Throughout the 2024-2025 academic year, the LBJ School teamed up with social care technology company Findhelp to host live recordings of the newest episodes of the American Compassion podcast. The series of tapings featured policymakers, experts, educators and leaders in social care who participated in panel discussions about the past, present and future of the social safety net.
The series began on September 18, 2024 with the session, The Broken U.S. Safety Net, in which our panelists took a big picture look at the modern safety net. They asked the questions: how did we get here, what’s broken, and what are the biggest challenges standing in the way of Americans who need help?
Moderated by Rebecca McInroy, the panel included a range of industry experts such as Erine Gray, founder of Findhelp and LBJ School alum; Dr. Pritesh Gandhi, Chief Community Health Officer at Walmart; Isha Deselle, founder of Turning Point Center; and Maninder “Mini” Kahlon, associate professor in the University of Texas-Austin Dell Medical School's Department of Population Health.
The discussion focused on providing context on what the safety net is, why it was established, and how it came to be. Our panelists spoke about the ways in which we've seen the threads of the Safety Net unravel, as COVID revealed how tenuous the invisible strings of this net are. However, our panelists end the conversation with a feeling of optimism, noting that there are so many good people out in the world who are committed to fighting for care and dignity for others.
The second session of the series, What Happens Now, took place on Wednesday, November 13, 2024, and this conversation focused on the results of the 2024 US presidential election, exploring what the outcome means for social care and the future of the safety net — for the next four years, at least.
The panel featured experts from multiple sectors, including Glen Chambers, Senior Vice President for External Relations at Findhelp; Barbara Chapman, nurse practitioner leader and advocate; Paul Stekler, political documentary filmmaker and educator; and Bob Wood, Chairman and CEO of BGR Group.
“If you're volunteering for the things that matter to you, then you're really an informed, better citizen,” said Chambers. “You're acting locally and you're keeping the safety net running in spite of the funding, in spite of what people say about it.”
On February 12, 2025, we hosted the third session of the series, Social Care in the Digital Age, in which our speakers discussed the flaws in the safety net and the political realities that exist in 2025, as they explored how we can modernize the system and discussed the roles played by AI, health insurance companies, and SDoH tech.
The panel featured a host of healthcare and policy experts, including Sherri Greenberg, Professor at LBJ School and Steve Hicks School of Social Work; Jaffer Traish, Chief Operating Officer at Findhelp; Emily Barey, Vice President of Nursing at Epic; and Amy K. McCarthy, Chief Nursing Officer at Hippocratic AI.
During audience Q&A, LBJ School professor Sherri Greenberg was asked about how AI could negatively affect workers in the healthcare space by being biased and driving down wages, to which she said:
"There's so many applications where the AI will not replace [workers] but could assist them in learning and having a safer environment."
The fourth and final part of the American Compassion series took place on March 26, 2025, titled Who’s Doing it Best? This session honed in on the individuals, organizations and places that are utilizing innovative approaches to modernizing and improving the social safety new. By highlighting instances of success and creative solutions, others are inspired to adopt similar strategies, foster collaboration, and ultimately create a more robust and inclusive safety net that addresses the various needs within society.
The panel featured Adrien Lewis, founder and President of CarePortal, Amber Lombardi, founder of nonprofit dental practice Mainely Teeth, Erine Gray (MPAff '04), social care tech leader, and Julian Paraschiv, co-founder and former CEO of AIDA Healthcare.
"I had to um enroll myself in learning about business and leadership and be very intentional, and that was just as important. And I had to tell myself that's just as important as caring for the kid that doesn't have a toothbrush or has an abscess, so I was able to find the other people to start caring for those people and then step aside and really hone in on learning these things." - Amber Lombardi, founder of Mainely Teeth