Current Members
Byron J. Crouse, MD FAAFP, Chair
Dr. Byron Crouse began his medical career by practicing in a town of 1600 in northwest Wisconsin, and then decided to move to an educational setting. For the last twenty years he has served as an Assistant Residency Director, Medical School Department Chairman and Associate Dean promoting rural health care. As an educator, Dr. Crouse has been involved with supporting and developing a number of programs designed to nurture rural interests and prepare future physicians, pharmacists and nurses for rural practice. In addition to his role at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Dr. Crouse is responsible for the Wisconsin Office of Rural Health and the Wisconsin AHEC Program. He is also currently developing the Wisconsin Academy for Rural Medicine (WARM) in hopes of preparing more physicians of all specialties for practice in rural WI.
Mary Amundson
Mary Amundson is an assistant professor in the Center for Rural Health at the University of North Dakota (UND) School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Grand Forks, ND and directs the Area Health Education Center and recruitment programs. Amundson has been employed at the Center for Rural Health since 1989. Prior to joining the Center for Rural Health, Amundson served as the Social Service Director at the Good Samaritan Center in Larimore, N.D., a position she held for 12 years.
Amundson has made local, regional and national presentations in the area of recruitment and retention of health care providers and student interdisciplinary service learning programs. Both of these areas address access to health care in underserved and frontier areas. Amundson is also involved in the documentation of the state’s Health Professional Shortage Areas, Medically Underserved Areas and mapping the state’s Frontier areas. Publications include an article in the Journal of Interprofessional Care, “An innovative approach to Student Internships on American Indian Reservations” and the Texas Journal of Rural Health, “North Dakota’s Interdisciplinary Fellowship Training Program for Medical and Allied Health Students” as well as several health-related newsletters. She has also written several grants.
Amundson currently serves as a board member for the National Rural Recruitment and Retention Network. She provided invited testimony to the U.S. Congressional Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law and has served on the National Advisory Committee on Interdisciplinary Community-based Linkages. Amundson also serves on the Psychiatric Mental & Health Nursing Advisory Committee for the University of North Dakota College of Nursing and the University of North Dakota School of Medicine’s Admissions Committee.
In the past, Amundson served as a member of the Frontier Definition Committee, a committee convened at the request of the Secretary of Health and Human Services, to issue regulations to define the concept of “frontier” area, the Third Street Clinic Board of Directors which provides a system whereby underserved populations receive health care, Family Nurse Practitioner Advisory Committee, the University of North Dakota Nursing Center Advisory Committee, National Primary Care Office/Primary Care Association Workgroup, and the Nursing Home Social Workers of North Dakota. She has also served on Health Resources Services Administration objective review panels.
Amundson received her Bachelor of Science degree from North Dakota State University at Fargo and her Master of Arts degree from the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks.Kristin Baird, RN, BSN, MHSA
With 30 years of experience in patient care, healthcare marketing, business development and administration, Ms. Kristin Baird has honed a unique skill set. She is a talented speaker and facilitator known for her passion for service excellence. She is president of Baird Consulting, an international consulting firm specializing in helping healthcare organizations foster a culture of service excellence. Ms. Baird has more than a decade of experience in helping health care organizations to live their brands. She is a regularly featured speaker at State and national healthcare conferences on customer service, leadership and engaging nurses. She earned a Bachelors of Science in nursing from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a Masters of Science in Health Services Administration from Cardinal Stritch College in Milwaukee. Ms. Baird served as President of the Wisconsin Healthcare Marketing and Public Relations Society and held additional board positions including Education Chair and district representative.
Nycole Campbell-Lewis, Ph.D., LMSW
Dr. Nycole Campbell-Lewis has had extensive experience in a wide variety of health care administration tasks. As a former Presidential Management Intern, Campbell-Lewis has extensive experience working in and around the federal government. She used this work as the Executive Director of the Delta Health Alliance Foundation, where she advocated on a national, state and local level for policy change and development of health policy. Campbell-Lewis currently serves as the Deputy Administrator/Chief of Staff in the Mississippi Governor Office of Medicaid. In both roles, she is able to advocate for the underserved to receive the best possible care.
