Episode #416 Turning Grief Into Action
- Laura Hollabaugh
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- Aug 5
- 3 min read
On This Episode Of The Public Health Epidemiology Conversations (PHEC) Podcast
In this deeply personal and thought-provoking episode, Dr. Huntley, shares her heartfelt journey one year after the tragic loss of her son, Nicholas, in a motorcycle accident. Dr. Huntley opens up about her struggle to channel her grief and frustration into meaningful action and advocacy, seeking the support, ideas, and expertise of the public health community and podcast listeners. The episode serves as a call to action for collaborative reflection—on how families, communities, and policymakers can honor loved ones and improve motorcycle safety and awareness, all while navigating the complex emotions of loss and remembrance.
Dr. Huntley invites listeners to share their perspectives, resources, and suggestions via a dedicated feedback form, aiming to uncover innovative, compassionate ways to enhance motorcycle safety and public health in memory of Nicholas.
Listen To This Episode Of The Public Health Epidemiology Conversations (PHEC) Podcast
Conversation Highlights
Grief to Purpose: Dr. Huntley discusses her journey of transforming personal grief into purposeful advocacy, emphasizing the need to honor Nicholas while promoting positive change.
Complex Emotions: The episode highlights the emotional complexity of advocating for motorcycle safety, especially when motorcycles were a beloved part of Nicholas’s life.
Safety & Awareness: Dr. Huntley reflects on existing motorcycle safety practices, noting that Nicholas took all recommended precautions, yet tragedy still occurred. This underscores the need for broader safety and awareness initiatives.
Community Engagement: Listeners are encouraged to provide input and share resources, fostering a collective approach to identifying meaningful advocacy opportunities.
Open Dialogue: The episode stresses the value of crowdsourcing ideas—not only from experts, but from those with lived experience, students, researchers, and motorcycle enthusiasts.
Personalization of Loss: The commemorative safety sign at Nicholas’s crash site has served as a small but meaningful step toward advocacy, inspiring Dr. Huntley to seek the next step.
Public Health Perspective: The podcast explores advocacy not as a one-size-fits-all campaign but as a nuanced endeavor that honors the individual while seeking population-level impact.
Accessible Support: Dr. Huntley has created an easy-to-use feedback form to streamline listener responses, aiming for genuine connection and community-driven solutions.
“One of the things that I wanted to do from the very beginning was to use this energy, this anger, the frustration of what happened, and turn it into something good. I need to advocate for change.” — Dr. Huntley
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Public Health Consulting To Support You
DrCHHuntley LLC is a public health consulting firm that specializes in epidemiology consulting, supporting large nonprofit organizations in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and Florida that serve Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). We also provide nationwide public health consulting and epidemiology consulting support to BIPOC organizations across the United States.
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