Ed Baker, director of the Center for Health Policy, and David Schmitz, chief rural officer and program director of Rural Training Tracks at the Family Medicine Residency of Idaho and Baker’s partner in the Community Apgar Program (CAP), were awarded outstanding partner at the 2016 National Rural Recruitment and Retention Network (3RNet) annual conference in Nashville, Tennessee.
The award was in recognition of Baker and Schmitz’s support for 3RNet and their mission to serve the recruitment and retention needs of rural and underserved communities throughout the nation. 3RNet has partnered with Baker and Schmitz in their research projects in Iowa and Australia by providing technical expertise in online educational material development for CAP.
Baker is the director and senior researcher of the Center for Health Policy and a professor for the School of Allied Health Sciences Department of Community and Environmental Health. Baker earned his PhD in Educational Psychology from Temple University in 1994. He has over 20 years of experience in healthcare working with hospitals, physicians, integrated delivery systems, biotech pharmaceutical companies and academic institutions. Baker’s research interests include healthcare policy, rural workforce planning, health care financing, and health system performance improvement.
Schmitz is an affiliate faculty and senior researcher for the Center for Health Policy and chief rural officer and program director of Rural Training Tracks at the Family Medicine Residency of Idaho. Upon graduation from the State University of New York at Buffalo, Schmitz completed his residency at Family Medicine Residency of Idaho in 1999. After six years practicing as a rural family physician, he returned to join the residency as faculty in 2005. While practicing in northern Idaho, he served as chief of staff of Benewah Community Hospital as well as co-founder and medical director of the St. Maries Volunteer Community Clinic. Schmitz is a current board member of both the Idaho Academy of Family Physicians and the Idaho Medical Association.
Read more about Baker and Schmitz’s work here.
