3 percent by May,” she says. “It was so rewarding. We couldn’t keep up with demand. We had 60 appointments every Wednesday—it was furious and fast.”

A Saturday “mega-clinic” at the Urban League almost overwhelmed the mobile team.

“They probably had seven tents put up and we gave 215 vaccinations,” Booker says.

“Once they saw the mobile unit set up, people just walked up,” Morrison says. “I saw people filled with excitement and gratitude.”

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as possible, the mobile unit travels widely—“we went all the way to the Circleville Pumpkin Show,” Booker says. “We’ve been at a Halloween drive through in Whitehall. We’re not worried about only a few people getting vaccinated there. Our appearance says we care. We intentionally go to the underserved, to people who don’t have access.”

A full year after the first mobile unit went out with vaccines, “our target now is closing the gap,” Booker says.

“In the month of January, we had 252 patients vaccinated. That’s good for a winter month.”

Despite the ongoing success, there remain some surprising gaps, she says.

“We want more people to get vaccinated because, believe it or not, we are still getting people their first and second doses,” Booker says. “It’s interesting how people are still hesitant to get vaccinated—and that there are still people not getting the right messaging. It helps when they have a trusted nurse, a pharmacist, a resource in front of them.”

And it is trust that will be the ultimate key to defeating COVID-19 among underserved communities, Morrison says.

“It’s people like Sonia—her brilliant smile and energy—and the team and the partnerships in the community that make the difference,” Morrison says. “We don’t just drive around and drop down. We are welcomed in the neighborhood.”

Tim Feran is a freelance writer.

Photo courtesy Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

KAREN MORRISON, president, OhioHealth Foundation; senior VP of external affairs, OhioHealth

FINALIST

Ryan Haley Ryan Haley is the senior director of ambulatory services at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, where he has been for nearly two decades. Most recently, Haley was key to formulating “Shots at the Schott,” a COVID-19 mass vaccination initiative at the Schottenstein Center. At its peak, the clinic vaccinated as many as 3,900 people a day and was vaccinating patients as quickly as one every 11 seconds. In total, the clinic has vaccinated over 225,000 people. Haley was also responsible for establishing a second vaccination site at Ohio State East Hospital to help reach the underserved.

FINALIST

Vocalize Columbus

Vocalize Columbus is a nonprofit that provides medical interpretation services to bridge the barriers underserved communities face while seeking help. It was launched in 2021 and has since partnered with LifeCare Alliance’s Columbus Cancer Clinic, a free clinic, to provide interpretation for Spanish-speaking patients. After cultivating a pool of volunteer interpreters, Vocalize Columbus donated 102.5 hours of interpretation services, not only contributing to an improved patient experience, but saving the clinic a total of $21,525. In 2022, it plans to expand and offer interpretation services in other languages.

Vocalize Columbus team members

Photo courtesy Vocalize Columbus

“The thing that made us good is that the team is not only clinically capable but culturally competent, able to meet people where they are. That was very effective with populations who typically have issues of trust and other hesitancies.”

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Photo courtesy OSU Wexner Medical Center

Dr. Electra Paskett

PATHWAY TO POPULATION HEALTH

Dr. Electra Paskett Director of the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, OSU College of Medicine; professor, Division of Epidemiology in the College of Public Health; associate director for Population Sciences, program leader of the Cancer Control Program in the Comprehensive Cancer Center; director of the Center for Cancer Health Equity at the James Cancer Hospital AGE

65 E D U C AT I O N

B.S., Biology, University of Utah (1977); M.S.P.H., Epidemiology, University of Utah; Ph.D., Epidemiology and Health Services, University of Washington (1989) C O M M U N I T Y I N V O LV E M E N T

Photography, writing children’s books, reading. She is a grandmother and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, where she teaches Sunday School

STORY BY Virginia Brown

FOR DR. ELECTRA PASKETT, fighting cancer is personal. When she was in fourth grade, her mother was diagnosed with cervical cancer. While pursuing her doctoral degree, her father died of colon cancer. And she herself has survived breast cancer— three times.

“I want to help people so they don’t have to experience what I did. Or maybe experience what I did, so that they’re still alive after cancer.”

DR. ELECTRA PASKETT, director of the Division of Cancer Prevention and

Control, OSU College of Medicine

While her colleagues in cancer research pursue the important work of stopping cancer at the genetic level, Paskett’s work is rooted in the community.

As director of the Center for Cancer Health Equity at the James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State University, Paskett leads a team of up to 60 people on a mission to ensure that nobody, especially women and underserved populations, dies from preventable cancers because of limited information or access to medical care.

“I want to help people so they don’t have to experience what I did,” she says. “Or maybe experience what I did, so that they’re still alive after cancer.”

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Paskett has always been interested in why things happen. While at the University of Washington, she wrote a dissertation examining why women with abnormal Pap smears don’t seek follow-up treatments.

But after awhile, knowing why wasn’t enough. “For me, it wasn’t enough just to see what causes something,” she says. “It was really important that I do something about it.”

After earning her Ph.D., she joined the faculty at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

“Our focus was on women who lived in the low-income housing communities,” Paskett says. “That was in the early ’90s, when there were only a handful of people that really focused on doing intervention work out in the community.”

While at Wake Forest, Paskett and her team uncovered the barriers many women faced—financial stress, lack of transportation or even misinformation—in receiving basic cancer screenings, like mammograms and Pap smears. “When my heat is getting turned off, I can’t think about going to the doctor,” she explains.

They addressed the issue by creating a brochure to show the women which bus routes to take and how to schedule the screenings. “Transportation has not gotten any better for all of our underserved populations,” she says. “And navigating the whole maze of the medical care system isn’t any better either.”

“Any medical professional in the cancer field knows the disparities,” said Dr. Raphael Pollock, director of OSU’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, in his award nomination materials. “Black women are less likely than white women to survive a bout with breast cancer, Appalachian women have disproportionately high rates of cervical cancer, and colorectal cancers also are more common in rural communities.”

Paskett, he adds, has turned cancer data into practical programs, including “Turning the Page on Breast Cancer,” which she created to address the lower breast cancer survival rate among Black women.

She also developed the concept of a health care navigator, a trusted advisor who can shepherd a patient through appointments, payment arrangements, transportation and

accessing childcare.

“They can really help people navigate the complex health care system and can address any barrier to care,” she says.

Since joining OSU in 2002, Paskett’s earliest work centered on increasing the participation of minority patients in clinical trials, education about cancer and clinical trials, increasing uptake of screening and helping community members obtain needed medical care.

“We have programs with all of our different underserved and minority populations,” she says.

Locally, her team focuses on Black, Hispanic, refugee and immigrant populations and the growing Asian population, which speaks 30 different dialects.

“I have staff that come from all those communities, including rural Appalachia, and that is how we work with them—we have staff that can speak with them that are from the community, that bring forward the issues and also the solutions.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Paskett’s team faced new challenges.

“We pivoted, and workers were able to help their communities understand COVID—where to go to get tested, what isolation is and we handed out masks and bags,” she says. “So we don’t only focus on cancer; we use those policies to address the individual and specific needs of each of our populations.”

In 2020, OSU received a $5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund research projects involving COVID-19 testing for populations disproportionately affected by the virus.

Paskett will lead the work, aimed at understanding patterns among marginalized populations to reduce disparities in testing and treatment.

“Sometimes in our profession, the things that we do in population health—going out in the communities—don’t seem to be measured at the same level as a scientist who discovers a new gene, or a clinician who discovers a new treatment,” she says. “It’s very rewarding to have a local organization recognize the important things that we do as changing people’s lives.”

Virginia Brown is a freelance writer.

PATHWAY TO POPULATION HEALTH

LifeCare Alliance Medical Nutrition Therapy Program LifeCare Alliance’s Medical Nutrition Therapy service provides in-home visits with a registered dietitian to help patients with diabetes achieve better health care outcomes.

The program is unique in that it partners with managed care organizations to provide treatment options to those who otherwise encounter frequent barriers to care.

YEAR FOUNDED

2018 TOP OFFICER

Melinda Rowe, director, LifeCare Alliance Wellness Services F E AT U R E S

In-home consultations in Franklin County customized to each person with diabetes-specific needs and situation conducted by a registered dietician.

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Team members of the LifeCare Alliance Medical Nutrition Therapy Program

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STORY BY Tim Feran PHOTO BY Rob Hardin

BEFORE SHE BECAME the director of LifeCare Alliance’s Wellness Department, Melinda Rowe owned a small business, “and I had learned a lot of things the hard way,” things that she was able to apply to the Wellness Department.

After the Central Ohio Diabetes Association became part of LifeCare Alliance in 2017, Rowe looked for a better way for the department’s team of registered dietitians to help patients with diabetes.

“I knew we couldn’t compete with hospitals and big group classes,” she says. Remembering her days owning a small business, she decided that LifeCare would succeed if it found an unserved market. “So, I said, wait a minute—let’s go into the home.

Hospitals don’t want to do that. It’s an unserved niche, we don’t have to worry about competition.”

“So that’s where it began,” she says.

LifeCare’s Medical Nutrition Therapy Service offers in-home visits with registered dietitians.

Patients with diabetes are referred to the service by physicians, stroke prevention centers, medical groups and other programs of LifeCare Alliance, like Meals-on-Wheels or Project OpenHand-Columbus (which serves people with HIV/AIDS).

While diet may not seem like a big problem in the near term for patients with diabetes, it can be a crucial component in their ability to maintain healthy blood sugar levels and prevent complications from the disease including stroke, heart disease and

“I knew we couldn’t compete with hospitals and big group classes. So, I said, wait a minute— let’s go into the home.

Hospitals don’t want to do that. It’s an unserved niche, we don’t have to worry about competition.”

neuropathy (nerve damage).

In theory, the program is a simple answer to the problem of reaching patients in need, but because it was unique “there was nothing to copy,” Rowe says. “The first year was painful.

We found out what wasn’t working pretty quickly.”

One of the big issues: “In the beginning, people would reach out to case workers, dietitians, all sorts of different avenues,” to make an appointment with a dietitian.

FINALIST

Dr. Olivia Nathan Dr. Olivia Nathan is the community engagement pharmacist for Equitas Health and works to provide care for the LGBTQ+ community and those at risk of or affected by HIV/AIDS. One of Nathan’s top priorities is to care for underserved communities and create pathways to health care, which has led her to partner with religious and nonprofit community leaders across Ohio. Through COVID-19, she has helped plan and execute walk-up vaccination clinics in those communities and has personally delivered vaccines across the state.

Nathan was also a 2021 Columbus Dispatch Everyday Heroes finalist.

Dr. Olivia Nathan

MELINDA ROWE, director, LifeCare

Alliance Wellness Department

The confusion could have damaged or even destroyed the program, but Rowe and her team decided that the best solution would be to have everything flow through their case manager.

Elana Burak, case manager at the Wellness Department, acts as a kind of matchmaker figuring out which dietitian’s personality and approach best aligns with a patient’s personality and needs.

It helps that Burak not only has a degree in social work but has Type 1

Photo courtesy Equitas Health

FINALIST

Ohio Living

Ohio Living is one of the nation’s largest nonprofit, multi-site aging services organizations and operates 12 life plan communities, Ohio Living Home Health and Hospice, Ohio Living Physician Services and the Ohio Living Foundation. Through a partnership with three other senior living providers, Ohio Living spearheaded the creation of the owner-operated Medicare Advantage network Perennial Consortium, giving patients peace of mind knowing that their insurance is being handled.

Ohio Living Home Health & Hospice [OLHHH] also offers the Home to Stay program, which allows patients to receive care from their own home without unnecessary hospital trips. In 2019, OLHHH’s 30-day readmission rate was 3 percent, compared to the national average of over 19 percent.

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diabetes herself.

“I live it, I breathe it, I get it,” Burak says. “So this position was an ideal fit. I listen to their stories and connect them to one of our dietitians. After talking to a client, I can get a pretty good idea who they would connect with. I just can’t say enough about the dietitians here. I love every one of them. I sing their praises all day.”

“I’d like to say I follow some sort of theory, but to quote my late mother, she used the WW technique—whatever works,” Burak says.

The program’s focus on in-home, inperson visits hit a major speed bump when COVID-19 shut down many similar services.

Acting with characteristic nimbleness, Rowe and LifeCare Alliance obtained an allowance for online video visits—telehealth. “With this new allowance for telehealth, it can be a client decision and insurance will pay for it,” she says. “Prior to this, we could only offer it if a doctor initiated it.”

The program is a huge benefit to patients who have financial issues, other medical concerns, transportation issues or other factors that prevent them from visiting a doctor’s or dietitian’s office.

“People have busy lives, they can’t commit to classes, and getting them to come to two classes was difficult.

Three was impossible,” Burak says.

“In hospitals, the no-show rate was pretty high,” for classes, Rowe says.

Proof that the Medical Nutrition Therapy service is improving health and saving lives: The 239 patients who received at-home, individual consultations in 2021 had a success rate of better than 90 percent in a combination of improvements in diabetes management, lifestyle behaviors and blood glucose levels The service is so successful, in fact, that LifeCare Alliance has had to grow in response, adding electronic billing and charting, which in turn has created a new revenue source to fund the programs of LifeCare Alliance.

The service “is not something you can get on a website,” Rowe says.

“You need a counselor, in person, helping with behavior modification and not just A1C (tracking blood glucose levels).”

Experience the Tradition

Learn more about our award-winning culture and available opportunities at www.fmchealth.org/careers.

Tim Feran is a freelance writer.

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PRACTITIONER OF THE YEAR

Maria Barnett Doctor of osteopathic medicine, D.O., Central Ohio Primary Care AGE

39 IN POSITION SINCE

2017 EXPERIENCE

Family medicine residency at Fairview Hospital Cleveland Clinic; has hospital privileges at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center E D U C AT I O N

DO, Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine C O M M U N I T Y I N V O LV E M E N T

Enjoys education and speaking to learners of all ages. Upper Arlington Preventative Primary Care sponsored the first AIDs Walk in Upper Arlington last spring.

