Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Welcomes Health Equity Program Manager

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — As part of our commitment to enhancing lives, maximizing function, inspiring hope and promoting dignity and well-being, Good Shepherd Rehabilitation recently welcomed Riley Scepansky in a newly created role: Health Equity Program Manager.

Health equity has become increasingly important within health-care organizations as we strive to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to attain their highest level of health, regardless of their background.  Health equity specialists like Riley focus on removing the differences in health outcomes that are due to factors like poverty, discrimination, education, access to care and home environment.

“Good Shepherd has such a strong reputation, and the fact that they’ve created this role is one example of their commitment to patients and the community,” she said.

In her role, Riley works with teams across Good Shepherd to:

• Design, implement and evaluate programs to reduce disparities in underserved communities.
• Collect and analyze socioeconomic data (such as race, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation and gender identity) to measure health disparities and how our efforts change them.
• Work health-equity principles into clinical practice and improve patient care for marginalized groups.
• Provide education on various health equity topics as needed.

Riley comes to Good Shepherd from Tower Health in Reading, where she served as a Certified Community Health Worker. She earned her Master’s of Community Health and Prevention Science from the University of Cincinnati and her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Alvernia University.