In 2024, the ACHF TKoster’s Charitable Innovative Health Care Award helped provide crucial financial funding for University Health Services (UHS) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to implement a peer-led pilot program aimed at expanding culturally-concordant care and counteracting structural inequities in campus healthcare. The program, “Care Beyond Our Walls: Peer-led Culturally-Concordant Health and Wellness Education for Historically-Marginalized Students,” is led by Shaina Murtaugh, Associate Director of Gynecology and Specialty Clinics and Physician Assistant, Gynecology, at UHS.
The ACHF award supported the recruitment, comprehensive training, and continuous support (via twice-monthly meetings and one-on-one development) for five peer educators from historically oppressed student communities. Thanks to this support, the educators successfully assessed their communities’ health needs and created effective, community-centered health and wellness education sessions, receiving overwhelmingly positive peer feedback.
While the program faced challenges—including limited reach, scheduling constraints, and underestimated facilitator labor—funding from ACHF enabled the pilot to meet its core objectives, demonstrating that with sustained institutional support and dedicated ACHF funding, this culturally-concordant model can significantly improve equitable access to campus health services.
About this Award
The TKoster’s Charitable Innovative Health Care Award was established by Teresa Koster to support efforts to provide quality health care for students. The purpose of the fund is to provide financial support to student health centers and their staff for the development of innovative practices that improve access to quality health care for students.
Want to support our efforts to promote well-being on campus? Your donations to the ACHF General Fund enable us to offer this award and fund other projects that impact campuses’ ability to promote student well-being.
