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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
Size | 2.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 1000 items) |
Abstract | Materials documenting the work of the Student Health Coalition, an organization developed at Vanderbilt University in 1969 to reach out to medically underserved communities in upper East Tennessee, West Tennessee, Eastern Kentucky, and Southwest Virginia, and to join with local leaders with the goal of building a network of primary care clinics and bringing health services to Appalachian regions lacking reliable access to health care. Materials include correspondence, photographs, administrative files, grant and project proposals, reports, clippings, and research files. There are also materials, including oral histories, relating to the community-driven archival project developed by former leaders of the Student Health Coalition and the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to document the history of the coalition's work. |
Creator | Student Health Coalition |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Ashlyn Velte, August 2016
Encoded by: Gergana Abernathy, August 2016
Revisions by: Gergana Abernathy, August 2016; Patrick Cullom, February 2017; Mary Oliva and Jodi Berkowitz, June 2017; Nancy Kaiser, April and July 2019; Laura Smith, May 2019; Nancy Kaiser, November 2019; Jodi Berkowitz, August 2021
Back to TopThe following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
In 1968, as a sophomore, William W. Dow traveled to New York to meet with representatives from 14 other medical schools as well as representatives from the Josiah Macy Foundation. The foundation sponsored the conference and offered opportunities for funding to students with project concepts. Dow felt that the needs of rural communities were not being met, and suggested what became the Student Health Coalition to the Macy Foundation. The foundation thought that Dow's project should be done in conjunction with work by students at Meharry Medical College, a historically black college, whose focus was urban communities. Although Dr. Amos Christie at Vanderbilt agreed to be the principal investigator for Dow's project, the medical school refused to move forward on the project. Eventually, he took the project to Meharry Medical School who agreed to fund the project with Dr. Christie at Vanderbilt and Dr. Leslie Falk at Meharry set to serve as principal investigators and medical supervisors. As a result, in 1969, the first summer of the Student Health Coalition (SHC), the focus was on medical surveys in urban Nashville. However, Dow and Pat Maxwell also led a small group of Vanderbilt students through rural Tennessee to conduct surveys.
The Center for Health Services (CHS) was established in 1971 due to the need for an administrative structure to connect the SHC to the university and to work with the SHC in educational activities related to health care delivery. As the center developed, it was also the vehicle for additional action-oriented projects designed by various student and community groups. By 1974, there were three branches to the SHC connected to the CHS: the Urban Student Health Coalition, the Appalachian Student Health Coalition (also referred to as the Rural Student Health Coalition), and the West Tennessee Student Health Coalition.
The structure of the SHC involved medical students, nursing students, and supervising physicians from Vanderbilt University, who began spending most of their summers in the Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee, offering free physical examinations and lab tests to anyone who walked through the doors of a local elementary school, community center, or clinic during a week-long "Health Fair." After screening hundreds of men, women, and children, the students and doctors would pack up their equipment and travel to another low-income community, a cycle repeated six to ten times every summer from 1969 to 1976.
While the Health Fairs moved from place to place, a team of "community workers" would stay put in one place for the entire summer. They were mostly liberal arts undergraduates or law students from Vanderbilt University. Typically, two or three students would be sent to a community, where prior to the Health Fair they would assist local residents with preparations, and afterwards they would help people find treatment for medical conditions detected by the physical exams or lab results. The community workers essentially community organizers, scouting out local leaders and building up grassroots organizations that would fight to change conditions in their area long after the students were gone. The community organizing initially focused on the formation of local health councils and the creation of resident-controlled primary care clinics. While diagnostic check-ups and medical follow-up for people in need was part of the SHC agenda, the larger goal was to improve the quality of life in rural communities by empowering residents to take charge of their own health and welfare.
After the creation of Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM) in 1972, the organizing initiated and supported by SHC went in other directions. Local residents, armed with research done by a SHC special projects team that documented the failure of corporate landowners in East Tennessee to pay taxes on lands rich in minerals and timber, had challenged the historic pattern of inequitable taxation - and won. SOCM was formed to build on this win, tackling other problems afflicting Appalachian communities, including unregulated strip mining, corporate pollution of wells and streams, and insufficient revenue for schools, roads, and other services. The community workers continued to seed and to support local health councils, but after 1972, in areas of Appalachia where SOCM was active, much of their ancillary organizing directed at complementing the efforts the leaders and organizers of the new multi-county organization.
As SHC and SOCM were working to expand the power of local residents, other SHC participants were working to expand the role and responsibilities of nurses. At the Health Fairs, nursing students performed physical examinations under the watchful eye of attending physicians. When they returned to school in the Fall, they pushed against the boundaries of their profession's traditional training, practice, and roles. In 1972, at the instigation of nursing students, medical students, and doctors affiliated with the SHC, Vanderbilt's School of Nursing created one of the first programs in the country to train nurse practitioners.
During the first two summers of 1969 and 1970, the SHC had focused its efforts on East Tennessee; in 1971, it began working in Appalachian communities of Eastern Kentucky; and by 1974, it was also holding Health Fairs in southeast Virginia and western North Carolina. Some of the sites that hosted health fairs over the years include: Clairfield, Jellico, White Oak, Murfreesboro, Smithville, Briceville, Sneedville, Deer Lodge, Etowah, Norma, Petros, Stoney Fork, Tracy City, and Ashland City in Tennessee; Frakes, Harlan County, Mulberry, Wallins Creek, and Kelper in Kentucky; and St. Charles and Meadowview in Virginia. Eventually, the SHC added African American communities in West Tennessee and Alabama. Most of the SHC's medical workers and community workers continued to come from Vanderbilt, but students from other schools joined the SHC's ranks in later years, including graduate students and undergraduates from Peabody, Yale, Notre Dame, Duke, Rutgers, University of the South, the University of Tennessee, and the University of Virginia.
Back to TopThe Student Health Coalition Project is a collaboration between the Southern Historical Collection and former Student Health Coalition (SHC) leaders, aimed at documenting the history of the SHC's health care, community organizing, and advocacy work in the Appalachian region. The project collection consists of papers donated by many former SHC participants and records gathered by the staff of the Southern Historical Collection that document the process of developing this participatory archive.
Series 1. Files transferred from the William W. Dow Papers (#05612) that document two SHC reunions. One attended by Dow in 2009, and another hosted in Nashville in 2013 after Dow's death in 2012. Materials include correspondence between former coalition members including Rick Davidson, Lark Hayes, Margaret Ecker, Mary Ruth Martin, Tom John, John Davis, Virginia Munford and Rod Lorenz; photographs from 1970s; planning materials for the 2013 reunion; reports related to the coalition (1970-1974); scrapbooks made for the 2013 reunion; and programs from the 2013 memorial service for Dow in Nashville. Digital materials include videos of the CHS and the SHC shown during the reunions, and photographs taken during the 2009 reunion. An Addition of September 2017 (Acc. 103150) consists of digital photographs and videos documenting the 2013 reunion.
Further additions to this series are filed in 1A. Student Health Coalition Reunion and Field Work Materials. The addition of March 2016 consists of east Tennessee interviews with Marie Cirillo and Kate Bradley. The addition of May 2017 consists of Charles Health Clinic materials, including born digital photographs, video and audio recordings, presentations, transcriptions, and related documents collected during the 21-23 April 2017 visit to St. Charles, Va. The addition of 2019 consists of interviews by Bernetiae Reed, a community archivist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, of Fannie Albright on behalf of the Appalachian Student Health Coalition (ASHC) in west Tennessee. Fannie Albright was a housekeeper in Rossville Community Health Clinic/Poor People's community Health Center and hosted ASHC workers in her home one summer. There are also photographs of historic markers, the courthouse, and John McFerren's grocery store in Somerville, Fayette County, Tenn.; and videorecordings of a New Heaven Baptist Church service and the Poor People's Health Council Annual Meeting in Shelby County, Tenn.
Series 2. Student Health Coalition Archives Project Materials includes copies of the coalition's first annual report and "Look Books" prepared for former Student Health Coalition (SHC) members gathered in September 2015 at Wilson Library in Chapel Hill to discuss goals for the project in collaboration with Southern Historical Collection. Participants also were provided with two large photograph reproduction to identify by hand the people and events taking place. The aim was to remind them of events and preserve their conversations. The images in the "Look Books" and reproductions were largely sourced from the Richard Davidson Photographs (#5613), and handwritten notes penned during the meeting explain both who is featured in some photographs and what was happening.
Series 3. Student Health Coalition Archives Project Participant Contributions gathers together materials donated by participants in the project.
Series 3.1. Dianne Lauver trained Community Health Workers and worked with the SHC at Vanderbilt and in North Carolina. The materials she gathered on her experience include drafts of training and education materials for Community Health Workers in the Appalachian Student Health Coalition (ASHC), and the North Carolina Rural Student Health Coalition. The series also contains pamphlets and publications on the SHC, health clinic documentation for the Laurel Forks Health Clinic, and an article on Nurse Practitioners written by Richard Davidson and Dianne Lauver.
Series 3.2 Irwin Venick worked with the ASHC and the CHS at Vanderbilt University in the 1970s, eventually becoming a lawyer in Nashville, Tenn. The series includes subject files on social and environmental issues in Tennessee and the South, authored by people associated with the coalition, as well as reports written in 1980 on primary health care in Tennessee, which Venick helped complete. Other materials include a group photograph that possibly depicts the extended family of Byrd Duncan, a community leader who was instrumental in organizing Health Fairs, and the Briceville Health Council; photographs from a community event in west Tennessee featuring Square Mormon, an African-American community leader; photographs of the Urban Student Health Coalition Health Fair; and miscellaneous papers.
Series 3.3. Cathy Barrow Heck attended Vanderbilt University and worked with the SHC in 1974 as a pediatric examiner. In 1975, she became a co-director of the ASHC with Cindy Lutenbacher. The materials document her experience leading the coalition, containing handwritten drafts of the coalition's annual reports, correspondence, materials for SHC grant proposals, articles and clippings about the SHC, schedules and participant lists for organizing summer health fairs, and materials from a training course that Cathy Barrow Heck took at Vanderbilt prior to her summertime service with the SHC.
Series 3.4. In 1965, Dr. Lewis Lefkowitz arrived at Vanderbilt University and began a community-based elective for students. After Dr. Amos Christie invited him to a meeting with students interested in starting the SHC, he became one of its most important faculty supporters. Dr. Lefkowitz visited Health Fairs and organized the Urban Branch of the SHC, based in Nashville, and served on the board of the CHS for 18 years. The series contains copies of SHC and CHS annual reports from the late 1970s to late 1980s, as well as notes, correspondence, papers, and photographs on the SHC and CHS.
Series 3.5. Deede Wyatt participated in the SHC as a Vanderbilt University nursing student in the 1970s. Her time at Vanderbilt overlapped with a September 1972 visit by President Richard Nixon's daughter, Tricia Nixon Cox, who met with an eldery group and with the SHC while in Nashville. The series contains newspaper clippings about Cox's meeting with the SHC, which covered national health care, the specific health concerns of coal mining communities in rural Appalachia, and President Nixon's health care plans. Also included are materials about protests organized by former SHC members, including Deede Wyatt, who believed Cox's meeting with SHC to be a publicity stunt orchestrated by Vanderbilt and the Nixon administration during an election year. The group also had concerns about the motives and effectiveness of the SHC, and a notable item in the series is a press release expressing the views of the protesters and their concerns about the SHC.
Series 3.6. Sue C. Love participated in the Rural Student Health Coalition in the early 1970s as a medical worker and attended medical school at Vanderbilt University. At the same time, her future husband Cliff Love served as a community worker. The series consists of black-and-white photographs of a SHC meeting from the summer of 1972 at a cabin owned by either John Williams or John E. Davis. Pictured members include John Williams, John E. Davis, Tom John, Joe Little, Sue Love, and Irwin Venick. One color photograph depicts John Williams and Kate Bradely.
Series 3.7. Caryl Carpenter participated in the Rural Student Health Coalition in the mid to late 1970s. She worked with the Mountain People's Health Council and East Tennessee clinics, and documented activities related to the SHC in the 1970s. Images depict activities of the Mountain People's Health Council clinics in Norma, Stoney Fork, and Lake City, Tenn. Also included are images depicting a East Tennessee Clinics reunion that occurred in 1996.
Series 3.8. Jack Beckford participated in the Health Fair in Eastern Kentucky in the summer of 1971. A letter home shares updates about the Health Fair, its sponsors, the Eastern Kentucky Welfare Rights Organization and the Appalachian Regional Commission, and social and business activities.
Series 3.9. Rosie Hammond worked as a nursing student for the Student Health Coalition in the 1970s. The addition includes 45s on the Hyden Coal Mine Accident, "Nature's Lamentation" by Bill Christopher; "New River Girl" by Pitney Sieber; Together: A Case Book of Joint Practices in Primary Care, a nursing text book full of case studies including a story from the Student Health Coalition; Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley by John Gaventa; Bill Dow's Vanderbilt Hospital medical doctor jacket, 1971; and a t-shirt from the 20th anniversary reunion for the Student Health Coalition in 1988.
Series 3.10. Lee Anne Faulkner O'Brien is a white pediatrician near Nashville, Tenn. In 1986, she led a student health coalition tour of medical students to Frontier Nursing Service, Mud Creek Clinic, and Cloverfork Clinic, all in Kentucky, and to clinics in St. Charles, Clinch River, and western Lee County, Va. The addition documents the 1986 Appalachian Health Study Tour by the American Medical Student Association to introduce medical students to the specific health concerns and solutions of Appalachian communities.
Series 3.11. Rebecca Joffrion Ingle is a white nurse practioner in Tennessee. In 1974, Ingle worked with the traveling health fair of the Student Health Coalition as a pediatric examiner. The addition includes typed reports and history of Student Health Coalition, including a 20th anniversary history by Marie Cirillo; a news clipping about the health fair and visiting students in St. Charles, Va.; and photographs of summer health fairs in St. Charles and Ewing, Va., and Robbins and Jacksboro, Tenn., as well as students participating in the social life and customs in these communities.
Series 3.12. Barbara Clinton was the Center for Health Services director 1988-2013. The addition contains annual reports from the CHS, ASHC, and the Student Environmental Health Project (STEP); reports on the coalition's efforts; and CHS files on its history, programs, funding, 25th anniversary, bylaws, and publicity. Additional materials include Barbara Clinton's cirriculum vitae from 2017.
Series 3.13. Deborah Cogswell compiled a photograph album, circa 1971, with images from her time with the Student Health Coalition. The images document her experiences in several Appalachian communities, including White Oak, Briceville, Sneedville, Cosby and Deer Lodge, Tenn., and Grethel (Floyd County), Ky. Images depict health fairs put on by the Student Health Coalition, Cogswell’s host family (Willie and May Spears), gatherings at the home of Byrd Duncan near Briceville, trips to Pine Mountain State Park, and other outings with friends and fellow Coalition participants.
Series 3.14. Richard Davidson, a medical physician and educator, was among the founding participants of the Vanderbilt Student Health Coalition at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. (1970-1971) and the Mountain People's Health Council in eastern Tennessee (1975-1976). The addition contains video recordings of Davidson's interview with Robert Hartmann.
Series 3.15. Lark Hayes served as a law clerk with East Tennessee Research Corporation for two summers and a semester while earning her JD at Boston University School of Law. After serving as a law clerk with ETRC, Hayes initially became a legal services attorney in North Carolina, specializing in health law, and then as an environmental advocate with the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill for 25 years. The series contains video and audio of two interviews with leaders of the East Tennessee Research Corporation, recorded in Nashville, Tenn., June 2018.
Series 3.16. John E. Davis, a white student who attended Vanderbilt University from 1967 to 1971, joined the Student Health Coalition in 1970 when he was 21 years old. Davis was one of six community workers assigned to Briceville, Tenn., where they prepared for the Student Health Coalition's health fairs, did follow up after the fairs, and continued to do community organizing. Karen Blaydes (1948-2009), another white student from Vanderbilt, also worked with the Student Health Coalition in Briceville during the summers of 1970 and 1971. The addition consists of two diaries, 1970-1971, kept by Davis, documenting his work with the Student Health Coalition; a newspaper clipping with a profile of Byrd Duncan, a community leader in Briceville, Tenn.; five photographs taken by Blaydes, together with explanatory notes by Davis.
