be a large piece or some sort of art installation in almost every building and plaza. 14th Street in the Convention Center area has been revitalized just recently. The Denver Performing Arts Complex is one of the largest in the country. It takes up four city blocks. You can catch the symphony, the opera, the ballet. It really runs the gamut of popular music to classical. Then you can go a little farther down and hit the MCA. They're just very unique, very innovative with their shows. One of the nicest features about Lodo is the scale. Downtown Denver, in general, is extremely walkable. You look at where Cooters Field is, even to the Pepsi Center. Lodo is also very bike-friendly. We had one of the first electronic bike share systems. B-cycle stations, you can get on one, you can use it all over town. The heart of the city really is downtown. You have lots of bars, dance clubs, to places with really great views like the View House and nice rooftop decks like the Tavern. Denver's just great for those chef-driven, owned restaurant concepts that you really could pick from about 20 or 30. We have about 92 beers on tap here at Falling Rock. If you're interested in craft beer, Denver is definitely the destination of the United States. Stoic & Genuine is my newest restaurant in Denver Union Station. I love the renovation inside the station itself. It's an incredible transformation of that historic building. They really took care to bring back that era of what it looked like as a train station. So all light rail, buses, and even Amtrak will be coming out of there. It's our pathway to DIA, which takes you to the world. Some of the great places downtown are these historic hotels. One is the Brown Palace, the other is the Oxford Hotel. Also in our neighborhood is the Tattered Cover, which is one of the most amazing bookstores. You just have that really fun boutique feel when you walk in. It's just the volume that we have here that makes downtown Denver special. There's really a lot of activity for shopping, too. Larimer Square gives you that kind of feeling like Rockefeller Center might in New York. It's the only historic block that still has all the historic buildings. Larimer Square has some really fun little boutiques that I think you can get some unique gifts. I always take people to Rock Mount Ranch Wear. They're attributed with popularizing the snap front western shirt. From rock stars to ranchers, it's people who are looking for something quintessentially Colorado. If I had one word for downtown Denver, it'd be exciting. Active. Historic but emerging. Very funky, be very artsy. It's kind of the heart of this city. It's also a melting pot of our Denver culture. So if you're coming down here, you're getting a real sense of Denver. It's just a constant stream of unexpected surprises here. ♪♪♪ The downtown Denver area is unique. Here, there's just so much more to do. There's plenty of historic sites, brand new businesses, museums, and cultural events happening every month. Denver is an extremely active city. It's an excellent place to try just about anything. People have come down here both to live and to play. It's full of shops, restaurants. It's really made it an enjoyable place to hang out. The changes to the downtown area are amazing. From Larimer Square into 16th Street Mall. 16th Street Mall is a really diverse area. Each block is a little bit different and unique. I really enjoy the Denver Pavilions, which has an open-air concept that combines outdoorsy Colorado but also a very urban feel. There's the Hard Rock Cafe, Jazz at Jack's. You can also catch a film at the United Artists Theater. I stopped by the iHeart Denver store in the Denver Pavilions. You can find a real gambit. Gift items, fine art pieces, prints, t-shirts, and jewelry. All made by local designers, artists, or creative-minded businesses. Denver has a public art ordinance that allocates 1% of any new capital improvement project to public art. So when you're walking around downtown, you will see a large piece or some sort of art installation in almost every building and plaza. 14th Street in the Convention Center area has been revitalized just recently. The Denver Performing Arts Complex is one of the largest in the country. It takes up four city blocks. You can catch the symphony, the opera, the ballet. It really runs the gamut of popular music to classical. Then you can go a little farther down and hit the MCA. They're just very unique, very innovative with their shows. One of the nicest features about Lodo is the scale. Downtown Denver, in general, is extremely walkable. If you look at where Curtis Field is, even to the Pepsi Center. Lodo is also very bike-friendly. We've had one of the first electronic bike-share systems. B-cycle stations. You can get on one. You can use it all over town. The heart of the city really is downtown. You have lots of bars, dance clubs, to places with really great views like the View House. And nice rooftop decks like the Tavern. Denver's just great for those chef-driven, owned-restaurant concepts that you really could pick from about 20 or 30. We have about 92 beers on tap here at Falling Rock. If you're interested in craft beer, Denver is definitely the destination of the United States. Stoic & Genuine is my newest restaurant in Denver Union Station. I love the renovation inside the station itself. It's an incredible transformation of that historic building. They really took care to bring back that era of what it looked like as a train station. So all light rail, buses, and even Amtrak will be coming out of there. It's our pathway to DIA, which takes you to the world. Some of the great places downtown are these historic hotels. One is the Brown Palace. The other is the Oxford Hotel. Also in our neighborhood is the Tattered Cover, which is one of the most amazing bookstores. You just have that really fun, boutique feel when you walk in. It's just the volume that we have here that makes downtown Denver special. There's really a lot of activity for shopping, too. Larimer Square gives you that kind of feeling like Rockefeller Center might in New York. It's the only historic block that still has all the historic buildings. Larimer Square has some really fun little boutiques that I think you can get some unique gifts. I always take people to Rock Mount Ranch Wear. They're attributed with popularizing the snap front western shirt. From rock stars to ranchers, it's a mix. It's people who are looking for something quintessentially Colorado. If I had one word for downtown Denver, it would be exciting. Active. Historic but emerging. Very funky. Very artsy. It's kind of the heart of this city. It's also a melting pot of our Denver culture. So if you're coming down here, you're getting a real sense of Denver. It's just a constant stream of unexpected surprises here. Session on legislation. We are very excited to have two physician state legislators with us who have been very inspiring for me personally throughout my career. First, we'll have Dr. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, who is an Oregon state senator. And then we'll have Dr. Clarence Lamb, who is a Maryland state senator. And they'll both talk about some of the legislative efforts they've been doing over the last few months. And first, we'll have Dr. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward. She's a family physician and Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, Oregon, where I first met her when I was a medical student there. