WNC is home to many innovative strategies for navigating complex health challenges.

Two of those include the role of Community Health Workers in the healthcare workforce and the Healthy Opportunities Pilot, which abruptly ended in the summer of 2025 due to the General Assembly's failure to pass a budget. 

In this episode we hear from Jacque Ballard, a community health worker who has worked in both Madison and Yancey Counties and recently supported research by the Health Policy Research Consortium to understand the impact of HOP's end. We talk about the work of community health workers, challenges experienced in WNC, and the impact of HOP's end.

In this episode we speak with Paula Swepson Avery and Ginger Webb from West Marion Inc. about their decade-long journey of community transformation in McDowell County. They tell us how meaningful progress requires long-term commitment, not constantly shifting strategies, and how their work centers on addressing the social determinants of health, like housing, transportation, food access, childcare, and stigma in their WNC community.

As natural disasters and food access challenges increase, explore how communities are turning to hyper-local solutions to build resilience from the ground up.

This episode explores how food policy councils, urban agriculture, and community-based education are shaping local health policy in Western North Carolina. Speaking with Bountiful Cities' Outreach Coordinator, Cathy Cleary, we hear how strategies from school garden programs to edible public landscapes aim to improve access to fresh food while strengthening long-term community resilience.Add excerpt here

New federal changes under H.R.1 could significantly impact Medicaid and rural health systems across North Carolina. This episode features a conversation with NC Health News reporter Jaymie Baxley about what those changes could mean—and how the state’s new Rural Health Transformation Program aims to support rural communities. The discussion explores the opportunities, limitations, and what’s at stake for healthcare access in Western North Carolina.Add excerpt here

Nicole Hinebaugh, Director of the The Smoky Mountain Harvest Hub in Haywood County, NC, joins the WNC Health Policy Initiative podcast to share how food hubs work, why they matter, and the impact of this kind of public investment. Topics discussed include how food-based health interventions already show a strong financial return on investment, how food hubs create stable markets for small family farms, what recent food insecurity data tells us about the urgency of action and why supporting local food systems is essential to economic recovery, disaster resilience, and mental health.Add excerpt here

North Carolina ranks 41st nationally on Long-Term Services and Supports, reflecting the fragmented system of care that many residents in WNC and across the state face when seeking help.

In this episode, we discuss the No Wrong Door (NWD) framework and how North Carolina is using it as a roadmap - although not yet a fully built system - to better coordinate services statewide, including in Western North Carolina.

Join us as we continue our exploration of the WNC Health Policy Initiative's collaborative study, “Lessons Learned from the Healthcare Response to Hurricane Helene” with researchers Alex Mitchell and Soni Pitts as they examine how healthcare leaders in Western North Carolina responded to the crisis.

In Part 3 of our podcast series, hear from the research team about what worked, what didn’t, and the practical recommendations health care leaders say are needed to strengthen Western North Carolina’s disaster preparedness moving forward.

In this episode of the WNC Health Policy podcast, epidemiologist Dr. Patrick Baron, Assistant Professor and Program Director of the Integrated Health Sciences at Western Carolina University, helps us understand the big picture around food access and population health in WNC, and where things stand after multiple hits to food infrastructure, including: the end of emergency allotments for COVID-19 in the Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) program in 2023, Hurricane Helene in September 2024, cuts to the USDA in spring of 2025 and the passage of The One Big Bill Act of July 2025.

Join us as we continue our exploration of the WNC Health Policy Initiative's collaborative study, “Lessons Learned from the Healthcare Response to Hurricane Helene” with researchers Alex Mitchell and Soni Pitts as they examine how healthcare leaders in Western North Carolina responded to the crisis.

In this episode, we’re taking a closer look at how this research study was developed, including the study’s design, the methods used to collect data, and the process by which researchers sought to answer questions about healthcare system readiness, communication, and coordination during the hurricane response to inform rural disaster preparedness and public health practice. 

In this episode of the WNC Health Policy Initiative Podcast, we sit down with Dr. Chris Cooper, distinguished political scientist from Western Carolina University, to unpack the forces shaping health policy in North Carolina. From the role of lobbying and interest groups to the legislative process behind health-related bills currently on the table, Dr. Cooper offers a look into how policy is made, and offers insights into how you can effectively advocate for the issues that matter most.

