Beaver College of Health Sciences

By Bret Yager

Dogwood Health Trust has awarded $838,276 to support App State’s work in the Health Policy Research Consortium, an initiative addressing health and mental health, substance use and misuse, and housing and food insecurity in Western North Carolina. 

“Data collected from needs assessments of counties all across Western North Carolina reveal these issues are negatively impacting residents and have been doing so over time,” said Dr. Adam Hege, associate dean for research and graduate education for the Beaver College of Health Sciences. “This is due in large part to structural and systemic barriers, poverty and lack of access to needed services and resources.” 

The two-year funding will support rural health research efforts and partnerships by App State faculty and students, driven by the Appalachian Institute for Health and Wellness (AppWell Institute).  

The funds will cross disciplines to fuel research into multiple issues surfaced in the wake of Hurricane Helene, including the mapping of local cash assistance efforts, tackling critical housing and planning challenges, and surveying health and resource needs and disparities. The grant is a significant investment by Dogwood Health Trust aimed at responding to challenges faced across the region prior to Hurricane Helene and exacerbated by the storm, said Hege, an associate professor in the Department of Public Health. 

The consortium, formed in 2023, draws in collaborators from UNC Asheville, East Tennessee State University, Western Carolina University and the WNC Health Network. In addition to Hege, App State’s representatives on the consortium are Dr. Martie Thompson, Blue Cross NC distinguished/endowed professor, and Jennifer Schroeder Tyson ’07, research assistant professor, both from the Department of Public Health. 

Ongoing changes to federal programs and funding will likely increase challenges across the region, Hege said, making it critical for interdisciplinary researchers to strengthen collaborations and help shape decision-making by policymakers—and to do so with the assistance of community-based and community-informed inquiry.  

“We have a team of scholars who have diverse expertise and are highly motivated by the opportunity to create lasting change in our region,” said Hege, who, as the principal investigator, will lead and support App State faculty researchers while coordinating across the consortium in developing projects, engaging in data collection and analysis strategies, and creating policy briefs to share with state and local policymakers. 

Partnerships are key to regional resilience

Thompson, a co-PI, will help lead and support all research activities funded through the initiative, working with faculty to develop and implement research projects, and disseminating their research findings to partners and stakeholders. 

Co-PI Schroeder Tyson will help foster growth and engagement among local scholars and practitioners. Rather than researching communities, the initiative engages in research with them, she explained, ensuring that local voices, experiences, and priorities directly shape the questions being asked and the solutions being implemented. The translation of research in rural settings ensures that expertise and data-driven insights are linked with lived reality in Appalachia and lead to action plans, health interventions, and, ideally, equitable policy solutions, she said.

“This approach empowers residents, community leaders, and local health agencies to co-create strategies that address pressing health and policy challenges,” she said. “By involving community members at every stage—from research questions development to data collection to policy advocacy—the initiative not only builds local capacity but also fosters trust and sustained collaboration across rural counties in Western North Carolina.”

The grant will fund multiple interdisciplinary initiatives based at App State. Dr. Maggie Sugg, alongside Hege, Thompson, and Tyson,  will take an interconnected approach to examining the health impacts of Helene. Sugg, associate professor and honors program director in the Department of Geography and Planning, will survey regional health professionals to understand key risks of the populations they serve. Combining this information with FEMA data, hospital records and information on aid distribution, landslide locations and precipitation patterns, “we're tracking how the storm’s damage and displacement are affecting health outcomes and which communities face the greatest risks,” Sugg said. 

Dr. Leah Hamilton, professor in the Department of Social Work, is launching a three-year project mapping and analyzing local cash-assistance efforts in the aftermath of Helene, when numerous faith-based groups, nonprofit organizations and mutual-aid networks stepped up to render assistance. Hamilton’s team will document and assess how the grassroots response shaped financial stability, food security, access to essential resources and other important social determinants of health—with a goal of identifying gaps and strategic opportunities in collaboration with community partners. 

“This effort will fill a major knowledge gap by elevating the role of trusted local organizations during crises and providing actionable data to strengthen rural health, economic security and long-term resilience in the region,” Hamilton said.

The grant will also fund the work of graduate assistant Ethan Antonelli ‘25, recipient of the 2025 American Planning Association-NC Outstanding Student Award. Working alongside Dr. Chris Quattro, assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Planning, Antonelli is engaged in deep data collection on housing supply, costs, quality and spatial distributions in Western North Carolina following Helene. The effort, aided by Quattro’s PLN 4700 studio undergraduate students and bolstered by App State’s Research Institute for Environment, Energy and Economics, will support the regional housing plan of the High Country Council of Governments and offer a foundation for housing solutions.

The grant allows researchers to move into the implementation phase of an agenda formed over two years of refinement and stakeholder engagement. It includes funds for guest speakers and community listening events, with research coming back to the communities through reports, podcasts, social media, presentations, town halls and panel discussions.

“The HPRC and its advisory committee are individuals with lived experience who reside, work and are deeply invested in the Western North Carolina region—sharing a vision of equal opportunity to access health and wellbeing,” Hege said. “Their feedback, insight and suggestions ensure the work remains grounded in community realities.”

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