Earlier this summer we met Ann Brooks and Renee Hitchcock who are associates at the Walmart in Ashland, Kentucky. Like any Walmart associate, their days are spent making sure customers have a good experience while shopping in their store. But over the course of the last several months, they’ve also become social media influencers. To build awareness for seasonal merchandise or weekly specials, Renee gets behind the camera while Ann will share with the store’s 28,000 followers on it’s Fa...

The faculty and staff at Missouri Connections Academy, a statewide, tuition-free, online school recently welcomed new and returning students in grades K through 12 for the 2024-2025 academic year – it’s fifth since it opened in 2020. Virtual school is a great fit for a variety of students and each student is unique. Those who attend Missouri Connections Academy come from different backgrounds and choose full-time online school for various reasons. Some students prefer to take owne...

The Immunization Advocacy Network of Ohio, a statewide network of Ohio immunization providers and supporters who advocate for the value of vaccines, recently partnered with the Ohio Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics (Ohio AAP) to host an Immunization Summit in Columbus that focused on childhood vaccines. The Summit convened a small group of healthcare providers including pediatricians, pharmacists, and nurses as well as public health officials and vaccine advocates. While Ohio’s r...

Great River Connections Academy® (GRCA) is a unique, tuition-free, online public school that offers a high-quality educational experience that keeps students motivated and engaged in a safe, virtual learning environment. With the help of specially trained teachers and their parents/learning coaches, students gain the skills and confidence they need to direct their own educational journey, learning to thrive in the real world by first learning how to be resourceful and resilient. Great River C...

It's back-to-school season once again, a time filled with excitement for students and parents as they gear up for the new academic year. However, the only people perhaps more eager than the students themselves are the teachers. In traditional classrooms, teachers are busy getting their spaces ready—arranging desks and chairs, decorating bulletin boards, organizing school supplies, and finalizing lesson plans. But what about online classrooms? How do teachers in a virtual environment prepare f...

Over the last few years, Walmart has been on what the company calls a transformational journey, where hundreds of stores across the country have been transformed and redesigned to amplify the physical, human and digital design elements in the stores to elevate the overall shopping experience. As Walmart considers itself a member of every community it serves, there is another element to these store transformations that celebrates those communities. During each remodel, Walmart will...

When Ohio Connections Academy first opened, full-time online learning for grades K-12 was not as prevalent as it is today, and students were seen as trailblazers for this type of learning. Today, with 20 years of online learning expertise and a program built specifically for the virtual environment, the school serves more than 5,000 students in grades K-12 from every county in the state of Ohio. Ohio Connections Academy Superintendent Marie Hanna, and Dawnelle Criss, Ohio Connections Ac...

As communities across Ohio and the rest of the country will host celebrations, parades, and ceremonies to honor Veterans of our United States Armed Forces, we are joined by Jason White, Operations Manager at Walmart's East Transportation Command Center in Grove City, OH. Jason served the U.S. Army from 2002 until 2018 when he transitioned to the Ohio Army National Guard and currently serves as Sergeant First Class. We asked Jason to share a little about his military experience and how he made...

The costs for rare disease therapies are often very expensive for the patients. While some get help to cover a portion of their high out-of-pocket costs, health insurers have a policy called copay accumulators that prevent the assistance from counting toward the patient's copay or deductible requirements for the year. There is a legislative effort underway in Ohio (House Bill 177) that would address the issue. Sam Cox, State Government Relations Manager with the National Psoriasis Foundation,...

For this episode we are pleased to be joined by Greene County Health Commissioner Melissa Howell and Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, Director of the Ohio Department of Health who share their perspectives and deep knowledge of immunizations and the importance of utilizing public health data. As school children are all heading back to the classroom we talk about what resources are available for parents and caretakers to make sure their children are ready with the proper immunizations. We also discus w...