Rashonda Jones


When did you begin your fellowship?
July, 2011

Where is your fellowship?
My time is split between the Milwaukee Health Department and the United Way of Greater Milwaukee.

What were you up to prior to the fellowship?
I was finishing my MPH at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and raising my awesome twenty-two month old son, Elijah.

What inspired you to take the fellowship route rather than a different type of job/school/etc.?
 There are so many opportunities to learn and grow, as a public health professional, with the fellowship.  With the fellowship, I am given the opportunity to work on projects in my interest areas, and to have mentors to guide me in the process.  This is not an experience available in regular public health positions.

What are your main areas of interest in public health?
I am most interested in improving birth outcomes in Milwaukee, as well as STD/HIV prevention, and teen pregnancy prevention.

What is one public health achievement that you would like to see in the next twenty-five years?
I would like to see the infant mortality rate for African-American infants in Milwaukee drop drastically.

Akbar Husain


When did you begin your Fellowship?
July 1, 2011

Where is your Fellowship?
The Division of Public Health Western Regional Office in Eau Claire, WI

What were you up to prior to your Fellowship?
Before becoming a fellow I was completing my MPH in Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan (GO BLUE!). While in Ann Arbor I was working on cross-site evaluations of two project; the first focusing on access to fresh foods and the built environment and the second on childhood asthma in Missouri. In addition, I worked with various organizations in the Twin Cities developing programs and policies around the issues of tobacco policy and cancer screening.

What inspired you to take the Fellowship route rather than a different type of job/school/etc.?
I knew I didn’t want to pursue anymore school because I wanted to gain more practical experience in the public health field. The idea of becoming a fellow appealed to me more than a regular job because I felt that it would allow me to engage in public health work more broadly. The flexibility within the fellowship program is something I would not be able to experience as a regular employee.

What are your main areas of interest within public health?
Health disparities, evaluation, built environment.

What is one thing (or many!) you are working on right now in your fellowship?
Working at the regional office has really allowed me to become exposed to a variety of public health issues because it requires close collaboration with local health departments. My main projects will focus on providing technical assistance to local health departments as they work through the process of becoming accredited. In addition I will be working with health departments on their Community Health Improvement Process & Plans (CHIPP).

What is one public health-related activity in your community that you are proud about?
I am new to Eau Claire, but I have been very impressed by the city’s and surrounding area’s push to make the alternative forms of transportation such as walking and biking accessible and normative. There are a lot of options for outdoor recreation.

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 would really like to see the public health world continue to value the wealth of knowledge that community members have when it comes to developing solutions to our most pressing health issues. Academics and public health officials have valuable skills and access to resources, but community members are the experts when it comes to identifying what will and will not work in their communities.

Tyler Weber



When did you begin your Fellowship?
July 2011

Where is your Fellowship?
I spend half my time at the Milwaukee Health Department on 4 month rotations through a variety of different programs including, but not limited to, communicable disease, emergency preparedness, violence prevention, and community health. The other half of my time is spent at Walnut Way working with the Lindsay Heights Neighborhood Health Alliance on a number of different community health initiatives.

What were you up to prior to your Fellowship?
Before moving to Milwaukee I was out in Minneapolis, Minnesota finishing up my Master of Public Health in Maternal and Child Health with a Global Health Concentration at the University of Minnesota and working with the Refugee Health Program at the Minnesota Department of Health.

What inspired you to take the Fellowship route rather than a different type of job/school/etc.?
I carry a strong interest in service learning and community programming. The fellowship placements in state, local, and community public health programs, accompanied by an extensive support network of diverse health professionals, made for a very attractive opportunity.

What are your main areas of interest within public health?
My main interest at the moment is in improving birth outcomes in low resource settings, at home and abroad. More specifically, I want to work to accomplish this by working through public-private partnerships, community collaborative efforts, and conducting and utilizing program evaluations.

Do you have any advice for those interested in the Fellowship?
Take the initiative and apply! This fellowship will challenge your current knowledge and force you to step outside yourself.

