Annual Conference

 

November 15-16, 2023

The VAFCC's Annual Conference will return to all in-person content offered November 15-16, 2023, at the Westin Richmond. It is the premier educational and networking meeting for Virginia’s free and charitable clinics, their safety net partners, and healthcare advocates. Attendees can expect to network and learn with their peers from across the Commonwealth via diverse speakers and robust content tracks.
 

Schedule

Wednesday, November 15

7:00am-6:00pm: Conference Registration 

7:30am-8:45am: Breakfast

8:00am-6:00pm: Conference Lounge & Exhibits 
Enjoy dedicated space to relax featuring comfy furniture, calming lighting, and mood music!
We have over 25 exhibitors this year which include a variety of industry supporters and vendors. Scroll down to learn more and be sure to stop by our exhibit hall.   

9:00am-10:00am: First Breakout Sessions

• The Future of Human Resources: Strategies for Clinic Success (Operations Track) with Laura Bowser, Melody Donovan Hopkins, Emily Henley and Tiffany Fortune, Fahrenheit Advisors 
  • ​Join for an insightful and engaging panel discussion with a team of HR leaders and subject matter experts to explore the critical topics including hiring excellence, fostering employee retention, navigating compliance complexities, and driving DEI Initiatives. In this dynamic session, panelists will delve into the challenges and opportunities that healthcare clinics face in today's rapidly evolving landscape. Bring your questions and come prepared to learn.
• Identifying & Treating Hepatitis C in the Free Clinic Setting (Expanding Care Track) with Terry Kemp-Knick, VA Hepatitis C Education & Patient Connection 
  • In this session attendees will learn to define the current epidemiology of Hepatitis C in Virginia and what is being done towards elimination. Attendees will leave with a better understanding of simplified Hepatitis C treatment regimens and the best strategies for delivering them to patients where they are. And finally, attendees will be able to describe clinic level actions that are important to the provision of low barrier, non-stigmatizing Hepatitis C care in a free clinic setting. 
• Major Gifts Ramp-Up: Planning Phase (Fund Development Track) with Jimmy LaRose, NANOE and Teresa Tyson and Paula Hill-Collins, The Health Wagon
  • ​Major Gifts Ramp-Up will challenge everything you believe about the raising of money and will make major gifts available to your clinic in the shortest period of time possible. Join us for part 1 of three sessions to spend time with fundraising veterans who’ve raised millions and leave inspired to build financial capacity in ways you’ve never dreamed possible.

10:00am-10:30am: Break

10:30am-11:30am: Second Breakout Sessions

• Leveraging Quality Improvement to Drive Operational and Care Delivery Redesign: Stories from the Roadmap to Health Equity (Operations Track) with Ashley Edwards, Americares; Erick Lainez-Villanueva, Health Brigade; and Kaitlyn Patterson, CrossOver Healthcare Ministry
  • Join this session to gain insight into lessons learned elevated by Americares' Roadmap to Health Equity. Participants will receive practical strategies for improvements at your clinic that can break down barriers to equitable care through the streamlining of workflows and using data to drive action. Following this session, participants will have the ability to assess opportunities to improve documentation, improve data integrity, enhance quality measures, and address inequity. 
• Medical and Dental Integration in Safety Net Settings (Expanding Care Track) with Ben Barber and Ericca Facetti, Virginia Health Catalyst
  • ​Join this session to learn why medical-dental integration is essential to achieve better health outcomes, how to develop the necessary medical-dental integration infrastructure, the policy landscape that supports (or inhibits) integration, and how you can evaluate and improve integration initiatives for specific patient populations. We'll explore the Virginia Health Catalyst Oral Health Integration Continuum and health care payment policy knowledge to teach safety net clinics how to develop medical-dental integration initiatives and evaluate and improve them.
• Major Gifts Ramp-Up: Building Phase (Fund Development Track) with Jimmy LaRose, NANOE and Teresa Tyson and Paula Hill-Collins, The Health Wagon
  • ​Major Gifts Ramp-Up will challenge everything you believe about the raising of money and will make major gifts available to your clinic in the shortest period of time possible. Join us for part 2 of three sessions to spend time with fundraising veterans who’ve raised millions and leave inspired to build financial capacity in ways you’ve never dreamed possible.

