When Denise Kornegay sat down to write Georgia’s first Area Health Education Centers grant proposal 30 years ago, she started with a blank page and a bold vision: build a statewide pipeline that would bring health care professionals to every corner of Georgia, especially the rural communities that needed them most.

“She wrote the first word. She took it from a concept all the way through to become funded,” said Kathryn Martin, PhD, associate dean for Regional Campuses at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, and a former AHEC deputy director under Kornegay. “She’s kind of like a rock star – you don’t have to say her last name. She’s just Denise. Everybody knows who she is.”

Kornegay retired Feb. 1 after building a statewide network that works with learners from elementary school through retirement, recruiting future health care professionals, facilitating community-based clinical training and providing continuing education to retain practicing clinicians. The program now reaches 32,000 health career students annually and has become a model for workforce development nationwide.

“Under her leadership, the network – six centers across Georgia plus our home base in Augusta – has become a model for coordinated, community-based training,” said David C. Hess, MD, dean of MCG. “Her work has touched every corner of the state, and her impact will continue to live on in the students we train, the clinicians we support and the communities we serve.”

But retirement doesn’t mean Kornegay will be slowing down. She says she will continue her work as a national team trainer for the Parkinson’s Foundation while pursuing new passions, including travel and writing.

“I want to go out while people still will miss me,” Kornegay said. “I want to go out while I still have 20 years of good health and the ability to do things.”

Building health care access across Georgia

Her grandfather in Mississippi died after being removed from the only life support machine in a rural hospital when a younger patient needed it following a car accident.

“Rural health is real to me,” Kornegay said. “And I’m passionate about it.”

Kornegay’s path to AHEC leadership began with a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Carson-Newman College in Tennessee, followed by a Master of Social Work at the University of Georgia. Her first internship was with the State Health Planning Agency and the Department of Community Health, working on certificate of need issues while also doing part-time work for a lobbyist.

It was at Mercer Medical School under then-Dean Doug Skelton, MD, where Kornegay first glimpsed the potential of AHEC.

“I came to him and said, ‘I like this AHEC thing. Can I write this grant?'” she recalled.

Skelton’s response changed her career trajectory, and when Georgia won the federal funding, Kornegay found herself launching the program she had envisioned.

Kornegay considers Skelton a mentor.

“What he taught me is that your management style will either limit people or it will make them fly, and he taught me how to make people fly because he let me fly.”

One of Kornegay’s proteges, Erin Mundy, who has worked alongside Kornegay for 20 years, will now assume the role of director.

“She knows the people, and she knows the work well. She’ll do some things differently, I hope so, because she’s fresh,” Kornegay said. “But I think she’ll protect the program and continue its integrity.”

A legacy of innovation

Under Kornegay’s leadership, Georgia pioneered several initiatives that have gained national attention.

Hess noted that Kornegay’s most innovative and enduring contribution might be the Preceptor Tax Incentive Program, the first in the nation to provide tax incentives for community physicians who train students.

“Denise recognized early on that while our community clinical faculty give so much of their time to teaching, we had no meaningful way to acknowledge that commitment. Her idea changed that,” he said. “The first program of its kind in the nation has become a powerful way to thank and support the preceptors who shape the next generation.”

Now 13 states have similar programs, with more seeking to follow Georgia’s model. She also established Georgia’s Primary Care Summit, bringing together stakeholders statewide to identify common priorities that transcend institutional boundaries. This collaborative approach has proven particularly effective in securing legislative support for initiatives like student housing that benefit multiple institutions.

Kornegay said AHEC’s “academically neutral” approach – serving all institutions rather than favoring any single university – has been key to its success and legislative support.

Transitioning to retirement

As Kornegay prepares for her next chapter – including a month-long road trip visiting family, continued Parkinson’s Foundation training and more time for political activism – she leaves behind a robust infrastructure that has fundamentally changed how Georgia develops its health care workforce.

Her work with the Parkinson’s Foundation will continue to take her across the country as their national team trainer, teaching interprofessional health care teams how to work together more effectively.

The sessions typically involve about 125 healthcare professionals at a time, focusing on everything from managing compassion fatigue to having difficult conversations with dying patients and their families.

“I teach them how to communicate, how to disagree, how to function and then how to take care of themselves and each other,” Kornegay explained. “In health care, a lot of times the allied health professions have a hard time holding their own with physicians and doctoral level providers. We teach that, and we also teach the doctoral level providers how to listen.”

Martin, who served as Kornegay’s deputy director before moving on to leadership roles at Mercer and MCG, doesn’t see this as a final farewell.

“We’re not going to say, ‘goodbye.’ We’re just going to say, ‘hello from a new place,'” Martin said. “She’s such a bright woman with so many interests. I don’t think we’ll see her go away. I think she’ll emerge in a different place and in a different capacity.”