Bridging The Gap Between Clinic and Community, with Dr. Nancy Hardt

The Independent Life

Nancy Hardt is known for her dedicated commitment, demonstrated leadership, innovative approaches and proven impact on improving access to primary care health services and positive health outcomes of Florida’s at-risk populations. Her innovative approaches for positively impacting health outcomes in Florida include: data to action -- providing data in a format that is both engaging and focused through hotspot density maps that depict prevalence of adverse health conditions at the census block level; place-based interventions – taking the services to underserved populations; telling the story; and providing hands-on opportunities for students to personally experience serving at-risk populations. In Alachua County, she is a leader promoting productive community collaborations to provide services to people where they live and work. Hardt has built up community assets, enhanced organizational capacity, supported training programs and fostered system change that has led to lasting policy changes to improve health.

In retirement, she collaborates with community leaders to address local health equity issues, specifically early childhood brain development as an important social determinant of adult health. A health report card for Alachua County was developed by Dr. Hardt, and key indicators were mapped, resulting in numerous community actions to respond to highlighted health inequities. She spearheaded the University response, the Mobile Outreach Clinic, in which an interprofessional team meets the needs of the underserved in neighborhoods throughout Alachua County.

In six years of operation, more than 23,000 free health care visits were provided by community health professionals, faculty, and student volunteers. This effort resulted in a significant reduction in premature births and documented cases of child abuse and neglect.

She co-founded the innovative Intimate Partner Violence Clinic in conjunction with the College of Law, in which law and medical students learn together how best to meet the needs of victims. This clinic has over 99% success obtaining orders of protection on behalf of their clients, more than twice the rate of success in this community. The law-medicine partnership led to formation of Peace4Gainesville which seeks to reduce trauma and enhance resilience for children and adults.

She serves on the statewide AIDS Education Advisory team, The Healthy and Safe Schools Coalition, Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team and Pregnancy Associated Mortality Review Team. She was a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow serving as a health legislative advisor for U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. She has served in faculty positions at the universities of Florida, Kentucky, Memphis and Tennessee. Her undergraduate degree is from Sweet Briar College and her Medical Doctorate is from Loyola Stritch School of Medicine.

Resources:

• UF Health Disparities Research and Intervention Program: https://ufhealthdisparities.med.ufl.edu/about/health-disparities-info/
• Lars and the Real Girl: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0805564/
• Crip Camp: https://cripcamp.com/

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For More Information visit: Center For Independent Living of North Central Florida

• 352-378-7474 (Gainesville office)
• 352-368-3788 (Ocala Office)