Series 3.17. Linda Hart, on behalf of the White Oak clinic, one of four rural health clinics under the umbrella of United Health Services, made a statement before the Subcommittee on Health of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee. She spoke in favor of legislation that would allow the use of medicare payments to support direct care provided by nurse practioners. At this time, nurse practitioners were the primary caregivers in rural health clinics. This legislation was crucial to the financial survival of these local rural clinics.
Series 3.18. This series consists of interviews conducted by Student Health Coalition members, 6-7 November 2019 in Oneida, Elgin, and Robbins Scott County, Tenn. The interviews were conducted by Diane Lauver, Anne Dierdorff Thomas, and Irwin Venick, and the interviewees were James Lovett, Sharon Neal, June Burress Sharpe, Shelia J. Chambers, Debra Thompson, Donna Frogge, James Walker, and Joanne Walker.
Back to TopFiles transferred from the William W. Dow Papers (#05612) that document two Student Health Coalition reunions. One attended by Dow in 2009, and another hosted in Nashville in 2013 after Dow's death in 2012. Materials include correspondence between former coalition members including Rick Davidson, Lark Hayes, Margaret Ecker, Mary Ruth Martin, Tom John, John Davis, Virginia Munford and Rod Lorenz among others, photographs from 1970s, planning materials for the 2013 reunion, reports related to the coalition (1970-1974), scrapbooks made for the 2013 reunion, and programs from Dow's memorial service in Nashville in 2013. Digital material include videos of the Center for Health Services and the Student Health Coalition shown during the reunions, and photographs taken during the 2009 reunion.
Folder 1 |
Correspondence, 2012-2013 |
Folder 2 |
Reunion planning materials, 2013 |
Folder 3 |
Reports, 1970-1974Documenting some of the communities and the health fairs in East Tennessee, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and excerpts from Student Health Coalition annual reports. |
Folder 4 |
Reunion scrapbook, 2013 |
Folder 5 |
Reunion scrapbook, 2013 |
Folder 6 |
Reunion and memorial service programs, 2013 |
Digital Folder DF-5649/1 |
Reunion photographs, 17-19 April 2009 |
Digital Folder DF-5649/2 |
"An Introduction to the Center for Health Services at Vanderbilt University: Thoughts from Just a Few" |
Digital Folder DF-5649/3 |
"Salute to Excellence": Student Health Coalition, 1996 |
Digital Folder DF-5649/4 |
Student Health Coalition photographs, 1970 |
Acquisitions Information: Accession 102996
Digital Folder DF-5649/23 |
East Tennessee Interviews with Marie Cirillo and Kate Bradley, 2016 |
Acquisitions Information: Accession 103069
Born digital photographs, video and audio recordings, presentations, transcriptions, and related documents collected during the 21-23 April 2017 visit to St. Charles Health Clinic, St. Charles, Va. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Archivist Biff Hollingsworth recorded the video and audio and took pictures during tours, discussions, and at the Student Health Coalition St. Charles Gathering.
Digital Folder DF-5649/21 |
St. Charles Health Clinic visit, 21-23 April 2017 |
Acquisitions Information: Accession 103150
The Addition of September 2017 (Acc. 103150) includes video and audio (digital files) recorded by videographer Rob Cheplicki, who was hired by the participants of the Student Health Coalition archive project to document a May 2013 gathering that they organized at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. The gathering included a series of presentations relating to the Coalition's history and legacy in healthcare, environmental, and legal advocacy work in the Appalachian region, and discussions and deliberations on the process of developing an archive to tell the story of the Coalition's work. Presenters at the gathering included Margaret Ecker, Mary Ruth Martin, Lark Hayes, Jack Corn, Marie Cirillo, John E. Davis, Maureen O'Connell, Charles (Boomer) Winfrey, James Thomas John, Irwin Venick, Kathy Wood Dobbins, William V. Corr, Jack Beckford, and Richard A. Davidson. Topics discussed during these sessions include rural healthcare, community development, the role of the Tennessee Primary Care Association, the history of Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM), the Affordable Care Act (ACA or "Obamacare"), and community-driven archives work. There is also an audio recording of a memorial service for Student Health Coalition co-founder Bill Dow, which took place during the Nashville gathering. The accession also includes a number of individual oral history interviews conducted at the May 2013 gathering. Interviewees include: Carolyn Burr, Dal Macon, Joe (Pete) Moss, Lewis Lefkowitz, Maureen O'Connell, Charles (Boomer) Winfrey, and William V. Corr. Interviews were conducted by Rob Cheplicki, Lark Hayes, Margaret Ecker, and Mary Ruth Martin. Additionally, the addtion contains edited video clips recorded by former Student Health Coalition members Lark Hayes, James Thomas John and Margaret Ecker during their return trip to East Tennessee in the spring of 2013. These recordings include clips of interviews conducted with Bill Dow, Betty Anderson, J.W. Bradley, Kate Bradley, Marie Cirillo, Maureen O'Connell, Charles (Boomer) Winfrey, and Art Van Zee. Also includes an excerpt from a 1973 Appalshop documentary called "Appalachian Genesis," and a short documentary about the history of Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM, later known as Statewide Organizing Community eMpowerment).
