Jeanee’ Kennedy is the Chief Nursing Officer for Freeman Health Systems in Joplin. For several weeks now, Joplin has had the worst COVID-19 hospitalization rates in the county. In fact, Jeanee’ said their hospital recently had to open a third COVID unit to accommodate all of their patients.She spoke about what she’s seeing in her community and about how this current surge is taking a toll on nurses and other frontline health workers.

Jeremy Drinkwitz is the President of the Mercy Hospital in Joplin. Joplin currently has the worst rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the county and three of the surrounding counties it serves are also in the top 10.

Trina Teacutter is the nursing supervisor for Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services. She spoke about how they have changed their tactics when it comes to vaccinations, and how “coming to people where they are” – though community-based vaccination clinics – is allowing them to reach more members of the community.

Amanda Hedgpeth is the vice president of hospital operations for the CoxHealth Hospital System based in Springfield, as well as their assistant commander for COVID-19 response.

Steve Hollis and Darren Morton work closely together combating the issue of homelessness in Columbia. Hollis is the Human Services Manager of Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services, and Morton is the Director of Turning Point, an organization that works with people experiencing homelessness.They spoke about breaking the stigmas surrounding unhoused people, and about how important it is for the entire community to understand how difficult it can be to “pull yourself up” when there are no more bootstraps.

Andrew Pham and Alice Yu are both members of the Mizzou Asian American Association.They spoke about the challenges of rallying a historically disconnected Asian American community in the aftermath of recent hate crimes – and about how their generation might be the ones to overcome those challenges.

Dorreen Rardin and Jackie Reed in Columbia are both long-time nurses who spent their careers working in palliative end-of-life care. After they retired, they joined together to co-found Caring Hearts and Hands of Columbia, a social model home for the dying – basically a community-supposed home for terminally ill people.They spoke about what needs to be done to improve the end of folks’ lives and about what the community could do to help as they work toward creating a social model home.

Reverend Fred Leist and Teressa Gilbreth both work at Missouri United Methodist church in downtown Columbia.They reflected on the past year or so of the coronavirus pandemic, and spoke about how their congregation remained supportive through an emotionally taxing COVID-19 lockdown and how they’re NOW looking forward to rebuilding their community.

Matthew Mertz and Lee Porterfield both live in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and are both veterans who served in the Army for over two decades.They spoke about how all of their children were born in different places and about it can be complicated to find TRICARE, or military health benefits, in some civilian environments – especially rural ones.

Jordan Richards and Tracy Davis are both Board Members at The Center Project, an LGBTQ+ resource and community center for Mid-Missouri.They spoke about some of the barriers transgender Missourians face when they need to go to the doctor – for gender-affirming health care or even for a simple checkup.