Dunia Faulx, Chief Planning and Advocacy Officer at Jefferson Healthcare, has been named Washington’s 2023 “Community Star” by the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health (NOSORH).

Every third Thursday of November, NOSORH leads National Rural Health Day (NRHD), an annual celebration spotlighting those who serve the vital health needs of the nearly 61 million people living in rural America. Faulx will be prominently featured on the NRHD website, PowerOfRural.org, on Nov. 16 alongside 38 other Community Stars from across the nation.

This platform will showcase each Star’s remarkable dedication and contributions to rural healthcare.

Faulx and Jefferson Healthcare are being recognized by NOSORH for being one of the first rural health systems in Washington to work jointly with public health and other community organizations to tackle high-priority health issues.

As part of this effort, in 2016 Jefferson Healthcare completed a Community Health Needs Assessment that identified Medicaid enrollees in Jefferson County as having minimal access to dental care. The assessment also showed that dental issues were driving emergency department visits in East Jefferson County.

In response to the assessment, Faulx, along with Jennifer Wharton (former Chief Ambulatory and Medical Group Officer at Jefferson Healthcare), and Jake Davidson (Jefferson Healthcare COO), spearheaded a successful effort to add a dental service line to their Rural Health Clinic — the first rural health clinic in Washington to offer dental services.

The six-chair dental clinic opened in June 2019 and provides urgent and emergency services as well as preventative oral care with approximately 5,000 visits each year.

“Dunia Faulx epitomizes the spirit of dedication and innovation that we believe in so strongly here at Jefferson Healthcare,” said the organization’s CEO, Mike Glenn. “Her leadership, alongside our dedicated team, has been instrumental in addressing critical healthcare gaps in East Jefferson County.”