The Eastcentral Enquirer
Proudly serving Berks, Carbon, Lehigh, Northampton and Schuylkill Counties
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Making Community Connections For 20 Years |
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SEARCH Academy & SAT/ACT Prep
Eastcentral PA AHEC is proud to offer both SEARCH Academy and The Princeton Review SAT/ACT Prep Program.
The SEARCH Academy, which meets monthly, connects high school students to health career experts. Students will experience keynote addresses presented by a variety of healthcare professionals and participate in hands on breakout sessions. The SEARCH Academy is open to all high school students. To register for future sessions visit www.paahecsearch.org
High school students can also benefit from reduced rates for The Princeton Review SAT/ACT Prep Program. Through Eastcentral PA AHEC, high school students can access this program for $60 (regularly $299.00). Contact Eric Firestone at efirestone@ecneahec.org for more information.
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Eastcentral Contacts
Director: Lori Chaplin Masterson
Business Manager: Cindy Lynd
Health Educator: Elizabeth Schaffer
Health Educator: Eric Firestone
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In Our Backyard
St. Luke’s Carbon Campus, opening soon, will provide a much-needed new hospital and wellness complex for surrounding communities and is the first new hospital built in Carbon County in sixty-five years. The hospital has state-of-the-art operating rooms, advanced radiology and diagnostic technology and Level IV trauma emergency care as well as provide acute, critical, and chronic medical care. Wellness resources will include opportunities to improve one’s health through fitness, health education and nutrition. Within a year of opening the main campus, there will be a medical office building constructed which will include services for cancer, cardiac, orthopedic care, pain management, physical therapy, physicians’ offices, and a full-size fitness center. The complex will include a fitness-walking trail, and meditation and healing gardens to help people physically, emotionally, and spiritually. St. Luke’s is committed to improving the health and well-being of the community and it is evident with this innovative rural medical center and wellness complex that brings healthcare access, convenience, and quality to the residents of Carbon County.
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Special Recognition: Jamie Lee Santana
Jamie Lee Santana was part of the first Community Health Worker Training Program in 2009, offered through a collaborative effort of community stakeholders initiated by the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley (CACLV) as part of their Lehigh Valley Community Health Connectors Pilot Program. This effort of bringing community partners together in the Lehigh Valley resulted in development of the CHW Training Program by Eastcentral PA AHEC.
Santana graduated from Lehigh Carbon Community College in May 2020 with an Associate in Arts – Social Work degree and is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work from Temple University. She was named the first Chair of The Pennsylvania Community Health Worker Association.
Santana is a CHW for Valley Health Partners, a Federally Qualified Health Center Look-Alike, associated with Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN). She also serves on the Pennsylvania CHW Certification Advisory Board, Steering Committee, which developed the CHW Certification process.
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You’re Invited!
Calling all education and health professionals!
Please join us for the first annual EC/NE PA AHEC Summit on December 1st from 8:30-3:00 at the Fowler Family Southside Center at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem! This summit, which is free of charge, will highlight AHEC programs and feature Keynote Speaker, Dr. N. Benjamin Fredrick from the Penn State College of Medicine. This will be a day of networking and connecting with your regional AHEC to support students from middle school through post-secondary education who wish to pursue a career in a health-related field.
Breakfast and lunch will be served! Please email lmasterson@ecneahec.org to confirm your seat! Reservations will be taken through November 22nd.
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What "AHEC " is going on? What AHEC is going on? is our quarterly update on all things happening in Eastcentral PA AHEC. Each quarter will feature a person or program impacting our work.
Lori Chaplin Masterson has been named as the Eastcentral PA AHEC Director in Lehighton. She joins the Eastcentral PA AHEC team after retiring as a school administrator in Florida.
Chaplin Masterson is a graduate of Stroudsburg High School and East Stroudsburg University where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education. She relocated to Florida in 1993 and returned to the Poconos last year after earning a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, FL and completing a twenty-six career as an educator and administrator in Brevard County, Florida.
“I’m thrilled to be back home,” she said. “Working with EC PA AHEC to support students who plan to or already have entered training in health care is a natural fit – it’s been exciting to take my experience as a school leader and transfer it to this new (to me) platform.”
Some of Chaplin Masterson’s immediate goals include hosting an EC PA AHEC Summit, in conjunction with the Northeast PA AHEC Office, to connect community and civic organizations with AHEC, updating communication tools to better reach more community members, growing the Community Health Worker Training Program and increasing the number of Health Educators in the Eastcentral office to better serve the needs of community partners.
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The EC PA AHEC Staff and Board of Directors met in September at Top of the 80s in Hazelton to plan strategically for the coming year.
Pictured left to right: Andrea Andrae, Treasurer; Kerri Green, Vice Chair; Mary Beth Feeg, Chair; Lori Chaplin Masterson, Director; Sharon Brown, Secretary.
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