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago, her medical degree from the University of Massachusetts. And she did her family medicine residency at Oregon Health and Science University. She was appointed to the Oregon State Senate in 2011, was re-elected for the past three terms. She serves as the co-chair of the Joint Committee on Ways and Means and is also a member of the Joint Committee on Legislative Audits and the Joint Subcommittee on Capital Construction. Dr. Steiner Hayward, thank you so much for joining us today. It's a real pleasure. Thanks so much for inviting me. I thought I'd start by answering a question I get a lot, which is, why is it important to you to do budget? And I think the answer is relatively self-evident for any of us who've had to create family budgets, which is, show me your budget and I'll tell you your values. And one of the reasons I became a legislator is because as a primary care physician, I understand, as I believe most of you do, how matrixed things like health and education and the environment and transportation and transit and economic development and all these kinds of things are, and how we have to de-silo how we think about them a lot. I, as a budget person, I have the opportunity to think about how different parts of the budget intersect with each other and how we can use them to promote well-being for Oregonians across our state. And that can include ensuring that the Oregon Health Plan, which is our Medicaid program that many of you are probably familiar with because it's well-known, and in fact, it's one of the reasons I came to Oregon to do my residency, is well-funded and that we're able to cover all the kinds of services that I think all of us believe are important, in particularly focusing on preventive care and disease management, chronic disease management. But in addition, we have to be sure that kids get a great education because it's really hard to be healthy if you're not well-educated, and it's hard to be well-educated if you're not healthy. And it's hard to have a sustainable economy if you don't have a healthy, well-educated workforce, right? So I look at things like housing, which is clearly a social determinant of health, and think, how do we make sure that Oregon has enough affordable housing, that every Oregonian has a safe, affordable place to live that's reasonably proximate to where they go to work or where they go to school, and that families aren't forced to move every 27 seconds in order to stay in affordable housing, which is incredibly disruptive for families in general and for children in particular. And we know that frequent moves and the stress associated with that really disrupt kids' education and can lead to long-term impact through an adverse childhood experience, which we know have long-term implications for people's health. One example of some of the work that I've done in moving stuff upstream is, in 2019, I led a coalition to pass what is a first-in-the-nation program to offer home visits to every family with a new baby in the state. There's a model called Family Connect. Some of you may be familiar with it. It was developed at Duke. That is not one of the more extensive things, like Nurse-Family Partnership, which is a great program but targeted at a very specific audience and very intensive. But this is a simple thing where a trained public health nurse goes in and meets moms in the hospital after they have a baby and offers them for free, it's covered by Medicaid or by their insurance because we put an insurance mandate into the law as well, a home visit by a trained public health nurse at about two to three weeks of life. And the nurse goes in and does a standardized assessment and then helps the family connect with whatever resources they need. And we know that families, regardless of socioeconomic status, often have a need associated with a new baby. And it's not just a first baby, right? Every baby is a little bit different. Every time you graduate your family, something changes. So I'm very excited about the prospects for that. Obviously, implementation has unfortunately been a little delayed due to COVID. I'm going to be so glad when I can stop saying due to COVID. I'm sure all of us are, right? But it's really important to do that. And it's going to be exciting to get this rolled out statewide. We have our first county starting this month. And we'll, by the end of this calendar year, we'll be serving, sorry, by the end of this, the next fiscal year, by July of 2022, we'll be serving close to 50% of the babies in the state born in the state every year, which is kind of amazing. So I'm pretty excited about that. And I'm looking forward to tracking the results of that. Because we will be connecting families with resources like affordable housing, if they need it, or domestic violence services, or mental health, or whatever. And the data on the impacts of this program on maternal well-being are really big. But ultimately, when we think about prevention, we really have to think about upstream interventions. So whether it's offering home visits to new moms and babies, whether it's raising the legal age for tobacco, I'm saying somewhat immodestly that I also led the coalition that made Oregon the third state in the nation to raise the legal age for tobacco to 21 back in 2017. Got a lot of inspiration from my colleagues in Hawaii. And that's a really exciting thing to do, because we know that delaying smoking initiation makes it much more likely that people won't become addicted. And that's a really important thing for the long-term well-being of people across the state. So as I think about budget, and I think about the bills that I'm doing, and I'll mention one more for this year in a moment, I really think about how can we leverage every single dollar coming into the state to maximize the impact on Oregonians' well-being? And whether that's improving access to pre-kindergarten or early Head Start, or whether that's improving, you know, adding more bonding so the state can participate in building more affordable housing, or whether it's ensuring that we fund mental health services better, which we're going to be doing a big push on this year. All of those things are around prevention or early intervention and are so important to the well-being of Oregonians, and we have an opportunity to impact them by deciding how to spend state dollars. Oregon, like most states, has a balanced budget requirement. So as we craft our budget, it's a bunch of puts and takes, and I'm trying to push hard to make sure that a lot of the puts go into things that help people be healthier. The one other thing I want to mention is a bill that I'm very excited about this year and that will probably pass the House, it's the second chamber today, which is a resolution that my dear colleague, Representative Mitch Greenlick, who many of you may know his name because he was an icon in public health and preventive medicine, helped start the Kaiser Center for Research, was chair of the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at OHSU for many years, and he was one of the two state representatives from my district and a dear, dear friend and colleague. Unfortunately, he passed away last May, but he ran a bill eight times, unsuccessfully, unfortunately, to get an amendment on the Oregon ballot to amend our Constitution to put health care as a right. Now, 15, 20 other states already have health care as a right in their Constitution. Oregon does not. We have education as a right, but not health care. So I'm very excited to say that it's already passed the Senate and it will pass the House today, tomorrow, soon, and then it'll be on its way to the governor's desk and it'll be on the ballot in 2022. So we'll have some work to do to make sure that people understand the importance of this. But it's really interesting to note that there are a couple of studies that have been done that show that simply having the right to health care in a state's Constitution, without the state actually doing anything about it, reduces infant mortality by 7.5 percent. And it's