Do you read a public health journal/blog/website regularly? If so, what?
I very much enjoy checking into the Global Health Hub every week. There are an overwhelming number of health issues on the planet but there are even more opportunities overcome them. The Global Health Hub does a nice job of giving information about both the problems and solutions.

I also love the Zunia knowledge exchange website, but you’ll just have to check it out yourself…www.zunia.org.

Who is one of the coolest public health people you’ve met?
I must give a shout out to my friends Dr. Osman Ahmed and Asli Ashkir back in Minneapolis, MN. They are hard working, dedicated, and delightful individuals that are tirelessly improving the health of the Somali community both in Minnesota and Somalia.

What is one public health-related activity in your community that you are proud about?
Well I’m new to Milwaukee, but I can say that I’m already impressed with the number initiatives and individuals that are working to better the health of Milwaukee. From the City Health Department to the neighborhoods, there are a lot of involved and incredible people.

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 would like to see more research and programs that highlight and emphasize the importance of collective action and the environmental structures that support it. Even public health we sometimes miss the fact that we are an outcome of whom and what are around us. I see a stronger push in the future towards the wide recognition of topics such as collective efficacy, structural peace, and community resilience.

Fellows present at national conference

Fellows Paul (left) and Kat (right) are joined by colleagues from the University of Minnesota at the NACCHO conference in Hartford, Connecticut

Fellows Kat and Paula, along with Preceptor Geof attended the National Association of City and County Health Officials conference in Hartford, Connecticut. Paula and Geof connected with the health equity community, while Kat presented a poster on tuberculosis.

Kat's poster: "City of Milwaukee Health Department response to a multi-family tuberculosis cluster: Novel methodologies in a case-contact investigation"

Survey of the Health of Wisconsin Community Advisory Board

Ella Dunbar (Social Development Commission), Samuel Holland (SHOW CAB spokesperson), Loren Galvao (Center for Urban Population Health), Kat Grande (Fellow), David Frazer (CUPH)
As a state, Wisconsin is relatively health; it ranked 16th in the United Health Foundation's 2010 American Health Rankings. Milwaukee County, however, presents a starkly different picture in terms of health determinants, ranking as one of the state's least healthy counties: 72st out of the state's 72 counties. To be effective in enhancing the health of Wisconsin's population, Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW) findings must reach and influence the lay public. Elimination of health disparities for African Americans requires that representatives from the affected communities be actively involved in all phases of the research, particularly in planning dissemination strategies. SHOW Community Advisory Board (CAB) members accepted this challenge by participating in an advisory board to SHOW. Fellow Kat Grande was part of the team that supported the efforts of the CAB. 
  • To view a video of the SHOW CAB's presentation to community leaders and researchers about their perspective on health issues affecting their community, visit this website: SHOW CAB presentation

Fellow Class of 2011 graduates!

Congratulations to the Population Health Fellow Class of 2011! Fellows Marisa Stanley, Sara Soka, and Raisa Koltun will be greatly missed. But...keep your eye out for these three women--they'll continue improving the health of Wisconsin and beyond for years to come.

Fellows, preceptors, and staff attend the 2011 Fellow graduation ceremony



Preceptor Casey Schumann, Fellow Marisa Stanley, Preceptor Kristin Hill, Preceptor Jim Vergeront
Jim Vergeront, Director Marion Ceraso, Preceptor Amy Meinen, Fellow Sara Soka, Tom Oliver
Director Marion Ceraso, Preceptor Geof Swain, Fellow Raisa Koltun, Preceptor Sherri Ohly
Fellow Marisa Stanley gives a graduation speech, sporting a handmade graduation stole from a friend at the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center
Fellow Sara Soka delivers her graduation speech, highlighting lessons she has taken from the Fellowship experience
Fellow Raisa Koltun gives her graduation speech, describing how the Fellowship helped her discover her passion for public health policy work

Tribal Health


Each year, the Fellowship crew embarks on a multi-day meeting to learn about an area of public health more deeply. This year's quest took the group to Wisconsin's North Woods to learn about tribal health. We piled into vans and headed north to the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council Epidemiology Center. Fellow Marisa Stanley spent Summer 2010 working with the Epi Center and, with the Center staff, graciously gave the Fellows a look into the world of tribal health. 

After a restful night spent in cabins at the Trout Lake Research Center, we arrived at the Epi Center and received a crash course in Indian Health from Center Director Kristin Hill. We learned about the unique situation of tribal sovereign status, the Federal Government's Trust Responsibility to provide health care to native people, the impact of historical trauma on health, and that there are currently 564 federally recognized tribes nationwide. 

Next, we heard from the Center's Program Director, Isaiah Brokenleg, who provided a straightforward "Working with Native Americans 101." Isaiah's personal stories and experiences working as a Native American public health professional were incredibly powerful and informative.


An amazingly authentic lunch followed the morning's presentations. Center administrator Stacy Stone presented the salivating group with fresh walleye speared by her husband and son, freshly hunted venison, wild rice, berries, frybread, and salad. Basically the most delicious meal ever.


The day's excitement escalated with the afternoon's "Johnnie Cakes Experience," which involved native drumming, dance and singing while learning about the meaning of certain sounds, voices, and messages. A supremely talented singing and drumming duo, Sonny Smart and Keith, got the group moving and grooving.

Next up: a tour of the reservation that included a stop at a cemetery (where we saw mini longhouses next to graves, in which the body's spirit lives), pow wow grounds, and many lakes. 


The educational portion of the day concluded with the viewing of two emotionally exhausting, but critically important documentaries: "Lighting of the Seventh Fire" (about the spearfishing controversy in Northern Wisconsin) and "The Canary Effect" (about the effect of U.S. policies on tribes). The group reflected and vowed to share these films and knowledge with others. 

The next day, the group heard about the uneasy history of boarding schools at a restored Lac du Flambeau boarding school. The historian shared tales of separated families, lost culture, and extremely poor health outcomes as a result of the school policies. 

Next, we toured the beautiful new Pete Christensen Health Center, which provides health care to the region's tribal members. Then we toured the Lac du Flambeau Museum, which tied together all the topics we'd learned about. Lastly, we stopped at the casino for a brunch lunch and goodbye session with our incredible hosts. 

What a unique experience--how lucky are we to have been given this intimate look into a culture and its tumultuous yet resilient history in the context of health? Very.

Social Marketing, New Media & Public Health

Fellows gathered for a day of learning about social marketing--think anti-tobacco Truth campaign, anti-drug Above the Influence public service announcements, and, if you're in Milwaukee, the Strong Babies [get immunized, are breast-fed, shouldn't be around smokers] plastered on billboards and buses.

At KW2 Creative Communications Company, we learned how to develop a social marketing campaign: set goals, determine the target audience, understand the audience, develop a message, deliver the message, and evaluate the results. To practice, we tried to develop a campaign to address bullying. It was tough! We got pretty stuck on determining our target audience: bullies? parents? bullied kids? teachers? And so forth...
Sara, Kelli, and Paula developing a faux-anti-bullying social marketing campaign at KW2 in Madison

For the afternoon session, we headed to UW's brand shiny new Institutes for Discovery and then UW's brand shiny new Union South. As we passed the rock climbing wall and wine bar to our meeting room, the UW alumni among us were in awe. 
Wisconsin Institute for Discovery

Marisa enjoying the Star Trek-like exhibits at the Institute for Discovery
Wisconsin Institute for Discovery
Mesozoic garden and Fibonacci fountain at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery
Raisa at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery
Katherine, Paula, and Sara presented "Social Marketing and Framing for Public Health" to the group, which inspired a good deal of discussion. We ended the session by critiquing (and enjoying) some current public health PSAs like this one from the New York City Health Department. 

