Salem Baptist Church of Jenkintown will hold its Installation Service for its 11th pastor, the Rev. Marshall Paul Hughes Mitchell with two services on March 10.

The Rev. Floyd H. Flake, pastor of The Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York and a retired member of the House of Representatives, will preach at the regular 10 a.m. morning service. The Rev. Albert Campbell, pastor of Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, will preach at the 4 p.m. installation service. The official Installation Service will be held during the 4 p.m. service.

On September 29, 2012, Salem Baptist Church called Mitchell to its pastorate. Mitchell was gracious and humble in answering the call to lead the church. Mitchell brings to Salem many gifts and traits that are sorely needed by communities of faith as they confront a changing religious, political, and economic landscape.

Deacon Gregory V. Harvey and Deaconess Jean Washington, Installation Chairs and Rose Brown, publicity chairman said Salem’s commitment to be a meaningful and relevant church is evidenced by its choice for a new pastor.

A graduate of Howard University, Mitchell has pursued studies at New York’s Union Theological Seminary in Church History. He serves on the University of Pennsylvania’s Board of Trustees and Howard University’s School of Divinity Board of Visitors.

In 1994, he was appointed Chief of Staff to then U.S. Rep. Flake, making him the youngest Chief of Staff at the time on Capitol Hill.

In 1995, he managed $230 million in congressional district pojects, making it New York Stae’s most productive district.

Prior to developing Different Drummer as an alternative and innovative voice in Hollywood’s film industry, Mitchell served as executive vice president of Wilberforce University.

Zeno Brown II died Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013.

He was 52.

Brown was born on Jan. 25, 1961, in Philadelphia. He was the third youngest son of the late Zeno and Cynthia Brown. He was known as “Pup.”

After graduating from junior high school, Brown attended Benjamin Franklin Academy. His family said he was always a good student who spent many hours practicing piano and taking private lessons.

His family said he was well known for his “awesome” ability to play the piano, outstanding smile and being a hard worker.

In addition to his parents, Brown was preceded in death by his brother, Jonathan Scott Brown.

He is survived by his brother, Robert (Floria) Brown of Channahon, Ill.; nieces. Christal (Gabriel) Sanchez of Waukegan, Ill. and Angela Brown of New York, N.Y. ; great-nephew, Christian Sanchez; great-niece, Arianna Sanchez; uncles, John Brown of Sanford, Fla. and Samuel Brown; aunts, Marguerite Staten of Jacksonville, Fla., Florence Brown of Willingboro, N.J. and Henrietta Davis of Philadelphia and other relatives and friends.

Some days, Barbie Izquierdo said she read pizza menus and looked at the pictures of food to distract herself from hunger pains while she went without eating so her two young children could have enough.

Izquierdo, a young single mother in Philadelphia, earned too little to put healthy food on the table, even with the help of assistance programs such as food stamps.

Izquierdo is a protagonist in a new documentary film, “A Place at the Table,” which chronicles three individuals’ stories to bring to light the often-hidden realities of hunger in America.

The film, premiering March 1 in theaters, on iTunes and On Demand, interweaves these personal stories with insights from experts, ordinary citizens and anti-hunger activists.

Izquierdo’s story begins with her challenges feeding her children, dealing with health problems and trying to build a better life for her family. Her story goes beyond the day-to-day struggles, however, because Izquierdo is a participant in “Witnesses to Hunger,” a community-based participatory research and advocacy project developed by Dr. Mariana Chilton at Drexel University’s School of Public Health to document the complex issues surrounding food insecurity, poverty and children’s health.

Izquierdo was one of the initial 40 women to join “Witnesses” at its launch in Philadelphia in 2008. Chilton formed this group to encourage participation of people who have experienced food insecurity and hunger first-hand. These mothers use digital cameras to frame the issues most important to them and their children. They use photographs and testimony to inform policymakers and make changes in their communities.

The film documents Izquierdo’s trip in 2009 with Chilton and a group of Witnesses to Washington, D.C., where they testified before legislators and displayed their photos at the nation’s capital.

Chilton, an associate professor and director of the Center for Hunger-Free Communities in the Drexel University School of Public Health, also provided expert commentary in “A Place at the Table” and consulted with the film’s producers during its development.

“Chilton’s vision to give cameras, and a voice, to the women of Witnesses to Hunger inspired us in our own effort to give those families a voice in the national dialogue,” said co-director/producer Kristi Jacobson in press materials prepared for A Place at the Table.

Chilton acted as a conduit for the filmmakers to connect with many women struggling with food insecurity, including Izquierdo. Jacobson added that a key moment for the filmmakers was when one of the associate producers, Julie Kohn, watched footage of Izquierdo and began to cry. “They were the same age,” said Jacobson. “And Julie was so moved by Barbie’s struggle. She related to her, despite their different backgrounds. It helped us to see how relatable Barbie was as a young person facing daunting obstacles.”

The film also features Chilton’s research as the principal investigator of the Philadelphia site of Children’s HealthWatch, a multi-site surveillance study that monitors the health and well-being of young children under the age of four. In this age range, children are in a period of rapid brain growth and development. Therefore, even mild-to-moderate under-nutrition can have long term negative consequences.

Through stories like Izquierdo’s, and those of Rosie, a fifth-grade student in Colorado, and Tremonica, a second-grade student in Mississippi, the film reveals the serious economic, social and cultural implications hunger poses in the United States and the systemic issues that cause inequality of access to healthy food. Moreover, the film shows that this is a problem that America has solved in the past, and can solve again.