On July 4, 2025, Donald Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” or H.R.1, into law. The funding cuts and policy changes embedded in this sweeping legislation could reshape healthcare access across Western North Carolina. Join us as we sit down with Katie Alexander and Ali Houghton from Pisgah Legal Services to discuss this controversial piece of federal legislation and gain insight into what it could mean for healthcare access in WNC.

A year after the storm, the WNC Health Policy Initiative, in partnership with the NC Center for Health and Wellness, has launched a study to explore how health system leaders navigated the challenges of Hurricane Helene: what worked, what didn’t, and what must change to strengthen our regional response in future crises. Through interviews and qualitative research, the team is gathering critical insights to shape smarter, more resilient practices for health organizations, communities, and governments across WNC. In this episode, our research team shares how this study was developed, why it matters, and what they hope to achieve.

The Western North Carolina Health Policy Initiative (HPI) has launched a new podcast series that takes a deep dive into a new WNC HPI research project exploring what we can learn about our region’s healthcare response in the days and weeks following Hurricane Helene’s devastating landfall across Western North Carolina on the evening of Sept 27, 2024.

This project is one of 21 Helene-focused research efforts supported by the North Carolina Collaboratory, and is driven by team members from across the North Carolina Center for Health & Wellness (NCCHW) and UNC Asheville’s Health Sciences department who are working to capture this critical piece of our region’s recent history.

In this episode, UNCA student intern Emma Hoosier shares her perspective on the healthcare workforce shortage in Western North Carolina. Through her internship experience, she reflects on conversations with local providers and community members about the challenges facing the region — and the potential solutions emerging from local insights, state initiatives, and national policy discussions. She also shares her own path to becoming an intern with the NCCHW, offering a glimpse into how other students in WNC can get involved in public health efforts across the mountains.

On September 26 Hurricane Helene tore through Western North Carolina, destroying homes, businesses, roads, and entire towns. Recovery has been ongoing in intervening months, but there are still years - perhaps decades - of recovery ahead of the region.

Policymakers and communities in Western North Carolina need to think and plan strategically when it comes to restoring housing in a fair and equitable way across a region already struggling with wage, housing and resource disparities. In today’s podcast, we hear from Andreanecia M. Morris, New Orleans housing advocate and Executive Director for HousingNOLA, about what Western North Carolina can learn from the lessons of communities who’ve fought hard to come back from similar disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, to ensure that our region is able to truly “build back better” by creating a housing environment that is WNC Strong, both for the immediate future and in perpetuity.

In this series, the Western North Carolina Health Policy Initiative podcast explores the Healthy Opportunities Pilot program from a few perspectives to help educate our listeners and policymakers about what's on the table in light of state budget cuts to the program. In this installment, we hear about the impact of the HOP from the perspectives of the WNC network lead, a participating HSO, and two families with children enrolled.

This summer, North Carolina's House and Senate will be working to finalize our biennial budget on June 30th, beginning July 1st, 2025 and covering the next two fiscal years. Inside this budget is the fate of what's known as an Innovative Pilot Program across three regions, including Western North Carolina: the Healthy Opportunities Pilot, a program that uses Medicaid funding to address some upstream health issues like food access, transportation, housing, and interpersonal violence. By addressing these root issues, the program hopes to both improve health outcomes for North Carolinians, saving them and the state money. In this short series of the Western North Carolina Health Policy Initiative podcast, we'll be taking a look at this pilot program from a few perspectives to help educate our listeners and policymakers about what's on the table. Today we'll look at an evaluation of HOP to better understand how the program is working and its impact on the state's bottom line.

North Carolina is facing a childcare crisis, with limited access, high costs, and workforce shortages impacting families and the economy. NC's childcare gap contributes to a $5 billion annual economic loss, affecting workforce participation and local revenue. Solutions like stabilization grants and public-private partnerships are helping, but long-term investment is needed for sustainable results.

Western North Carolina nonprofit JMPRO Community Media has launched the WNC Hurricane Helene Audio Storyline podcast. It’s purpose is to hear what people are saying and promote solidarity, build a qualitative account of the strengths and challenges of regional disaster response, let others know what it has been like for residents, and encourage long term support of the region.

North Carolina Community Health Worker Association President, Honey Yang Estrada talks about the role of Community Health Workers in increasing healthcare access, reducing healthcare workforce strain and improving public health at the community level.