Water and Public Health

Fellows and faculty prepare for a tour of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District facility
On World Water Day 2011, Fellows and faculty celebrated appropriately by spending the monthly meeting focusing on the connections between water and public health. The day began with a discussion with the Communications Manager at the Milwaukee wastewater treatment plant.
We learned:
  • How wastewater is cleaned
  • How wastewater byproducts are transformed into Milorganite, a fertilizer
  • How combined sewer overflows happen
  • Details on Milwaukee's Deep Tunnel, which can store over 400 million gallons of water during times of heavy rain
  • About the challenges of treating stormwater
Joyce Harms, MMSD's Communications and Community Relations Manager, describes the current water storage volumes of the plant's systems
This machine drains water from material that will become Milorganite
Exploring the Milorganite heating chambers

Aeration tanks

Clarifiers
After learning about wastewater treatment, the group headed over to the Great Lakes WATER Institute to meet with Dr. Sandra McLellan. She presented her research on bacterial indicators of fecal pollution. That is, she figures out how to tell if places like beaches have traces of human waste--a major transmitter of disease.
Research vessel at the Great Lakes WATER Institute
Geof Swain and Jim Vergeront at the rainy Great Lakes WATER Institute

Discuss: Numbers that Matter

Health information and data can be very powerful in influencing programming, policy and even everyday behavior. Medical and public health research go to great lengths to produce data to inform. We use it all the time to base our work and move innovation, but what about the lay community? What about Milwaukee residents for example?
As you most likely know, infant mortality is and has been a very real and pressing issue for Milwaukee, particularly in comparison to the rest of the state and the country.  UWSMPH and the Wisconsin Partnership Program have initiated a three city initiative, gathering the human capital of our communities and putting resources into the planning of strategic plans to systematically address the issue and funding to implement the plans. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has also taken on the issue this year and will be providing in-depth coverage of the various risk and protective factors.
The challenge I pose here for discussion is to identify a statistic, comparison or some way to relate this issue or some angle of the issue to the Milwaukee residents- who may not be directly affected. If we want to make significant change in our community around infant mortality or any public health issue, we will need to start shifting the conversations towards addressing the social determinants of health and systems or environmental issues that either support or place barriers on the behavior change we seek in public health. Is there some way to bring the issue or the social determinants of health into our everyday life?
Let me share an example from authors of the book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Dan and Chip Health.  I think their example provides a nice narrative model for how to bring the enormity of data to an understandable and impactful level….
“It's possible to create intuition without losing shock value. In the film Super Size Me, documentarian Morgan Spurlock mentions a media campaign that encourages kids to eat five fruits and vegetables per day. Its ad budget is $2 million. Meanwhile, McDonald's annual ad budget for the United States is around $750 million. That's a ratio of 375 to 1. That may help explain why your daughter is more likely to beg for a Happy Meal than a fruit salad.

Spurlock could have gone one step further. His ratio is good -- better than millions and billions -- but we still haven't pulled it inside the frame of daily life. So suppose your 5-year-old daughter watches three hours of cartoons every Saturday morning and sees two McDonald's commercials per hour. Every Saturday, then, Ronald McDonald engages her six times.

How long will it be before your daughter sees a fruits-and-veggies commercial? She'd wait about 14 months to see the first one, and she'd have a driver's license before she saw 10 of them (the same number of McDonald's ads she'd see in two Saturdays).
A good statistic is one that aids a decision or shapes an opinion. For a stat to do either of those, it must be dragged within the everyday. That's your job -- to do the dragging. In our world of billions and trillions, that can be a lot of manual labor. But it's worth it: A number people can grasp is a number that can make a difference.”

Now you have the idea, can we work together to come up with one or more examples of a good statistic that can shape opinion and make a difference in Milwaukee?
Share your ideas and thoughts here. If you want to share your views but don’t want to post here, please email wipopulationhealthfellows@gmail.com.
Read more for background or details about the issues facing Milwaukee as they relate to Infant Mortality.
-David Frazer, MPH
Center for Urban Popuation Health

Public Health Policy and Politics



State Capitol photo by Raisa Koltun
As Fellows met Tuesday, February 15, in an Assembly Hearing room in the state capitol building, cheers could be heard from the demonstrators convened in the rotunda to protest Governor Walker's budget repair bill, particularly the proposal to eliminate collective bargaining for state workers. Serendipitously, the "policy and politics" Fellow meeting theme was right on target.
After a brief introduction to advocacy in public health and a “Wisconsin Government 101” lesson by Fellow Raisa Koltun, the group welcomed Sandy Pasch, the second-term legislator from Assembly District 22. As a psychiatric nurse with training in bioethics, Representative Pasch spoke on a number of public health topics, including the importance of access to health care, challenges in communicating public health messages, and convincing legislators to make health a priority.

