The Wright Center for Community Health’s art showcased in national traveling gallery

Several pieces of art representing The Wright Center’s community spirit and dedication to healthcare are included in the National Association of Community Health Centers’ (NACHC) traveling art gallery, “Health for All: Community Health Centers Providing Primary Care Where It Matters Most.”

NACHC’s gallery features an array of paintings, photographs, digital illustrations and mixed-media pieces submitted by community health centers from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.

The Wright Center’s five fiberglass America250PA Liberty Bells – placed in Carbondale, Honesdale, Jermyn, Tunkhannock, and Wilkes-Barre after being hand-painted by Allison LaRussa, associate vice president of health and wellness at The Wright Center, to reflect each community’s unique history – were selected for the traveling art gallery.

The Pennsylvania Commission for the United States Semiquincentennial, commonly known as America250PA, is working to place at least one fiberglass bell in each of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.

Additionally, two art pieces completed by staff, resident and fellow physicians and board members at The Wright Center, with the help of community partner Heart 2 Art, were selected to be displayed in NACHC’s traveling art gallery. One of the murals highlights The Wright Center’s commitment to fostering a trauma-informed culture. The other celebrates the enterprise’s longstanding commitment to training and retaining family medicine physicians in underserved communities.

“Every community has a story to tell, and these works of art help us share ours,” said Brian Ebersole, senior vice president of strategic enterprise and ecosystem development at The Wright Center. “The Liberty Bells celebrate the history and character of the communities we are privileged to serve, while our murals tell stories about healing, resilience, education and our shared commitment to making a difference. Seeing this artwork recognized alongside work from community health centers across the country is a meaningful reminder that healthcare is about much more than what happens inside an exam room. It is about people, communities and the connections that help us all thrive.”

The gallery debuted at NACHC’s Community Health Conference in Las Vegas on Aug. 16-18. NACHC’s gallery will also be on display at its 2027 Policies & Issues Forum in Washington, D.C., in February and at upcoming HLTH Inc. events, including HLTH USA 2026 scheduled for November in Las Vegas.

Established in 1971, NACHC serves as the leading national advocacy organization for community-based health centers. NACHC works to expand access to affordable, high-quality and culturally competent primary care for underserved populations across the United States.

The Wright Center is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2026. Founded in 1976, The Wright Centers for Community Health, Graduate Medical Education and Patient & Community Engagement are a physician-led, community-owned nonprofit enterprise and a cornerstone of healthcare in the region. The enterprise employs nearly 680 professionals – including nearly 200 resident and fellow physicians – and trains more than 200 interprofessional healthcare learners each year.

In fiscal year 2025-26, The Wright Center served more than 39,000 unique patients across all care settings in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wayne and Wyoming counties. As a nonprofit Federally Qualified Health Center and safety-net provider, The Wright Center serves all patients, from pediatrics to geriatrics. Learn more at TheWrightCenter.org or call 570-230-0019.

The Dime Bank Announces Contest

The Dime Bank and Kasasa, an award-winning financial technology and marketing provider, announce a national and local contest offering the chance to win cash prizes to help people connect this holiday season. Local contestants can win $1,000.00 from The Dime Bank and can also submit their entry to the national contest where one grand prize winner will receive $25,000.00 and two runners-up will receive $10,000.00.

Kasasa is partnering with local community banks and credit unions across the country as an extension of their “These Are My People” contest. To enter The Dime Bank’s local contest, people can submit a photo or video with a short explanation of why they want to win to www.winwithkasasa.com/thedimebank. Just by entering, local contestants can win $100.00 gift cards. They can also share their post on social channels using the hashtags #TheseAreMyPeople, #thedimebank, #contest, and #Kasasa to encourage friends to enter to win.

Kasasa’s “These Are My People” contest provides community members the opportunity to share their story and how the prize money will help them connect with their loved ones, from buying flights to visit hometown friends not seen since the pandemic started, to helping a local small business that is struggling with rising costs, or to make a final mortgage payment ahead of retirement for grandparents.

“We believe your money should do more for you and your community. This holiday season, we’re putting our money where our mouth is and giving back to help people spend time with their loved ones and strengthen their connections,” said Gabe Krajicek, CEO of Kasasa. “We’re helping community banks and credit unions do what they do best, give back to their communities.”

The contest runs from November 7 – December 7. Local winners will be announced on December 10 and receive the $1,000.00 cash prize sponsored by The Dime Bank. Local contestants can also visit kasasacontest.com to submit their entry to win the national contest, sponsored by Kasasa and in partnership with NBCUniversal, which will award one winner with $25,000.00 and two winners with $10,000.00. National winners will be selected by a Kasasa panel of judges and be announced on December 19.

