Paula Tran Inzeo

 When did you begin your Fellowship?  

July 2010

Where is your Fellowship? 

Wisconsin Division of Public Health (Administrator’s Office and Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Health)

What were you up to prior to your Fellowship?  

I was in Graduate School before the Fellowship.

What inspired you to take the Fellowship route rather than a different type of job/school/etc.?  

I wanted the opportunity to explore public health in the government sector and hone specific public health skills, specifically, policy work, program management and grant writing/management.

What are your main areas of interest within public health?  

Health Equity and Health Disparities

What is one thing (or many!) you are working on right now in your fellowship? 

My current projects fall under three broad areas:

Health Equity and Disparities
1.    Support in the Minority Health Program
2.    Support for the Wisconsin Center for Health Equity
3.    Participating in a Health Disparities Work Group

Environmental Health
1.    Health Impact Assessment
2.    Environmental health indicator development
3.    Lead Joint Resolution Report

Policy
1.    Healthiest Wisconsin 2020 Implementation
2.    Workforce Development
3.    Wisconsin Act 198 Implementation

Do you have any advice for those interested in the Fellowship? 

It is helpful to think carefully and honestly about the areas in which you would like to learn more and get more experience to really drive your experience.

Do you have a public health role model/hero?

There is not one single person that I would be comfortable identifying as a public health hero. I think the field of public health is really about collaborative partnerships and leadership and I believe that concept is inspirational. 

What is one public health-related activity in your community that you are proud about?

In recent years, Madison has experienced a powerful local foods movement that has been very creative and from the grassroots level. It was wonderful to see communities rising to the challenge of taking back food systems.

What is one public health achievement you think will happen in the next 25 years? What is one you would like to see in the next 25 years?  

I think we will see and hope to see a greater number of resources/dollars consistently allocated to public health in the next 25 years- not very creative, but pretty important.

Kelli Stader

Alumni Fellow Kelli Stader is leading the way in the Division of Public Health to start working towards public health accreditation. The new national public health accreditation program launching this Fall will examine state, local, and tribal health departments according to a variety of standards and measures established by the Public Health Accreditation Board. The PHAB standards are based on the 10 essential public health services, which Wisconsin also outlines in state statute. The accreditation process will support performance management and quality improvement efforts, will hold health departments accountable for their work, will improve communication and sharing within agencies, and will recognize excellence in those health departments meeting the established standards.

Kelli has convened a division-wide team to guide DPH through a self-assessment process according to the PHAB standards. This group will identify gaps and weaknesses to address, as well as strengths to build upon. She hopes that over the next year, the entire division will embrace accreditation as a worthwhile and beneficial addition to the world of public health!

First year (2010-11):

I am a first year fellow, splitting my time between the WI Division of Public Health, Southern Regional Office and the Milwaukee Health Department. Prior to the fellowship, I completed my MPH at the University of Minnesota in nutrition and global health. I also completed a 6-month dietetic internship in the Twin Cities. I decided to apply for the Population Health Fellowship because it seemed like a great way to learn about what is happening in public health in Wisconsin. It's a perfect opportunity to gain real world experience in a variety of public health areas, which is more than one can gain from the average job. Currently, I am working on numerous projects, from evaluating a prenatal care program to working on a nutrition education grant to assisting a WIC program with quality improvement. From my experience so far, I would highly recommend the fellowship to other recent MPH graduates. After less than three months in the program, I have already gained valuable knowledge and have gotten the chance to improve many skills I started to develop as an MPH student.

Casey Schumann

When did you complete your Fellowship?

January 2008

Where did you complete your Fellowship?

Wisconsin Division of Public Health, AIDS/HIV Program

What are you doing now, and where?

Epidemiologist for the AIDS/HIV Program, DPH

How did the Fellowship contribute to your current situation?

My Fellowship contributed directly and I am working for the same program that I did as a fellow. I also learned about the structure and culture of working in state government during the Fellowship, which better prepared me for my current position. 

Do you have any advice for current Fellows or those interested in the Fellowship?

The Fellowship is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work on a variety of projects across Program areas instead of being tied to a task or line of work like a permanent employee is.  Unless you are SO passionate about a subject that you know the type of work you eventually want to do, take advantage of the Fellowship in terms of trying different things.

What types of projects are you currently involved in?

Most of my projects involve analysis of epidemiologic and service utilization data for people living with HIV in Wisconsin.  I also work closely with my care, prevention, and surveillance colleagues in the program to improve HIV testing and care services in Wisconsin.

What is one public health-related activity in your community that you are proud about?

The Statewide smoking ban. It is so nice to be able to go out for dinner, or to enjoy a cocktail before a show at the Overture Center and not smell like smoke.

Geof Swain, MD, MPH [Preceptor and Co-Founder]

Geof has been involved in the Fellowship since the first call for potential placement sites came out. In his view, the Fellowship program is an excellent example of the commitment of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UW SMPH) to community-academic partnerships that strengthen the public health workforce, help eliminate health disparities, and improve the health of Wisconsin communities (not to mention effectively develop the future public health workforce). He considers this program to be one of the finest examples of true partnerships between the University and the people of Wisconsin, in the fine tradition of the Wisconsin Idea.

What are a few highlights of your background in public health?

