Drema Mace Hill

Photo by The TGG Group.

By Ken Magill

David Drema Mace Hill never backs down from a challenge. After suffering extensive injuries to her legs and feet, in addition to internal injuries, from a car accident in 1985, she spent the next three years of her life in a wheelchair while learning to walk again.

While accepting social security disability could have been an easy choice for Hill—and she certainly qualified—Hill continued working, and she wouldn’t have had it any other way. The ripple effects being immeasurable, it is impossible to calculate the number of people who have benefited from this decision.

“Choosing to work impacted my career by making me a human that is grateful for every day of life and has motivated me to achieve all I can with the gifts God has bestowed,” says Hill, who today serves as the vice president for community engagement and development for the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine (WVSOM).

With more than three decades of experience working in public health leadership positions for the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health, the Tennessee Department of Health, Vanderbilt’s Nashville Health Management Foundation and Comprehensive Care Center and the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Health Office, Hill has spent her career focused on serving marginalized populations, building small community infrastructures that are inclusive, equitable and meet the needs of the people served.

“I understand the culture and love people,” she says. “I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life. As the vice president for community engagement and development at WVSOM, I get to utilize my education, experience and skills to do what I love. I appreciate being in a place where innovation and thinking outside the box are not only allowed but much appreciated.”

Hill’s current roles at WVSOM involve providing oversight and direction for the WVSOM Center for Rural and Community Health—a center dedicated to improving the well-being of West Virginians through building infrastructure to empower communities—as well as working with the Office of Attorney General Patrick Morrisey on opioid settlements.

“Due to the work of the Office of the Attorney General, West Virginia has received the largest per capita settlement in the nation,” says Hill. “I appreciate the opportunity to impact the opioid epidemic in West Virginia.”

Hill is not only passionate about her work, but she is also dedicated to giving back. She has volunteered with domestic violence shelters, served on several boards of directors and is actively involved in community projects through her church. For Hill, the most important work she does is with Health Integrated Multisectoral Services (HIMS) in Tanzania, a group she was introduced to in 2018.

“HIMS rescues young girls from female genital mutilation, which is still in practice there,” she says. “I believe what impacts another human across the globe, impacts us all. We can’t have a hole in one side of the boat and think our side won’t sink as well.”

Hill is dedicated to making a difference in all the work she does.

“I am a change agent,” she says. “Innovation usually occurs when people disagree. I never see disagreement as the end of an issue, I see it as the beginning from which you can build. I strive to always practice kindness, even when dealing with challenges and people who are not always kind.”

After spending part of her career working in Tennessee, Hill returned to West Virginia in 2010 to further public health initiatives here.

“I was born and grew up in rural Boone County. We did not have any money, but my six siblings and I had an engaged, godly and loving mother—priceless,” she says. “For me, the mountains are my home. West Virginia is where I learned to be resourceful and think for myself. I am connected to the Mountain State because it is in my blood. The people of the Mountain State are resilient and strong, and I am proud to be among them.”