Pennsylvania Rural Health Leader Presented with 2024 Calico Leadership Award

Lisa Davis, the director of the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health (PORH) and a tireless advocate for rural health at both the state and national levels, was awarded the 2024 Calico Quality Leadership Award at the annual Flex Program Reverse Site Visit held in Washington, DC, on July 17-18.

Davis, who has served as the PORH director for more than 20 years, was recognized for her unwavering dedication to rural health in Pennsylvania and the nation, and her visionary leadership. She has been a strong champion of the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility (Flex) Program during her entire career.

The award is presented annually to an outstanding rural health leader by the Technical Assistance and Services Center (TASC), a program of the National Rural Health Resource Center (The Center).

A Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, native and lifelong resident of the state, Davis is known to her staff as the “queen of rural health” — someone who is willing to work late hours to ensure that rural Pennsylvanians receive the best health care possible no matter their geographical location.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology and psychology from Clarion University of Pennsylvania (now known as Pennsylvania Western University, Clarion), she began her professional career in the human services field, in roles at a community-based mental health program and at a federally-funded job training program designed to help people with disabilities and incarcerated persons obtain employment. Her work with incarcerated persons helped to foster a desire to advocate for vulnerable populations.

Positions coordinating large research projects at Penn State followed by a master’s degree in health administration led her to PORH, which is also based at the university. In 1994 she became the office’s first full-time staff member. And, except for a short hiatus in the late 1990s, she has been there ever since.

During her tenure, Davis, who also holds a faculty position at Penn State as an outreach associate professor of health policy and administration, has testified before state legislative committees, published research articles in scholarly journals, penned newspaper editorials, and secured and managed well over $20 million in grants and contracts. She is also regularly quoted by the state’s reporters on stories about rural health and health care.

Under her leadership, PORH — which was presented with an Award of Merit from the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health in 2008 and an Award of Excellence in 2020 — has often been at the forefront of the country’s State Offices of Rural Health (SORHs). PORH staff are well known for their dedication to supporting the state’s small rural hospitals and rural health systems, and for collaborating with other organizations to develop new ways to implement programs and achieve success.

The office employs the country’s only SORH-supported staff member who is tasked with helping agricultural producers and their employees understand and comply with federal regulations on the safe use of pesticides, and has been a recent leader in bringing human trafficking in rural America to the attention of the state’s rural clinicians and administrators, and colleagues at other SORHs, through presentations, webinars and an annual conference.

Davis has held membership and leadership positions on dozens of local, state, regional and national committees and task forces that focus on rural health, health care policy and economic development, including the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s Telehealth Advisory Committee, the Governor’s Advisory Council on Rural Affairs, the Pennsylvania Coalition for Oral Health, the Appalachian Regional Commission’s Health Policy Advisory Council, the National Rural Health Association’s State Office Council and the National Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Monitoring Advisory Committee.

She has previously been recognized by the Pennsylvania Public Health Association with its Award for Individual Contributions to Public Health (2001) and by the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health with its Distinguished Service Award (2003) and James D. Bernstein Mentoring Award (2014). In 2003 the Pennsylvania Rural Health Association — which she led from 2001-2003 — recognized her with the organization’s Outstanding Leadership Award.

Earlier this year she was presented the 2024 Health Equity Champion Award by the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s Office of Health Equity. The award acknowledges an individual’s dedication to health equity efforts, professional roles, and demonstrated passion and success in promoting health equity.

Center CEO Sally Buck said Davis’s long record of service in the rural health field makes her a model for others.

“Lisa has been an innovative rural health leader committed to excellence and sustainability in rural hospitals,” she said. “Her curiosity, inclusion and passionate dedication to improving the health of rural citizens reflect the leadership qualities exemplified by Dr. Calico [the award’s namesake] and previous award winners.”

The Calico Quality Leadership Award was created to honor the legacy of Dr. Forrest Calico, a former clinician and health care administrator. After graduating from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Calico served as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force. He was later a family physician and the residency program director at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Edgewood, Kentucky, before being named president and CEO of Lexington, Kentucky-based Appalachian Regional Healthcare. Calico also served in administrative roles at the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy and the National Rural Health Association.