Wayne Bank’s Lancia Earns National Certification

Kristen E. Lancia, Assistant Vice President and Marketing Officer for Wayne Bank, was recently awarded the Certified Financial Marketing Professional (“CFMP”) certification from the American Bankers Association (“ABA”). 

President and Chief Executive Officer of Wayne Bank, Lewis J. Critelli, noted, “Earning the CFMP certification validates Kristen’s experience and depth of education in the bank marketing arena. We are so pleased to congratulate her on this admirable achievement.”

The CFMP certification is awarded to individuals who demonstrate excellence in the field of financial services marketing. To qualify for the CFMP certification, individuals must have certain levels of experience and education in the financial services marketing profession, pass an exam, and agree to abide by a code of ethics. The CFMP exam covers many areas including financial principles, laws and regulations, market research, characteristics of marketing plans, and marketing components.

Kristen began her career with Wayne Bank in 2012 and currently serves as the Bank’s Assistant Vice President and Marketing Officer. She earned a B.S. in Design & Merchandising with a Writing Concentration from Drexel University and specializes in digital marketing. Kristen resides in Scranton with her husband, Ralph, and enjoys cooking, gardening, and spending time outdoors.

McLane National Hiring Day

Join us for our National CDL-A Driver & Warehouse hiring event at a McLane center near you.

⚊ 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 ⚊
Friday, July 16th
9:00am – 6:00pm

RSVP HERE

Why Join McLane?
Top Industry Pay
Sign On Bonuses (where available)
Paid Holiday & Vacation Time
Benefits like Medical, Dental, Vision, and More
401(k) with Annual Company Match
Stable, successful company serving America’s Favorite Brands

McLane is one of the largest and most stable supply chain services leaders in the United States, delivering grocery and foodservice solutions for convenience stores, mass merchants, drug stores, and chain restaurants for more than 125 years.

Geisinger Runner-Up in National AI Health Outcomes Challenge

Geisinger has been named runner-up out of more than 300 entries in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Artificial Intelligence Health Outcomes Challenge.

Geisinger partnered with Medial EarlySign, a leader in machine learning-based solutions to aid in early detection and prevention of high-burden diseases, to use artificial intelligence (AI) to predict unplanned hospital admissions, readmissions occurring soon after hospital discharge, healthcare-associated complications, and mortality. The two entities collaborated to develop models that predict the risk of these outcomes using Medicare administrative claims data and created novel visualizations to explain the results in a clinician-friendly manner, a key component of AI implementation.

“We are honored to be recognized as a national leader in using artificial intelligence to improve health outcomes,” said David Vawdrey, Geisinger’s chief data informatics officer. “The opportunity to participate in the CMS competition has significantly broadened our capabilities to design and implement predictive models, which will ultimately help prevent unnecessary hospitalizations and complications and reduce healthcare costs.” 

Geisinger and EarlySign’s shared vision of innovation and their collective focus on patient-centered care garnered recognition by CMS for “consistent strong performance across all competition elements while generating the best prediction accuracy results.” Their ability to successfully communicate predictions to clinicians, known as AI explainability, was a key factor in their selection as runner-up.

“This achievement demonstrates the synergistic relationship Geisinger and EarlySign have in the journey to provide better care for patients,” said Ori Geva, co-founder and chief executive officer of Medial EarlySign. “This recognition is another validation that successful clinical AI solutions require deep understanding of clinical workflow, and expertise in clinical machine learning and clinical data.”

The CMS AI Health Outcomes Challenge launched in 2019 with more than 300 entities proposing AI solutions for predicting patient health outcomes. Submissions aimed to forecast a variety of outcomes, including unplanned admissions related to heart failure, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and various other high-risk conditions; and adverse events such as hospital-acquired infections, sepsis, and respiratory failure.

Geisinger was chosen as one of seven finalists in November 2020. To select the winner and runner-up, CMS conducted a rigorous evaluation process, supported by a team of AI scientists. Clinicians from the American Academy of Family Physicians, a CMS partner in the AI Challenge, reviewed and scored the models’ explainability. Submissions were reviewed and winners selected by a panel of CMS senior leadership. For more information on Geisinger’s work with artificial intelligence and machine learning, visit geisinger.org/innovation-steele-institute/innovative-partners/ai-and-deep-learning-lab.

Marywood University’s Society of Collegiate Journalists Chapter Wins Multiple Awards at National Contest

Marywood University’s Chapter of the Society for Collegiate Journalists (SCJ) recently won multiple first, second, third, and honorable mention awards at the Society for Collegiate Journalists National 2021 Contest.

Thomas Kerrigan, Clarks Green, Pa., won first place in the category of Feature Photography for his photo, “Goat Yoga;” and Emily Scholl, Quakertown, Pa., Jenny Ngyuen, Scranton, Pa., and Michael Basta won first place for their Multimedia Series titled, “Media That Matters.”

