Press Release
New initiative funds partnership between UW School of Medicine and Public Health and frontline providers to improve rural health care in Wisconsin
June 4, 2025
Contact: Veronica Rueckert, Chief Communications Officer, Office of Social Health Sciences and Programs, UW School of Medicine and Public Health, rueckert@wisc.edu
(Madison, WI) Thanks to a generous private donation, a new grantmaking program called the Orion Initiative with a mission to improve health in rural Wisconsin communities, is launching on June 4 in Madison. The Orion Initiative invests in the power of partnership between frontline rural providers and the academic medical community to improve rural health care.
The Orion Initiative is administered through the Office of Social Health Sciences and Programs at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health and led by CEO Dr. Amy Kind. Dr. Kind is also the inaugural associate dean of the Office Social Health Sciences and Programs.
In close collaboration with its frontline rural partners, the Orion Initiative has identified several key mission-aligned focus-areas currently in development, with the goal of reaching additional Wisconsin communities with these opportunities in the coming years.
“People living in rural areas disproportionately experience poor health and difficulties with health care access. With cornerstones of workforce development and rural clinician support, the Orion Initiative is creating a new, academic-rural partnership-based blueprint for meeting the challenges facing rural healthcare providers in Wisconsin,” says CEO, Dr. Amy Kind.
Over the past year, the Orion Initiative has established partnerships between The Richland Hospital and Clinics, Gundersen Moundview Hospital and Clinics (becoming Emplify Health by Gundersen-Friendship), both Southern Green Lake County Ambulance and Berlin Emergency Medical Services (EMS), and the academic medical community at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. The program is expected to spread beyond these initial partner sites in the coming year.
Initial focus areas for the Orion Initiative and its partners include pediatric EMS training, primary care physician recruitment and subspecialty training.
“Through the Orion Initiative, our family medicine physicians were given the opportunity to collaborate with UW Rheumatology specialists to develop an innovative subspecialty training program aimed at reducing rheumatology patient referrals, decreasing patient travel to Madison and surrounding areas, and creating active, supportive partnerships between our family medicine physicians and UW specialists,” says Bruce Roesler, CEO of The Richland Hospital and Clinics in Richland Center, Wisconsin.
In Green Lake County, Berlin EMS chief Evan VandenLangenberg says, “Rural EMS responders face unique challenges in caring for pediatric patients. Our partnership with the Orion Initiative is providing a strong connection with the UW Emergency Medicine physicians and access to the cutting-edge, hands-on training we need to serve our youngest patients.”
Additionally, to further promote workforce development, the Orion Initiative has provided funding for four full tuition scholarships of four-years each to students entering the Wisconsin Academy for Rural Medicine (WARM) program at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health in the next academic year. Orion plans to continue scholarships in the coming years. The WARM program admits 26 medical students annually who demonstrate a strong commitment to practicing rural medicine in Wisconsin after graduation.
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Orion Initiative FAQs
The Orion Initiative is new grantmaking program that builds bridges between the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health academic community and rural health care providers to deliver innovative solutions that ultimately improve rural health care access. Key focus areas for the Orion Initiative include health care workforce development, rural clinician support.
The Orion Initiative is administered through the Office of Social Health Sciences and Programs at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and led by CEO Dr. Amy Kind.
The Orion Initiative invests in the transformative power of partnership between frontline rural providers and the academic medical community to improve health in Wisconsin’s rural communities.
Funding for the Orion Initiative is provided by the generous gift of an anonymous donor.
The Orion Initiative works in full partnership with rural health care providers in Wisconsin. Providers identify their areas of greatest need and collaborate with UW academic physicians to deliver innovative solutions. The voices of frontline rural physicians are the focus each step of the way. Pilot projects are grounded in science and integrate both aim and outcome evaluations along with ongoing assessment for the ability to scale and overall program impact.
We anticipate that our current pilot programs will have opportunities for wider participation in the future. To stay up to date, please sign up for updates.
