Mat-Su Borough School District Health Advisory Team receives Bert Hall Award

WASILLA— the Mat-Su Health Foundation recently recognized the Mat-Su Borough School District Health Advisory Team as the 2021 Bert Hall Award recipient for their ongoing efforts to improve the overall health of the community.

The Bert Hall Award, also referred to as the “Bertie,” is an annual award presented by MSHF to honor an individual or organization that consistently personifies passion and dedication that leads to large-scale change that betters Mat-Su Valley residents’ health and wellness.

“The Mat-Su Borough School District’s Health Advisory Team kept Mat-Su youth and teachers healthy and in school during a pandemic that shuttered schools across the globe,” MSHF President and CEO Elizabeth Ripley stated in a recent press release. “This was uncharted territory, but they found a way through extraordinary effort that involved high-level collaboration and communications, dedication to science and data analysis and focus on a solution-based approach. They spent their evenings and weekends after working long days to track cases, maneuver challenges and communicate with staff, students and families—heroic work resulting in a huge win for our families, kids and community.”

This year is the first the Bert Hall Award went to a team as opposed to an individual, according to the press release. The Health Advisory Team was chosen due to their ceaseless commitment to community health, fostering in-person instruction without significant COVID-19 spread possible across the Valley.

The Health Advisory Team is comprised of a variety of members including district administrators, community health members, a local physician, and a public health nurse liaison.

They established operational zones and created COVID-19 protocols like conducting classroom investigations, providing transportation, creating indoor foot traffic routes, disinfectant processes, and the handling of extra-curricular activities throughout the pandemic, according to the release.

The team also established contact trace training for school nurses to help alleviate a bottleneck of investigations delaying family notifications and school re-openings. MSHF officials credited the team’s tireless efforts which helped all 46 schools across the district stay open and functioning most of the year.

MSBSD Superintendent Dr. Randy Trani accepted the Bert Hall Award on the Health Advisory Team’s behalf.

Other members of the team included Luke Fulp, deputy superintendent; Justin Ainsworth, MSBSD associate superintendent; Reese Everett, associate superintendent; DeeDee Hanes, associate superintendent; Jillian Morrissey, public information officer; Katherine Gardner, executive director of human resources/payroll; Katherine Ellsworth, executive director of federal programs; Dan Molina, executive director of student support services; Rhonda Lackey, districtwide nurse; Justin Michaud, IT supervisor; Dr. Anne Zink, State of Alaska Chief Medical Officer; Dr. Joseph McLaughlin, State Epidemiologist; Dr. Elizabeth Ohlsen, State of Alaska staff physician, Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS); Debra Golden, State of Alaska perinatal nurse consultant; Dr. Therese Thomasoski, pediatrician for Ptarmigan Pediatrics; Karrin Parker, RN, DHSS Public Health nurse consultant; Renee Dillow, RN, DHSS Public Health nurse; Bridget Roughneen, RN, DHSS Public Health nurse manager.

The Bert Hall Award is named after Mat-Su resident Bert Hall, one of the original organizers of the Valley Hospital Foundation Board of Directors.

Hall is known for his medical work across Alaska. He’s worked as a Mat-Su Regional Medical Center board member, associate director of the US Department of Veterans Affairs, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Health and Human Services, director of Health and Social Services for the Municipality of Anchorage, and as the Alaska liaison to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Hall has also served as president of the Alaska Public Health Association, represented Alaska on the Governing Council of the American Public Health Association, and served on the Alaska Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse.

Previous Bert Hall Award recipients include Kimberly Schlosser (2020), Lt. Tom Dunn (2019), Rachel Greenberg (2018), Bill Hogan (2017), Herman Thompson (2016), Margaret Volz (2015), Craig Thorn (2014) and Bert Hall himself (2013).

For more information, visit healthymatsu.org.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com