a disproportionate, that's overall, and the impact is much higher in non-white children. So when we think about things like addressing racial disparities, especially in health and overall well-being, things like this can make a huge difference in terms of upstream interventions. So I'm very excited about SJR 12 likely crossing the finish line this year, finally, and moving on to the ballot. I wish Representative Greenleak were here to see it, but I think it'll be a really good memorial for him. Forgive me, I joke up easy when I think about dear friends. It was just the anniversary of his death a couple of weeks ago. So I became a legislator because I believe Oregon can be the healthiest state in the nation. But to do that, we have to focus hard on what we do to help the youngest Oregonians, the most vulnerable Oregonians, and really every Oregonian have all the pieces in place to live a healthy life. And that's housing, and that's food security, and that's access to affordable, high-quality health care, and having opportunities for economic development and ongoing progression in living wage jobs, things like that. So I consider it an extraordinary privilege to serve in the Oregon legislature. Sometimes it makes me want to pound my head against the wall. Being budget chair isn't always a picnic, especially this year, because it's super complicated. But ultimately, it gives me the opportunity to make decisions that I believe will have a significant impact on Oregonians' long-term well-being. I really appreciate the invitation to speak with you all today. I really look forward to hearing Dr. Lamb's comments, and hopefully I won't have to step away. I have a colleague who's a little under the weather, and I was asked to see him a little while ago, and hopefully I won't be called away to see him again. But if I am, please forgive me. Thank you all for participating, and thanks again for the invitation. And thank you so much, Dr. Steiner-Hayward, for being here today and for all the wonderful work you're doing to help Oregonians be healthier. I think it's just a testament to those folks in your district. I think they're very lucky to have you as both a state senator and as a physician with the knowledge of public health to really help improve things. So thank you for that wonderful work. We'll transition over to Dr. Lamb now, Dr. Clarence Lamb. He's the program director of the preventive medicine residency program at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, which is where I first met him when I was training there as a PrevMed resident. Dr. Lamb is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Case Western Reserve University, where he completed his Bachelor of Arts in political science and biology. He earned his medical degree from the University of Maryland and his Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. He completed his residency training at Johns Hopkins as well, where he also served as chief resident. He has also served in the Maryland General Assembly since being elected in 2014, with two terms as state delegate and then being elected to the Maryland State Senator in 2018, where he currently serves as the Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee. And he's also served on the subcommittees for alcohol. He co-chairs the Health Subcommittee and is also chair of the Environment Subcommittee. Dr. Lamb is involved with many community organizations and serves on several nonprofit boards of directors, including Healthy Howard, Unified Community Connections, formerly United Cerebral Palsy of Central Maryland, and is board chair of the Community Action Council of Howard County, which manages the county's food bank, Head Start program, and provides energy and housing assistance for residents in need. He was a past appointee of the Governor's Commission for Asian Pacific American Affairs and to the Howard County Spending Affordability Advisory Committee. So Dr. Lamb, thank you so much for being with us today. Sure. Thanks, Richard. Appreciate that very generous introduction. I'm going to hop right into it and to kind of bridge off of what Senator Steiner Hayward had mentioned as well, I think, and try to peel the curtains back from behind the scenes of what it's like to serve as a state legislator, particularly as a physician state legislator. And you know, I think when you look at it, it is challenging in many ways. So number one, most state legislatures across the country are actually part-time legislatures. So that means that most of us have other jobs that we are engaged in, and we only meet for part of the year. So in Maryland, we meet for 90 days every year. Not even all legislatures meet every single year. Some of them, they may meet every other year. So there are a lot of differences there. There are a small handful of states that have full-time legislatures too. But for the vast majority of us, this is, you know, a quote, part-time job, which in many ways is not part-time because of the time that's actually involved. The challenges there are that, you know, you're working with colleagues that, you know, have very diverse backgrounds and may not actually have much familiarity with health. And it's always a balancing act to try to present data and evidence and information to them in a way that folks that are not well-versed in the healthcare system and have no background in science can understand and grasp. And so you're always trying to find those areas of overlap where it's particularly meaningful to other legislators and especially to their districts. I think Senator Steiner Hayward mentioned a lot of good programs and efforts and services that she had sponsored and highlighted. And I think it mirrors the fact that there are ways to be able to find policies where it crosses that divide and kind of breaks through some of the partisan strum that sometimes permeates through our current political environment. And so, you know, I've sponsored legislation that really touches on a lot of public health kind of matters, like expanding access to midwives and reducing the need for layers of consent for HIV testing. Much of it was outdated, as well as expanding access to community health workers. Those are areas where a lot of times you can work across the aisle and find some common ground, particularly, as I mentioned, when it comes to access-related issues. So, for example, when it comes to midwives and increasing the types of licensure that, you know, could practice midwifery, there was a recognition that there were a lot of segments of the state that just didn't have access to these types of birthing services. And, you know, it was something that, you know, was when you brought this to light to other colleagues, they really got on board. So there are ways to be able to find areas where it's not as contentious, and you can point to things that occur locally or deficiencies locally to be able to garner support for legislation that on the face of it may not have much interest to their district or to them themselves. But through finding these means and knowing the legislators that you're working with, you're able to kind of bring them on board. You know, Senator Steiner-Hayward, you know, touches on the budget, and I think that really does, you know, reflect a lot of what we do, right? So there are three, you know, large overarching responsibilities of a state legislator. One is to legislate, to sponsor names on bills and the hearings and such on them. Number two is to pass a budget, and as I imagine in most states, it's an annual requirement that we have to pass a budget, that we cannot adjourn without passing a budget. And in our state, the budget has to be balanced, and that's probably the case in most states as well that are not floating bonds. You know, we cannot print money, unlike