“A Place at the Table” was co-directed and produced by Jacobson and Lori Silverbush. The film’s executive producers are Tom Colicchio (“TV’s Top Chef”), Participant Media’s Jeff Skoll and Diane Weyermann and Christina Weiss Lurie and Jeffrey Lurie (owners of the Philadelphia Eagles). SOURCE: DREXEL UNIVERSITY

Otis "Damon" Harris, a one-time member of the legendary Motown act The Temptations, died on Monday, Feb. 18, 2013, after losing a 14-year-long battle to prostate cancer, according to family spokesman Chuck Woodson. Harris was 62.

Harris, a resident of Owings Mills, Md.,died at the Joseph Richey Hospice in Seton Hill, Md. . Woodson said he was in remission until three years ago. The cancer had "gotten pretty bad" by the end of last summer, Woodson said, leaving Harris in the hospital from November until last week, when he was transferred to the hospice.

In 1971, Harris auditioned for The Temptations at the age of 21, more than a decade younger than the other members. He was brought into the group under one condition: He had to change his first name because the group already had an Otis — founding member Otis Williams.

Harris went on to win three Grammy Awards with The Temptations. As a member, the group also recorded nine gold records. Harris left The Temptations in 1975.

Woodson said Harris also lived in Reno and Philadelphia.

After his original diagnosis, Harris became an advocate for men getting regular prostate exams. He was also active with the organization Stand Up to Cancer. Woodson said Harris became vocal about cancer awareness because he had waited too long to get checked by a doctor.

Independence Blue Cross, Abington Health and Lumeris have launched an Accountable Care Initiative.

The initiative uses Lumeris’ technology and services to improve the coordination of patient care, lower overall health costs and increase patient and physician satisfaction.

This collaboration among a health insurer, a health system, and a health care technology firm is one of the few in the nation and the first of its kind in the Philadelphia region. Through this initiative, Lumeris will aggregate and interpret data from the health insurer and the health system, giving Abington Health and its physicians a comprehensive picture of the care its patients are receiving across the continuum.

Lumeris’ secure cloud-based Accountable Delivery System Platform will combine data from IBC’s Health Informatics — including claims, preauthorizations, hospitalizations, and clinical laboratory results — with data from Abington Health’s electronic medical record system. This gives doctors at Abington a comprehensive view of all the care a patient is receiving. Abington’s physicians will see not only their patients’ data from Abington Health’s physicians and specialists, but also services their patients receive from other network physicians, hospitals, and outpatient surgical centers.

Lumeris will provide consulting services to Abington Health physicians to help identify transformational opportunities for clinical and financial improvement. This includes creating strategies to predict which patients with chronic conditions are at risk of becoming ill, then jointly developing best practices to help those patients and creating resources to better manage their conditions.

“Independence Blue Cross is proud to be a leader in the new era of accountable care, with progressive programs that help transform the delivery and quality of health care,” Daniel J. Hilferty, IBC president and CEO said in a release.

“This initiative with Lumeris and Abington Health advances our organization’s efforts to share real-time data with physicians and hospitals, improve collaboration and coordination, and provide safe, high-quality, and cost-effective care for consumers.”

Last year IBC led the effort with Highmark, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, and Lumeris to acquire NaviNet, the nation’s largest real-time, secure communication network for physicians. As part of IBC and Lumeris’ ongoing partnership with NaviNet, Lumeris will deliver its solution directly to physician desktops via the NaviNet portal. NaviNet speeds and simplifies administrative, financial and clinical transactions among doctors, hospitals and insurers. This initiative marks one of the first uses of the NaviNet network expressly to ease adoption of accountable care.

“We are excited to partner with two of Philadelphia’s leading health care organizations to facilitate data sharing and support their collaborative care goals,” said Mike Long, chairman and CEO of Lumeris.

“Along with our strategic partner NaviNet, we are ideally positioned to help their physicians and other stakeholders improve health outcomes, lower costs, increase collaboration, and enhance patient and physician satisfaction.”

Abington Health was selected for this initiative since it is among the first health systems to participate in IBC’s innovative accountable care payment model, which IBC pioneered in 2010.

“Partnering with IBC in the exchange of timely and more robust patient information will allow us to better provide quality-driven, highly coordinated, integrated health care and supports our mission to improve the health of our community,” says Laurence M. Merlis, president and CEO of Abington Health.

Through this accountable care initiative, the Lumeris solution will help Abington Health fully realize opportunities for incentives under IBC’s industry-leading accountable care payment model, called the Integrated Provider Performance Incentive Plan (IPPIP), an incentive program that rewards doctors and hospitals for delivering higher quality, better coordinated, more efficient care. Lumeris and IBC will evaluate the initiative’s success based on how much Abington Health and its physicians improve their performance on key metrics such as reducing hospital-acquired infection rates and increasing breast cancer screening. The goal is to expand the initiative to other hospitals.

Abington Health Physicians is a network with approximately 200 physicians employed by Abington Memorial Hospital. Its primary care physicians will use Lumeris’ technology to support the more than 30,000 IBC patients they serve, including tracking, monitoring, coordinating, and reporting individual patients’ care or key clinical outcomes for an entire population of patients like those living with heart disease or diabetes.

“Our physicians are excited about the vast amount of actionable data that can be used to improve the integration and quality of their care,” said Dr. Keith Sweigard, medical director of Abington Health Physicians and chief of Internal Medicine at Abington Memorial Hospital.

“We look forward to being able to improve our patients’ adherence to recommendations for screenings like mammograms and colonoscopies and identify gaps in patient compliance. This comprehensive information will also assist a doctor who is caring for a patient with a chronic disease to ensure the patient receives the preventive care they need by tracking their medical appointments, no matter where they occur, their medicines, and the routine tests they need.”

Contact staff writer Ayana Jones at (215) 893-5747 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .