2022 Dr. Rice C. Leach Public Health Hero winners: Dr. Sharon Walsh and Lexington Battalion Chief Marc Bramlage

The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department’s Board of Health has selected Dr. Sharon Walsh and Lexington Battalion Chief Marc Bramlage as the 2022 Dr. Rice C. Leach Public Health Hero award winners. The award is given annually to individuals who have demonstrated their dedication to improving the health of Lexington residents. The winners are announced each April as part of National Public Health Week (April 4-10, 2022).

Sharon Walsh

Dr. Sharon Walsh on August 7, 2019. Photo by Pete Comparoni | UKphoto

Sharon Walsh, Ph.D., is a professor of Behavioral Science, Psychiatry, Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences in the Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy at the University of Kentucky and director of the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research. Dr. Walsh is the principal investigator on the landmark $87 million HEALing Communities Study, the largest grant ever received by UK, to reduce opioid overdose deaths.

Through her leadership of almost 100 HCS interdisciplinary team members (25 faculty, 70 staff), HCS has established partnerships with 27 behavioral, healthcare and 8 criminal justice agencies in Fayette County over the past year to implement an integrated set of evidence-based practices to combat the opioid epidemic. Fourteen new staff have been embedded in Fayette County agencies to expand capacity for medication treatment for opioid use disorder (MOUD), link and retain clients on MOUD, and have provided overdose education and distributed more than 4,600 naloxone units.

“I’m honored to receive the award created in memory of Rice C. Leach, a true public health hero committed to improving the health and well-being of Lexingtonians and all Kentuckians,” Walsh said. “Kentucky was one of the first and is among the states hardest hit by the nation’s opioid crisis. Combating this epidemic must happen in the communities where affected people live. The HEALing Communities Study team, in partnership with many state and community partners, is implementing evidence-based practices and removing barriers to care and recovery to turn the tide on the impact of opioid use in the Commonwealth and become a national model for reducing opioid overdose deaths.”

Marc Bramlage

Battalion Chief Marc Bramlage with the Lexington Fire Department March 2022. Photo by Frank Handshoe

As Battalion Chief for Emergency Medical Services, Marc Bramlage has led his outstanding team through a variety of major and ongoing challenges, including fire and rescue, patient transport and overdose response, as well as many other problems first responders help solve every day.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Chief Bramlage has been in frequent and regular contact with the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department to ensure the teams work together to maximize response efforts. Without the support of Chief Bramlage and his team, LFCHD would not have had the resources necessary to conduct the large number of COVID-19 vaccination clinics held over the past 15 months. Thanks to the direct and continuing support of Chief Marc Bramlage, Fayette County has consistently enjoyed one of the highest vaccination rates in the state of Kentucky.

“It is an honor to be awarded for doing a job you love,” Bramlage said. “This award is an indication of the strong bond the Lexington Fire Department made with the health department to help protect the people of this community.”

Both winners will be recognized at the April 11 Board of Health meeting, at 5:45 p.m. at 650 Newtown Pike. They will also be honored at 6 p.m. April 14 by Mayor Linda Gorton at a Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council meeting.

Previously known as the Public Health Hero Award, the Board of Health renamed the award in 2016 in memory of the late Dr. Rice C. Leach, Lexington’s former Commissioner of Health who spent more than 50 years as a public health physician. Leach died April 1, 2016.