Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. The dangers of smoking are well-known. Smokers are more likely to die from lung cancer, heart disease, lung disease and other deadly illnesses, not to mention the health risks caused by secondhand smoke exposure or the impacts to newborns caused by smoking among pregnant women. Yet smoking still persists—for example, more than 1 in 5 Hoosiers currently smoke—in large part due to the addictive effects of nicotine. More than two-thirds of smokers want to quit, but nicotine keeps smokers smoking and consuming the other carcinogens and toxicants for the long term. What if it was […]

Ellen Quigley is the Vice President of Programs at the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation An Interview with Dr. Krista Brucker, Emergency Room Physician and Co-founder, Project POINT Background In 2016, the Richard M. Foundation awarded a $700,000 grant to support the expansion of an innovative program called Project POINT (Planned Outreach, Intervention, Naloxone and Treatment) at Eskenazi Hospital to tackle the devastating impact of the opioid crisis. This holistic program serves individuals who are brought into the emergency room (ER) after an overdose by connecting them to treatment and the other services they need to rebuild their lives. Dr. Krista Brucker, who helped launch Project POINT in 2015, shared insights […]