11-16-22 Dr. Bob Wins Oregon Rural Health Hero Of The Year Award (Photo) - 11/17/22
Joint Release with Douglas County Commissioners, Douglas Public Health Network and Aviva Health
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - November 17, 2022
Dr. Bob Wins Oregon Rural Health Hero of the Year Award
(Douglas County, Ore.) The Douglas County Board of Commissioners along with Douglas Public Health Network (DPHN) and Aviva Health are excited to announce that Dr. Robert Dannenhoffer, our Douglas County Public Health Officer was selected as Oregon’s 2022 Rural Health Hero of the Year by the Oregon Office of Rural Health (ORH). Each year the ORH, a division of Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) recognizes one individual, provider, practitioner or community for making a “distinguished, unique or exceptional contribution to improving the quality of life for rural Oregonians.” ORH lists that the criteria for this award may include someone going above and beyond expected job responsibilities, outstanding volunteerism, sustained and successful commitment to a particular issue or issues affecting rural health care, and long-term impact of contribution. Dr. Bob received the Oregon Rural Health Hero of the Year at the 39th Annual Oregon Rural Health Conference held in Sunriver, Oregon in October this year. A copy of the video presented at the award presentation can be found on the ORH website at: https://www.ohsu.edu/oregon-office-of-rural-health/oregon-rural-health-hero-year-award.
Earlier this year, Teresa Mutschler, Executive Director at (DPHN) and Vanessa Becker, the DPHN PIO, led the charge to get Dr. Robert Dannenhoffer, nominated for this prestigious award. They sent out a request for nomination support letters from our community and received an overwhelming response from not just the medical community, but from local governments, businesses, educators and nonprofit organizations. The list of letters added to the nomination application were from: KC Bolton, CEO/Aviva Health; Jared Cordon, Superintendent/Roseburg Public Schools; Brian Prawitz, BP Media; Analicia Nicholson, Superintendent/Douglas ESD; Natalie Jones, Deputy CMO/Aviva Health; Justin Lyman, Trillium Community Health Plans; Maureen Short, UCAN, Douglas County Commissioner Tim Freeman and Tamara Howell, Douglas County PIO.
“Thank you so much for this recognition, but this is really a team effort. We had incredibly great cooperation from the Commissioners to everyone else in our community who came together to make a great team and made this (response effort) work,” commented Dr. Bob Dannenhoffer, Douglas County Public Health Officer.
Below is an excerpt from the nomination application:
“Dr. Bob, as our community affectionately refers to him, has been a rural health hero in Douglas County for many decades. His love and devotion to health in our community began with his practice as a pediatrician and most recently in his role as Public Health Officer leading our county COVID response. Dr. Bob remained steadfast in his commitment to Douglas County as he became a chief strategist and leader in our local pandemic response. Dr. Bob not only helped to prepare Douglas Public Health Network (aka DPHN), and the community for a pandemic, but he also was front and center with testing efforts, education, assembling a robust epidemiology contact tracing team, significant communications and was instrumental in vaccine roll out, all for our local rural community.
Dr. Bob became the face for calm, compassionate and correct COVID information during the pandemic at a time when people were full of uncertainty and panic with the strange new virus. His efforts provided our community a foundation in which to negotiate the tumultuous waters that the pandemic threw at us individually, in our families and our community organizations. Dr. Bob’s thoughtful, bright and compassionate work has positively impacted thousands of community members and dozens of our community institutions, as you will see in the many letters of support that are attached. His unwavering commitment to improving health and reducing the morbidity and mortality of COVID was felt far beyond the borders of Douglas County as he advocated for rural communities at a state and national level.”
“Dr. Bob has been a hero in our community for decades, but his unrelenting dedication and drive during the COVID-19 pandemic lifted him to hero status across the state,” says KC Bolton, CEO of Aviva Health. “While he is quick to deflect praise, make no mistake that Dr. Bob is more than deserving of this award, and all of us at Aviva Health are truly grateful for the many contributions he has made to our community.”
“Dr. Dannenhoffer continues to make such a great impact on the lives of so many people in Douglas County. He not only cares for his patients and their families in his pediatrics practice, but he also cares deeply about the people in our community,” stated Teresa Mutschler, Executive Director at DPHN. “We appreciate his commitment and dedication to rural health and congratulate him as he receives recognition as the 2022 Oregon Rural Health Hero of the Year.”
Dr. Bob grew up in New York City, earned his Bachelor of Science in Pre-Med from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, completed his medical school training at Albany Medical College in NY, his pediatric residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and then served in the United States Navy. He moved to Roseburg in 1989 and has practiced pediatric medicine here ever since. In addition to his current pediatric practice at Aviva Health, Dr. Bob has been the Vice President for Clinical Effectiveness at Mercy Medical Center, the President of the Oregon Medical Association, the CEO of DCIPA, and Architrave Health, Executive Director and Chief Health Strategist at DPHN and has served as the Douglas County Health Officer for over five years.
“Your dedication to each and every person you help is pretty remarkable. That is something that each of you do as providers. It’s easy to get wrapped up in policy decisions and the numbers of people you serve, but each of us has to remember that every single person that you help is really, really, important! That individual caring and taking the extra step to help that individual person is something that Dr. Dannenhoffer and all of you do, so I want to thank Dr. Dannenhoffer for that work,” commented Commissioner Tim Freeman.
Douglas County Commissioners recognized Dr. Bob at the Weekly Business Meeting on Wednesday, November 16, 2022. Dr. Bob joined us via Zoom from the American Medical Association’s Annual Conference. A copy of the live video presentation can be found on the Douglas County Government Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DouglasCountyeGovernment.
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Media Contact: Tamara Howell, Douglas County Emergency Communications & Community Engagement Specialist, Douglas County Public Affairs Office | Office: (541) 957-4896 | Cell: (541) 670-2804 | Email: tjhowell@co.douglas.or.us
Vanessa Becker, Public Information Officer, Douglas Public Health Network | Cell: (541) 817-6552 | vanessa@douglaspublichealthnetwork.org
Mark Tsuchiya, Marketing and Development Director, Aviva Health | Office: (541) 672-9596 Ext 105 | mtsuchiya@aviva.health
Photos: © K Trenkle/Douglas County. Individual photos available upon request.
