Whole Health Consortium turns ideas into action to support health in rural Virginia
During the consortium's annual meeting, participants formed new teams to address health and well-being challenges in Southwest Virginia.
It's not often that researchers, clinicians, community partners, public health leaders, educators, and students come together to turn meaningful conversations into coordinated action.
In May, more than 150 participants gathered for the Whole Health Consortium's third annual meeting, where participants moved from conversation to collaboration by forming teams, developing project plans, and, in several cases, securing startup funding in a single day.
Centered on the theme, "Whole Health, Whole Communities: From Dialogue to Coordinated Action," the day-long event was designed to move beyond discussion and help participants transform ideas into research-informed initiatives. Whole Health recognizes that health and well-being are shaped by the intersection of physical, mental, emotional, social, spiritual, and environmental factors. The approach emphasizes collaboration across disciplines and sectors to address conditions that influence how people live, work, learn, and age.
By the day’s end, 10 collaborative projects had emerged, drawing on expertise from Virginia Tech, health systems, schools, nonprofit organizations, local governments, and community groups to tackle the region’s most pressing health challenges.
“These projects stood out because they combined meaningful community partnerships with clear plans for learning, evaluation, and action,” said Tina Savla, director of the Whole Health Consortium. “The goal of flash funding is not to support perfect projects. It is to help teams take the next step and generate the evidence, partnerships, and momentum needed for larger initiatives.”
Seven of the 10 projects, which ranged from mental health and substance use prevention to healthy aging, nutrition, access to care, and workforce well-being, were awarded $1,000 in Flash Funding grants to carry out their projects between July 2026 and March 2027.
The meeting began with a keynote address from Meagan Grega, co-founder and chief medical officer of the Kellyn Foundation, whose talk, “From Silos to Synergy,” described how academic, clinical, school-based, food-access, and community partnerships can work together to improve community health outcomes. Attendees also heard lightning talks on work happening in Southwest Virginia ranging from mobile healthcare, blood pressure screening, and produce prescriptions to maternal and child health, brain injury, behavioral health, wearable technologies and AI, aging, and congregational care.
Over lunch, participants completed a “Give-and-Take Matrix” activity, adapted for the meeting by the Center for Communicating Science, to identify resources they could offer, challenges they hoped to address, and expertise they were seeking. Those ideas were then grouped into themed project tables. During the afternoon Action Planning Session, participants self-selected project tables based on shared interests and community needs, then worked together to develop project concepts.
Each team was challenged to develop a Whole Health-guided project that could produce meaningful progress within the next year while addressing health and well-being challenges facing Southwest Virginia communities. Teams refined project concepts, identified partners, and developed implementation plans before presenting their ideas to a Reactor Panel of community and academic leaders. Along the way, teams could consult with national experts through a "Phone-a-Friend" process designed to help groups move past impasses and sharpen their next steps.
Among the funded projects was "Supporting Healthy Families," which aims to partner with community organizations to pilot a family-centered program focused on social-emotional development, mental health, nutrition, and well-being among young children and their caregivers. The project seeks to strengthen family relationships and improve outcomes for children in rural communities.
Led by Erika Slagel-Perry, education and training coordinator with the New River Valley Regional Commission, and Zehra Gulseven, assistant professor of psychology at Virginia Tech, the project team also includes several Virginia Tech faculty members and community partners working across disciplines to support child and family well-being.
"What began as a broad concept focused on strengthening family well-being evolved into a more focused, research-driven pilot study," Slagel-Perry said. "Through collaboration with our group members, we refined the project and identified new opportunities for implementation. Leaving the meeting with both new collaborators and funding support was incredibly meaningful because it validated the idea's potential and expanded the expertise available to move it forward."
Although the projects addressed different challenges, they reflected the broader mission of the Whole Health Consortium: bringing together researchers, clinicians, community organizations, and public agencies to accelerate community-informed solutions and improve health and well-being.
“Whole Health requires us to think beyond any single sector, discipline, or organization,” said Savla, who is also a professor of human development and family science. “These teams demonstrate what becomes possible when communities, researchers, clinicians, and practitioners come together around shared challenges and a commitment to action.”
Four awards were funded by the Whole Health Consortium; one was jointly supported by the Whole Health Consortium and the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences; one was jointly supported by the Whole Health Consortium and the Center for Public Health Practice and Research; and one received additional support from the Center for Public Health Practice and Research and the Institute for Policy and Governance.
The seven awarded teams will share progress and outcomes with the consortium over the coming year.
