Panels and Networks - Rural Human Services Panel

RUPRI, in collaboration with the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy in the Department of Health and Human Services, created the Rural Human Services Panel to advance the understanding of the rural dimension of human service delivery and finance and to effect needed change in policy and practice, through the dissemination of realistic policy and practice recommendations. 

Founding members of the RUPRI Rural Human Services Panel hail from across the country and represent a diversity of rural constituents.  Their expertise covers a wide range of human service issues, including poverty research, child welfare, community development, service delivery administration, immigrants and migrant workers, and legal justice.  Panel members are:

• Kathleen Belanger, Assistant Professor of Social Work at Stephen F. Austin State University
• Vaughn Clark, Director of Community Development at the Oklahoma Department of Commerce
• Jerry Friedman, Executive Director of the American Public Human Services Association
• Mario Gutierrez, Director of Rural & Agricultural Worker Health Programs at the California Endowment
• Susan Patnode, Executive Director of the Rural Law Center of New York
• Bruce Weber, Professor of Agriculture, Resource Economics and Extension Economist at Oregon State University.