STORY BY Laura Newpoff PHOTO BY Rob Hardin

WHEN DR. MARIA BARNETT was completing her residency at the Cleveland Clinic from 2009 to 2012, she got a first-hand look at what it was like to devote health care resources to the LGBTQ+ community. It was there she met Dr. Henry Ng, whose clinical and academic work focuses on delivering culturally and clinically competent care to medically vulnerable popu-

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“If I am able to establish a trusting relationship, I’m able to provide not just care related to gender affirmation, but also preventative care, chronic disease management and mental health care.”

DR. MARIA BARNETT, Central Ohio Primary Care

lations. In 2007, he co-founded the PRIDE Clinic, Ohio’s first medical home for LGBTQ+ patients.

When her residency was complete, Barnett joined Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center as a family medicine physician. Known for her desire to focus on underserved communities, she was asked by the chief diversity officer at OSU to assist with primary care for transgender individuals. She took to the practice, which eventually led her to become a co-founder of the Transgender Primary Care Clinic in 2015 along with Dr. Andrew Keaster.

“We started seeing patients half a day each month,” Barnett says, “and quickly saw that the need in the community was so much more than that.”

At the time, the U.S. Transgender Survey painted a bleak picture about the harmful effects being transgender had on a person’s physical and mental health. Respondents encountered high levels of mistreatment when seeking health care. In the year prior to completing the survey, one-third of those surveyed who saw a health care provider had at least one negative experience related to being transgender, such as being verbally harassed or refused treatment because of their gender identity. Additionally, nearly one-quarter of respondents reported that they did not seek the health care they needed in the year prior to completing the survey due to fear of being mistreated as a transgender person, and 33 percent did not go to a health care provider when needed because they could not afford it.

In 2017, Barnett joined Central Ohio Primary Care’s Upper Arlington Preventative Primary Care office. Some of her patients followed her and for several years she continued to work a half a day a week at the OSU Transgender Primary Care Clinic. At COPC, she has an interest in providing care to the LGBTQ+ population along with gender affirming primary care. She has 1,500 patients, one-third of whom identify as LGBTQ+. This growing practice couldn’t be more important to this vulnerable population in Ohio following language in the most recent budget bill that allows anyone providing medical care to refuse treatments that violate their moral, ethical or religious beliefs.

A culture of respect One of the biggest challenges Barnett deals with is supporting patients, particularly youth who lack social support. Barnett along with her medical partners and staff work hard to promote a supportive and inclusive culture within their practice.

Barnett has worked to develop a network in Columbus to benefit the mental health of her patients. She has helped more than 250 young adults in central Ohio get the support needed to assist with gender affirmation. She’s also worked to make patients feel at ease at her office by providing staff education and promoting a culture of respect for all patients.

“Many times, patients come to me after having a negative experience with care in the past. There’s some trauma there.” Barnett says. “Often, the first visit is really hard. It may take time to build trust and establish a therapeutic relationship. Some individuals have experienced a lot of barriers to care and a lack of family and social support. If I am able to establish a trusting relationship, I’m able to provide not just care related to gender affirmation, but also preventative care, chronic disease management and mental health care.”

As Barnett’s transgender practice has grown, she’s been able to treat patients from all over Ohio. With telehealth visits increasing during the pandemic, she’s able to treat more patients remotely. Also growing is the network of providers who help these patients. Barnett has developed relationships with surgeons, mental health providers, voice therapists and hair removal experts so there are a variety of safe and trusted places she can send her patients for the care they need.

“Central Ohio Primary Care has a well-defined focus on serving a diverse population equitably,” says Dr. Bill Wulf, COPC’s CEO. “Dr. Barnett and her practice site … have provided a valuable example and leadership to our entire organization. As a physician, Dr. Barnett has always had a focus on providing a safe space for all patient populations and looks to develop a long-term relationship in which to deliver preventative care.”

Laura Newpoff is a freelance writer.

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FINALIST

Photo courtesy Mount Carmel Health System

Virginia Ruef, PharmD, MBA, BCPS

Virginia Ruef

Virginia Ruef is the regional pharmacy officer for Mount Carmel Health System, a position she secured during the onset of the pandemic. She leads a team of nine who report directly to her and 200 pharmacy associates and has guided hospitals, pharmacies, and outpatient ambulatory services as they treat patients in the ICUs. Ruef also built from scratch multiple Mount Carmel vaccination clinics and spearheaded the hospital’s efforts to vaccinate thousands across the region. In the early days of the pandemic, she co-formed a regional colleague learning group with chief pharmacy officers at OSU Wexner and OhioHealth to share findings.

Dr. Andrew Dagg-Murry Photo courtesy Fairfield Medical Center

Dr. Andrew Dagg-Murry is an infectious disease practitioner at Fairfield Medical Center. When Fairfield Medical Center began admitting its first COVID-19 patients, Dagg-Murry ensured that he or another infectious disease team member saw every patient and he has been present for every meeting, interview or conversation that involves the hospital’s response to COVID-19.

As the vaccine emerged, he became an advocate and made himself available at all hours to answer questions and address vaccine hesitancy. DaggMurry also serves as the hospital’s medical director of the infusion/ wound care sector and the assistant medical director of infection control.

Dr. Andrew Dagg-Murry

EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR

Charles Gehring President and CEO, LifeCare Alliance IN POSITION SINCE

2001 EXPERIENCE

Former adjunct professor with Franklin University where he designed and instructed a course for the Master of Human Services Management program.

Prior to joining LifeCare Alliance, Gehring was executive vice president and chief operating officer for Catholic Social Services. Prior to entering the nonprofit world, he was with Sanese Services.

E D U C AT I O N

B.S. in accounting, Ohio State University; master’s degree in business administration, Xavier University C O M M U N I T Y I N V O LV E M E N T

Current member, former chair of the advisory board, Central Ohio Area Agency on Aging; former member, board of directors, Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce; former board member, Ohio Dominican University; former member, board of the Bureau of Examiners for Long Term Care Services and Supports for the state of Ohio; current chair of the advisory board, Central Ohio Area Agency on Aging STORY BY Laura Newpoff PHOTO BY Rob Hardin

IN THE EARLY DAYS of the pandemic, it was apparent vulnerable populations would bear the brunt of what would become an unprecedented health crisis. That’s because the poor,

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“The thing that helped us is that the community stepped up. The outpouring of love and support has been unbelievable. There have been some days where I sat here and couldn’t believe what was coming in,” CHARLES GEHRING, president and CEO, LifeCare Alliance

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the elderly and the disabled often face barriers to care and the resources they need to stay healthy.

In central Ohio, the nonprofit that helps this population through a variety of programs, including Meals-onWheels, is LifeCare Alliance. In March 2020, when the reality of COVID-19 was setting in, Charles Gehring, the nonprofit’s chief executive, got a call from Douglas Kridler, president and CEO of the Columbus Foundation.

Their conversation went like this.

Kridler: “We know you have the target population for this. What do you need?”

