The Community Health Exchange

6. The Power of Scaffolded Support: A Future PTs pathway with the IACH

At the IACH, we help students gain meaningful experiences in their fields that deepen their academic learning and ignite a passion for community health. In this episode, Health Careers Internship Coordinator Rebecca Haffen sits down with Will Hutson — a graduating senior Public Health major and Community Health Champion at Furman University — to talk about his journey in community health, hands-on internship experience at a physical therapy clinic, and his summer as an IACH Summer Fellow at Sustaining Way. Will shares how he connected his shadowing experience to his public health classes, and offers practical advice for Furman students looking to make the most of internship and fellowship opportunities.

5. The Connections We Share

Research suggests that the health risks associated with social isolation are comparable to those of smoking, obesity, and alcohol use, yet many modern communities are not structured to foster meaningful in-person interaction. In this episode, Dr. Kerry Sease is joined in the podcast studio by Risa Wilkerson, Executive Director of Healthy Places by Design. Together they discuss how Healthy Places By Design works to advance community-led, place-based strategies to strengthen social cohesion and explore practical ways to embed connection into the infrastructure of ev

4. CBPR Partners in Practice – Postdoc Perspectives

Even the best research can end up excluding the very communities it aims to serve. Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) is different — it’s rooted in collaboration and "power-sharing." Communities are a part of each step of the research process, and the partnership continues after the research concludes. Postdoctoral training coordinator Meghan Richmond talks to IACH Postdoctoral fellows Kinsey Meggett and Abass Babatunde to explore what CBPR actually is, and what it isn't. They’ll discuss how practicing CBPR at the IACH allows researchers to bring findings directly back to the community, creates opportunities for co-learning, and ultimately strengthens the quality of their findings.

3. Where Passion Meets Purpose: A Student’s Journey Toward Medicine

Neuroscience major Kadence Alexander brought her studies in neuroscience beyond the classroom by working with children at The Phoenix Center’s Serenity Place, a live-in treatment center for women with substance use disorder that provides on-site childcare. Her position helped breathe real life experiences into the content she was learning about in the classroom and inspired her to ask more questions in her upper-level psychology courses and lead a toy drive on campus for the children she works with. Rebecca Haffen, the Health Careers Internship Coordinator, first connected with Kadence when she was looking for an engaged learning opportunity to gain experience working with children on her journey to medical school and a possible future career as a pediatric ENT. In this episode, they chat about the takeaways from blending coursework with an internship, what made Kadence's experience personal, and the advice she offers her peers.

2. Listening First: Community in Research

This week, Dr. Gabriela Abrego, a research associate at the IACH, joins Dr. Shaniece Criss, Associate Professor of Health Sciences and Director of the Master of Arts in Advocacy and Social Policy at Furman University. They discuss the ways in which they incorporated community voice and lived experiences into the CHAMPS study. CHAMPS is an interdisciplinary medical-legal partnership of the University of South Carolina School of Law. Dr. Criss and Dr. Abrego highlight what a "medical-legal partnership" looks like in action, the value of community voice in this work, and what their qualitative research is revealing regarding the impact of CHAMPS services on local communities.