Campus Community,

The University of Kentucky Board of Trustees met this past week for its annual retreat. Board members continue to be impressed by our collective efforts to advance this state in everything that we do.

But they are challenging us to do even more for Kentucky.

The goal they have set for us is to be the university that works with partners to do more for the health of our state than any other institution in the country.

It is an audacious and ambitious aspiration. It is a necessary one.

Kentucky’s economy is growing. There are jobs to be filled, new industries being recruited and existing ones expanding. But for our state to seize these opportunities, we need more skilled workers. We need to improve indices of health, such as cancer, heart disease and deaths from drug misuse.

We need to improve the overall health and well-being of our state.

Our university is in a distinctive position to do so. We’ve been asked to create and implement a plan — what we are calling Advancing Kentucky Together — working with partners across the Commonwealth to:

• Develop a specific growth strategy aimed at responding to the health-related workforce needs and shortages in Kentucky.
• Formally launch and expand statewide the Advancing Kentucky Together Network. This is an evolution of the academic health system’s affiliation model, applied not only to providers but to communities — their holistic health, workforce and education needs.
• Formalize, launch and expand deeper connections with communities, the university, UK HealthCare and UK’s Cooperative Extension Service.
• Develop the plan for a second Healthy Kentucky Research Building facility along with the talent necessary to support it.

You can read the Board’s resolution, adopted unanimously, here: CR 1 Advancing Kentucky Together.

This effort will involve every corner and college of our campus. It will compel us to extend our outreach, listening to — and engaging with — collaborators in hospitals, county courthouses and health departments, K-12 schools and civic organizations.

We can be our best for Kentucky by combining our efforts with partners to advance the health of our state.

We will be discussing in more detail this initiative and how our campus can engage in the weeks and months ahead. I am excited to be a member of a campus so willing to take on the biggest challenges to deliver the most important results for those we serve.

Thank you for being a community that seeks to advance this state in everything that we do.

Eli Capilouto
President