Community health conference focuses on benefits of peer support

By Andrea Knies // University Communications and Marketing

When Dane Minnick became the Evelyn Duvall Endowed Chair of Family Development and Community Health in 2022, he found guidance in letters written nearly 40 years ago by Duvall, a pioneer of family development research.

Her message was clear: Lasting progress comes from listening to families and communities first. That’s the focus of the annual Duvall Conference, which drew more than 200 researchers, practitioners and community members to USF in April. Together, they sought to turn shared challenges into practical solutions.

Listening to community partners, Minnick identified peer support as a timely topic for the 2026 conference.

“You can’t replicate the insight that comes from lived experience,” he says, emphasizing that effective care depends on recognizing those closest to the challenges as experts.

Peer support helps fill the gap created by persistent behavioral health care workforce shortages by connecting people who’ve faced similar challenges, said keynote speaker Beth Walters of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.  

Moving away from top-down decision-making and toward systems that recognize individuals as experts in their own lives improves trust and leads to better outcomes, she said.

Panelists representing public health, local government and families affected by behavioral health issues discussed both progress and obstacles. While support for peer-led approaches is growing, they emphasized the need for aligned policy, funding and training. Long-term success depends on formalizing peer roles and fully integrating them into care teams, speakers noted.

The conference is just one effort supported by the endowed chair. Its two primary initiatives are the Duvall National Scholarship Program and the Sarasota-Manatee Duvall Initiative, both aimed at improving community health. 

Guided by Duvall’s principles, the institute recently launched the Duvall Journal of Family and Community Health and expanded its national reach by applying for more than $4 million in federal grant funding and earning acceptance in the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement.

Those efforts reflect a growing local network of more than 100 partners and demonstrate how universities and communities can drive meaningful change when academic knowledge complements lived experience.

To learn more about the Duvall Initiative, go to usf.to/Duvall.