the federal government, so we have to make very judicious decisions as to how we're going to spend some vital resources when it comes to our state's coffers and directing it to certain programs and services. And as Senator Steiner-Hayward mentioned, it's really a reflection of our values, right? And so where we put our funds is critically important because it reflects our priorities as a state or as a community as well. And then the third piece of it is oversight, and oftentimes that's a real challenge for us as part-time legislatures, because we're out there all the time in our statehouse monitoring what's going on in the executive branch departments and offices where a lot of litigation takes place. Oversight is really important, and as part of the three-legged stool to legislating and passing a budget, because it's making sure that the state agencies and departments are doing what they're supposed to be doing, abiding by the law, as well as implementing programs in accordance with what we had passed and making sure that the money is well spent. I think we both serve on our respective joint audits committee. I'm the Senate co-chair of the Maryland Joint Audits Committee, and that is a really important component to make sure that, you know, how funds are spent have proper accounting, transparency, oversight, and departments are doing what they're supposed to be doing. The funding piece is really important when you look at it, and it's really a public health paradox for many of us that when it comes to investing in our local health departments and investing in sound public health programs, there is an upfront cost to doing this. You have to put money into it to be able to sow the benefits and plant the seeds that you would reap later on. It's an investment, and it's an upfront cost. In Maryland, as I imagine in most states, when we are looking at bills to pass and whether legislation receives a favorable report or not, oftentimes my colleagues are looking at that fiscal note. There's a financial impact to the state for every program or every law that's passed, and there's analysts who basically study those pieces of legislation, tell us how much it would cost the state if we were to pass this. And oftentimes that's what my colleagues will be looking at to weigh whether or not to pass a certain piece of legislation or not. When it comes to a lot of these public health programs and measures, there's an upfront cost that needs to be put into it. However, the challenge is that the benefits may not be immediately seen, right? Investing in a local health department or putting together a more expansive chronic disease prevention program requires a lot of funding, requires a lot of upfront costs, but the benefits may not be immediately tangible. It may take years to be able to see those benefits, so there's a time delay. And the folks that you're helping are likely less tangible to be able to point to or less quantifiable as we were able to identify specific individuals or people from specific districts that benefit from that program because they may not have contracted the condition or they may have not had a chronic disease that was prevented otherwise. And so that's always been a challenging paradox of prevention when you look at it from the standpoint of the upfront costs that's involved, but it's less tangible and quantifiable, the benefits that might be sowed and reaped later on, and it's not reflective in a lot of those fiscal notes or the fiscal impact analysis that are done by the accountants when they account for these types of legislation as they're being considered by our colleagues and such. The other piece of it I touched on earlier was the time piece, that a lot of times it does take some degree of time for the benefits to be seen. And oftentimes that will be after the term of office of that legislator or it may be after the administration has changed over in the executive branch of that state. And so there's less motivation to look at some of these longer-term investments because the benefits that come may actually exceed the time of office of some of these lawmakers and the governor in that state. And so you have that challenge too when you're working through some of these public health interventions. I think the other thing to keep in mind, though, is that, and I think you see this in Oregon and other states, the vast majority of bills on the state level are passed with bipartisan support. I think we're, as a state legislature, particularly ones that are part-time because we're time-limited, have a running clock. And so we recognize that we have to get something done, that we can't talk a policy to the end. And we must show something productive back to our constituents and back to our districts after the session is over. And so there's a real motivation to be able to work across the aisle, to work with colleagues, to be able to get something passed so that when we return back to our districts after we adjourn, there's something productive that we can show that we did. And so I think those are all kind of important pieces to keep in mind when you look at how state legislatures function, and when you interact with legislators, how you can make a meaningful impact, craft a message that resonates well with them, and really work with legislators on the state and local level to be able to help advance good public health, because that's actually where a lot of this work is being done. So with that, let me close and turn it back to Richard. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Dr. Lam. And thanks again, Dr. Steiner-Hayward. It's so impressive to hear about all the amazing work that you're doing in these state legislatures and how you're using your role as a physician to help inform these pieces of legislation and to really better the health of your states. I want to ask you a few questions in our remaining minutes here. First of all, our ACPM supports our members to advocate for public health policy and legislation. We had a session this morning on advocacy, and we have Hill Visit scheduled this week where we'll be asking our federal legislators to fund all approved PredMed residency slots by appropriating $101 million to the HRSA Public Health and Preventive Medicine line item. What advice would you each give to physicians and future physicians who want to be better advocate and ally for their patients by supporting certain bills with their elected officials? So for example, emails, phone calls, meetings with you or the staffer, what works? What do you find is most effective in terms of advocating? And Dr. Steiner-Hayward, if you don't mind starting. Sure. I would point out that I was an active advocate through the Oregon Academy of Family Physicians and the Oregon Medical Association for about 10 years before I entered the legislature. It's one of the reasons that I ended up being considered for the spot when my predecessor went to Congress, actually. First and foremost, build a relationship with your personal legislators, right? I have to admit that every time, I'm a little dismayed, frankly, to say that every time I do a talk like this in real life to people, and I say, okay, raise your hand if you know who your state senator and your state representative are, and maybe a third of the audience knows. It's very easy to find out. All you have to do is go to your legislature's webpage and there'll be a find your legislator slot. So do that, and when they're not in session, send an email saying, hey, can we have coffee, right? And most legislators, you know, I'm a preventive medicine physician in your district, and you get two if you work and live in different districts, right? So build those relationships when you're not in session. And then when you have an opportunity to reach out, first of all, offer