Bio Sheet
Amy Kind, MD, PhD
Dr. Amy Kind is the chief executive officer of the Orion Initiative. Dr. Kind is also the inaugural associate dean for Social Health Sciences and Programs at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH). In addition to the Orion Initiative, her leadership roles include serving as executive director of the $430 million Wisconsin Partnership Program grant-making endowment, director of the UW–Madison Center for Health Disparities Research, and leader of the Care Research Core at the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Dr. Kind is an internationally acclaimed leader in the fields of social determinants of health and Alzheimer’s Disease, leading a $40 million NIH research portfolio and the team that developed the Neighborhood Atlas. Dr. Kind has earned multiple honors, including the American Geriatrics Society Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement for Clinical Investigation; election to the Association of American Physicians; election as a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI); NIH/NIA Beeson Award; and membership on the White House Task Force on Aging and Technology. Her work has been published in top journals including The New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association. She is a sought-after advisor to state, federal, and international entities.
Megan Miller
Megan Miller, MPA, is the chief operations officer for the Orion Initiative and the chief administrative officer for the Office of Social Health Sciences and Programs. In this position, she is responsible for broad administrative leadership across the office of Amy Kind, MD, PhD, who is the associate dean for Social Health Sciences and Programs at the School of Medicine and Public Health. Megan’s responsibilities include cross-cutting, programmatic strategic planning, liaising with key internal and external stakeholder groups, supervision of staff, and other associated tasks to optimize operational effectiveness across the office’s portfolio. In this position, she also serves as the executive administrative director for the Wisconsin Partnership Program (WPP) and the Center for Health Disparities Research (CHDR).
Jennifer Stegall
Jennifer Stegall is the administrative associate director for the Orion Initiative. She joins the Orion Initiative team from her role as executive senior policy advisor at the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) where she led special projects related to state and federal health care policy and administered a $230 million reinsurance program. Jennifer also served as the OCI representative on the Wisconsin Partnership Program Oversight and Advisory Committee where she reviewed and voted on grant proposals addressing social determinants of health and health equity.
Nicole Bonk
Nicole Bonk, MD, is the chief medical officer of the Orion Initiative. Dr. Bonk is an academic physician trained in family medicine. She joins the Orion team from her previous role as vice chief of clinical operations for hospital medicine at the University of Wisconsin where she oversaw the clinical functions of 80 physicians at multiple locations in Wisconsin.
Veronica Rueckert
Veronica Rueckert is the chief communications officer for the Orion Initiative and the Office of Social Health Sciences and Programs. Most recently, she served as media relations manager at the Office of Strategic Communication (OSC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She also founded and led the Media Fellows program to prepare faculty and leadership for media engagement and led the university’s thought leadership program. Before her tenure at OSC, Veronica was a longtime radio host at Wisconsin Public Radio, where she earned a Peabody Award on the PRI show To the Best of Our Knowledge. As a writer, her work has been published in the Washington Post, Newsweek, and NPR, and her book Outspoken was published in 2019 by HarperCollins.
Jonathan Thomas
Jonathan Thomas is the chief financial officer for the Orion Initiative and the associate finance director for the Office of Social Health Sciences and Programs (OSHSP). In this position, he is responsible for overseeing the financial operations of the Orion Initiative and other OSHSP grantmaking programs, including budgeting, forecasting, and financial planning. He specializes in partnering with organizations throughout the State of Wisconsin. Jon is a licensed certified public accountant in Wisconsin.
Photos
Captions:
- Pictured, a Berlin EMS emergency vehicle.
- Members of the Southern Green Lake County and Berlin Emergency Medical Services team during a high-fidelity simulation training focused on pediatric patients using a mannequin. Together they are members of the Simulation Training to Advance Rural Services for Children Program (STARS for Children).
- Dr Manish Shah, from UW Emergency Medicine, works with members of the Southern Green Lake County and Berlin Emergency Medical Services team during a high-fidelity simulation training focused on pediatric patients using a mannequin. Together they are members of the Simulation Training to Advance Rural Services for Children Program (STARS for Children).
- Pictured, a Southern Green Lake County Ambulance.
