By Brianna Saylor, News Editor
Originally Published April 23, 2024
On Tuesday, April 9, Elaine Bennett, Dean of the School of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, and Mike Walsh, Saint Vincent College (SVC) alum and Deputy Secretary for Administration of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, hosted a dinner for students to meet retired Senator Allen Kukovich, who introduced the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in Pennsylvania a little over 30 years ago, which its introduction, has expanded healthcare access to millions of children and families who did not have access to health insurance.
Reflecting on his time at SVC, Walsh explained how he met Senator Kukovich at a dinner like this one years ago. Partnering with SVC to make this dinner happen was particularly meaningful for him because meeting Kukovich as a student set him on a trajectory for a very successful career in public service and public policy. Walsh later became Director of Policy for Senator Kukovich, where he focused on land-use planning and urban revitalization issues and helped launch the Smart Growth Partnership of Westmoreland County. Now, he is the Deputy Secretary for Administration at the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR).
Kukovich went on to express the importance of networking and getting to know the people in your communities. Kukovich himself spent nearly three decades in public service, some of which involved time in the Pennsylvania General Assembly and continued involvement in economic development initiatives.
“Some of the best ideas for changing policy and for changing the law, those don’t originate in a state capital, in Harrisburg, or even Washington, DC; they usually start in communities where people are having problems and trying to deal with them, and CHIP is a great example of that.”
A common theme throughout the talk was the idea of really taking the time to get to know yourself and find your niche in life. Kukovich and Walsh reiterated the importance of taking the time to get to know yourself before you enter anything—whether that be politics, business, or anything else.
“It might take year of learning and listening, but you have to find something that really matters, something that you yourself can wake up one day and know that you put the effort and the dedication into that and made an impact bigger than yourself,” said Kukovich.
Students interested in public service and policy are invited to learn more about retired Senator Allen Kukovich and CHIP by watching the nearly released documentary, Children in Crisis: The Story of Chip, on PBS, which explains how when the steel industry collapsed in the early 1980s, many families were left without any healthcare coverage for their children. As displaced steelworkers banded with church leaders in the hardest hit sections of Pittsburgh, a grassroots program expanded into one of the most important federal children’s healthcare programs ever enacted–the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
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