to serve as a resource. Give them your cell phone number, give them your email address, and say, look, when issues come up where I can be helpful to you, please don't hesitate to reach out. Be a resource to them. They're not experts, and as Dr. Lam said, they don't know this stuff, and they need somebody that they can trust. So start by building that relationship, and then if you're sending emails, that's fine, but if you're trying to send one of those blast emails, please change the subject line and add a first paragraph that says why you personally care about this, because honest to goodness, the number of form letters we get that have the same subject line and exactly the same content, my poor staff, I can't even tell you. So put in something that says why you personally care about it. Wonderful. Great advice. Dr. Lam? Yeah, I think building that relationship is really important. At the end of the day, politics and policy are kind of relationship sports, right? And to have a connection to your local legislator is really important to be able to bring issues kind of to their attention. Most state legislators are pretty accessible, right? So unlike Congress where you're a little bit more removed, you're not quite as connected to your local community and constituents and district because of the distance, for most state legislators, we, as Senator Steiner Hayward mentioned, are happy to meet with people individually and do so during the interim. So building that relationship is really important. And then finding an issue that you care about and working to advocate for that issue. It helps you kind of learn the ropes. It helps you see the legislative process, get involved in it, taking some initial steps so that when you are wanting to get involved in more challenging legislation, you have those relationships there. You understand how the legislative process works. And building that trust with the legislator also is important to be able to kind of convey to them, whether it's on that issue or others, what you're seeing on the ground. You, in many ways, are their eyes and ears because, as we mentioned, we're not experts in everything. We have to rely on others, for example, on business policy or technology policy. So be that resource to your local state legislator to obviously get involved and know who they are. Wonderful. We have a question from the audience that I'd like to ask. So this one is, I'll ask each of you to answer, how early in your career did you both decide to get involved in state legislation? What did you do to prepare yourself for that role? Did you consider getting a J.D.? And I'll just ask maybe Dr. Stein-Hayward again to start. Okay. I'll try to be concise because I want to make sure Senator Lamb has enough time. I never set out with the intention of becoming a legislator. I got involved with organized medicine back when I was in medical school. I actually served on some national committees for the American Academy of Family Physicians. So I started learning about organizational stuff and how to do outreach through residency and in practice. And I had the opportunity back in 2002. So I was maybe eight or nine years out of residency, something, to take over running external legislative affairs for the Oregon Academy of Family Physicians, which is when I started really spending a lot of time in Salem, getting to know a lot of legislators, building those relationships that we talked about. And although people had encouraged me to run for office maybe five years into that, it wasn't until 2011 when a couple of people asked me at the same time, including my then state senator, as we realized she was going to run for Congress and probably win, she encouraged me to think about it. That's when I really made the decision. And no, I do not think a J.D. is needed. I think it's really important to have people who come from very different experiences in the legislature. Most states, as Senator Lamb mentioned, are citizen legislatures, which means we all have other jobs and we all bring that experience to the legislature. And a J.D. does not help you. There are lawyers, plenty of lawyers in legislatures, but you don't need to be a lawyer by any means to be a good legislator. You need to be willing to work hard, but most, I'm sure all of you are. So I think that's pretty much it. Sometimes, you know, life takes you in interesting directions. I would never have anticipated ending up here. I'm glad I am here, but this is not what I set out to do when I took over doing advocacy for these organizations. Yeah, let me just dovetail on what Senator Steiner-Hayward said. I think many of us don't anticipate going down that pathway in policy and would imagine getting involved maybe from a policy aspect as a legislative advisor or a health advisor or legislative director of some sort. Did not think that I would actually be serving in the role myself. And I'll just say that the role itself also comes with a lot of other things that I think folks in the public may not see as readily apparent, but it involves fundraising, campaigning, the whole bit to be able to, you know, serve in that office besides the actual policy piece of it, right, the politics that comes along with making meaningful policy that comes with that. That's not everyone's cup of tea. For those who want to run, you know, have at it, and we're happy to provide advice because we need good folks and people who understand healthcare and medicine to run. But there are also other ways to make meaningful impact too. Serving as policy makers, you know, for a department or an agency, being, serving in regulatory roles, you know, all of those can also make meaningful policy impacts without necessarily all the, you know, obvious political overlays that come with serving in an elected office too. And so just, I would encourage folks when they're interested in wanting to get involved to keep a broad perspective because, you know, I think having these different avenues is really, you know, a prime opportunity for people to explore the different options and find one that actually fits, you know, your character, personality, interests, and what you want to do in the future. Well, that's such wonderful advice. And I think we are all just so grateful to you both for the work that you're doing in your respective states. It's just, it's amazing to hear, very inspiring to hear your stories about how you got involved and the on-the-ground work that you continue to do. So we wish you continued luck to get your bills passed and your budgets passed. And we'll conclude the session now, but thank you so much for everything you're doing and thanks for joining us today. Thanks again for the invitation. Absolutely. Absolutely. So next in our sessions, we have an oral poster presentations that happens from 2 to 3 p.m. Eastern today. So hope you'll congratulate the top posters who are going to be presenting their posters in short oral sessions from 2 to 3, and then our next sessions will start at 3 p.m. Eastern. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. The downtown Denver area is unique. Here there's just so much more to do. There's plenty of historic sites, brand new businesses, museums, and cultural events happening every month. Denver is an extremely active city. It's an excellent place to try just about anything. People have come down here both to live and to play. It's full of shops, restaurants. It's really made it an enjoyable place to hang out. The changes to the downtown area are amazing, from Larimer Square into 16th Street Mall. 16th Street Mall is a really diverse area. Each block is a little bit different and unique. I really enjoy the Denver Pavilions, which has an open-air concept that combines outdoorsy Colorado but also a very urban feel. There's the Hard Rock Cafe, Jazz at Jack's. You can also catch a film at the United Artists Theater. I stopped by the iHeart Denver store in the Denver Pavilions. You can find a real gambit, gift items, fine art pieces, prints, t-shirts, and jewelry, all made by local designers, artists, or creative-minded businesses. Denver has a public art ordinance that allocates 1% of any new capital improvement project to public art. So when you're walking around downtown, you will see a large piece or some sort of art installation in almost every building and plaza. 