Digital Folder DF-5649/7 |
Audio recordings of presentations and interviews, 2013 |
Digital Folder DF-5649/8 |
Edited video clips from travel in East Tennessee and historical footage, 2013 |
Digital Folder DF-5649/9 |
Videos of interviews, 2013 |
Digital Folder DF-5649/10 |
Videos of presentations, 2013 |
Acquisitions Information: Accession 103587
The Addition of April 2019 consists of video recordings of interviews from the Student Health Coalition Reunion, Chapel Hill, N.C., 12-14 May 2016. There are interviews with Richard Davidson and Tom John, 12 May 2016, and a panel discussion featuring Caryl Carpenter, Bill Corr, Nancy Raybin, and Irwin Venick, 14 May 2016.
Acquisitions Information: Accession 103643.
Bernetiae Reed, a community archivist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, interviewed Fannie Albright on behalf of the Appalachian Student Health Coalition (ASHC) in west Tennessee. Fannie Albright was a housekeeper in Rossville Community Health Clinic/Poor People's community Health Center and hosted ASHC workers in her home one summer. Photographs are of historic markers, the courthouse, and John McFerren's grocery store in Somerville, Fayette County, Tenn. Videorecordings are of a New Heaven Baptist Church service and the Poor People's Health Council Annual Meeting in Shelby County, Tenn.
Digital Folder DF-5649/22 |
B. Bernetiae Reed Recordings from Rossville, Tennessee, 2019B. Bernetiae Reed on behalf of Appalachian Student Health Coalition in West Tennessee. |
Arrangement: Alphabetical by file name.
In September 2015, former Student Health Coalition (SHC) members gathered at Wilson Library in Chapel Hill to discuss goals for the project in collaboration with Southern Historical Collection. As part of this meeting, the Southern Historical Collection prepared copies of one of the coalitions first annual report, and "Look Books" or binders of pictures and questions which they were encouraged to write on. They were also provided with two large photograph reproduction to identify by hand the people and events taking place. The aim was to remind them of events and preserve their conversations. The images in the "Look Books" and reproductions were largely sourced from the Richard Davidson Photographs (#5613), and handwritten notes penned during the meeting explain both who is featured in some photographs and what was happening.
Folder 35 |
Copy of Student Health Coalition annual report, 1970Contains handwritten notes from the 2015 meeting on some pages. |
Folder 36 |
"Look Book" with notes, September 2015Contains handwritten notes which primarily identify pictured individuals and occassionally their role in the coalition. |
Folder 37 |
"Look Book" with notes, September 2015Contains handwritten notes primarily provide context for events depicted in the photographs. |
Oversize Paper OP-5649/2 |
Student Health Coalition large photograph reproduction of coalition membersContains handwritten identifications of group members. |
Oversize Paper OP-5649/3 |
Student Health Coalition large photograph reproduction of a strip mineContains handwritten identifications of group members. |
Arrangement: by participant donor.
Arrangement: Donor arrangement.
Dianne Lauver volunteered with the Appalachian Student Health Coalition (ASHC) at Vanderbilt and with the North Carolina Student Rural Health Coalition. In both coalitions, she trained Community Health Workers to act as embedded advocates for community health. The collected materials include information on role of the Community Health Workers, including their work providing basic health information and connecting people with health providers. The series also contains drafts of education materials Lauver created for training and orientation of Community Health Workers; documentation for the health clinic in Laurel Fork, Tenn., co-authored by Lauver, Bill Corr (who worked at the clinic), and Richard Davidson; an article about nurse practitioners by Lauver ad Davidson; information about the Health Advocate Program at the CHS; health pamphlets; coalition promotional materials; additional orientation information; and correspondence from the North Carolina Rural Health Coalition.
Folder 7 |
Education materials: Community Health Workers |
Folder 8 |
Education materials: Community Health Workers worksheet drafts |
Folder 9 |
Laurel Fork Health Clinic documentation |
Folder 10 |
Community Health Workers: Planning materials |
Folder 11 |
"Nurse Practitioner and Physician Roles: Delineation and Complementarity of Practice" by Richard A. Davidson and Diane LauverAn article published in Research in Nursing and Health in 1984 (Volume 7, Issues 3-9) |
Folder 12 |
Student Health Coalition pamphlets, publications, and notes |
Folder 13 |
North Carolina Student Rural Health Coalition |
Arrangement: Donor arrangement.
Irwin Venick worked with the Appalachian Student Health Coalition and the Center for Health Services in the 1970s, eventually becoming a lawyer in Nashville, Tenn. The series includes subject files on social and environmental issues in Tennessee and the South, authored by people associated with the SHC, as well as reports written in 1980 on primary health care in Tennessee, which Venick helped complete. Other materials include a group photograph that possibly depicts the extended family of Byrd Duncan, a community leader who was instrumental in organizing Health Fairs, and the Briceville Health Council; photographs from a community event in west Tennessee featuring Square Mormon, an African-American community leader; photographs of the Urban Student Health Coalition Health Fair; and miscellaneous papers.
