Here are the winners in the 2013 Health Care Heroes Community Achievement category.

COMMUNITY ACHIEVEMENT-Honors an individual or team who successfully implemented a program addressing a problem in health care administration or delivery.

Dan Johnson
TITLE: Founder and board chairman
ORGANIZATION: ACCESS of Wilmington
WHAT THE NOMINATOR SAID: “Dan Johnson is developer of ACCESS and developed the concepts of Accessible Recreation Day and Accessible Golf of Wilmington. He is also on the board of National Alliance for Accessible Golf and
currently teaches at the University of North Carolina Wilmington as an associate professor of therapeutic recreation.
Dan is the chair of Miracle Field, which provides accessible facilities (ball field and playground) for people of all ages and abilities to have physical activity, participate in team sports and do things that so many of us take for granted.
Children and adults in wheelchairs can now play baseball. Families of kids with physical or cognitive disabilities can now be team parents or cheer their sons and daughters on from the stands.
… As a physical therapist and citizen of our community, I am so grateful to Dan for his leadership, time, energy and personal sacrifice to make The Miracle Field a reality this year.”
– Leslie Keller, New Hanover Regional Medical Center administrator of rehab services

J’nelle Ruscetti
TITLE: Physician assistant   
ORGANIZATION: Wilmington Health
WHAT THE NOMINATOR SAID: “J’nelle has long had a passion for children’s health and felt in her practice of medicine, she could do more to combat the growing epidemic of childhood obesity.
J’nelle worked on her own time and with her own money to develop a family fitness program through her office. This eight-week program is evidence based and has been proven to work to reverse obesity in children and their parents.
… This work has all been above and beyond her routine medical practice schedule. J’nelle is also a mother of four active children who practices what she preaches in her home and with the activities of her children, educating sports teams, teachers and others she interacts with that there is something we can do about childhood obesity.”
– Paula Bruner, Wilmington Health associate director of primary care

Pam Taylor
TITLE: Physician
ORGANIZATION: Wilmington Health
WHAT THE NOMINATOR SAID: “Pediatrician Pam Taylor works with children and their families on a daily basis. She recognized a need in our community to make the lives of children placed in foster care better.
… In 2012, Pam responded to the opportunity to collaborate with the North Carolina Pediatric Society in the development of a program to make a difference in the lives of children in foster care in New Hanover County … She set forth to ensure that foster children receive optimal health care utilizing the medical home model.
She spent much time on the local and state level, along with others on her committee, designing a plan that would not only involve more time and effort on her part but would integrate multiple disciplines involved in care so that children are seen earlier and more frequently during their time in foster care.
… Pam’s remarkable passion, energy and commitment for this project and the foster children of New Hanover County are infectious to others. Her willingness to work hard to make the program a reality helps her to stand out as an example to others.”
– Carol Bryant, Wilmington Health foster care coordinator