The Pennsylvania office of Rural Health has named PSU Abington’s Glenn Sterner, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, its Rural Health Hero of the Year for 2022 for his work on the opioid epidemic, human trafficking, and other Pennsylvania-based issues.

Sterner, who today calls Philadelphia home, has rural roots, and recognizes the PA counties which have had higher overdose rates per capita than Philly’s Kensington neighborhood. Rural PA’s poor Internet access and dwindling access to healthcare exacerbate the issue, according to Sterner.

“It’s a little bit more hidden,” Sterner told The Inquirer. “In rural places, your neighbor down the road, a mile away, might be dealing with this and you don’t know. It’s also much more stigmatized.”

With the help of the Criminal Justice Research Center, Sterner has been helping PA’s county leaders, police, and schools maximize opioid settlement funding, which will exceed $1 billion for drug treatment and prevention programs.

“Rural places continue to have issues associated with access to treatment, but I am happy that Pennsylvania is seeing that as something we need to take on,” he said.

For extensive coverage on Sterner, you can read The Philadelphia Inquirer’s article here. For more on PA’s rural county overdose rates, you can click here.

Photo credit: The Philadelphia Inquirer