Folder 14 |
Subject Files: Social and environmental issuesArticles by people associated with the Student Health Coalition: "Appalachia and the Third Face of Power" by John Gaventa, 1976; "Catalysts for Change" by Richard Couto, 1980, one-time director of the Center for Health Services; "The Decline of 1960s Social Movements" by Anthony Oberschall, 1978; and "Forest Service and Appalachia" by Si Kahn, 1974. |
Folder 15 |
Subject Files: "A Study of Primary Health Care in Tennessee," 1980By Tennessee Association of Primary Health Care Centers |
Folder 16 |
Subject Files: "A Study of Health Care Services in Tennessee," 1980A report of the special joint committee on the access to and delivery of basic health care services. |
Folder 17 |
Subject Files: "A Study of Health Care Services in Tennessee Appendix," 1980Appendices to the report of the special joint committee on basic health care. |
Folder 18 |
Group photographA photograph of Byrd Duncan, and possibly his extended family, taken by Elizabeth Hayert. |
Folder 19 |
Photographs of a west Tennessee eventIncludes a few photographs of Square Mormon. |
Folder 20 |
Miscellaneous papersIncludes a letter from Nancy Raybin regarding the St. Charles Health Clinic, and materials from the 1988 Student Health Coalition reunion at the Center for Health Services. |
Oversize Paper Folder OP-5649/1 |
Student Health Coalition funding vote poster, circa 1970s |
Image Folder PF-5649/2 |
Photographs, 197820 color photographs of the Urban Student Health Coalition health fair, including photographs of volunteers, participants, and the health fair location. Individuals identified by Irwin Venick are Yvonne Joosten, Kris Kuhn, and Laurel Thompson. It is likely these photographs document a Cayce Homes Fair in June 1978. Acquisitions Information: Addition of June 2017 (Accession 103087) |
Arrangement: Alphabetical by file name.
Cathy Barrow Heck attended Vanderbilt University and worked with the Student Health Coalition (SHC) in 1974 as a pediatric examiner. In 1975, she became a co-director of the Appalachian Student Health Coalition (ASHC) with Cindy Lutenbacher. The materials document her experience leading the coalition, containing handwritten drafts of the coalition's annual reports, correspondence, materials for SHC grant proposals, articles and clippings about the SHC, schedules and participant lists for organizing summer health fairs, and materials from a training course that Cathy Barrow Heck took at Vanderbilt prior to her summertime service with the SHC.
Folder 21 |
Annual report draftsWritten by Cathy Barrow Heck. |
Folder 22 |
Correspondence, 1974-1975 |
Folder 23 |
Grant applications and responses, 1974-1975 |
Folder 24 |
Newspaper articles on health fairs, 1975 |
Folder 25 |
Student Health Coalition pamphlet, undated |
Folder 26 |
Student Health Coalition schedules and participants, 1974-1975 |
Folder 27 |
Vanderbilt training course materials, undated |
Arrangement: Alphabetical by file name.
In 1965, Dr. Lewis Lefkowitz arrived at Vanderbilt University and began a community-based elective for students. After Dr. Amos Christie invited him to a meeting with students interested in starting the Student Health Coalition (SHC), he became one of its most important faculty supporters. Dr. Lefkowitz visited Health Fairs and organized the Urban Branch of the SHC, based in Nashville, and served on the board of the Center for Health Services (CHS) for 18 years. Students who wanted to work on the Appalachian Project were able to attend his clinics and take elective coursework in these locations and receive training in physical assessment, which helped prepare them for summer projects. The series contains copies of SHC and CHS annual reports from the late 1970s to late 1980s, as well as notes, correspondence, papers, and photographs on the SHC and CHS.
Folder 28 |
Appalachian Student Health Coalition annual report, 1977-1978 |
Folder 29 |
Appalachian Student Health Coalition annual reports, 1981-1983, 1986-1988 |
Folder 30 |
Center for Health Services annual reports, 1981-1982, 1984-1985 |
Folder 31 |
Student Health Coalition and Center for Health Services papers, 1968-1979Includes correspondence to Lefkowitz from others at Vanderbilt, community members, and students regarding the SHC, reports from Dr. Amos Christie, excerpts from annual reports, and an undated list of sites for summer health fairs. |
Folder 32 |
Student Health Coalition and Center for Health Services papers, 1980-1989Includes correspondence from others at Vanderbilt, and the CHS, written notes, CHS Board of Directors' meeting minutes and reports frequently authored by Richard Couto (director for the CHS), some administrative records for the center, and other records documenting Lefkowitz's involvement with the SHC and CHS. |
Folder 33 |
Student Health Coalition and Center for Health Services papers, 2000-2015Includes written and email correspondence between Lefkowitz and those associated with CHS and the communities they served, such as Marie Cirillo, Martha Stucker, Sue Love, and Barbara Clinton, and clippings from articles on community health clinics in the region. |
Folder 34 |
Student Health Coalition reunion photographs, circa 1990-2015Photographs from a reunion circa the 1990s, the April 2009 reunion in Nashville, and the September 2015 meeting at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. |
Deede Wyatt participated in the Student Health Coalition (SHC) as a Vanderbilt University nursing student in the 1970s. Her time at Vanderbilt overlapped with a September 1972 visit by President Richard Nixon's daughter, Tricia Nixon Cox, who met with an eldery group and with the SHC while in Nashville. The series contains newspaper clippings about Cox's meeting with the SHC, which covered national health care, the specific health concerns of coal mining communities in rural Appalachia, and President Nixon's health care plans. Also included are materials about protests organized by former SHC members, including Deede Wyatt, who believed Cox's meeting with SHC to be a publicity stunt orchestrated by Vanderbilt and the Nixon administration during an election year. The group also had concerns about the motives and effectiveness of the SHC, and a notable item in the series is a press release expressing the views of the protesters and their concerns about the SHC.
Folder 38 |
Newspaper clippings, 1972Newspaper articles and letters to the editor written over a period of several months in the Fall of 1972 publicizing Tricia Nixon Cox's visit to Vanderbilt, meeting with the SHC, and the Vanderbilt protest group's presence and activity. |
Folder 39 |
Press release, 12 September 1972A press release written by Deede Wyatt, Robert Wyatt, Sharon Smith, Christine Thren, April Taninesz, and Georgene Russell explaining their concerns about the SHC's motivations and effectiviness in East Tennessee. In addition they describe their problems with Tricia Nixon Cox's visit to Nashville and Vanderbilt. |
Sue C. Love participated in the Rural Student Health Coalition in the early 1970s as a medical worker and attended medical school at Vanderbilt University. At the same time, her future husband Cliff Love served as a community worker. Included are black-and-white photographs of a SHC meeting from the summer of 1972 at a cabin owned by either John Williams or John E. Davis. Pictured members include John Williams, John E. Davis, Tom John, Joe Little, Sue Love, and Irwin Venick. One color photograph depicts John Williams and Kate Bradely.