John K. Everett, DO
Dr. Everett received a Doctorate of Osteopathy from Michigan State University College of Osteopathy in 1987. He has been practicing in rural northern Michigan in family practice, emergency medicine and the hospital setting since 1988. Dr. Everett serves as clinical assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine and holds the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine Dean’s Meritorious Award for Alumni. A president of the Northeastern Michigan Osteopathic Association, he served on the board of the Michigan Association of Osteopathic Family Physicians and Past President of the Michigan Osteopathic Association in 2003. Dr. Everett was named National Rural Health Physician of the Year in 2004. In September 2005 developed and served in a medical clinic in Vidalia, Louisiana, following Hurricane Katrina. In 2007 received a Presidential Award from Michigan Osteopathic Association for working on and implementing a disaster preparedness plan for Michigan’s Osteopathic Physicians.
Theresa V. Horvath, PA-C, MPH
Ms. Horvath currently is the Director of the Physician Assistant Program and Assistant Professor at Mercy College in The Bronx, NY. She has developed and administers a new dual master’s degree program in Physician Assistant Studies. Ms. Horvath has a strong history in community medicine, as Director of Community Medicine at The Presbyterian Hospital in the city of New York. In addition, she has shown dedication to primary care through service to medical students and residents in urban clinical family medicine. Furthermore, Ms. Horvath frequently presents at national conferences on topics such as administration of a physician assistant program and the importance of patient care in family medicine.
Luis F. Padilla, MD
Dr. Padilla, is currently serving his obligation for his NHSC Scholarship at the Upper Cardozo site of Unity Health Care as both physician and Associate Medical Director. Padilla, who was the first in his family to attend and graduate from a university received his M.D. at Wake Forest University and completed his Family Medicine residency at Brown University. In addition, Dr. Padilla has completed course work in public health and a fellowship in the DHHS Office of Minority Health. Through this experience, he became more aware and committed to the care of the underserved and minority populations specifically. Dr. Padilla became a NHSC Scholar at the end of his first year of medical school, when he knew he wanted to pursue a career as a primary care physician and particularly work with underserved communities. His residency was linked with a FQHC in Rhode Island where he learned of the issues facing underserved communities and the challenges faced by FQHC’s in providing care and services. Currently serving out his NHSC commitment at the Upper Cardozo site of Unity Health Care, Dr. Padilla actively sought out this position because of its location, mission, commitment to residents of the District, and the large number of immigrant patients it served. In addition, he and his wife live within this community in order to benefit from and better understand community challenges as a part of the community he cares for. Dr. Padilla can bring to the council a perspective based on experience as a current scholar at a FQHC, a health center medical director, and a personal background similar to the patients the NHSC strives to serve.
Donald E. Pathman, M.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Pathman is Professor and Research Director of the Department of Family Medicine, and the Director of the Program on Health Professions and Primary Care of the Cecil C. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. He also directs the University of North Carolina's National Research Service Award Primary Care Research Fellowship. Dr. Pathman has practiced rural medicine in northern Maine (through the National Health Service Corps) and North Carolina, taught medical students and residents at UNC for 18 years, and currently sees patients in the emergency department of a 25-bed hospital affiliated with UNC in rural Chatham County, North Carolina. As a researcher, Dr. Pathman has led numerous studies and published over 50 papers addressing the retention of rural primary care physicians and evaluations of Federal, State and foundation programs intended to influence physicians' careers.
Heather Reynolds, MSN, CNM, FACNM
Heather Reynolds, CNM, MSN is an Associate Professor of Nursing in the Nurse-Midwifery Specialty Program at Yale School of Nursing. In addition to her role as educator and NHSC ambassador, she practices in the Women's Center at Yale New Haven Hospital. Furthermore, Ms. Reynolds has advocated for health service planning and policy development concerning nurse midwives. She has also researched and been published in research in areas such as breastfeeding, midwifery service administration, group prenatal care, adolescent health care and adolescent risk reduction. Ms. Reynolds has been honored in her career with both a Kellogg Foundation Student Fellowship, and a Primary Care Policy Fellow of the U.S. Public Health Service. However, one of her most personal and rewarding honors is serving and caring for two generations of women at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
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