14th Street in the Convention Center area has been revitalized just recently. The Denver Performing Arts Complex is one of the largest in the country. It takes up four city blocks. You can catch the symphony, the opera, the ballet. It really runs the gamut of popular music to classical. Then you can go a little farther down and hit the MCA. They're just very unique, very innovative with their shows. One of the nicest features about Lodo is the scale. Downtown Denver in general is extremely walkable. If you look at where Coors Field is, even to the Pepsi Center. Lodo is also very bike-friendly. We had one of the first electronic bike share systems. These cycle stations, you can get on one. You can use it all over town. The heart of the city really is downtown. You have lots of bars, dance clubs to places with really great views like the View House and nice rooftop decks like the Tavern. Denver's just great for those chef-driven, owned restaurant concepts that you really could pick from about 20 or 30. We have about 92 beers on tap here at Falling Rock. If you're interested in craft beer, Denver is definitely the destination of the United States. Stoic and Genuine is my newest restaurant in Denver Union Station. I love the renovation inside the station itself. It's an incredible transformation of that historic building. They really took care to bring back that era of what it looked like as a train station. All light rail buses and even Amtrak will be coming out of there. It's our pathway to DIA, which takes you to the world. Some of the great places downtown are these historic hotels. One is the Brown Palace. The other is the Oxford Hotel. Also in our neighborhood is the Tired Cover, which is one of the most amazing bookstores. You just have that really fun boutique feel when you walk in. It's just the volume that we have here that makes downtown Denver special. There's really a lot of activity for shopping, too. Larimer Square gives you that kind of feeling like Rockefeller Center might in New York. It's the only historic block that still has all the historic buildings. Larimer Square has some really fun little boutiques that I think you can get some unique gifts. I always take people to Rock Mount Ranch Wear. They're attributed with popularizing the snap front western shirt. From rock stars to ranchers, it's people who are looking for something quintessentially Colorado. If I had one word for downtown Denver, it'd be exciting. Active. Historic but emerging. Be very funky. Be very artsy. It's kind of the heart of this city. It's also a melting pot of our Denver culture. So if you're coming down here, you're getting a real sense of Denver. It's just a constant stream of unexpected surprises here. The downtown Denver area is unique. Here there's just so much more to do. There's plenty of historic sites, brand new businesses, museums, and cultural events happening every month. Denver is an extremely active city. It's an excellent place to try just about anything. People have come down here both to live and to play. It's full of shops, restaurants. It's really made it an enjoyable place to hang out. The changes to the downtown area are amazing. From Larimer Square into 16th Street Mall. 16th Street Mall is a really diverse area. Each block is a little bit different and unique. I really enjoy the Denver Pavilions which has an open air concept that combines outdoorsy Colorado but also a very urban feel. There's the Hard Rock Cafe, Jazz at Jack's. You can also catch a film at the United Artists Theater. I stopped by the iHeart Denver store in the Denver Pavilions. You can find a real gambit, gift items, fine art pieces, prints, t-shirts, and jewelry. All made by local designers, artists, or creative minded businesses. Denver has a public art ordinance that allocates 1% of any new capital improvement project to public art. So when you're walking around downtown, you will see a large piece or some sort of art installation in almost every building and plaza. 14th Street in the Convention Center area has been revitalized just recently. The Denver Performing Arts Complex is one of the largest in the country. It takes up four city blocks. You can catch the symphony, the opera, the ballet. It really runs the gamut of popular music to classical. Then you can go a little farther down and hit the MCA. They're just very unique, very innovative with their shows. One of the nicest features about Lodo is the scale. Downtown Denver in general is extremely walkable. You look at where Coors Field is, even to the Pepsi Center. Lodo is also very bike friendly. We had one of the first electronic bike share systems. B-cycle stations, you can get on one, you can use it all over town. The heart of the city really is downtown. You have lots of bars, dance clubs, to places with really great views like the View House and nice rooftop decks like the Tavern. Denver's just great for those like chef-driven, owned restaurant concepts that you really could pick from about 20 or 30. We have about 92 beers on tap here at Falling Rock. If you're interested in craft beer, Denver is definitely the destination of the United States. Stoic and Genuine is my newest restaurant in Denver Union Station. I love the renovation inside the station itself. It's an incredible transformation of that historic building. They really took care to bring back that era of what it looked like as a train station. So all light rail, buses, and even Amtrak will be coming out of there. It's our pathway to DIA, which takes you to the world. Some of the great places downtown are these historic hotels. One is the Brown Palace, the other is the Oxford Hotel. Also in our neighborhood is the Tattered Cover, which is one of the most amazing bookstores. You just have that like really fun boutique feel when you walk in. It's just the volume that we have here that makes downtown Denver special. There's really a lot of activity for shopping too. Larimer Square gives you that kind of feeling like Rockefeller Center might in New York. It's the only historic block that still has all the historic buildings. Larimer Square has some really fun little boutiques that I think you can get some unique gifts. I always take people to Rock Mount Ranch Wear. They're attributed with popularizing the snap front western shirt. From rock stars to ranchers, it's people who are looking for something quintessentially Colorado. If I had one word for downtown Denver, it'd be exciting. Active. Historic but emerging. Very funky, be very artsy. It's kind of the heart of this city. It's also a melting pot of our Denver culture. So if you're coming down here, you're getting a real sense of Denver. It's just a constant stream of unexpected surprises here. The downtown Denver area is unique. Here there's just so much more to do. There's plenty of historic sites, brand new businesses, museums, and cultural events happening every month. Denver is an extremely active city. It's an excellent place to try just about anything. People have come down here both to live and to play. It's full of shops, restaurants. It's really made it an enjoyable place to hang out. The changes to the downtown area are amazing. From Larimer Square into 16th Street Mall. 16th Street Mall is a really diverse area. Each block is a little bit different and unique. I really enjoy the Denver Pavilions, which has an open air concept that combines outdoorsy Colorado but also a very urban feel. There's the Hard Rock Cafe, Jazz at Jack's. You can also catch a film at the United Artists Theater. I stopped by the iHeart Denver store in the Denver Pavilions. You can find a real gambit. Gift items, fine art pieces, prints, t-shirts, and jewelry. All made by local designers, artists, or creative minded businesses. Denver has a public art ordinance that allocates 1% of any new capital improvement project to public art. So when you're walking around downtown you will see a large piece or some sort of art installation in almost every building and plaza. 14th Street in the Convention Center area has been revitalized just recently. The Denver Performing Arts Complex is one of the largest in the country. It takes up four city blocks. You can catch the symphony, the opera, the ballet. It really runs the gamut of popular music to classical. Then you can go a little farther down and hit the MCA. They're just very unique, very innovative with their shows. One of the nicest features about Lodo is the scale. Downtown Denver in general is extremely walkable. You look at where Coors Field is, even to the Pepsi Center. Lodo is also very bike friendly. We had one of the first electronic bike share systems. B-cycle stations. You can get on one. You can use it all over town. The heart of the city really is downtown. You have lots of bars, dance clubs to places with really great views like the View House and nice rooftop decks like the Tavern. Denver's just great for those like chef driven, owned restaurant concepts that you really could pick from about 20 or 30. We have about 92 beers on tap here at Falling Rock. If you're interested in craft beer, Denver is definitely the destination of the United States. Stoic and Genuine is my newest restaurant in Denver Union Station. I love the renovation inside the station itself. It's an incredible transformation of that historic building. They really took care to bring back that era of what it looked like as a train station. So all light rail buses and even Amtrak will be coming out of there. It's our pathway to DIA, which takes you to the world. Some of the great places downtown are these historic hotels. One is the Brown Palace. The other is the Oxford Hotel. Also in our neighborhood is the Tattered Cover, which is one of the most amazing bookstores. You just have that like really fun boutique feel when you walk in. Just the volume that we have here that makes downtown Denver special. There's really a lot of activity for shopping too. Larimer Square gives you that kind of feeling like Rockefeller Center might in New York. It's the only historic block that still has all the historic buildings. Larimer Square has some really fun little boutiques that I think you can get some unique gifts. I always take people to Rock Mount Ranch Wear. They're attributed with popularizing the snap front western shirt. From rock stars to ranchers, it's people who are looking for something quintessentially Colorado. If I had one word for downtown Denver, it would be exciting. Active. Historic but emerging. Very funky. Be very artsy. It's kind of the heart of this city. It's also a melting pot of our Denver culture, so if you're coming down here, you're getting a real sense of Denver. It's just a constant stream of unexpected surprises here. The downtown Denver area is unique. Here there's just so much more to do. There's plenty of historic sites, brand new businesses, museums, and cultural events happening every month. Denver is an extremely active city. It's an excellent place to try just about anything. People have come down here both to live and to play. It's full of shops, restaurants. It's really made it an enjoyable place to hang out. The changes to the downtown area are amazing, from Larimer Square into 16th Street Mall. 16th Street Mall is a really diverse area. Each block is a little bit different and unique. I really enjoy the Denver Pavilions, which has an open-air concept that combines outdoorsy Colorado but also a very urban feel. There's the Hard Rock Cafe, Jazz at Jack's. You can also catch a film at the United Artists Theater. I stopped by the iHeart Denver store in the Denver Pavilions. You can find a real gambit, gift items, fine art pieces, prints, t-shirts, and jewelry, all made by local designers, artists, or creative-minded businesses. Denver has a public art ordinance that allocates 1% of any new capital improvement project to public art. So when you're walking around downtown, you will see a large piece or some sort of art installation in almost every building and plaza. 14th Street in the Convention Center area has been revitalized just recently. The Denver Performing Arts Complex is one of the largest in the country. It takes up four city blocks. You can catch the symphony, the opera, the ballet. It really runs the gamut of popular music to classical. Then you can go a little farther down and hit the MCA. They're just very unique, very innovative with their shows. One of the nicest features about Lodo is the scale. Downtown Denver, in general, is extremely walkable. You look at where Coors Field is, even to the Pepsi Center. Lodo is also very bike-friendly. We had one of the first electronic bike share systems. B-cycle stations, you can get on one, you can use it all over town. The heart of the city really is downtown. You have lots of bars, dance clubs, to places with really great views like the View House and nice rooftop decks like the Tavern. Denver's just great for those chef-driven, owned restaurant concepts that you really could pick from about 20 or 30. We have about 92 beers on tap here at Falling Rock. If you're interested in craft beer, Denver is definitely the destination of the United States. Stoic & Genuine is my newest restaurant in Denver Union Station. I love the renovation inside the station itself. It's an incredible transformation of that historic building. They really took care to bring back that era of what it looked like as a train station. So all light rail, buses, and even Amtrak will be coming out of there. It's our pathway to DIA, which takes you to the world. Some of the great places downtown are these historic hotels. One is the Brown Palace. The other is the Oxford Hotel. Also in our neighborhood is the Tattered Cover, which is one of the most amazing bookstores. You just have that really fun boutique feel when you walk in. Just the volume that we have here that makes downtown Denver special. There's really a lot of activity for shopping, too. Larimer Square gives you that kind of feeling like Rockefeller Center might in New York. It's the only historic block that still has all the historic buildings. Larimer Square has some really fun little boutiques that I think you can get some unique gifts. I always take people to Rock Mount Ranch Wear. They're attributed with popularizing the snap front western shirt. From rock stars to ranchers, it's people who are looking for something quintessentially Colorado. If I had one word for downtown Denver, it'd be exciting. Active. Historic but emerging. Be very funky. Be very artsy. It's kind of the heart of this city. It's also a melting pot of our Denver culture. So if you're coming down here, you're getting a real sense of Denver. It's just a constant stream of unexpected surprises here. The downtown Denver area is unique. Here there's just so much more to do. There's plenty of historic sites, brand new businesses, museums, and cultural events happening every month. Denver is an extremely active city. It's an excellent place to try just about anything. People have come down here both to live and to play. It's full of shops, restaurants. It's really made it an enjoyable place to hang out. The changes to the downtown area are amazing. From Larimer Square into 16th Street Mall. 16th Street Mall is a really diverse area. Each block is a little bit different and unique. I really enjoy the Denver Pavilions which has an open air concept that combines outdoorsy Colorado but also a very urban feel. There's the Hard Rock Cafe, Jazz at Jack's. You can also catch a film at the United Artists Theater. I stopped by the iHeart Denver store in the Denver Pavilions. You can find a real gambit, gift items, fine art pieces, prints, t-shirts, and jewelry. All made by local designers, artists, or creative minded businesses. Denver has a public art ordinance that allocates 1% of any new capital improvement project to public art. So when you're walking around downtown, you will see a large piece or some sort of art installation in almost every building and plaza. 