More than 1,000 participants attended the second annual Tennessee Health Careers Summit & Expo on Thursday, Nov. 9. Convened by the Tennessee Area Health Education Centers (TN AHEC), with BHSU HealthCORE serving as the West Regional host and Meharry Medical College as the Central Regional host, the event served students who are interested in pursuing health career paths, along with parents, advisors and schools. This year, for the first time, students from Arkansas and Mississippi also participated.
The event was free thanks to the generous support of corporate sponsors Baptist Memorial Health Care and 1 Joshua Group; silver sponsors Amerigroup, Memphis Medical District Collaborative, Regional One Health, Rhodes College and Tennessee Center for Health Workforce Development; student sponsor Tennessee HOSA-Future Health Professionals; and more than 30 vendors who served one or both sites.
In Memphis, around 425 students gathered on the campus of Baptist Health Sciences University to meet and network with health professionals and vendors, learn from a keynote panel of local health leaders, participate in breakout sessions, and take part in a statewide service project to honor veterans.
“We were so excited to welcome participants from across the Mid-South to engage with vendors from multiple health-engaged companies and to participate in demonstration sessions ranging from escape rooms, CPR practice, trauma simulation, surgical gowning and finding the hidden radioactive signal,” said Briana Jegier, PhD, the event co-chair for the state and TN AHEC, as well as BHSU chair and associate professor of health administration, public health and the community health worker program, and co-chair of BHSU HealthCORE.
Professor Jegier also served as moderator for the West Regional keynote panel, which featured Lilian Nyindodo, PhD, MPH, MS, chair and associate professor of biomedical sciences at Baptist University College of Osteopathic Medicine and co-chair of BHSU HealthCORE; Rachel Kemp, MSN, MHA, RN, vice president of nursing and associate chief nursing officer for Regional One Health and BHSU School of Nursing alumnae (2006); Parker Harris, CEO and administrator of Baptist Memorial Hospital-Tipton and assistant professor of Practice in Health Administration at BHSU; and David Conner, MD, chief of staff and medical director at Baptist Tipton.
Professor Nyindodo noted, “It was an honor to sponsor and host this event as it aligns with our collective efforts to diversify and build an engaged health workforce for the Mid-South. We are especially thankful to all the volunteers who supported participants and shared their stories so that everyone who attended could see how they can find their calling in health.”
BHSU HealthCORE is supported by Baptist Memorial Health Care Community Outreach and Engagement. Cynthia Bradford, system community involvement manager; Abby Brann, system community involvement coordinator; and Ann Marie Wallace, system senior community involvement coordinator, are a driving force behind all HealthCORE programming and serve as part of the HealthCORE advisory board.
The next HealthCORE events are the Anato-Bee competition in February 2024 and the fifth annual Black Men in White Coats event on April 6, 2024.
To learn more about BHSU HealthCORE and to get involved, sign up for our newsletter or email healthcore@baptistu.edu.
