Join 90.5 WESA health reporter Sarah Boden and a panel of experts as they discuss the trajectory of the coronavirus pandemic in western Pennsylvania right here on April 7 at 7 p.m.
Panelists include Dr. Amy Crawford-Faucher, a family medicine doctor with Allegheny Health Network; Dr. Kevin McCarthy, a COVID-19 variant researcher and professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at Pitt; and Elaine Jenkins, RN, a nurse with over 40 years of experience, COVID-19 survivor and member of the PA Council on Aging.
Meet the Panelists:
Dr. Amy Crawford-Faucher
Crawford-Faucher is the Vice Chair for Allegheny Health Network’s Primary Care Institute and the Department of Family Medicine. Previously she served 5 years as the Program Director for AHN’s Forbes Family Medicine residency program. She is also vice chair of Physician Partners of Western PA, a clinically integrated network. Originally from rural Upstate New York, she graduated from Cornell University and the Medical College of Pennsylvania (now Drexel University), and completed residency and fellowship through Virginia Commonwealth University. She has provided comprehensive family medicine, including inpatient, outpatient, and maternity care, throughout most of her career. Amy is currently the immediate past president of the non-profit Family Medicine Education Consortium and was a long-time contributing editor for American Family Physician. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and in 2012 received the Exemplary Teaching Award from the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians.
She has played a leading role in AHN’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, using her comprehensive approach to primary care to facilitate AHN’s transition to telemedicine visits, establish the outpatient COVID testing strategy, coordinate outreach to senior citizen high-rise residences in marginalized communities, and manage the employee health department’s response to COVID.
Elaine Jenkins, RN
Elaine B. Jenkins RN, PN, CCN is a Licensed Professional Registered Nurse, Commissioned Parish Nurse and also Certified Community Nurse. Elaine is a patient advocate and well qualified life coach.
While working as a Pharmaceutical representative for close to 30 years, she attained the highest position as a Senior Executive Professional Sales Representative -Presidents Circle, for Johnson and Johnson Corporation, which very few people attain this position. She utilized her nursing skills to become a high achiever in the corporation and was awarded the number one sales position in the nation for 2 years in a row as well as many other achievements.
She then became an independent nurse contractor serving as a facilitator for Diabetes Support groups as well as a leader on the Immunization Team for American Healthcare Group during her retirement.
Kevin McCarthy, Ph.D.
Kevin McCarthy, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh Center for Vaccine Research. McCarthy is a virologist who studies co-evolution of viruses and their hosts by applying evolutionary principles in combination with molecular and structural approaches. His recent paper on the role of recurrent deletions in the novel coronavirus’s spike protein was recently published in Science.
McCarthy received his Ph.D. from Harvard University and trained as a postdoctoral fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital. He moved to Pittsburgh to start his own lab at the Center for Vaccine Research in January 2021.
