PLEASE NOTE: Greensboro AHEC is now known as Piedmont AHEC. The organization’s name changed on February 1, 2023.
MAHEC Minority Medical Mentoring Program 2014-15 Intern Joins Greensboro AHEC Practice Support Team in 2021
As a practice support coach, Shaunessy Lofton, MPH, is focusing her work on the new Medicaid community health workers initiative.
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Greensboro AHEC Practice Support Coach Shaunessy Lofton is a MAHEC MMMP graduate and served during her master of public health education as a Greensboro AHEC intern. |
GREENSBORO — Greensboro Area Health Education Center (Greensboro AHEC) is proud to announce that Shaunessy Lofton, MPH, joined our Practice Support team in 2021. Shaunessy received her Master of Public Health degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and holds a graduate certificate in Ethnic and Rural Health Disparities from East Carolina University.
“Shaunessy brings a new energy and fresh perspective to the team,” says Greensboro AHEC Director of Practice Support Suzanne Lineberry, MPH, MCHES. “The team benefits tremendously from her knowledge of assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation of health programs. We are honored to have her on our team.”
In her role, Shaunessy is working with the statewide AHEC team to help lift the Medicaid Community Health Worker program off the ground. She has helped frame the CHW tool that will be used in clinics to incorporate community health workers into their settings.
“As a member of the Practice Support team, it is my goal while in this field to normalize a culture that prioritizes equitable measures in implementation and quality improvement,” says Shaunessy. “I also hope to serve any population that has fallen victim to the disparity gap that enables unfavorable health outcomes.”
Shaunessy’s record of contributions to N.C. AHEC service regions is well regarded. For her master’s internship with Greensboro AHEC, in partnership with the UNC School of Medicine and Cone Health, Shaunessy served as a catalyst for the Remote Monitoring in the Rock pilot project under the Rockingham County Primary Care initiative. Her skills were instrumental in the pilot’s success — focusing on the steering committee and organization of a patient advisory board for the development of patient-facing materials and clinical workflows.
And as an Asheville High School student, Shaunessy was named a Minority Medical Mentoring Program intern and shadowed more than 135 hours of medical professionals, experience rotations, and didactics as part of Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC)’s Minority Medical Mentoring Program, designed for underrepresented minority high school seniors enrolled in Asheville City and Buncombe County schools.
Shaunessy says she has been focused on a career in healthcare for about 10 years. She aspires to become a physician in pediatrics but knows she has some extra groundwork to do as a black female and first-generation graduate in the field. For now, she knows that serving the health needs of others is where she needs to be.
“I have always known that my purpose was to be in healthcare,” says Shaunessy.
For more information about Greensboro AHEC Practice Support, please contact Suzanne Lineberry at suzanne.lineberry@conehealth.com. For more information about the Minority Medical Mentoring Program, contact Jacquelyn Hallum at jacquelyn.hallum@mahec.net. For more information about local pipeline programs at Greensboro AHEC, contact Patricia Parrish at patricia.parrish@conehealth.com.
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