The Alliance for a Healthier South Carolina recently hosted the 3rd Annual Live Healthy SC Meeting and recognized the organizations and leaders who are working to advance the state’s overall health status and innovate best practices for population health.

Jennifer Mandelbaum, MPH, a program evaluator for the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control, was awarded the Dr. Rick Foster Leadership Award for her work in diabetes and heart disease management and childhood obesity in South Carolina. Jennifer is advancing grant opportunities to address the state’s racial and socioeconomic disparities by expanding care into medically underserved areas. She is also working with the University of South Carolina’s SmartState Center for Healthcare Quality to study how we can improve the state’s rate of childhood obesity.

The Road to Better Health (RTBH) is a community collaborative based in Spartanburg that received the Community Innovation Award for its work organizing collective efforts to improve health outcomes and advance health equity. RTBH has partnered on critical efforts to lower the teen birth rate in Spartanburg County and led the push to bring the Racial Equity Institute to Spartanburg to provide training on addressing racial inequities.

The South Carolina Birth Outcomes Initiative (SCBOI) received the State Impact Award for its leadership implementing programs to improve health outcomes for moms and babies. Over the last nine years, SCBOI has successfully advanced initiatives to stop non-medically necessary early elective deliveries and promote healthy infant breastfeeding in South Carolina’s hospitals.

The Live Healthy SC Annual Meeting is a program designed to share best practices and celebrate the work being done under South Carolina’s state health improvement plan. For more information on Live Healthy South Carolina (LHSC), a statewide collaborative to improve the health of all South Carolinians, go to livehealthysc.com.