Second Place was awarded to The Wood Word, Marywood University’s online student-run newspaper; Sydney Toy, Carbondale, Pa., for her Enterprise Series titled, “Border Stories (Part 1 and II)”; Ellen Frantz, Camp Hill, Pa., and Briana Ryan, Shenandoah, Pa., for their Beat Reporting; and Eric Spivak, Scranton, Pa., for the Column or Commentary category.

Third place winners include Michael Basta, Pittston Pa., in the category of News Photography; Ellen Frantz for News Story; Brendan Murphy, Stroudsburg, Pa., for Sports News; Thomas Kerrigan, Ellen Frantz, and Marli Hoskins, Moosic, Pa., for the category of Television News Package; and the TV Marywood Staff (TVM) in the category of Television Commercial/PSA, for the “Stay Home: A Public Service Announcement.”

Honorable Mentions were awarded to The Wood Word in the category of Social Media Presence Overall Excellence; Jennifer Flynn, Cranford, N.J., in the category of Infographic for “Covid19 precautions and subsequent student survey sheds light on campus”; Emily Scholl, Justin Kucharski, Olyphant, Pa., and Megan Reynolds, Moscow, Pa., for Multimedia Series; Elizabeth Deroba, Bloomsburg, Pa., for Enterprise Series; and Emma Rushworth, Tunkhannock, Pa., Ellen Frantz, Erin Kane, Scranton, Pa., Richard Andrus, Honeoye Falls, N.Y., and Michael Basta, for Television News Package.

Senior SCJ Chapter students Briana Ryan, SCJ president, and current editor-in-chief at The Wood Word, received the Medal of Merit, and Certificates of Merit were presented to Autumn Bohner, Domsife, Pa., digital content lead designer at The Wood Word, and Justin Kucharski, SJ secretary and former editor-in-chief at The Wood Word.

The Society for Collegiate Journalists is the nation’s oldest honor society for student media leaders. Journalism is a foundation of democracy, and, to ensure its future, SCJ focuses on professional development at the collegiate level. SCJ advances ethical, accurate, and innovative collegiate journalism nationally and creates a strong network of advocates for First Amendment education. Lindsey Wotanis, Ph.D., president of the National SCJ Board, serves as advisor for the SCJ Chapter at Marywood University, which, to date, has inducted more than 100 students to its SCJ Chapter.

For additional information about Marywood University’s Multimedia Communication Department, please visit marywood.edu/commarts, or call the Office of Admissions at (570) 348-6234.

COLTS to Offer Free Rides to Bicyclists During National Bike to Work Week

The County of Lackawanna Transit System (COLTS) will offer free rides to bicyclists during National Bike  to Work Week, which falls this year from May 17 through May 23.

“We were very interested in offering an incentive for people to utilize multimodal transportation as a viable way to travel,” said Executive Director Bob Fiume. “Passengers who might have a long commute may want to try cycling to work and then taking a COLTS bus home.”

Each fixed route COLTS bus has an easy-to-use bike rack in the front that can hold two bicycles. Cyclists who want to use the bike racks just need to let the driver know they will be using them.
There are not bike racks on the shared ride vans or subcontracted vehicles that run the #11 Mid Valley Industrial Parks, #46 Mall Circulator, #80 Commerce Loop, #71 Evening City Circle North, and #72 Evening City Circle South routes.

If both bike spaces are occupied, a cyclist will have to wait for the next bus, as bikes cannot be transported inside the vehicle.

The American Heart Association Encourages Participation in National Wear Red Day

Wear Red Day is approaching fast. While we won’t have our traditional Red Dress Pins, bracelets and paper hearts this year, we are still encouraging and supporting companies and the community to support our mission by Wearing Red and spreading awareness about heart disease in women. 

How can you participate?!?

Take pictures! Lots of pictures! And post the on social media using #nepaheartwalk
Need fun ideas on how to support in a virtual world?

  • Turn your Zoom background Red and take a picture of the group while on a conference call.
  • Start your meetings with a Heart fact. Need inspiration, find more information on www.heart.org. 
  • Walking meetings! Why chat in your seat when you can take your meeting to the hallways….get those steps in!
  • For those of you who are in the office, conduct a dress down day. Or a camera off Zoom day!

Due to the pandemic, we are handling donations a little differently this year.

  • Have cash? Can it be converted into a check or an online donation?
  • Checks should be made out the AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION and mailed to the address below. Please indicate on a note enclosed that this money is for a Wear Red Day fundraiser in Northeast PA.

American Heart Association
P.O. Box 3049
Syracuse, NY 13202