Philadelphia researcher honored for work on rural opioid crisis

He lives in Philadelphia and his office overlooks a parking lot in suburban Montgomery County, but Glenn Sterner's roots and his work are rural.

Sterner, an assistant professor of criminal justice at Penn State Abington, was given the 2022 Rural Health Hero of the Year Award by the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health for his work on the opioid epidemic, human trafficking, and other issues across the state. While Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood is an opioid epicenter visited by journalists from across the globe, some rural counties in the state have had higher overdose rates, per capita in recent years.

“It's a little bit more hidden,” Sterner said in a recent interview at his office. “In rural places, your neighbor down the road, a mile away, might be dealing with this and you don't know. It's also much more stigmatized.”

Sterner, through the Criminal Justice Research Center, is helping Pennsylvania counties, law enforcement agencies, and school districts maximize their share of the opioid settlement funding. Pennsylvania is set to receive $1 billion for drug treatment and prevention programs.

“Rural places continue to have issues associated with access to treatment, but I am happy that Pennsylvania is seeing that as something we need to take on,” Sterner said.

In 2021, according to the state attorney general's office, 5,168 Pennsylvanians died from overdoses.

Sterner said he's spent the most time working in Central and Southwestern Pennsylvania, along with Wyoming County, helping officials there plan ways to use the money.

Rural Pennsylvania's wider issues, such as poor Internet access and dwindling access to healthcare all affect drug addiction issues, Sterner said.

“If we know that rural health is an issue, we have to develop solutions out there all the way from substance abuse to one gym that might be able to serve some people,” he said. “We also have think about rural health in a more comprehensive way. It's not just about the physical body. It's about the health of the community, the economy, and making sure there's opportunity.”

Sterner, 40, grew up in Pewamo, Michigan, a small, farming town about 30 miles north of Lansing. He attended and later taught at Michigan State before earning a PhD in rural sociology from The Pennsylvania State University.

“I don't do this work for recognition,” he said. “I'm not going to solve the problem, but if I can be a piece of that solution and help other people find ways to address the issues, and find ways to connect with communities, that would reward enough for me.”