2022: Impacting Lives Together

Georgina Dukes, MHA is a social justice advocate and leader inspiring social innovation through healthcare and technology. With over 13 years of experience in health equity, technology, population health, and strategic operations across the healthcare industry, Georgina has the proven ability to support organizations’ impact on the communities they serve, patient outcomes, and social determinants of health.

Georgina joined Unite Us in 2018 as one of our first Community Engagement Managers, pioneering our network engagement model and helping launch the first statewide coordinated care network, NCCARE360, in North Carolina. Four short years later, Georgina Dukes is now our Senior Director of Social Care Impact, leading a national effort to increase awareness of social care, challenge systemic causes of poverty and health inequities, and strengthen community voices and experiences in partnership with Unite Us.

In recent years, Georgina has been a White House Administration PREVENTS speaker, a panelist for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation of Population Specific Data Gaps, and a nominee for Forbes 30 Under 30 in Healthcare. She has received multiple awards, including the Leaders in Diversity award, the 2020 Women in Business award, and the Community Outreach award.

When Georgina is not advocating for health equity, innovation, and justice, you can find her with her son, Romeo, watching a Marvel superhero movie, blogging about a life experience, or on Instagram!

As the world becomes increasingly complex, it’s never been more important for organizations to partner across sectors to produce real, systemic change.

We all know that a siloed approach to community health doesn’t work. To affect real change, we have to break out of our comfort zones and work collaboratively with others toward a common goal. Only then will we make strides in addressing issues as complex as homelessness, food insecurity, and maternal health.

Join us at our panel, Power in Partnership, to hear from industry experts on how cross-sector collaboration is the key to meeting these challenges with innovative, sustainable, and scalable solutions.

We know from research and personal experience that people are healthier when they have safe housing, access to healthy food, and viable transportation options. Despite this reality, there has been a historical lack of funding and infrastructure for organizations addressing social determinants of health in communities across the U.S. But not anymore. Systems are changing to finally meet people where they are and elevate social care to the same priority level as healthcare.

In North Carolina, the Healthy Opportunities Pilots is one of the nation’s first comprehensive programs to provide payers, providers, and community-based organizations with the tools, infrastructure, and financing necessary to integrate non-medical services directly related to improved health outcomes into the delivery of care.

Using our Social Care Payments Solution, which enables stakeholders to access and pay for social care through the Unite Us Platform, local government agencies, health plans, and providers alike have been able to partner effectively, manage program efficiency, and ultimately, expand their programs’ impacts.

Join us at our panel, The Future of Funding, to hear more from the organizations in North Carolina that have gone beyond the call of duty to connect individuals to care in their own communities. We’ll discuss the Unite Us Payments product and learn more about how organizations like yours can better prepare for these types of strategic investments.

Now more than ever, people are turning to their communities in times of need. When a person needs support, they may not go to a hospital or clinic. Instead, the first line of care often lies within their schools, churches, libraries—even the local barbershop.

Across the country, organizations have stepped up to serve as local navigators in their community, working hard to connect individuals with accurate information and resources.

From navigating the healthcare system to helping those with housing needs, many of these organizations are uniquely positioned to put individuals at the center of care, connecting them to appropriate services in their communities.

Join our panel, No Wrong Door, to learn more about transformative community engagement efforts and how unique organizations are reshaping and transforming the areas in which they reside.

Community-based organizations (CBOs) play a vital role in designing and innovating solutions to address their communities’ health. Working alongside their clients, neighbors, and local leaders, CBOs are often the source of the most creative, and ultimately, the most sustainable solutions to address service gaps, health inequities, and emergent challenges.

In an era of growing needs and shrinking resources, how can we ensure these organizations are well resourced and supported in their efforts to catalyze growth and opportunity in communities near and far?

Join us at our panel, Advocating for Community, which will elevate this critical role, drawing on experiences in communities across the country to show how CBOs are indeed on the frontline of policy design and implementation, and asserting themselves as advocates and leaders at both the local, state, and national level.

Micheline Tocco is the Vice President of Networks at Unite Us, where she leads the team responsible for partnering directly with local communities of health and human service providers to build and develop coordinated care networks. Under her leadership, the Unite Us network has grown to include over 500,000 services across 48 states and Washington, DC.

She is passionate about supporting systems-level change and believes both technology and human services have a critical role to play in improving health outcomes. Prior to Unite Us, Micheline spent several years in the non-profit space, with a focus on school-based programming. A Boston native, Micheline has called Brooklyn, NY home for the past eight years and enjoys salsa dancing and hiking.

From referral to outcome, closing the loop is critical when making sure individuals receive the care they need when they need it most. Join us for a deeper dive into the best practices for sending an effective referral.

We’ll review tips for using Browse Map, how to review a program’s eligibility criteria, when to follow up with a recipient organization, and how to do your part in closing the loop on your clients’ requests.

The beauty of data is the story it can tell. Whether you’re leading your community through best practices or applying for additional funding, you want to leverage the outcomes of the work you’re already doing.

Join us in learning how you can use Insights and Exports to tell your story and drive change in your organization.

Think of the last time you successfully made a change in your life. How did you make that choice? How did you discover your own internal drive to inspire your thinking and guide your behaviors?

Effectively leading organizations through transformations isn’t different from how our own internal growth is set into motion. Join us at our workshop, Leading Through Change, to discover practical techniques to open minds and empower groups to see new possibilities.

Unite Us is more than just a technology. It’s a means by which we fortify relationships between providers and across service sectors—supporting meaningful networks intended to meet and respond to community needs.

A key component of this work is improving our platform with input from our community users, ensuring that each feature is designed with you in mind.

As part of these efforts, we rolled out multiple enhancements to our platform in late September of this year, informed by the changes our users wanted to see. Join us at our workshop, Leveling Up, to learn how new Unite Us features can be used to streamline and simplify your work, making it easier for you to do what you do best—connect people to care.