11:30am-1:30pm: Lunch & Featured Speaker

12:30-1:00pm: Legislative Outlook: A Post Election Analysis with Dr. Richard J. Meagher, Randolph Macon College
Rich Meagher is Professor of Political Science and Director of Social Entrepreneurship at Randolph-Macon College. He is an expert observer of local and state politics in the capital city of Richmond, Virginia, and his commentary has been featured widely on various media platforms. He is the author of Local Politics Matters: A Citizen's Guide for Making a Difference, which argues for the importance of citizen engagement in city and county politics, and is the director of the Virginia Amendments Project, the first publicly available list of the amendments to the Constitution of Virginia since its last major revision. 

1:30pm-2:30pm: Third Breakout Sessions

• Data Governance & Quality Improvement: Creating the Foundation for Excellence in Care Delivery (Operations Track) with Nicolas Ibba, Lackey Clinic
  • We will dive into the process of defining, collecting, and analyzing data as it relates to our strategic and grant goals settings. The first part is focused on general aspects of data management within the organization, with a review of data storage and security concerns, and the skills required for successful data management. The second part will focus on quality improvement, and the role of data and measurement in driving significant changes within the organization.
• Leveraging CHWs to Overcome Barriers to Health & Improve Patient Outcomes (Expanding Care Track) with Dorren Brown, Orange County Free Clinic; Rob Marino, Fauquier Free Clinic; Jana Jackson, Madison Free Clinic; April Achter, Rappahannock-Rapidan Health District; Pam Blankenship, Virginia Dept. of Health; and Tammy LaGraffe, Free Clinic of Culpeper
  • Join this session to learn how several free clinics have maximized the Community Health Worker (CHW) position to decrease barriers to healthcare; deepen and integrate services; and improve outcomes for their patients. We'll also explore how successful collaborations between these free clinics and their local health department as well as the Virginia Department of Health have aided in the success of this effort.
• Major Gifts Ramp-Up: Invitation Phase (Fund Development Track) with Jimmy LaRose, NANOE and Teresa Tyson and Paula Hill-Collins, The Health Wagon
  • ​Major Gifts Ramp-Up will challenge everything you believe about the raising of money and will make major gifts available to your clinic in the shortest period of time possible. Join us for part 3 of three sessions to spend time with fundraising veterans who’ve raised millions and leave inspired to build financial capacity in ways you’ve never dreamed possible.

2:30pm-3:00pm: Break 

3:00pm-4:00pm: General Session
Stronger Under Pressure with Christopher Barras, Second Story Parnership
There are four go-to survival skills that our brains use to navigate chaos and process uncertainty in stressful situations. What are they and how do we recognize when we are using them? What could be gained if we purposely did the opposite of those survival skills? What new growth could we experience? There are also fine ways to approach stress and uncertainty that will help us move from merely surviving uncertainty to actually thriving during it. We will unpack these and explore examples of how we can do this in our work and personal life.

Christopher Barras has decades of leadership experience in business, nonprofits and the faith-based community. He was worked with teams of various sizes and helped bring the best out of those around him. A talented communicator, he pulls from psychology, business, history, and research to engage and challenge the way we think, but with humor and some very straight talk.

4:00pm-5:00pm: RxPartnership Clinic Recognition (RxP Clinics Only)

5:00pm-6:30pm: Welcome Reception

Catch up with longtime colleagues and make new acquaintances during an evening welcome reception featuring full cash bar and heavy appetizers. 

6:30pm-9:00pm: Dine Around
Enjoy a meal out together. Our conference venue is located conveniently near I64 between Downtown Richmond and Short Pump offering lots of dining options to enjoy which are within easy driving distance of our hotel (we recommend making reservations in advance).

 

Thursday, November 16

7:30am-8:45am: Breakfast

8:00am-11:30am: Conference Lounge & Exhibits 
Enjoy dedicated space to relax featuring comfy furniture, calming lighting, and mood music!
We have over 25 exhibitors this year which include a variety of industry supporters and vendors. Scroll down to learn more and be sure to stop by our exhibit hall.   

9:00-10:30am: Closing Plenary & Conference Wrap-Up

Food as Medicine: Culturally Sensitive Approaches to Advancing Whole Health & Equity with Kofi Essel, Elevance Health
Lack of consistent access to healthy, nutritious food is one of the most reported unmet health-related social needs. Consistent access to nutritious food is an essential part of maintaining a healthy, active lifestyle and preventing or addressing chronic health conditions. Dr. Essel will focus on centering food as medicine in healthcare spaces as well as approaches and practical strategies to addressing food insecurity through a lens of cultural humility to ensure cultural appropriateness and sensitivity to best meet the needs of a growlingly diverse patient population. 
 

