How One FQHC is Advancing Health Communication

Written By Jen Laws, President & CEO

Earlier this month, new outlets got a hold of a local (to me) treasure: NoiseFilter. Local health heroes, Dr. MarkAlain Dery and Dr. Eric Griggs, have been hosting Noise Filter since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic as an innovative way to educate the public about pressing health issues. The show started as a podcast, moved to live streams on Facebook, and has recently found a niche in animated shorts designed to engage and entertain patients. One of the latest episodes, titled Test, Treat, Cure, focuses on explaining Hepatitis C and curative treatments.

Before we go further, you can check out other Noise Filter animated videos here and you really should. They’re fun! At a recent virtual event aimed at educating stakeholders on the issue of HIV criminalization, after reviewing the science behind Undetectable Equals Untransmittable (U=U) and other access to care issues, Dr. MarkAlain played this episode for the audience. The audience happened to include Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Division of HIV Prevention Director, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who may or may not have chair danced with the end of the video. They really are that exciting!

This isn’t Dr. MarkAlain’s first foray into utilizing broadcasting platforms to reach patients as audience members. In 2014, the good doctor helped found local radio station WHIV (102.3FM). Staffed by volunteer hosts and DJs and focused on issues of social justice, human rights, and community health, WHIV titles itself as “…not a radio station with a mission…a mission with a radio station.” The station’s programming digs into issues of policy, politics, faith, entertainment, and more.

Both Doc Griggs and Dr. MarkAlain and both programs are tied to one of Louisiana’s largest Federally Qualified Health Center networks, Access Health Louisiana. AHL is actively involved in the state’s health planning activities and has been one of the mobile testing providers even before the COVID-19 pandemic and was one of the state’s first at-home testing providers (for HIV screenings), positioning the entity well in terms of already having infrastructure in place to mobilize and having Doc Griggs’ astounding communications talent for breaking down complex health issues, setting patients at ease, and empowering communities to activation makes the entity accessible and flexible in meeting the needs of served communities.

In many ways, both Noise Filter and WHIV seek to speak to patients as whole people, with whole lives, living in whole communities.

We need more of that. We need more of this.

Jen Laws, President & CEO

Jen Laws (Pronouns: He/Him/His) is the President & Founder of Policy Candy, LLC, which is a non-partisan health policy analysis firm specializing in various aspects of health care and public health policy, focusing on the needs of the HIV-affected and Transgender communities. In that capacity, Jen has served as the President & CEO of the Community Access National Network (CANN), beginning in January 2022. He previously served as the Project Director of CANN's HIV/HCV Co-Infection Watch, as well as 340B Policy Consultant.

Jen began his advocacy efforts in Philadelphia in 2005, at the age of 19, coordinating team efforts for a corporation participating in the AIDS Walk. His connection to HIV advocacy grew when partnering with Mr. Friendly, a leading anti-HIV-stigma campaign.

He began working in public health policy in 2013, as a subcontractor for Broward Regional Planning Council evaluating Marketplace plans for plan year 2014, advising and educating constituents on plan selection. Jen was a member of South Florida AIDS Network and has worked with Florida Department of Health, Broward and Miami-Dade County Health Departments, Pride Center South Florida, and other local organizations to South Florida in addressing the concerns and needs of these intersecting communities. During this time, Jen was seated on the board of directors for the ADAP Advocacy Association.

Having moved to the New Orleans area in 2019, Jen resumed his community-based advocacy as the chair of Louisiana's Ending the HIV Epidemic planning subcommittee for Data-based Policy and Advocacy, regular participation as a community member and "do-gooder" with other governmental and non-governmental planning bodies across the Louisiana, and engages with other southern state planning bodies. He continues his advocacy in governmental health care policy evaluation, which has been utilized to expand access to quality healthcare by working with RAD Remedy to deliver the nation's foremost database of trans* competent health care providers. Lending his expertise on policy matters ranging from 340B impact on RW providers and patients to strategic communications and data analysis, Jen's approach to community engagement is focused on being accessible across all stakeholder groups and centering the perspectives of PLWHA and Transgender people. He is a community ambassador alumni of the CDC's Let's Stop HIV Together campaign.

In his personal life, Jen enjoys spending his time being "ridiculously wholesome" with his partner, Aisha, and her two amazing daughters. In their personal time, when not immersed in crafts or house projects, they can be found seeking opportunities to help their neighbors, friends, and community members (who have come to rightfully expect exquisite gift baskets of Aisha's homemade jams and jellies from time to time). Jen strives to set a good example both in his personal professional life of integrating values into action and extending the kindness and care that have led him to a life he calls "extraordinarily lucky".

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