14th Street in the Convention Center area has been revitalized just recently. The Denver Performing Arts Complex is one of the largest in the country. It takes up four city blocks. You can catch the symphony, the opera, the ballet. It really runs the gamut of popular music to classical. Then you can go a little farther down and hit the MCA. They're just very unique, very innovative with their shows. One of the nicest features about Lodo is the scale. Downtown Denver, in general, is extremely walkable. You look at where Coors Field is, even to the Pepsi Center. Lodo is also very bike friendly. We had one of the first electronic bike share systems. B-cycle stations, you can get on one, you can use it all over town. The heart of the city really is downtown. You have lots of bars, dance clubs, to places with really great views like the View House and nice rooftop decks like the Tavern. Denver's just great for those chef-driven, owned restaurant concepts that you really could pick from about 20 or 30. We have about 92 beers on tap here at Falling Rock. If you're interested in craft beer, Denver is definitely the destination of the United States. Stoic and Genuine is my newest restaurant in Denver Union Station. I love the renovation inside the station itself. It's an incredible transformation of that historic building. They really took care to bring back that era of what it looked like as a train station. So all light rail, buses, and even Amtrak will be coming out of there. It's our pathway to DIA, which takes you to the world. Some of the great places downtown are these historic hotels. One is the Brown Palace, the other is the Oxford Hotel. Also in our neighborhood is the Tired Cover, which is one of the most amazing bookstores. You just have that really fun boutique feel when you walk in. It's just the volume that we have here that makes downtown Denver special. There's really a lot of activity for shopping, too. Larimer Square gives you that kind of feeling like Rockefeller Center might in New York. It's the only historic block that still has all the historic buildings. Larimer Square has some really fun little boutiques that I think you can get some unique gifts. I always take people to Rock Mount Ranch Wear. They're attributed with popularizing the snap front western shirt. From rock stars to ranchers, it's people who are looking for something quintessentially Colorado. If I had one word for downtown Denver, it'd be exciting. Active. Historic but emerging. Very funky, be very artsy. It's kind of the heart of this city. It's also a melting pot of our Denver culture, so if you're coming down here, you're getting a real sense of Denver. It's just a constant stream of unexpected surprises here. The downtown Denver area is unique. Here, there's just so much more to do. There's plenty of historic sites, brand new businesses, museums, and cultural events happening every month. Denver is an extremely active city. It's an excellent place to try just about anything. People have come down here both to live and to play. It's full of shops, restaurants. It's really made it an enjoyable place to hang out. The changes to the downtown area are amazing, from Larimer Square into 16th Street Mall. 16th Street Mall is a really diverse area. Each block is a little bit different and unique. I really enjoy the Denver Pavilions, which has an open-air concept that combines outdoorsy Colorado but also a very urban feel. There's the Hard Rock Cafe, Jazz at Jack's. You can also catch a film at the United Artists Theater. I stopped by the iHeart Denver store in the Denver Pavilions. You can find a real gambit, gift items, fine art pieces, prints, t-shirts, and jewelry, all made by local designers, artists, or creative-minded businesses. Denver has a public art ordinance that allocates 1% of any new capital improvement project to public art. So when you're walking around downtown, you will see a large piece or some sort of art installation in almost every building and plaza. 14th Street in the Convention Center area has been revitalized just recently. The Denver Performing Arts Complex is one of the largest in the country. It takes up four city blocks. You can catch the symphony, the opera, the ballet. It really runs the gamut of popular music to classical. Then you can go a little farther down and hit the MCA. They're just very unique, very innovative with their shows. One of the nicest features about Lodo is the scale. Downtown Denver in general is extremely walkable. You look at where Coors Field is, even to the Pepsi Center. Lodo is also very bike-friendly. We had one of the first electronic bike share systems. B-cycle stations. You can get on one. You can use it all over town. The heart of the city really is downtown. You have lots of bars, dance clubs, to places with really great views like the View House and nice rooftop decks like the Tavern. Denver's just great for those chef-driven, owned-restaurant concepts that you really could pick from about 20 or 30. We have about 92 beers on tap here at Falling Rock. If you're interested in craft beer, Denver is definitely the destination of the United States. Stoic & Genuine is my newest restaurant in Denver Union Station. I love the renovation inside the station itself. It's an incredible transformation of that historic building. They really took care to bring back that era of what it looked like as a train station. So all light rail, buses, and even Amtrak will be coming out of there. It's our pathway to DIA, which takes you to the world. Some of the great places downtown are these historic hotels. One is the Brown Palace. The other is the Oxford Hotel. Also in our neighborhood is the Tattered Cover, which is one of the most amazing bookstores. You just have that really fun boutique feel when you walk in. Just the volume that we have here that makes downtown Denver special. There's really a lot of activity for shopping, too. Larimer Square gives you that kind of feeling like Rockefeller Center might in New York. It's the only historic block that still has all the historic buildings. Larimer Square has some really fun little boutiques that I think you can get some unique gifts. I always take people to Rock Mount Ranch Wear. They're attributed with popularizing the snap front western shirt. From rock stars to ranchers, it's people who are looking for something quintessentially Colorado. If I had one word for downtown Denver, it would be exciting. Active. Historic but emerging. Very funky. Be very artsy. It's kind of the heart of this city. It's also a melting pot of our Denver culture, so if you're coming down here, you're getting a real sense of Denver. It's just a constant stream of unexpected surprises here.

downtown area

Denver

historic sites

museums

cultural events

Larimer Square

16th Street Mall

Denver Pavilions

public art

Denver Performing Arts Complex

walkable

restaurants

craft beer scene