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In this episode, hosts Ed O’Malley and Susan Kang are joined by Kansas Health Foundation’s Associate Vice President, Drew Wilburne, to dive into Mindset #6, Policy Over Politics. 

Through lived experiences, the team breaks down the difference between policy and politics and what it looks like to bring together advocates, activists and bridgers to work on a health challenge. 

In the conversation, Drew discusses his work on Pennsylvania’s Council on Reform under Governor Tom Wolf, the Wichita groundwater contamination crisis and how the Medicaid expansion debate in Kansas has become a proxy for political factions rather than a genuine policy conversation. The takeaway is clear: putting policy over politics is harder, not easier, than the alternative, and it’s really the only path that lasts.

Highlights

• Understanding the difference between policy advocacy and political advocacy.
• Why “policy over politics” is harder than the default approach, not easier: it requires leaning into disagreement rather than papering over it.
• The three roles needed for transformative policy change: advocates (who speak up), activists (who mobilize advocates) and bridgers (who find common ground across factions).
• How working upstream on health naturally leads to policy work — because individual motivation isn’t enough when systemic conditions prevent people from being healthy.
• Drew’s experience leading Pennsylvania’s Council on Reform under Governor Tom Wolf, and how the governor used his authority to design a process that forced collaboration across agencies, parties, and sectors.
• The Wichita groundwater contamination crisis: a decades-old chemical spill that went undiscovered for nearly 40 years and how a coalition of state senators, county commissioners, city council members, foundations and community organizations came together to secure $2.5 million for resident testing.
• How the Medicaid expansion debate in Kansas became a proxy political fight rather than a policy conversation, and what a policy-over-politics approach to expanding healthcare access could look like instead.
• The emerging insight that those in authority can create a policy-over-politics mindset by designing the engagement process, not by dictating solutions.

Chapters

• 2:10 — Why Policy Over Politics
• 4:34 — Policy vs. Political Advocacy
• 6:43 — Upstream Health Through Policy
• 9:29 — Advocates, Activists, Bridgers
• 12:53 — Welcome Drew Wilburne
• 15:55 — Drew’s Lesson’s Learned 
• 20:14 — Coalition Example: Pennsylvania Reform
• 25:33 — Systemic Strike Force
• 26:28 — Designing the Process
• 28:20 — Inviting Opposing Voices
• 29:06 — Setting the Stage Long Term
• 30:12 — Kansas Groundwater Crisis
• 32:56 — Collaboration Across Sectors
• 34:27 — Leaders Using Authority Well
• 37:36 — Kansas Ten Years Out
• 38:10 — Medicaid Expansion Reframed
• 40:40 — Bridgers Over Factions
• 43:33 — Key Takeaways

Resources

• Refer back to the episode on Working Upstream
• Review how to Create Collaboration as you work through policy
• Learn more about Judy Huemann and see the Crip Camp Documentary

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