Delta Omega Society, Omicron Chapter: Wolk Award

Delta Omega, Omicron Chapter
Wolk Award

The Abraham L. Wolk Distinguished Service Award in Public Health recognizes the efforts of Southwestern Pennsylvania residents unaffilliated with GSPH, who have dedicated their lives to the practice of public health or to the advancement of the field. It was established in memory of the late Pittsburgh City Councilman Abraham Wolk, in honor of his tireless efforts to improve the health of people living and working in the Pittsburgh area.

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Wolk Award Recipients

2007 Alice Bell
Alice Bell, MSW, is a project coordinator with Prevention Point Pittsburgh, Allegheny County’s needle exchange program. In 2002, she launched Prevention Point Pittsburgh’s Overdose Prevention Project, a program to address the increasing number of deaths from drug overdose in Allegheny County. An innovative aspect of the project began in 2005, when the Allegheny County Board of Health authorized the Overdose Prevention Program to prescribe and distribute Narcan to Prevention Point Pittsburgh participants. Ms. Bell recruited physicians to volunteer their time to prescribe and distribute Narcan to injection drug users at the Prevention Point Pittsburgh needle exchange site. The Overdose Prevention Project, under Ms. Bell’s leadership, has trained more than 3,000 people. Sixty people have received Narcan in this newest phase of the project and 11 of these have reported that they used the Narcan to reverse an overdose and, very likely, save a life. Ms. Bell continues to broaden the range of venues at which the overdose training classes are offered. Ms. Bell also developed a prevention training program for drug users, administering the program at the Allegheny County Jail. The training alerted inmates of the special risk associated with a return to opiate use following release.

2006 Anthony Dixon
Mr. Dixon is founder of The Seven Project, Inc, Pittsburgh's first African American-founded 601(c)(3) AIDS service organization. The project emerged from Mr. Dixon's grief following the AIDS-related death of his brother James in 1993. Beginning as a grassroots effort involving family caregiver support groups hosted by Covenant Church, the project was awarded federal nonprofit status in 1999. Through Mr. Dixon's leadership, the program launched a series of workshops addressing myths and stigmas of the disease and offering prevention strategies to six high-risk communities identified by the Allegheny County Health Department. Mr. Dixon also established the annual Miss Seven Pageant, which provides community service awards to outstanding HIV/AIDS providers, educators, and researchers. In 1998, in memory of his deceased brother, he initiated the James E. Dixon Humanitarian Award for HIV Prevention, HIV Education, and HIV/AIDS Treatment. Mr. Dixon has designated the organization he founded, the Seven Project, to receive the charitable donation which accompanies the Wolk Award.

2005 Theresa Chalich
A registered nurse, Ms. Chalich graduated from Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in Pittsburgh. Seeking knowledge and skills that would enable her to focus on population-based care, Ms. Chalich pursued a Master of Public Health from the Graduate School of Public Health. Her thesis research on the impact of the decline of the steel industry on the health of families of steel workers led her to help found Rainbow Kitchen Community Services, a soup kitchen in Homestead, PA, one of the communities hardest hit by the loss of steel jobs. This grew to become the Rainbow Health Center, which combined clinic services, health education and community outreach. Currently, Ms. Chalich devotes her efforts to Bethlehem Haven, a shelter for homeless women in Pittsburgh, and to public advocacy of women’s health and support service programs. In keeping with her work, she has designated PUSH (Pennsylvanians United for Single-Payer Healthcare) as the recipient of the charitable donation that accompanies the Wolk Award.

1999 Abraham L.Wolk (posthumously) Abraham L. Wolk was an early proponent of smoke control programs for the city of Pittsburgh. He was instrumental in the creation of an Industrial Health Center, and in the establishment of the Allegheny County Health Department and the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

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Wolk Award Recipients
2007	Alice Bell	Alice Bell, MSW, is a project coordinator with Prevention Point Pittsburgh, Allegheny County’s needle exchange program. In 2002, she launched Prevention Point Pittsburgh’s Overdose Prevention Project, a program to address the increasing number of deaths from drug overdose in Allegheny County. An innovative aspect of the project began in 2005, when the Allegheny County Board of Health authorized the Overdose Prevention Program to prescribe and distribute Narcan to Prevention Point Pittsburgh participants. Ms. Bell recruited physicians to volunteer their time to prescribe and distribute Narcan to injection drug users at the Prevention Point Pittsburgh needle exchange site. The Overdose Prevention Project, under Ms. Bell’s leadership, has trained more than 3,000 people. Sixty people have received Narcan in this newest phase of the project and 11 of these have reported that they used the Narcan to reverse an overdose and, very likely, save a life. Ms. Bell continues to broaden the range of venues at which the overdose training classes are offered. Ms. Bell also developed a prevention training program for drug users, administering the program at the Allegheny County Jail. The training alerted inmates of the special risk associated with a return to opiate use following release.
2006	Anthony Dixon	Mr. Dixon is founder of The Seven Project, Inc, Pittsburgh's first African American-founded 601(c)(3) AIDS service organization. The project emerged from Mr. Dixon's grief following the AIDS-related death of his brother James in 1993. Beginning as a grassroots effort involving family caregiver support groups hosted by Covenant Church, the project was awarded federal nonprofit status in 1999. Through Mr. Dixon's leadership, the program launched a series of workshops addressing myths and stigmas of the disease and offering prevention strategies to six high-risk communities identified by the Allegheny County Health Department. Mr. Dixon also established the annual Miss Seven Pageant, which provides community service awards to outstanding HIV/AIDS providers, educators, and researchers. In 1998, in memory of his deceased brother, he initiated the James E. Dixon Humanitarian Award for HIV Prevention, HIV Education, and HIV/AIDS Treatment. Mr. Dixon has designated the organization he founded, the Seven Project, to receive the charitable donation which accompanies the Wolk Award.
2005	Theresa Chalich	A registered nurse, Ms. Chalich graduated from Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in Pittsburgh. Seeking knowledge and skills that would enable her to focus on population-based care, Ms. Chalich pursued a Master of Public Health from the Graduate School of Public Health. Her thesis research on the impact of the decline of the steel industry on the health of families of steel workers led her to help found Rainbow Kitchen Community Services, a soup kitchen in Homestead, PA, one of the communities hardest hit by the loss of steel jobs. This grew to become the Rainbow Health Center, which combined clinic services, health education and community outreach. Currently, Ms. Chalich devotes her efforts to Bethlehem Haven, a shelter for homeless women in Pittsburgh, and to public advocacy of women’s health and support service programs. In keeping with her work, she has designated PUSH (Pennsylvanians United for Single-Payer Healthcare) as the recipient of the charitable donation that accompanies the Wolk Award.
1999	Abraham L.Wolk (posthumously)	Abraham L. Wolk was an early proponent of smoke control programs for the city of Pittsburgh. He was instrumental in the creation of an Industrial Health Center, and in the establishment of the Allegheny County Health Department and the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.