WS Chronicle

(pictured above: Rev. Odell Cleveland (left) with Robert Wineburg.)

Two Greensboro College visiting scholars are being honored by the N.C. Medical Society for their contributions to North Carolina public health.

Robert Wineburg, Visiting Scholar of Religion and Community Service, and the Rev. Odell Cleveland, Adjunct Professor of Religion and Community Ministry, will receive the N.C. Medical Society’s John Huske Anderson Award on Oct. 24 in Greensboro. Named for the society’s former longtime legal advisor, the annual award honors North Carolina laypeople “whose contributions have had a positive impact on the medical profession and the public health.”

The award recognizes the work the two men did with the Medical Society’s Work Group on Medicaid Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and conceptualizing social-support systems using the faith community.

ACOs are partnerships between health-care providers and hospitals that are intended under the U.S. Affordable Care Act to reduce health-care costs by coordinating efforts among different parts of the health-care system. After savings reach a certain point, they are split between the government and the ACO.

According to figures released Sept. 16 by the government, the Cone Health-backed local ACO, Triad Healthcare Network, ranked in the top five among 243 ACOs nationally for cost savings in 2013, saving $21.51 million and earning $10.54 million back from the government.

Wineburg and Cleveland are at Greensboro College this year to help build and consolidate the college’s service role in the context of its affiliation with the United Methodist Church.

As part of that effort, they plan a conference on faith groups and behavioral-health issues such as depression, to be held on campus in April.

Wineburg is Jefferson Pilot Excellence Professor of Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He has studied the involvement of faith groups in local community service delivery for 30 years.

Cleveland is chief administrative officer at Mount Zion Baptist Church, one of Greensboro’s largest congregations. Before joining Mount Zion, he was co-founder, president and CEO of the Welfare Reform Liaison Project, a nonprofit started in 1997 to assist welfare recipients in finding jobs.

Wineburg worked with Cleveland on his nonprofit’s mission, and the two wrote about their experience in the 2010 book “Pracademics and Community Change: A True Story of Nonprofit Development and Social Entrepreneurship During Welfare Reform.”