As part of the Student Health Coalition Archive Project, Caryl Carpenter and Rick Davidson meet with James Lovett, CEO of Mountain People’s Health Councils, Inc. Their primary objective is to collect a firsthand account from Lovett and in so doing, document the evolution of MPHC from Coalition-era health fairs to its operations today.
This chapter of the narrative delineates Davidson’s role as the first physician with MPHC in Norma, Petros, and Stoney Fork, Tenn. from 1974 to 1976, a position he’d come to following a few years of summer health fair work as a medical student with the Coalition. He explains how organizations like Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) supported these fairs and how with the aid of students who stayed for follow-up after each community health fair had concluded, over time the first community councils were developed. See the full length interview to learn more.