Spurred by the need for clarity with PA State’s communication around COVID-19 in the communities of color, Dr. Johnson took this initiative to speak directly to the trusted messengers of the community to provide an update on the COVID pandemic and vaccine information directly to our community for a better understanding of the still-evolving knowledge on COVID-19 health impacts, which disproportionally affected people of color.
Dr. Johnson was most recently Chief Medical Officer at Meadville Medical Center. Prior to joining the leadership team in 2008, Dr. Johnson spent 13 years in private practice in Meadville. She is board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology by the American Board of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. She also serves on the Governor’s Commission for Women.
Dr. Johnson has been involved in various community and regional groups focusing on diversity and inclusion and on the needs of women and is the current board chair of the Meadville Area Free Clinic. She is also the past chair of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape.
She received her Medical Degree at Georgetown University School of Medicine and completed her residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
This was the first of this kind of collaborative relationship meeting between Philadelphia Tribune, the Philadelphia Sunday Sun, SCOOPUSA, Chester Spirit newspaper, P.O.C. Revive Radio, and FunTimes Magazine. In attendance were veteran journalists including FunTimes Magazine opinion columnist, Karen Warrington, NAACP President, Cathy Hicks, Philadelphia Chapter and Publisher of the Philadelphia Sunday Sun newspaper, Thera Martin, representing the SCOOPUSA, and Ayana Jones, who represented the Philadelphia Tribune. Others included Paul Bennet of the Chester Spirit newspaper represented by Loretta Rodgers, “Proof of Consciousness” of Revive news outlet representative, Tamara Russell, FunTimes Magazine associate publisher Sandra Lawrence, who served as host of the roundtable, and Nana Ama Addo of FunTimes Magazine.
The opportunity for this collaboration was orchestrated by Phoebe Coles, co-founder and president of Community Marketing Concepts along with Maggi Barton, PA Deputy Press Secretary, Department of Health, Office of Communications. Eric Nzeribe, the publisher of FunTimes Magazine, was the convener of the roundtable, which is part of the mitigating vaccine hesitancy project by FunTimes Magazine, which is sponsored by Independence Public Media Foundation.
Read the Questions and Answers from this event:
Collaborating Around COVID-19: Questions and Answers
Read the article from Philadelphia Tribune:
Philadelphia Tribune: Pennsylvania’s top doctor discusses vaccine hesitancy
This article has been made possible by the Independence Public Media Foundation.
Collaborating Around COVID-19 with Dr. Denise Johnsonhttps://www.youtube.com/embed/jj0rk01Xn3g
Collaborating Around COVID-19 with Dr. Denise Johnsonhttps://www.youtube.com/embed/SDdblzwtb8A
