Bill Corr recounts his introduction to the Student Health Coalition (SHC) and Center for Health Services (CHS) shortly after graduating from Vanderbilt Law School. He was working with the Tennessee Department of Public Health at the time Irwin Venick encouraged him to get involved. Having done so, Bill Corr now reflects back on the SHC’s …
Kate Bradley frames the initiative to organize a local health council and community clinic as a direct response to the Petros health fair’s preliminary identification of needs. She details early fundraising efforts, including Pat Kalmans’ key role in securing grant money, and outlines the clinic’s legal incorporation, naming John Kennedy and John Williams not only …
On the Bradley’s motivation to organize a community clinic in Petros, Tenn. Read More »
Nancy Raybin describes Bill Dow’s visionary leadership, highlighting his role in securing funds for the Coalition’s varied projects. But given her placement in St. Charles and being so far removed from SHC happenings in East Tennessee, Raybin speaks more to her relationship with other Coalition leaders in southwest Virginia, such as John Williams and John …
John Kennedy describes monumental developments in black lung care during the summer of 1973, primarily as it pertains to the establishment of state and federally funded clinics. He details the complex effort in acquiring these funds, including the role key players had in placing pressure on the Tennessee State Health Department to monitor black lung …
Progression of black lung care toward government-funded clinics, 1973 Read More »
This snippet of a much longer and more comprehensive interview with John Williams and Neil McBride serves merely as a brief overview and cursory introduction of these two key figures and their role with the East Tennessee Research Corporation (ETRC) in the 1970s and beyond. Recorded June 25th, 2018 by Lark Hayes and Irwin Venick …
John Williams and Neil McBride on their work with ETRC Read More »
John Williams recalls J.W. Bradley’s tenacity while lobbying Congress in support of strip mining regulation, which in 1976, was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter. Full footage of the 2017 ETRC panel featuring John Williams, John McArthur, Lark Hayes, and Neil McBride.
John Williams shares ETRC’s successful lawsuit against the Health Department in Davidson County. The effort was collaborative alongside other environmental organizations, including Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM), and initiated as a means to mandate the monitoring and enforcement of water pollution runoff from abandoned strip mines. Full footage of the 2017 ETRC panel featuring …
ETRC’s lawsuit against Davidson County Health Department Read More »
John Williams and Neil McBride share a list of the East Tennessee Research Corporation’s range of legal issues addressed between 1974 and 1977, including but not limited to: coal industry regulation, industrial development, environmental litigation, barriers to independently-run rural health clinics, and black lung. Full footage of the 2017 ETRC panel featuring John Williams, …
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. …
Establishing the East Tennessee Research Corporation (ETRC) Read More »
Contributed by John E. Davis, November 2019. The summer before his final year at the Vanderbilt Law School and during the summer and fall after his graduation, John Kennedy worked for the Student Health Coalition in 1971 and 1972. He provided assistance to former miners who were seeking black lung benefits and disability payments from …