I trained as a family physician, but have been involved in governmental public health practice since late 1993, and completed my MPH in Health Services Administration in 2003. I am an Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Population Health Sciences at the UW SMPH, and currently serve as Chief Medical Officer for the City of Milwaukee Health Department (MHD), Center Scientist for the Center for Urban Population Health, Interim Director of the Wisconsin Center for Health Equity, Adjunct Associate Professor of the UW-Milwaukee School of Public Health, Affiliate Faculty for the UW-LaCrosse MPH program, Steering Committee member for the UW-Madison MPH Program, the National Social Justice Workgroup of the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), and Vice President of the Wisconsin Public Health Association (WPHA). I recently was awarded WPHA’s Presidential Citation for contributions to WHPA and to public health in the state.

What are your main areas of interest within public health?

I began my 17 year tenure at MHD with a focus on communicable diseases (especially STDs), immunization programs, and occupational health. More recently my focus has broadened to include birth outcomes, emergency and outbreak response, and public health education / workforce development (including the UW-Madison MPH program, Fellowship program, and transformation of the UW SMPH to an integrated school of medicine and public health). But if I were to pick just one single area of interest, it is in addressing the social and economic determinants of health, and preparing the future public health workforce to do so.

What is one project you are working on right now that you are really excited about? 

I am extremely excited about the Wisconsin Center for Health Equity. Founded at MHD, the WCHE – now a partnership between MHD and WPHA – aims to create a society where everyone has an equal chance to be healthy by: a) educating policymakers, health professionals, and the general public about the links between social determinants of health (SDoH) and health outcomes; b) working with policymakers to influence policies that affect the SDoH; and c) working in communities to increase community civic capacity to affect social and economic policy. The WCHE also works with partner organizations to help strengthen their respective efforts to address poverty, unemployment, low educational attainment, and related SDoH. In my view, this is the last, most important frontier for public health; if we can make progress in these areas we can potentially reduce health disparities to residual levels, but if we keep doing only what we’ve been doing we will keep getting the unacceptable results we’ve been getting.

Do you have any advice for those interested in the Fellowship?

One word: APPLY!

Do you have a public health role model/hero? 

It’s hard to pick just one. For this purpose, I’ll go with Joycelyn Elders, the first African-American US Surgeon General, because, whether you agree with her positions or not, it’s clear that she was not afraid to stand by her personal and professional convictions about what was right in public health, even at the risk of her job. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joycelyn_Elders for more details.

Who is one of the coolest public health people you’ve met?

Geez – they’re almost all cool! That’s one of the many great things about working in public health – you get to work with so very many really cool people. Honestly, I’ve felt this way since my very first day in Public Health 17 years ago.

What is one public health-related activity in your community that you are proud about?

Again, there are so many examples to choose from. I am proud that the Milwaukee Health Department is so great at emergency response - - whether it was the first outbreak ever in history of Monkeypox in the Western Hemisphere, or one of the first to link an E Coli 0157H7 outbreak to spinach, or our remarkably effective response to pandemic 2009 H1N1 influenza, there are many examples of MHD stepping up and meeting urgent challenges. More broadly, I am proud of the Milwaukee community for collectively addressing teen pregnancy (under the leadership of the United Way), for implementing a comprehensive sex-education curriculum (under the leadership of the Milwaukee Public Schools), and for coming together to address various drivers of infant mortality and other poor birth outcomes (under a variety of leaders).

What is one public health achievement you think will happen in the next 25 years? What is one you would like to see in the next 25 years?

In 25 years, nobody will think that healthcare is the main driver of health, and nobody will credibly question the causal link between social determinants of health (SDoH) “upstream” and health outcomes “downstream.” Further, 25 years from now we will have a large cadre of public health professionals who will be well-trained – and highly effective – in policy analysis, policy advocacy, and community organizing / community civic capacity building to address SDoH through policy change. Public health will do much less individual-level intervention, and will mainly focus on truly population-level interventions - - and that will be a great thing.

Welcome!

Welcome message from Marion Ceraso, Fellowship Program Director:

What’s in a Name: The Wisconsin Population Health Service Fellowship

As Program Director for the newly renamed Wisconsin Population Health Service Fellowship, I get a privileged view of the impressive service Fellows are providing to Wisconsin organizations and communities.  Thanks to Kat, our Fellowship blogger, for creating this opportunity for current and past fellows, preceptors, faculty, staff and other partners to share a window onto important work in public health going on in Wisconsin and beyond, and to maintain their links to this network of colleagues and friends.

Here’s just a little taste of all the work that’s going on this year – by Fellow in alphabetical order:

Katarina (Kat) Grande (placed in the Milwaukee Health Department and the Center for Urban Population Health) is documenting the oral histories of local community members who are advising the statewide research project, the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin; Raisa Koltun (placed in the Milwaukee Health Department and Proyecto Salud) is writing her fingers off to bring grant resources to efforts to improve the health and well being of Milwaukee’s Latino community; Sara Soka (placed in the Wisconsin Division of Public Health) is piloting fruit and vegetable toolkits in communities working to promote healthier restaurant and grocery store environments; Marisa Stanley (placed in the Division of Public Health) is collaborating with the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council EpiCenter in Lac de Flambeau on  a program to reduce non-traditional use of tobacco; Paula Tran Inzeo (placed in the Division of Public Health) is conducting an analysis to quantify returns on investment in lead prevention programs; Kelli Truszynski (placed with the Southern Regional Office of the Division of Public Health and with the Milwaukee Health Department) is analyzing clinic flow and making recommendations for improvement in the Grant County WIC clinic; Katherine Vaughn Jehring (placed with the Division of Public Health and the Allied Wellness Center) is working with a statewide team to implement Wisconsin’s state health plan, Healthiest Wisconsin 2020.