Representative Pasch identified challenges and opportunities for public health in the current political environment. Since public health yields savings over a longer timeline, investing in public health can be a tough sell—especially in economically volatile times. When she successfully steers public health policy through the legislature, she half-jokingly tells her dissenting colleagues, "Forty years from now, you're going to thank me for this!"

Fellows and staff asked Pasch how public health can have more of a voice in steering policy. When legislators disregard evidence-based information on which to base policy, Pasch advised public health practitioners to take the information back to the electorate, set up individual appointments with legislators, and encourage constituents to share personal stories related to the topic. “If we are serious about reigning in healthcare costs, we are going to have to do a lot more public health,” Pasch says.

Raisa Koltun

Raisa is currently completing a fellowship in SMPH Department of Population Health where she has gained experience and expertise in adderessing social determinants of health through education and policy change. As of October 2011 she will be serving as the Associate Director for the Wisconsin Center for Health Equity. Raisa brings experience in evaluation, data analysis, program planning and implementation, grant writing and coalition building. She has held trainings, created and implemented strategies around health equity and social determinants of health. She has worked in partnership with several organizations in Milwaukee and statewide with various community, governmental and health care organizations. She currently serves as the chair of the Policy Development committee of WPHA and sits on the Steering Committee of the Milwaukee Latino Health Coalition.

Public Health’s Role in the Justice System

photo credit: http://www.wi-doc.com/milwaukee_secure_detention_fac.htm
  • Fellows gathered for a tour of the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility where they learned about public health challenges in the corrections system, especially those related to inmates re-entering society.
photo credit: http://www.ca-ppi.org/


  •  The group then visited the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute to discuss the organization's Community Justice Project with Marilyn Walczak. The goal of this project is to address many of the public health challenges within the criminal justice system. The project aims to increase the presence of community-based programs as an alternative to incarceration and re-incarceration.

Health Equity and Social Justice

Hightlights
  • Geof Swain provided an overview of the topics of health equity and social justice and introduced some of the Fellows to the Wisconsin Center for Health Equity. [Paula and Raisa work with the Center].
  • Virginia Zerpa-Uriona, Outreach Specialist at the Center for Urban Population Health, gave a moving presentation on "Social justice and research: Anti-HIV stigma campaign in the Latino Community in Milwaukee"
  • Claudia Kabler-Babbit and Maggi Cage of the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center presented LGBT public health intiatives underway at the LGBT Community Center
  • Mark O'Neil, the Director of Youth Services at Diverse and Resilient spoke to the group about capacity building

Global Health and Focus Groups

Highlights
  • Fellows engaged in a panel discussion on global health with John Ferrick, Director of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences International Programs, Jake Moskol, Coordinator of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Global Health Initiative, and Linda Vakunta, MS student in Rehabilitation Psychology from Cameroon. 
  • Betty Kramer, Professor in the School of Social Work at UW-Madison, gave a presentation on "The Art and Science of Interviewing Groups: Focus Group Fundamentals."

Health and the Built Environment: Community Spaces, Parks, and Urban Gardens

Growing Power

 

Growing Power


Fellow Paula Tran Inzeo enjoying greens at Growing Power

Fellows learn about urban gardens at Growing Power
Speaking with Venice Williams, Alice's Garden Program Director

Program Coordinator Lesley Wolf sprinkles worm dropping fertilizer onto lettuce at Growing Power

Fellow Sara Soka observes the aquaculture setup at Growing Power

Learning about the mulching process at Growing Power
Alice's Garden