Kofi D. Essel, MD, MPH, FAAP, the inaugural Food as Medicine Program Director at Elevance Health, is a core member of the Health Outcomes Organization team and leads efforts in designing innovative approaches to address diet related chronic diseases and social risk using novel food interventions. He has dedicated his career to advocacy/research around healthcare and public health workforce training, health disparities, and community engagement, with expertise and national recognition in the areas of addressing diet related chronic disease and food insecurity with patients and families.

10:30am-11:00am: Break

11:00am-11:30pm: 30th Anniversary Celebration Networking
An opportunity to network with statewide partners and supporters who have come together in recognition of the safety net. 

11:30am-1:00pm: 30th Anniversary Celebration Luncheon: Honoring the Past, Treasuring the Present, Shaping the Future

A convening of free and charitable clinics, their safety net partners, and healthcare advocates to honor the tremendous role Virginia’s clinics have played in not only the individual lives of underserved patients but also the over overall health of Virginia. During the event, the VAFCC's Champions of Health Care Awards Program will recognize individuals and organizations that have made a difference in the health care for Virginia's underserved in the following categories:

• Leadership Champion, honoring an individual for their extraordinary leadership services at a VAFCC member clinic.
• Administrative Champion, honoring an individual for their extraordinary administrative services at a VAFCC member clinic.
• Medical Champion, honoring an individual for extraordinary medical services at a VAFCC member clinic.
• Behavioral Health Champion, honoring an individual for extraordinary behavioral health services at a VAFCC member clinic.
• Pharmaceutical Champion, honoring an individual for extraordinary pharmaceutical services at a VAFCC member clinic.
• Dental Champion, honoring an individual for extraordinary dental services at a VAFCC member clinic.
• Social Support Champion, honoring an individual for extraordinary social determinant of health services at a VAFCC member clinic.
• Funding Champion, honoring an individual or entity for extraordinary financial support to a VAFCC member clinic. 

1:30pm-3:30pm: Business Meeting (Member Clinics Only)
Annual meeting of the membership providing the opportunity to bring members together to share knowledge, make decisions, and to advance our work.

3:30pm-4:30pm: VAFCC Board Meeting (VAFCC Board Members Only)

 

REGISTRATION

Conference registration will open August 21, 2023, and close on October 24, 2023. All registrations must be paid for in full and in advance. Scholarships are available for full member clinics in good standing (application available in the VAFCC Resource Library). Refunds will be issued through October 10, 2023, with a $15 service charge. After that date, no refunds will be issued (but registration can be transferred). 
 

Member Attendee Registration:

• $300: Early Bird Member Attendee Registration (available through September 25)
• $350: Standard Member Attendee Registration (available after September 25)

**Must be logged in to access reduced member pricing



Non-Member Attendee Registration:

• $350: Early Bird Non-Member Attendee Registration (available through September 25)
• $400: Standard Non-Member Attendee Registration (available after September 25)

 

COVID Safety & Crowd Release:
By submitting this registration, I affirm I have read and agree to the following terms:

• You acknowledge that there is a risk of exposure to COVID-19 that could result in illness, disability or death and agree to release and hold harmless VAFCC, its employees, officers, and vendors from and against all claims of damages and liability resulting from exposure to COVID-19 at this event.
• Attendees at any in-person VAFCC event are required to confirm a negative COVID rapid antigen test taken within 24 hours of the event. 

Additionally, you consent to be photographed, filmed, and/or otherwise recorded. Your registration constitutes your consent to such photography, filming, and/or recording and to any use, in all media in perpetuity, of your appearance, voice, and name for any purpose whatsoever in connection with any VAFCC events.
 

Accommodations

The event will be held at the Westin Richmond located at 6631 West Broad Street. An innovative and personalized hotel that offers holistic and thoughtful amenities not often seen in modern hotels, the Westin is located conveniently near I64 between Downtown Richmond and Short Pump.

Our rate is $159 per night plus taxes and includes parking as well as Wi-Fi in both guest rooms and meeting spaces. The room reservation deadline is October 24, 2023, and all attendees need to secure their own hotel reservations by calling 1-888-236-2427 and referencing the VAFCC block. 

 

Conference Sponsors

        

     
   

              

          
    
           
         

       

Conference Exhibitors

            

             

                
       

              

                

            

                  

Conference Supporters

 

Interested in becoming a sponsor? Please contact Rebecca Butler at 804.340.3434 or email rbutler@vafreeclinics.org to discuss opportunities.