Image Folder PF-5649/1 |
Student Health Coalition meeting photographs, 1972 |
Caryl Carpenter participated in the Rural Student Health Coalition in the mid to late 1970s. She worked with the Mountain People's Health Council and East Tennessee clinics, and documented activities related to the SHC in the 1970s. Images depict activities of the Mountain People's Health Council clinics in Norma, Stoney Fork, and Lake City, Tenn. Also included are images depicting a East Tennessee Clinics reunion that occurred in 1996.
Digital Folder DF-5649/5 |
Mountain People's Health Council, East Tennessee clinics, and Student Health Coalition photographs, circa 1970sDigital files made from photographic prints. Materials have item level descriptions provided by Caryl Carpenter. |
Digital Folder DF-5649/6 |
East Tennessee Clinics reunion, 1996Digital files made from photographic prints. Materials have item level descriptions. |
Jack Beckford participated in the Health Fair in Eastern Kentucky in the summer of 1971. A letter home shares updates about the Health Fair, its sponsors, the Eastern Kentucky Welfare Rights Organization and the Appalachian Regional Commission, and social and business activities.
Folder 40 |
Letter, 26 July 1971 |
Acquisitions Information: Accession 102608
Rosie Hammond worked as a nursing student for the Student Health Coalition in the 1970s. The addition includes 45s on the Hyden Coal Mine Accident, "Nature's Lamentation" by Bill Christopher; "New River Girl" by Pitney Sieber; Together: A Case Book of Joint Practices in Primary Care, a nursing text book full of case studies including a story from the Student Health Coalition; Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley by John Gaventa; Bill Dow's Vanderbilt Hospital medical doctor jacket, 1971; and a t-shirt from the 20th anniversary reunion for the Student Health Coalition in 1988.
Digital Folder DF-5649/20 |
Rosie Hammond Materials on the Student Health Coalition, 1971-1988 |
Box 7 |
Together: A Case Book of Joint Practices in Primary Care |
Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley |
|
Oversize Box OB-5649/1 |
Reunion t-shirt |
Bill Dow's Vanderbilt Hospital medical doctor jacket |
|
Audiodisc D-5649/1 |
"Old KY Ike and his grandsons Collin and Shawn, "Hyden Coal Mine Accident", "Wreck of 148 Out of Corbin, Ky.""45-rpm record Log Cabin Records, Rec No. 917 |
Audiodisc D-5649/2 |
"The New River Boys, "New River Girl", "Saluting D. A. R. C.""45-rpm record Cumberland Recording Studio, Rec No. 103116A and 103116B |
Acquisitions Information: Accession 103086
Lee Anne Faulkner O'Brien is a white pediatrician near Nashville, Tenn. In 1986, she led a student health coalition tour of medical students to Frontier Nursing Service, Mud Creek Clinic, and Cloverfork Clinic, all in Kentucky, and to clinics in St. Charles, Clinch River, and western Lee County, Va. The addition documents the 1986 Appalachian Health Study Tour by the American Medical Student Association to introduce medical students to the specific health concerns and solutions of Appalachian communities. Materials include background information, a list of students who went, clinic information, notes, postcards, letters, maps, forms, promotional material, and a summary report of the trip.
Box 7 |
Lee Anne Faulkner O'Brien Materials, 1986 |
Acquisitions Information: Accession 103088
Rebecca Joffrion Ingle is a white nurse practitioner in Tennessee. Ingle was born in Starkville, Ala., in 1952, and grew up in Huntsville, Ala. She joined the Appalachian Student Health Coalition while a nursing student at Vanderbilt University. In 1974, Ingle worked with the traveling health fair of the Student Health Coalition as a pediatric examiner in St. Charles, Va.; Ewing, Va.; Robbins, Tenn.; and Jacksboro, Tenn. In 1975, she returned to St. Charles and Ewing, as well as Dungannon, Va., and Tracey City, Tenn. The health fairs did not turn anyone away, seeing patients until midnight if needed. Ingle stayed with Faye and Oren Elliott, two local leaders in St. Charles, Va. The Elliotts and their three children assisted at the health fairs and with the Student Health Coalition during the 1970s. After those two years, Ingle worked towards becoming a nurse practitioner. For several years she worked as an registered nurse and then was introduced to the field of oncology nursing, where she worked for the next forty years, the last twenty as a nurse practitioner. Ingle says "My coalition experiences have continually informed my practice, always with an eye on listening, trying to assess and understand the environment from which patients come and how that impacts their health, advocating for affordable health care for all, and respecting differences."
Rebecca Joffrion Ingle materials include typed reports and history of Student Health Coalition, including 20th anniversary reunion materials, by Marie Cirillo; a news clipping about the health fair and visiting students in St. Charles, Va.; and photographs of summer health fairs in St. Charles and Ewing, Va., and Robbins and Jacksboro, Tenn., as well as students participating in the social life and customs in these communities.
