As I’m writing this, Kansas has confirmed its 15 th case of the novel coronavirus and our teams have switched to telecommuting for the foreseeable future. At the same time, our public health and healthcare partners are working tirelessly to protect our families, friends, and neighbors – some bravely putting themselves in harm’s way to keep others safe. This also likely means they aren’t the most popular people in our communities as we are asked to institute “social distancing” and stay away...

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Toxic Stress are considered by many to be the #1 Public Health issue of our time. These experiences are often at the core of many other issues that we see in our communities such as interpersonal and community violence, substance use and misuse, suicide, and any number of chronic health issues such as diabetes, cancer, even Alzheimer’s. While it often seems like an overwhelming task, taking on public health crises is something that advocates in the U.S. have...

Vanessa, Thank you for this beautiful reminder that our current challenges are golden opportunities to demonstrate what truly matters. As Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote, "Beauty will save the world." Kindness is a necessary element of that tremendous work.