Gehring: “Well, I need people and I need money, but I just don’t know how much.”

Gehring never quoted an amount.

Kridler sent him a check for $300,000.

The Columbus Foundation’s support would be a godsend. Prior to the onset of the pandemic, LifeCare Alliance typically provided around 15,400 weekly Meals-on-Wheels. That number grew to 25,800 meals in the early months of COVID-19. Even today, demand remains up 60 percent compared with pre-COVID-19 numbers.

Remarkably, LifeCare Alliance continues to accept all those who qualify into the program. That contrasts with a 2020 Meals-on-Wheels of America survey that found that 55 percent of programs nationally have increased their already existing wait lists.

In addition to the Columbus Foundation’s support, the nonprofit also benefitted from personal and grantor donations, 1,100 new volunteers and support from the corporate community. Bath & Body Works, for example, helped LifeCare Alliance’s Help-atHome program with donations of soaps and hand sanitizers.

“The thing that helped us is that the community stepped up,” Gehring says.

“The outpouring of love and support has been unbelievable. There have been some days where I sat here and couldn’t believe what was coming in.”

2021 highlights Gehring’s leadership at LifeCare Alliance has led to significant capital improvements, a vast reduction in reliance on government funding and a heightened emphasis on fundraising.

Recent years have seen a successful $7.2 million capital campaign and the

establishment of a $20 million endowment. The former allowed LifeCare Alliance to purchase and renovate a warehouse, converting it to a Mealson-Wheels distribution center, food pantry, senior dining center, community wellness center and donation storage space. This expansion will help the nonprofit address the rapidly growing senior population.

Other highlights from 2021 include: • To help congregate dining centers that closed, LifeCare Alliance innovated grab-and-go programs, as well as a drive-thru at Carrie’s Café on Harmon Avenue.

• The Senior Farmer’s Market

FINALIST

Lorraine Lutton

Lorraine Lutton is president and CEO at Mount Carmel Health System, a position she accepted amidst COVID-19. Since, she has led a $71 million financial turnaround in the 2021 fiscal year. Through the pandemic, Lutton helped bolster the digital capabilities of the patient and care provider experience by expanding Mount Carmel’s telemedicine model to include 24/7 access to on-demand primary care. During one of her firsts tasks as CEO, she assessed leadership needs at the hospitals’ various locations and assembled a 16-person leadership team, 10 of whom are women—four of those women are presidents at Mount Carmel’s four hospitals.

File/ROB HARDIN/Columbus CEO

Lorraine Lutton

program delivered thousands of produce boxes.

• Senior PetCare served more than 1,200 pets, allowing Meals-on-Wheels participants to continue to enjoy the companionship of their best friends.

• The Columbus Cancer Clinic’s Groceries-to-Go pantry delivered food to clients who couldn’t risk exposure to COVID-19.

• Diabetes Dayton, which merged into LifeCare Alliance in 2020, expanded services with the addition of a dietitian.

• IMPACT Safety expanded programming, initiating “IMPACTABILTY” for those with developmental disabilities.

• In October, LifeCare Alliance held its Big Wheels signature fundraiser, one of the only in-person fundraisers held in central Ohio during 2021.

• LifeCare Alliance began formal diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in 2021.

“Chuck is a leader who has the ability and acumen to see things from a big picture and run the agency like a business so we have become sustainable, efficient and stable, which enabled us to remain successful even in the midst of a devastating pandemic,” says Rebecca Hurd, vice president of advancement at LifeCare Alliance.

Key to that has been Gehring’s commitment to diversify funding sources so the nonprofit isn’t solely reliant on government money or United Way dollars.

“When Chuck started with LifeCare Alliance, he began focusing on fundraising and getting the agency’s name into the community, growing its presence,” Hurd says. “His commitment to building significant support over many years was key to weathering the pandemic from a position of strength and stability. [Because Gehring] cultivated two decades of strong partnerships, strong fundraising and support, there are many community champions who know the critical importance of our basic needs support for thousands of central Ohio neighbors.”

Gehring, who is 65, isn’t ready to retire. When he does, he hopes the board promotes from within. “[Our employees], the past places they’ve been, the thought is, ‘Oh, I’ll never have a chance.’ Here, you have a chance.”

Laura Newpoff is a freelance writer.

30 ColumbusCEO l March 2022

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2/17/22 9:44 AM

Deb Palmer

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Deb Palmer Former chief human resources officer, corporate compliance officer and vice president of administrative services, Fairfield Medical Center AGE

67 EXPERIENCE

Deb Palmer spent 31 years at Adena Health System and 13 years at Fairfrield Medical Center, most recently as Vice President of Administrative Services.

E D U C AT I O N

Bachelor of Science in nursing, University of Cincinnati; Master’s in administration and human resources, Central Michigan University C O M M U N I T Y I N V O LV E M E N T

Aside from her hospital duties, Palmer was an adjunct faculty at Ohio University’s Lancaster campus from 2010 to 2016. Before retiring from Fairfield Medical Center in 2021, she helped the hospital’s efforts to vaccinate as many people as possible against COVID-19.

IF SOMEONE HAD TO describe Deb Palmer, she assumes they would start with, “She asks a million questions.”

And they would be right—she knows a simple question can change the trajectory of someone’s life. After all, she’s living proof of it.

Palmer was working as a direct care provider at Adena Health System when she asked her big question, but at the time it didn’t feel that way. It was her first nursing job following her

Photo courtesy Fairfield Medical Center

STORY BY Jess Deyo

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“When I met with every one of them I said, ‘Okay, do you really like what you’re doing? And what do you want to be doing?’

I would say three quarters of them looked at me like I had horns growing out of my head.”

DEB PALMER, former vice president

of administrative services, Fairfield Medical Center

graduation from University of Cincinnati’s nursing program in 1976 and she couldn’t help but notice that at Adena, nursing was the only sector that had a formal education department, not to mention there had been three education directors in the past two years.

“I said to the director of nursing, ‘Good God, can’t we find someone to do this job? Even I could do that job,’” Palmer says. “She said, ‘Well congratulations, you can have it.’”

She wasn’t kidding.

So Palmer figured it out. Her next role was director of workplace learning and performance, where she led a team of clinical and non-clinical educators to provide continuous learning opportunities and ensure the staff always had room to grow, regardless of position. She also implemented several assessments meant to show opportunities for growth.

And after 31 years of Adena, Palmer retired in 2007. But it wasn’t long before she got the call from Fairfield Medical Center in Lancaster. The health system needed help—the training and education department was decentralized, and the results weren’t what they hoped for. They needed someone who could restructure the department and produce results.

Palmer fit the bill.

Palmer initially wasn’t sure about returning to work but would later be swayed to join the staff as a part-time manager of leadership and career development in 2008. Her first task was to complete a 90-day assessment of the entire hospital staff to identify unmet needs. She started with basic but often overlooked questions.

“When I met with every one of them I said, ‘Okay, do you really like what you’re doing? And what do you want to be doing?’ I would say three quarters of them looked at me like I had horns growing out of my head,” Palmer says.