Box 7 |
Papers, 1974-1985 |
Photograph Album PA-5649/1 |
Student Health Coalition photograph album, 1974 (1)Color Photographic Prints Photographs are described in album. |
Photograph Album PA-5649/2 |
Student Health Coalition photograph album, 1974 (2)Color Photographic Prints Photographs are described in album. |
Image Folder PF-5649/4 |
Student Health Coalition photographs, 1975Color Photographic Prints Photographic prints have description on verso. |
Acquisitions Information: Acc. 103111
Barbara Clinton was the Center for Health Services director 1988-2013. The series contains annual reports from the Center for Health Services (CHS), Appalachian Student Health Coalition (ASHC), and the Student Environmental Health Project (STEP); reports on the coalition's efforts; and CHS files on its history, programs, funding, 25th anniversary, bylaws, and publicity. Additional materials include Barbara Clinton's curriculum vitae from 2017.
Acquisitions Information: Accession 103176
Photograph album compiled by Deborah Cogswell, circa 1971, with images from her time with the Student Health Coalition. The images document her experiences in several Appalachian communities, including White Oak, Briceville, Sneedville, Cosby and Deer Lodge, Tenn., and Grethel (Floyd County), Ky. Images depict health fairs put on by the Student Health Coalition, Cogswell’s host family (Willie and May Spears), gatherings at the home of Byrd Duncan near Briceville, trips to Pine Mountain State Park, and other outings with friends and fellow Coalition participants.
Digital Folder DF-5649/11 |
Deborah Cogswell photograph album, 1971 |
Acquisitions Information: Acc. 103417.
This series contains video recordings of Richard Davidson's interview with Robert Hartmann. Hartmann recounts his experience working with the Student Health Coalition and the Mountain People's Health Councils. Hartmann became involved with the Coalition during the summer of 1972 while attending Vanderbilt Medical School. After completing his medical studies and residency, Hartmann eventually returned to East Tennessee to work with the Mountain People's Health Councils as a National Health Service Corps physician.
Digital Folder DF-5649/14 |
Richard Davidson interview with Robert Hartmann, Mountain People's Health Councils, December 2017 |
Acquisitions Information: Acc. 103570, 103601, and 103602.
Lark Hayes served as a law clerk with East Tennessee Research Corporation for two summers and a semester while earning her JD at Boston University School of Law. After serving as a law clerk with ETRC, Hayes initially became a legal services attorney in North Carolina, specializing in health law, and then as an environmental advocate with the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill for 25 years. The series contains video and audio of two interviews with leaders of the East Tennessee Research Corporation, recorded in Nashville, Tenn., June 2018.
Digital Folder DF-5649/15 |
Interview with John Lee Kennedy, June 2018Folder contains video and audio recordings of interview with John Lee Kennedy. Kennedy recounts his experience working with the Student Health Coalition as a recent graduate of Vanderbilt Law School and his role in the creation of the East Tennessee Research Corporation. |
Digital Folder DF-5649/16 |
Interview with John Williams and Neil McBride, June 2018Folder contains video and audio recordings of interview with John Williams and Neil McBride. Williams discusses working with the Student Health Coalition and his role in the creation of the East Tennessee Research Corporation. McBride describes his time working as a staff attorney for the ETRC from 1973 to 1978. |
Digital Folder DF-5649/17 |
Visit to St. Charles Community Health Clinic, St. Charles, Va., 2013 |
Digital Folder DF-5649/18 |
Student Health Coalition Reunion, Nashville, Tenn., 2013 |
Digital Folder DF-5649/19 |
Interview with Dr. Lewis Lefkowitz, 2015 |
Acquisitions Information: Acc. 103582.
CLOSED: Folders 60-61 are not accessible to researchers until 23 November 2026 per donor agreement.
The addition consists of two diaries, 1970-1971, kept by John Emmeus Davis, documenting his work with the Student Health Coalition in Briceville, Tenn.; a newspaper clipping with a profile of Byrd Duncan, a community leader in Briceville, Tenn.; five photographs taken by Karen Blaydes, who also worked in Briceville, Tenn., together with an explanatory note by John E. Davis. There are three photographs taken at the house of Byrd and Laurie Duncan, one at the People's Health Center, and one roadside in Briceville.
Folder 60 |
Diary, 1970CLOSED: Folders 60 is not accessible to researchers until 23 November 2026 per donor agreement. |
Folder 61 |
Diary, 1971CLOSED: Folders 61 is not accessible to researchers until 23 November 2026 per donor agreement. |
Folder 62 |
Byrd Duncan, 1984 |
Image Folder PF-5649/3 |
Karen Blaydes, 1971 |
Acquisitions Information: Accession 103661
Linda Hart Government publications of public hearings and panel discussions on national health insurance held in 1975-1976. Linda Hart, on behalf of the White Oak clinic, one of four rural health clinics under the umbrella of United Health Services, made a statement before the Subcommittee on Health of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee. She spoke in favor of legislation that would allow the use of medicare payments to support direct care provided by nurse practioners. At this time, nurse practitioners were the primary caregivers in rural health clinics. This legislation was crucial to the financial survival of these local rural clinics.
Box 8 |
Linda Hart government publications, 1975-1976 |
Acquisitions Information: Accession 20200214.6
This series consists of interviews conducted by Student Health Coalition members, 6-7 November 2019 in Oneida, Elgin, and Robbins Scott County, Tenn. The interviews were conducted by Diane Lauver, Anne Dierdorff Thomas, and Irwin Venick, and the interviewees were James Lovett, Sharon Neal, June Burress Sharpe, Shelia J. Chambers, Debra Thompson, Donna Frogge, James Walker, and Joanne Walker.