Four members of the community were recognized with the inaugural Rural Health Impact Awards during Indiana University of Pennsylvania-Indiana Regional Medical Center’s third annual Pennsylvania Mountains Rural Health Conference, “Cultivating Wellness—Advancing Rural Mental Health Awareness, Research, Services, and Careers.”
The conference was held November 21 in conjunction with National Rural Health Day and featured a daylong program of presentations, including keynote speaker Valerie Arkoosh, secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services.
From left, Rachel Grove, Joe Bujdos, Tammy Calderone (Joann Migyanka is absent).
The Rural Health Impact Award was established by the planning committee of the Pennsylvania Mountains Rural Health Conference to recognize individuals and organizations for their significant contributions to improving the health and well-being of rural community residents. Honorees were chosen based on demonstrated leadership, commitment, collaboration, and innovative thinking.
The 2024 recipients are Rachel Grove, Joe Bujdos, Joann Migyanka, and Tammy Calderone.
Jim Kinneer, chief human resources officer at IRMC, presented the awards.
Bujdos has been a dedicated mental health professional for more than 49 years, including the last 25 years as the mental health director for the Armstrong-Indiana Behavioral and Developmental Health Program, where he oversees staff development and program administration. He began his career as a supervisor at Adelphoi before joining the Behavioral and Developmental Health Program, where he has worked for 47 years. During his tenure, he has managed the on-call delegate system in both counties since day one. Over the years, he has reviewed approximately 2,000 warrants, including more than 1,000 face-to-face interactions with consumers and relevant individuals during evaluations. For 33 years, he was responsible for locating psychiatric beds for individuals, often coordinating placement through emergency rooms. Bujdos was also one of the founding members of the Crisis Intervention Association of Pennsylvania, established in the 1970s, and was elected as one of three “diplomats” to represent the western region.
Calderone has been employed by the Armstrong-Indiana Behavioral and Developmental Health Program for the past 26 years and has served as the administrator for the last 12 years. She serves as a board member of the Pennsylvania County Administrators Mental Health and Developmental Services organization and the Southwest Behavioral Health Management corporation that oversees the Healthchoices program in southwestern Pennsylvania.
Kinneer recognized that Calderone was instrumental in securing funding for the new Inpatient Mental Health unit on the grounds of IRMC using Healthchoices Reinvestment funds and is currently working with the Open Door to expand and move the crisis walk-in services to the IRMC grounds.
Grove is director of Ambulatory Social Services with IRMC Physician Group. In announcing her selection, Kinneer recognized that Grove has been focused on building capacity across Indiana County to care for some of the most vulnerable populations, partnering with several organizations to coordinate care, and has worked tirelessly to create collaborative initiatives, including securing funding for a new mobile health unit, staffing it with community health workers and crisis response personnel, and working with family medicine residents to provide urgently needed care in the county’s hard-to-reach communities. She has also worked to expand IRMC Physician Group’s capacity to care for behavioral health patients.
Migyanka is an IUP special education professor emeritus. After learning of a critical incident in the community, Migyanka recognized the need for protocols to help first responders effectively interact with individuals on the autism spectrum. She collaborated with a physician from Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh to develop a groundbreaking training program, which has since been adapted for use by other medical professionals. She also collaborated in the development of a bedside point-of-care tool for autism spectrum disorder as a member of the Emergency Medicine Practice Committee of the American College of Emergency Physicians. As a faculty member at IUP, she was the first co-director of the IUP Labyrinth Center, which provides a comprehensive and holistic approach to support IUP students with an autism spectrum diagnosis as they build relationships, gain independence, experience academic success, and graduate from IUP. During her time as a faculty member, she and two of her colleagues created a curriculum for use in special education classes at a university in Suriname. She has been active in the community with the ARC of Indiana County.