And the Carol Emmott Foundation is dedicated to inclusive gender equity at the highest levels of healthcare leadership and governance. The foundation has strong ties to the OU community as Dr. Carol Emmott received both a master’s in public health and doctorate in Allied Health from OU. Her husband, Dr. Ralph C. Emmott received a Doctor of Medicine from OU as well.
“As our country continues to confront alarming injustices in all aspects of health, work, and society, we need diverse women executives who will lead the healthcare industry,” said Anne McCune, CEO of the Foundation.
“We are a national movement of women and allies who are doing just that.”
As part of the fellowship, Homco developed an “impact project” to make a difference in approaches to healthcare. Homco’s project involved spearheading the implementation of a comprehensive, public health approach to addressing behavioral health issues in primary care practices, known as SBIRT (or screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment). This approach aims to identify patients with mental illness or risky alcohol and drug use by screening at least annually for tobacco use, unhealthy alcohol use, drug misuse, and depression. Homco worked to implement the screening in more than 40 primary care practices.
“Despite agreement in the healthcare community that SBIRT is the ‘right thing to do,’ we identified numerous barriers to implementation that needed to be addressed,” said Homco.
In her day-to-day role at OU, Homco serves as director of research and community analytics in the Department of Medical Informatics. She leads the OUSCM’s business intelligence and analytics efforts and serves as associate director of the Oklahoma Primary Healthcare Improvement Cooperative where she helps lead a consortium of researchers and practitioners transforming health care delivery through statewide dissemination and implementation projects.
The Carol Emmott Fellowship Class of 2022 consisted of 22 women leaders representing public and private healthcare systems, state departments of health, and academic medical centers from across the country. Carol Emmott Fellows are nominated by their sponsoring organizations. The competitive process includes the submission of an original impact project proposal designed to accelerate action toward equity in their institutions and communities. Fellowship recipients also receive mentorship throughout their tenure from nationally recognized senior executive health leaders.
Homco’s participation was made possible by the Lloyd K. and Peggy L. Stephens Foundation and the George Kaiser Family Foundation.
Learn more about this year’s Fellows, as well as the work and mission of The Carol Emmott Foundation, by visiting carolemmottfoundation.org.