The assessment led to a lot of reshuffling—new positions were created and team members moved to roles that better suited their skillset. But Palmer kept asking questions, wondering what the staff wanted to learn, what would make them enjoy their careers more and what pain points they had.

Eventually her part-time involve-

ment began to shift to include more responsibilities. In 2011 she became the director of talent development and in 2015 she added an additional title as corporate compliance officer.

That same year, her role changed to chief human resources officer and corporate compliance officer. In 2020, she reduced herself to part-time and became vice president of administrative services.

Over 13 years, Palmer championed new programs and ideas that would benefit the staff. Some include: • Introducing the team to strengths finder assessments to identify areas for growth.

• Overseeing the implementation of a new human resource information system and learning management and staffing/scheduling system, which brought electronic pay stubs.

• Implementing new staff development programs including School at Work, an ongoing education program, Preceptor Academy, a mentorship program, and FMC Strides, a pre-leadership voluntary program that teaches finance and operations.

• Creating the position of TEMPO (Together Everyone Manages Patient Outcomes) Education Coordinator to train and support staff through information technology changes.

• Bringing in-person nursing instruction in from Xavier University, Otterbein University and Ohio Christian University, eliminating the need for students to travel to Columbus to complete their nursing degrees.

While many of Palmer’s contributions have been behind the scenes, it’s no challenge to see her dedication.

“Deb Palmer has touched—and seemingly improved—so many different aspects of health care, from the frontline care to administrative duties to leadership roles,” a Columbus CEO Healthcare Achievement Awards judge wrote. “The results hit on so many areas in helping her institution improve. That wide range of impact sets her apart.”

And after almost half a century of working in health care, Palmer finally got the chance to retire (again) in 2021 from Fairfield Medical, but still serves as a contracted employee.

As she reflects on her experiences in human resources, though, she notes that none of her success would have been possible without her nursing March 2022 l ColumbusCEO

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2/15/22 5:21 PM

education that got her there in the first place, which showed her from the very beginning the importance of asking a question.

“I never really stopped nursing, I used those skills every day regardless of what job I was doing,” Palmer says.

“Because it’s about applying that nursing process, listening to the person you’re dealing with, whether it’s a patient or employee… I never quit being a nurse, my patient just changed.”

VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR

Mary Smith

Jess Deyo is associate editor.

Volunteer, Mount Carmel Hospice and Palliative Care

FINALIST

Brenda Rendelman

AGE

71 EXPERIENCE

Has served more than 100 hospice patients over 13 years.

Brenda Rendelman has been a registered dietician and a certified diabetes care and education specialist at LifeCare Alliance’s Wellness Department since 2018 and has spent the entirety of her career working to improve the lives of those living with diabetes. Over the years, Rendelman has provided over 1,000 group classes and countless individual nutrition and diabetes consultations and has partnered with the YWCA to provide group classes. In the first half of 2021, LifeCare Alliance’s Wellness Center saw a 96 percent success rate in the combination of improvements in diabetes management, lifestyle behaviors and blood glucose levels.

B.S., Elementary Education, The Ohio State University at Newark (1986) C O M M U N I T Y I N V O LV E M E N T

The Ohio State University Women’s Club Toymakers, which crafts stuffed animals, dolls, pillows and more for children.

STORY BY Virginia Brown PHOTO BY Rob Hardin

Photo courtesy LifeCare Alliance

Brenda Rendelman

E D U C AT I O N

MARY SMITH ISN’T intimidated by death. For 13 years, the Columbus native and volunteer with Mount Carmel Hospice and Palliative Care has made weekly visits to patients who, due to terminal illness, don’t have much time left.

But Smith makes every minute count.

Now 71, she has spent a lifetime serving others. For 22 years, Smith worked in the intake department of the Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities. She first encountered hospice care when she moved to Johnstown.

An elderly family friend was ill and in the process of dying in the care of Hospice of Central Ohio at Newark City Hospital, now Licking Memorial.

“They took him to a private room, where you could have family and

friends be with him,” Smith says. “I thought, ‘This is the most wonderful thing.’ You're right there with the person. They're dying, but nobody has wires and machines and everything connected. You're just able to talk with them and make it a good time.”

That experience set her on her path.

She supported Hospice of Central Ohio patients for five years before moving back to Franklin County, where she has volunteered at Mount Carmel Health System since 2009.

“I love it because of the people, and I'm going to get emotional,” she says.

She pauses for a sniffle. “Everyone is going to die. Some people know ahead of time that that time is coming, and if you can make that time any easier for that person, or for the caretaker, that's what I love—that they would trust me to come in and take care of them.”

Hospice at Mount Carmel plays a special role in Smith’s life since both of her parents and her stepmother received hospice care prior to passing away at the hospital. Mount Carmel Volunteer Coordinator Daniel Riquino, who nominated Smith for the award, has worked with hundreds of volunteers, but hospice, he says, requires a special kind of person.

“You have to learn how to transform the mundane into the miraculous,” he says. “Whether it’s eye contact, holding someone’s hand or just sitting there…for someone who has varying levels of cognition or may be bed-bound…to have someone who can find joy in small things helps the patient find joy as well.”

“Everyone is going to die.

Some people know ahead of time that that time is coming, and if you can make that time any easier for that person, or for the caretaker, that’s what I love—that they would trust me to come in and take care of them.”

MARY SMITH, volunteer, Mount Carmel Hospice and Palliative Care

34 ColumbusCEO l March 2022

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Mary Smith

36 ColumbusCEO l March 2022

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2/15/22 2:09 PM

Smith is a master of small things.

Through thoughtful gestures—bringing patients pumpkins in the fall, trimming their Christmas trees, delivering homemade cards—she works to inject warmth and joy to her patients’ endof-life experiences.

“Oftentimes, a patient’s room and bed is the extent of their world,” Riquino wrote in the nominating ma-

FINALIST

Kitty Handley

Kitty Handley has been a volunteer at Fairfield Medical Center since 2015 and has served nearly 2,000 hours. Handley began by volunteering in the Cancer Care and Infusion Center at the hospital, a sector she holds close to her heart as someone who has suffered from cancer, where she greets patients and visitors, escorts patients to treatment areas, assists with wig fittings and provides snacks, a smile and a listening ear.

She also volunteers with messenger services, which involves sorting and delivering the mail throughout the entire main campus of the hospital. Handley is also a supporter of the Fairfield Medical Center Foundation.

Kitty Handley Photo courtesy Fairfield Medical Center

terials, “so these small gestures have a huge impact.”

Creativity helps, too. When one of Smith's patients had lost the ability to verbally communicate, Smith didn’t let that stop her from connecting.

“When I went to visit the patient, I looked around their room and could see certain things that had been put there—a picture, a record, or a coverlet on the bed with a certain animal on it,” she says. “I just started talking about those things—and the patient’s eyes would get big and there would be happiness in their eyes.”

The next time she visited, she brought along library books on those topics. “Each visit, we really enjoyed looking at the things I brought, or listening, and you could see that the patient really wanted to communicate, and they did, just by looking at me.”

