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A passion for helping underserved communities

"I decided not to take the highest paying job, but I took the most rewarding job, which was working at a community health center"
Credit: St. Louis American
Dr. Lawrence Wells, was tested for COVID-19 by Affinia Healthcare LPN Cojuana Eastling and medical assistant Kierra Porter at a new testing site that opened on May 4, 2020 on the back parking lot of the Victor Roberts Building in the Fountain Park neighborhood. At left is Affinia Healthcare's Chief Operations Officer Dr. Kendra Holmes.

ST. LOUIS — 2020 was a year when everything changed, including how we communicate with each other in addition to coming together to create meaningful change in our communities.

For Dr. Kendra Holmes,Pharm. D., senior vice president and chief operating officer at Affinia Healthcare, it was the turning point in her career.

“Last year, I was a part of more than 40 panel discussions due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Holmes said. “The panel that stuck out to me the most was the NAACP panel with St. Louis County NAACP President John Bowman.”  

“St. Louis saw a rise in deaths in the Black community,” Holmes said.

The discussion’s main topic was the fact that COVID-19 testing wasn’t readily available in Black communities at the beginning of the pandemic. 

“The implications in the rising mortality rate for African Americans is that there were individuals who were unable to be tested in the early stages of the pandemic in the community,” Holmes said.

“This was really a turning point for me when I realized that we, Affinia Healthcare, needed to step up and provide the testing because we weren’t that in North St. Louis and North St. Louis County.” 

Affinia Healthcare tested 29,231 people for COVID-19 in North St. Louis County and St. Louis City from March 2020 to July 2021. 

“We knew the most vulnerable communities who would suffer the most,” Holmes said. “The infection rates and the mortality rate were the highest in the black communities in St. Louis.” 

Affinia Healthcare has served St. Louis since 1906. Its mission is to provide high-quality healthcare while promoting healthy lifestyles. The pandemic kicked the presence of the community healthcare center into high gear in 2020.

“It was a missed opportunity for us to not have testing immediately available for the communities that would be impacted the most by the virus,” Holmes said. “This is why we really stepped up at Affinia Healthcare because we have always been in the community.”

Holmes has recently switched gears to focus on the vaccination rate and increase the number of vaccines distributed in Black communities in St. Louis. 

“I am very concerned with the Delta variant that is emerging in the nation,” Holmes said. “It will hit areas, like the Black community, hard because we aren’t getting vaccinated.” 

The Delta variant of COVID-19 is emerging in Missouri, which has one of the highest infection rates for the virus in the nation. Holmes expounded on why people are suspicious of the vaccine.

“The reason for hesitancy around the vaccine is because there is a deep distrust in our community regarding healthcare from a historical standpoint,” Holmes said. 

The main tools health organizations have been using to ease fears surrounding the COVID-19 vaccines have been education and building trust in local communities.

“As a healthcare professional, I stress the importance of the vaccine to safeguard us from COVID-19, especially the Delta variant which has shown itself to be more aggressive,” Holmes said.

“In order to make this happen, we have to build trust within our communities so people can see the vaccine will help not do harm.”

The community healthcare center offered COVID-19 testing events, which built trust in different parts of St. Louis. So far, Affinia Healthcare has administered 16,250 vaccinations to city and county residents.

Additionally, Holmes leads the Diversion and Treatment Initiatives as a part of St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell’s Prosecutor-Led Diversion Program.

“What really connected me to the mission of the program is that I was working at a community health center, where I coordinated medication reports for the St. Louis City and St. Louis County jails for individuals who are incarcerated who are actually my patients,” Holmes said. 

Holmes has been a pharmacist for 20 years and has seen hundreds of patients. With her civic-minded career goals, joining the Prosecutor-Led Diversion team made sense to get more resources to where they were needed: people who were on the edge of entering the criminal justice system.

The diversion program is for low level, non-violent offenders who have behavioral health or substance abuse disorders. It gives them the resources they need to keep them out of the criminal justice system. The program has seen 1,154 individuals who meet the diversion program qualifications who have either successfully gone through it or are in progress to date.

The St. Louis native has worked with Prosecutor Bell’s diversion team for two years, but her reason for why she works with the team is personal. 

“This is an issue that disproportionately affects Black men; I have a Black son,” Holmes said. “This is personal to me in the sense that I care about our community. I, along with the projects I am a part of and partners I work with, am trying to give Black people, specifically black men, the opportunity to succeed.”

When asked why she chose to work for Affinia Healthcare, which was originally called Grace Hill Health Centers, Holmes talked about her motivations for being in the healthcare industry.

“I have always had a passion for helping underserved communities,” Holmes said. 

In 2003, Holmes started her career at Affinia Healthcare as a staff pharmacist.  Within two years, she was promoted to director of pharmacy services. Holmes was promoted to director of pharmacy and radiology services in 2012.  Two years later, she was again promoted to vice president of clinical integration and ancillary services.  In July 2015, she was named vice president/COO.

 “As a St. Louis native who has seen firsthand the disparity that exists as far as health, education, employment, economic and health opportunity in St. Louis for African Americans, I decided not to take the highest paying job, but I took the most rewarding job, which was working at a community health center.”

The St. Louis American Foundation's 21st Annual Salute to Excellence in Health Care Awards will be celebrated as a free virtual event at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 29. For additional details and registration, please visit givebutter.com/2021HealthSalute.

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