Rosenberg Lecture on Healthcare Quality
Cancer Care on the Navajo Nation – Advancing Quality Through Culturally Relevant Care
Still from NAVAJO NATION USA film.
In 2019, the Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation on the Navajo Nation in Arizona opened the first-ever cancer center on Native land in the United States. The center represents a landmark achievement in addressing decades of health inequities linked to uranium mining and environmental injustice, which left generations of Navajo families at elevated risk for cancer and other illnesses.
By providing care that is accessible, community-based, and culturally adapted, the center has redefined what quality care looks like for Native patients. Hundreds of individuals and families now receive treatment closer to home from providers who understand and honor their traditions, language, and lived experiences—demonstrating how cultural relevance is inseparable from healthcare quality.
This year, HPM’s annual Rosenberg Lecture on Healthcare Quality highlighted the intent and impact of the award-winning documentary film NAVAJO NATION USA. The Rosenberg programming included three complementary screenings of NAVAJO NATION USA on Mailman's campus. The lecture featured a talkback with the film’s producer Kim Thiboldeaux and Tuba City Regional Health Care Center's Oncology Services Program Director Tanya “TJ” Riggs. Their work illustrates how quality improvement in healthcare is not only about systems and outcomes, but also about ensuring care is equitable, respectful, and rooted in the needs of the communities it serves.
Speakers
Kim Thiboldeaux is a nationally-recognized healthcare leader, patient advocate, author, and film producer with experience in both the private and nonprofit sectors. She currently serves as CEO of the Northeast Business Group on Health (NEBGH), a nonprofit, employer-led coalition committed to driving healthcare value and improving outcomes for employees and their families. NEBGH’s members collectively cover more than 9 million lives in the U.S. and 15.5 million globally. Previously, Kim served as CEO of the Cancer Support Community (CSC) for 20 years, growing it into a global nonprofit network providing more than $50 million annually in free services and resources to cancer patients and their families. Through her career, Kim has been appointed to prominent national boards and panels, including the NIH Novel and Exceptional Technology Advisory Committee and The Biden Cancer Initiative Board of Directors. Kim is also Executive Producer of the award-winning documentary Navajo Nation USA, author of the full-length book Your Cancer Road Map, and has been widely featured in national and trade media.
T.J. Riggs is a member of the Navajo tribe, and her clans are Mexican Navajo (mother’s clan) born for Edgewater (father’s clan), her maternal grandparents are Red Streak Running Into Water, and her paternal grandparents are the Bitterwater people. She resides in Northern Arizona, in a small community called Teec Ya Kin (Houses Under the Trees), with her husband. They have four sons born for Coyote Pass, her husband’s clan.
She holds a master’s degree in Administration with an emphasis in Leadership and bachelor’s degree in Health Sciences – Community Health from Northern Arizona University. She has over twenty-six years of healthcare experience. Her involvement in clinical program design, development, and strategic partnerships are integral parts in sustaining oncology services in her tribal community.
She is strongly committed to improving the health and wellness of Native Americans and advocates for patients and community members who encounter the challenges of health care accessibility. Especially for those who must seek treatment hundreds of miles away from home. Advocating for cancer treatment and survivorship for Native Americans is her passion.
The Film: NAVAJO NATION USA
In the Navajo Nation, life can be beautiful, but dangerous. From 1944 to 1986, 30 million tons of uranium was extracted, leaving a legacy of cancer-causing uranium in 524 abandoned mines. Many Navajo people worked the mines, often living and raising families in close proximity to the mines and mills. Although the mines are no longer operational, they were never properly closed and capped. Consequently, today, a legacy of uranium contamination remains, including over 500 abandoned uranium mines (AUMs) as well as homes and water sources with elevated levels of radiation.
Navajo Nation USA is a full-length, feature documentary about the cancer center and the triumphs and challenges of the Navajo people. To learn more, visit https://www.navajonationusa.com.
T.J. Riggs presents Professor Bill Gold with a gift at the Rosenberg Lecture.
Kim Thiboldeaux speaking to students and faculty at the Rosenberg Reception on November 20, 2025.
A Tribute to Stephen N. Rosenberg, MD, MPH
Dr. Stephen N. Rosenberg (1941-2010 ) was a “Renaissance man” and a treasure. With a charming and supportive disposition, all who knew him were blessed that he had passed through their lives. As someone proficient at multi-tasking, Steve was a practitioner, administrator, educator, researcher, policy setter, author, board and committee member and international consultant often doing many things simultaneously. Importantly, Steve adored his family - wife, Barbara who died December 2012, and 2 children, Jordy who is on faculty at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Amanda who is a physician, living in Australia.
Finishing medical school at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and then an MPH from Harvard during the height of the Viet Nam war, Steve was part of a generation of physicians who selected to dedicate their careers to public health. Steve began by working as a health officer in the South Bronx for the New York City Department of Health (DOH) and after time in their central office, adventured out as a county health officer in Southern California before settling back in New York City (NYC).
Dr. Rosenberg was a pioneering academic and visionary with early work in containing costs and assuring quality through practice at DOH and the Mayor’s Office of Labor Relations (OLR) and conducting utilization studies in health services research. He monitored the quality of Medicaid services delivered in NYC in 1970. At OLR in the 1980-90’s, Steve changed how NYC negotiated its labor benefits. He created a cost/quality component in the city’s purchase of health insurance so that over one million employees, retirees and dependents received high quality health care at a reasonable price. Steve’s legacy in improving outcomes and effectiveness in NYC includes second surgical opinion, pre-authorization for high cost claims, and quality review of plans.
Steve came to the School of Public Health (SPH) in 1974 and continued to work full time for NYC from 1975-94. He was a talented storyteller which made him an admirable and much anticipated lecturer. Steve taught the core Health Administration course and also taught courses on Quality Assurance, patient and physician relationship and community medicine. He spread his good humor and keen observations through numerous SPH committees and work groups. In Steve’s honor, the Department of Health Policy and Management holds a well-attended annual lecture series focusing on healthcare quality.
Steve’s passion for writing led him to write The Brenda Maneuver, a detective story about uncovering fraud based on what Steve was seeing in his work. While at DOH when Medicare and Medicaid became law, clinics delivering neighborhood services committed fraud in their billing. The clinics were organized as shadow corporations so it was difficult to find the liable parties. Steve told the story of the analogy between “The Brenda Maneuver” and Medicaid fraud every semester in the core Health Administration course. The book was reviewed by the New York Times. Steve also wrote a Johnson and Johnson First Aid Book which was translated into multiple languages. Steve was working on a prescient second novel about a global pandemic which is unfinished.