Smith’s dedication does not stop at patients’ doors. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and in-person volunteering was on hiatus, Smith made hundreds of cloth face masks at home for Mount Carmel staff and caregivers.

As soon as the volunteer program resumed, she was one of the first trained on the new safety protocols.

When a new volunteer joins, she attends the training sessions to share her knowledge and serve as a source of encouragement. And she bakes. Every new patient gets cupcakes.

For many volunteers, hospice isn’t the default choice. Collecting crayons and scissors for school-supply drives or delivering hot soup to seniors who lack transportation—these efforts feel uplifting, hopeful. Hospice closely parallels death and loss, which, to many, can seem overwhelming.

Through her own story, Smith hopes to change that perception. “It's part of life. And it's not sad,” she says. “It’s making something a little easier, maybe sometimes making someone laugh.”

Most of her patients, she says, simply need someone to talk to who’s not a medical professional or family member. Smith becomes that friend.

“When we're born, there's people all around, and everyone's there to lift you up,” she says. “And when you die, you need someone, too. If somebody can make that process a little easier, it’s a blessing.”

Subscribe to

Subscribe or renew your annual subscription to Columbus Monthly for $18.

Go to columbusmonthly.com or call (760) 237-8505.

Virginia Brown is a freelance writer.

March 2022 l ColumbusCEO

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2/16/22 1:41 PM

Health Watch

By LAURA NEWPOFF

R

ick Milenthal and Dave Grzelak are long-time business partners who have developed a deep friendship over the course of 17 years. So, five years ago when Milenthal saw that his friend’s son was struggling with his mental health and dealing with suicidal thoughts he tapped all the resources and connections he had to get help.

Milenthal watched as David and his wife, Elizabeth, tried to navigate the mental health system. They’d find a bed at a treatment facility for their son, only to watch the system push him out in a matter of days.

After using every resource at their disposal, the battle was lost in 2018 when Grzelak’s 17-year-old son took his life.

Milenthal is chairman and CEO of The Shipyard, a digital marketing agency with offices in Columbus and California. Grzelak is its chief strategy officer. Six months after his son’s death he approached his business partner about being open about a topic so many people don’t want to talk about. Milenthal had intimate experience with suicide – his wife, Karen, lost her father during their first year of marriage. Milenthal and Grzelak decided they would use their skills as communicators to destigmatize the conversation around mental health.

The effort has become manifest in four ways: Proceeds from the WonderBus Music Festival, which The Shipyard helped launch in 2019, support Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health; The Shipyard is partnering with the medical center on the #EndSuicideSilence TALK campaign (Tell them you care, Act immediately, Listen without

38 ColumbusCEO l March 2022

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COVID’s impact Grzelak’s son’s death preceded the COVID-19 pandemic, which has put a spotlight on mental health as people struggle with social isolation, medical issues, the loss of loved ones,

“It all comes back to mental health, shaking things up and flexing different muscles.”

REGAN WALSH, executive coach

Photo courtesy Regan Walsh

Executives are getting strategic about self-care.

financial loss and other stressors. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, during the pandemic, about four in 10 adults in the U.S. have reported symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder, a share that has been largely consistent, up from one in 10 adults who reported these symptoms from January to June 2019. A KFF health tracking poll from July 2020 also found that many adults are reporting specific negative impacts on their mental health and well-being, such as difficulty sleeping (36 percent) or eating (32 percent), increases in alcohol consumption or substance use (12 percent), and worsening chronic conditions (12 percent), due to worry and stress over the coronavirus.

Within companies, Milenthal suggests three ways leaders can support the mental health of executives and employees.

Dave Grzelak (left) and Rick Milenthal

Photo courtesy The Shipyard

Let’s talk about it

judgment and Know that treatment works); Milenthal hosts a podcast series called Voices of Resilience; and there are efforts within the marketing agency to help employees with their mental health.

“We decided we are in a business, the business of words, where we can actually do something,” Milenthal says. “We’re not medical professionals, but we do communicate. This has become a passion for us. Communication can cure. It wasn’t too long ago that this was a subject that wasn’t talked about.”

2/17/22 2:48 PM

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EXECUTIVE HEALTH RESOURCES McConnell Executive Health and Wellness

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• Make mental health a priority each year during health insurance program design. A plan, for example, could offer employees three free sessions with a therapist and then a follow-on, affordable co-pay program that gives them access to therapists around the country.

• Make a commitment as a company leader to show your own vulnerability. “None of us have a perfect life and it’s good to be open about that,” Milenthal says.

• Make mental health time-off a policy and encourage and reward it. This also includes conveying the sentiment that mental health struggles aren’t viewed as a weakness.

“As a leader, sometimes you put on an outside shell almost as if you’re on stage,” Milenthal says. “Let your folks know you’re vulnerable, too, and that they’re not alone. People want to be connected. It’s a powerful thing.”

What executive coaches say Regan Walsh is a Columbus executive and life coach who recently joined Renegade Global as chief renegade officer. The startup specializes in human development, leadership and innovation and offers an accelerator program that brings women entrepreneurs, leaders and founders together to level up, learn and hold each other accountable. During the pandemic these women have turned to each other to deal with a newfound duality. They are overwhelmed by the stressors of the pandemic and underwhelmed by a lack of personal excite-

Website:

wexnermedical.osu.edu/ mental-behavioral

ment at the same time.

The program curates peer circles of women who are like-minded and in similar positions. They open doors for each other, invest in each other’s businesses and share advice for personal and professional challenges. A tenant of the program is the concept of “Why not now?” The women are encouraged to act on the ideas they dream about every day.

“It all comes back to mental health, shaking things up and flexing different muscles,” Walsh says. “We’re conditioned to say, ‘Oh, I can’t do that right now.’ We are disrupting that and encouraging these women to go after these ‘Why not now?’ ideas.”

Artie Isaac has chaired CEO peer groups with Vistage Worldwide since 2011. He talks with his clients about mindfulness, meditation and being intentional about allocating time toward self-care. Diversity, equity and inclusion programs also are important to stop the needless suffering of others.

What he frequently hears from executives these days is that they are languishing. The rugged individualism of the way Americans practice capitalism has them always striving for something more. He’s encouraging executives to check out Juan Alvarez’s mindfulness coaching and Wise Humanity’s 12-week personal growth course.

He also recommends they find comfort and joy in what they’ve already achieved and “peace and delight in the small things.”

Laura Newpoff is a freelance writer.

40 ColumbusCEO l March 2022

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2/17/22 3:47 PM

COLUMBUS CHAMBER A N N U A L M E E T I N G March 31

| Mershon Auditorium

AMPLIFY! The Columbus Chamber’s Annual Meeting is our grandest event of the year – one of the largest gatherings of Columbus Region business and community leaders. The event will recognize the recipient of the prestigious Columbus Award, celebrate small business leaders with the presentation of the Small Business Leader Award and provide valuable insights on how the Columbus Chamber connects businesses to resources that help them flourish and thrive.

Kenny McDonald The Columbus Partnership

David Staley The Ohio State University

Andrew Thomas, MD MBA The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

Jim Vaive & Eric Pennington Spirit of EQ

Tom Grote Edge Innovation Hub

Jennifer Griffith First Merchants Bank

LEARN MORE & REGISTER TODAY

COLUMBUS.ORG/EVENTS

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2/16/22 4:42 PM

POW E R O F MAGA Z I NE S

What % of US adults say they read magazine media in the last 6 months?

88%

when advertisers were asked which medium offers the highest ROAS, which was the highest overall?

MAGAZINES

This includes 90% of those under 35 and 90% of those under 25.

The magazine roas of $6.51 was Double That of the TV Roas of $3.23, and more than Double of the Digital Roas of $2.43.

(MRI-Simmons, December 2020)

(NCSolutions 2005-Q12019)

HOW MANY ADULTS AGES 18+ READ MAGAZINES?

221.9 MILLION THAT’S AN INCREASE OF ABOUT 11 MILLION SINCE 2012.

(MRI-Simmons, Fall 2012-2020)

Magazines score higher than websites

and ad-supported TV networks for being inspiring, fulfilling and trustworthy

T H E P R I N T MAG A Z INE I N D U S T R Y I S GROWING 60 new print magazine brands with a frequency of quarterly or greater were introduced in 2020

MRI-Simmons Multi Media Engagement Study Spring 2020

compared to top tech sites MAGAZINES outperform reaching

WOMEN Ages 18+

(Samir “Mr. Magazine” ™ Husani Monitor 2020)

PRINT READERS REMEMBER MORE.

Comscore Multi-Platform Audience Duplication November 2020; MRI-Simmons (11-20/S20)

• PRINT STIMULATES EMOTIONS AND DESIRES • PRINT IS PREFERRED BY THE MAJORITY (Even Millennials) • PRINT READERS EXPERIENCE MORE FOCUSED ATTENTION AND LESS DISTRACTION, WHICH DRIVES SENSORY INVOLVEMENT CONTRIBUTING TO GREATER READER IMPACT, COMPREHENSION AND RECALL. (MPA, Scott McDonald, Ph.D. Nomas Research)

For advertising information call Columbus CEO at 614-888-4567 or email advertise@columbusmonthly.com.

To subscribe visit ColumbusCEO.com.

MagazinePower.indd 042-045_Roundtable_CEO.indd 2 42

PROUD MEMBER

2/15/22 1/13/22 6:05 10:47 PM AM

3/22 10:47 AM

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Cybersecurity

Roundtable Ransomware: “There is no end in sight.”

Cyber attacks are not going away. In fact, they are rising.

A recent study found that they’re not only happening more often, but also increasingly sophisticated—and targeted even more at small businesses, which are unprepared.

As part of those attacks, ransomware is a growing danger.

Columbus CEO discussed cybersecurity related to ransomware with Tom Skoog of Blue & Co. during a virtual call on Feb. 9.

Here is an edited and condensed version of that conversation. Transcript provided by PRI Court Reporting.

Moderated by Ray Paprocki, publisher/general manager, Columbus CEO Participant: Tom Skoog, principal, cybersecurity and data management practice leader, Blue & Co. March 2022 l ColumbusCEO

042-045_Roundtable_CEO.indd 43

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2/17/22 11:12 AM

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Tom Skoog: There is no end in sight

of this threat. The number of attacks is up, the requested ransom amount is up, the cost of recovery or restoration is up, and as long as companies or individuals continue to make ransom payments, the attacks will simply continue.

Secondly, and it’s still ransomware, but rather than being targeted at the company, now it’s your key vendors that are being targeted. We’re starting to see Cloud vendors get infected and shut down. Just recently Kronos, which is the timekeeping and payroll service, was impacted by ransomware, which in turn impacted all sorts of companies’ ability to run payroll.

We had several hospital clients that asked us how are we supposed to run our payroll when our payroll processor is down? And they were going to be down for weeks, not for a couple days.

I think third is the internet of things.

As more and more machines on the shop floor become enabled, or in hospitals or in construction companies or in retailers, it’s opening more and more doors and windows for the bad guys to come in.

coupled with employees still doing things they shouldn’t do: clicking on links, clicking on attachments.

CEO: Are those real numbers, the $60 million and $80 million?

Skoog: There was one entity this

past year, I think it was considered the fourth largest ransomware hacking group in Eastern Europe, and they cleared $110 million in 2020.

CEO: What can companies do, par-

ticularly smaller companies, to make sure their vendors are not opening the door?

Skoog: Smaller companies certainly

CEO: Why have the folks behind ransomware been successful?

Skoog: From the bad guys’ perspec-

tive, it’s a recognition that two years ago we made $60 million on ransomware attacks. This year we made $80 million. We think we could make $100 million next year. And why can we make that? Because companies still aren’t putting in the basic protections to reduce those risks, and then that’s

are a little more challenged in terms of what kind of leverage they may have with vendors, but there ought to be pretty strong language in your contracts about what kind of cybersecurity controls that vendor has in place.

And it’s becoming more and more common for organizations to ask for proof of those controls through an audit known as a SOC 2 report that has accounting firms come in and look at and validate what kind of security controls a company has in place. And then that company’s able to take that report and give it to prospective clients or prospective customers.

CEO: Is there anything on the law enforcement side?

Skoog: The challenge is that most of

File/ColumbusCEO/ROB HARDIN

Ray Paprocki, (CEO): Can you talk about the top threats that businesses will be facing in 2022 regarding ransomware?

Tom Skoog

Ransomware certainly has surpassed the threat of having data stolen; these bad actors are realizing I can make a lot more money by just locking them up.

BLUE & CO.

Blue & Co. is a regional accounting firm with 10 offices in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky that focuses predominately on health care—offering audit, tax, financial consulting and IT risk and security services. Blueandco.com

these attacks are being launched not in the United States, rather against U.S. entities. So most of them are being launched from Eastern Europe and inside of Russia. Their ability to make arrests, if you will, are certainly limited.

The way that they get paid and the way that they launch their attacks, they build anonymity into their processes.

Meanwhile, the Chinese are interested in getting intellectual property and reducing R&D costs. I had a client in Ohio—they’re a manufacturer, and they’re selling to the oil and gas industry. And they had lost a bid to a new Chinese competitor. When the sales guy happened to be down at his customer, he saw the product, and he said that’s basically our product. They did some forensic work and they had shown that their engineering systems had been breached from China. Now they have a brand-new competitor that has put no R&D into their product, and they’re selling it at 30 percent less than what this company was.

CEO: What are some of the secondary impacts of a ransomware attack?

Skoog: Not only is there the payment,

but there’s the cost of the down time and there’s the cost to recover. One of the larger secondary impacts that we’ve seen this year is what’s happened in the cyber insurance market. Because that market has done a complete 180-degree twist from where It was a year ago.

Rates were very affordable. The underwriting process was rather laissez faire.

And now all of those things are

44 ColumbusCEO l March 2022

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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

completely the opposite. On average, rates are up 40 percent, but in some of the higher-risk industries like healthcare or legal, rates are up as much as 300 percent, and in some cases they won’t even write for those industries.

Underwriting has gone from a simple questionnaire to a very prescriptive set of controls that you must have in place.

And deductibles are up significantly.

The carriers want the insured to be sharing in more of the risk.

CEO: What are the best defenses

companies can deploy to reduce risk, especially the smaller companies that don’t have the big budgets?

Skoog: For the smaller companies, it

gets down to a few fundamental things.

One is training your employees; this ransomware gets delivered almost exclusively through phishing emails.

Second is what’s referred to as next generation antivirus software. There’s several on the market, but getting those so that they’re alerting you, hey, something suspicious is happening on this machine; take this machine off the network right away.

The third thing that I would focus on is patching and making sure that you’re very diligent about applying software patches. Ransomware is looking for patch fixing: Can I get my little piece of ransomware into this company before that company patches this technical vulnerability that Microsoft, Adobe or Apache identified. It really is a race against the company applying those patches and the bad guys getting their ransomware software into your network before you patch. If you’ve got very, very good patching practices, that’s going to greatly reduce the risk.

For larger companies, one of the things that the insurance carriers are requiring is that you really should be having a third party monitoring your systems. That’s 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with monitoring tools that that third party owns so they can identify for you, hey, something has happened here, and they can alert you to it and walk you through what you ought to be doing.

I had a client, a hospital, that was patching some file servers, but that practice took time. I mean, it wasn’t like applying a patch for your iPhone that

takes a minute to download. This was hours of work to apply these patches.

They got one of the servers patched, and the next day there was a ransomware attack on their other two servers.

But their monitoring partner called and alerted them and said you’ve got something funny going on with these two servers. They were able to physically take those servers off the network and get that ransomware out and then get them patched. They ended up not having a situation where all their systems got locked up.

CEO: Final thoughts?

Skoog: I think that continued

diligence around good, solid security practices are more important than ever.

Ransomware certainly has surpassed the threat of having data stolen; these bad actors are realizing I can make a lot more money by just locking them up, and I don’t need to figure out how to sell this data that I stole. I got to go find a buyer for that and there’s more risk involved with it. Until companies stop paying ransoms, then these attacks won’t stop.

CD-0006298564-01

March 2022 l ColumbusCEO

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1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

046-047_Leaderboard_OnlineDegrees.indd 46

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ONLINE DEGREE PROGRAMS Ranked by Fall 2021 undergraduate enrollment

FALL 2021 CENTRAL OHIO ONLINE ENROLLMENT

FALL 2021 TOTAL ONLINE ENROLLMENT

Undergraduate

Undergraduate

Full-time

Graduate

Graduate

Part-time

18,982

22,575

324

0

0

897

1,527

3,887

53

768

1,740

360

658

93,610

85

284

34,784

0

222

385

375

901

1,869

92

89

894

95

11

210

158

73

376

na

75

235

88

70

106

20

127 S. Davis Ave., Columbus 43222 614-234-5800 • mccn.edu

111

130

16

Kent State University

16

603

401

136

1,849

280

13

27

25

43

89

29

INSTITUTION 1 Columbus State

Community College 550 E. Spring St., Columbus 43215 614-287-5353 • cscc.edu

2

Franklin University 201 S. Grant Ave., Columbus 43215 614 797-4700 franklin.edu

3 Western Governors

University Ohio (WGU Ohio) 325 John H. McConnell Blvd., Suite 375, Columbus 43215 • 614-971-1648 wgu.edu

4

Ohio State University 281 W. Lane Ave., Columbus 43210 614-292-OHIO (6446) online.osu.edu

5

Ohio Christian University

1476 Lancaster Pike, Circleville 43113 877-762-8669 • ohiochristian.edu

6 Mount Vernon Nazarene University

7

8

800 Martinsburg Road Mount Vernon 43050 • 740-392-6868 mvnu.edu/gps

Mount Carmel College of Nursing

800 E. Summit St., Kent 44242 330-672-3000 onlinedegrees.kent.edu

9 Ohio Dominican University

1216 Sunbury Road, Columbus 43123 614-251-4690 ohiodominican.edu

UG=undergraduate, G=graduate, D=doctorate, pch=per credit hour, nav=not available HLC=Higher Learning Commission, CCNE=Commission on Collegiate Nursing, CSWE=Council of Social Work Education, IACBE=International Accreditation Council for Business Education, CAEP=Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, CAE-CDE=National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education

Source: Survey of online degree programs. Information compiled by LINDA DEITCH

Information included in this survey was provided by institutions listed and was not independently verified.

046-047_Leaderboard_OnlineDegrees.indd 47

ONLINE FACULTY MEMBERS

STUDENTTOFACULTY RATIO

14:4

ACCREDITATION ANNUAL TUITION/

FIRST YEAR UNIVERSITY ACCREDITED

$5,038/

Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association

per credit hour

$167.93

DEGREES GRANTED

Associate, certificate

1973

16:1 nav nav 8:1 14:1 9:1 20:1 12:1

$11,940 (UG); $5,360 (G); $5,984 (D)/ $398 pch (UG), $670 pch (G), $748 pch (D)

$6,500/ nav

$9,168 (UG) to $24,464 (G)/ $382 pch (UG)-$764.50 pch (G)

$9,500 $13,250/ $380 - $530 pch

$6,360 $11,952/ $265 - $498 pch

$13,860 $19,168/ pch varies

varies

$33,380 (UG); $11,790 (G)/ $900 pch (UG), $581 pch (G)

HLC, IACBE, CCNE, CAHIIM, CAEP, CAE-CDE

1976 Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities

1997 Higher Learning Commission

1913

Higher Learning Commission

1976 HLC, ACBSP, NCATE, CAEP, ICOSAC, CSWE, Ohio Board of Nursing, CCNE

1972 Higher Learning Commission, CCNE

1995 Higher Learning Commission

1915

Higher Learning Commission

1934

Associate, bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, certificate, microcredentials

Bachelor’s, master’s

Associate, bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, certificate

Associate, bachelor’s, master’s, certificate

Associate, bachelor’s, master’s

Bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, certificate

Associate, bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, certificate

Associate, bachelor’s, master’s, certificate

The CEO Leaderboard features selected topics each month. The June 2022 Leaderboard will feature Columbus region temporary employment agencies. The deadline for inclusion in that survey is Monday, April 18. If you want your company to be considered for an upcoming CEO Leaderboard, contact Linda Deitch at ldeitch@columbusCEO.com.

March 2022 l ColumbusCEO

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Breakdown

Compiled by KATY SMITH + Infographic by YOGESH CHAUDHARY

Demographic evolution

Northland White

-2% 26.9%

Black

275.6%

Asian

66.6%

Photo GettyImages.com

Others

Franklin County’s population grew 13.8 percent from 2010 to 2020, and that growth was fueled by people from diverse backgrounds. While the county’s white population declined by 0.4 percent, nonwhite ethnic groups increased substantially, especially on the Far West Side and in the Northland area.

48 ColumbusCEO l March 2022

048_Breakdown.indd 48

Franklin County White

-0.4% 21.3%

Black

64.6%

Asian Others

80% Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, United Way of Central Ohio

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