Over the next few months, we’ll be recognizing each awardee of our new Spark Prize with a feature article.
The Spark Prize is a $200,000 award for individuals with outstanding vision, commitment, and promise to improve health and well-being in Missouri. The award is an investment in future impact, giving recipients the freedom to use the funding in whatever way best supports them.
Emily Brown
“Innovation can come from anywhere.”
That’s a reminder Emily Brown returns to often because she’s lived it. Just a decade ago, Emily was a mother on Medicaid, navigating a system to manage her daughters’ chronic conditions. Today, she’s the co-founder and CEO of Attane Health, a mission-driven digital health company helping Medicaid members across the country access the food and care they need to thrive.
Rooted in Lived Experience
Emily’s journey into the health equity space didn’t start in a lab or a boardroom – it started in the grocery aisle.
“We were on WIC and SNAP, and even with that support, it was incredibly difficult to find and afford the food we needed to keep our daughters healthy,” she says.
Her response was to act. She founded the Food Equality Initiative (FEI), one of the first nonprofit organizations in the country to integrate food prescriptions into food bank systems. Under her leadership, FEI grew to a seven-figure operation and reached families across the Midwest. But Emily wasn’t done.
“I saw the food-as-medicine movement coming,” she says, “and I knew that to scale it, we needed tech and we needed people who understood the problem deeply to build that tech.”
So, she left the nonprofit world and launched Attane Health, a digital health company designed to serve those who often receive innovation last: Medicaid recipients and people in rural communities.
A Platform That is Making a Difference
At Attane, Emily and her team have built a platform that helps managed care organizations (MCOs) prescribe and deliver nutrient-dense food as part of standard care. Patients receive credits to select groceries that meet both their medical and cultural needs, delivered straight to their doors. In addition to access, Attane provides one-on-one coaching, evidence-based education, and critical data back to health plans.
“It’s not just about the food,” Emily says. “It’s about building self-efficacy, supporting behavior change, and measuring real outcomes.”
And it’s working. In a recent pilot in Kentucky, Attane improved diabetic HEDIS measures by 25% and lowered A1C levels in a high-risk population. As Emily puts it, “If we don’t measure it, it doesn’t matter. We’re here to prove that food can, and should, be part of care.”
A Vision for Missouri and Beyond
Emily wants to see food-as-medicine reimbursed across Missouri, so that all residents can access the food they need to be and stay healthy.
She’s also thinking nationally. Emily serves on an advisory council at NIH and has given oral testimony to the FDA and USDA, and was part of the American Medical Association’s recent effort to establish new HCPCS codes for food-as-medicine interventions. Still, her focus always returns to the people.
“I believe in the power of patients and data,” she says. “If we can keep patients at the center, and prove the value of what works, we can reshape what health care looks like in this country.”
Being Awarded the Spark Prize
To Emily, the Spark Prize isn’t just a recognition of past work, it’s an investment in future possibility. “This award helps us continue to build here in Missouri,” she says. “We’re not a waiver state yet, so reimbursement is limited. This funding gives us the flexibility to grow partnerships and continue building the evidence for sustainable policy change.”
Beyond the dollars, she sees power in the visibility and community The Spark Prize brings.
“There are so many people doing the work with their heads down,” she says. “This kind of recognition says, ‘We see you and we believe in you.’ That’s huge.”
