Ford Foundation

Outside convention and against the grain: what set the Coalition apart

Bob Hartmann frames the Coalition work as having absolutely been outside convention and against the grain, in large part due to Bill Dow’s talent at generating and following through with big, extraordinary ideas. He then elucidates one of his favorite memories of this fearless SHC leader, telling of the fundraising trip Bob took with Bill …

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Barbara Clinton 1988

On the funds acquisition for community-inspired MIHOW project

Barbara Clinton shares how the Center for Health Services (CHS) acquired funding for the Maternal-Infant Health Outreach Worker Project (MIHOW), an effort initiated by Dick Couto’s ongoing attempts to convince the Ford Foundation to invest in Appalachia. She also names additional funding sources for the program which expanded MIHOW’s operations to other states once the …

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Establishing the East Tennessee Research Corporation (ETRC)

John Williams details the development of the East Tennessee Research Corporation (ETRC) as a 501(c)(3) in 1973. Those involved considered a couple different precedented models for doing so, but the organization ultimately achieved its goal with help from Vanderbilt University’s chancellor, Alexander Heard, and funding from the Ford Foundation. Neil McBride was their first hire. …

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Bill Dow in Smithville ,Tenn., 1970

Bill Dow

Bill Dow co-founded the Student Health Coalition while in medical school at Vanderbilt University, in 1969. His larger-than-life role in the SHC origin story and beyond warrants special telling, which we attempt in the essay that follows. Contributed by Margaret Ecker, compiled in collaboration with friends  Bill Dow energized a generation of student activists and …

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Interview with Neil McBride by Jessie Wilkerson, May 27 2010, Southern Oral History Program, UNC Chapel Hill

Neil McBride was born on December 12, 1945 in Dallas, Texas. He received his J.D. from the University of Virginia in 1970. After graduating, he worked for a year as the Southern Director of the Law Students Civil Rights Research Council in Atlanta, GA. He then worked for a year as a staff attorney on …

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