KPHA Fall
Conference - Winners!
We are still wrapping up loose
ends from the KPHA Fall Conference! The photos are available on
the web site. So, if you attended the Conference, most likely
you will find yourself in one of them! Thanks to Nicole Heim,
our Associate Director for taking such great photos. We also want
to again Congratulate the Award winners….if you didn’t
make it to the Conference, below is their information:
 Samuel
J. Crumbine Medal- Doren D. Fredrickson
Professor Doren D. Fredrickson, MD, PhD, was a tenured professor
in Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of
Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita (KUSM-W) and the Health Officer
of the Sedgwick County Health Department. He also was the Kansas
Health Foundation Distinguished Professor of Public Health. Dr.
Fredrickson was a "triple threat" in academic medicine:
an outstanding clinician, great educator, and well-trained and
respected researcher. He received his undergraduate degree in
Spanish from the University of Kansas and his medical degree from
the University of Kansas Medical Center. He completed his pediatric
residency in Kansas City and then attended the University of North
Carolina, completing a PhD in epidemiology and a second residency
in preventive medicine.
His many honors and awards included the KU Golden Apple Teaching
Award, the National Conference for Community and Justice Brotherhood
and Sisterhood Award, and the W.T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching
Excellence. He was a Kansas Health Foundation Health Leadership
Fellow and a Technical Advisor for UNICEF. He also received a
US Public Health Service National Research Service Award. He trained
and mentored countless MPH and medical students at KUSM-W, which
led to many award-winning scientific presentations. He taught
several courses for the KU-MPH program, including courses on data
management and epidemiology. His clinical work included the Sedgwick
County Health Department, KU Department of Pediatrics at Wesley
Hospital, and Via Christi-St Francis Department of Family Practice
Child Clinic.
Dr. Fredrickson published more than 30 articles on topics such
as breastfeeding, immunization, health literacy, chronic disease,
uninsured children, child care, SIDS, and abstinence education.
These areas allowed him to use both epidemiology and pediatric
skills for public health practice and for research into primary
care, health services, and maternal and child public health.
Dr. Fredrickson was beloved for his kind nature and profound
humanitarian spirit. His dedicated volunteer service included
the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund-Dental Advisory Board;
Visioneering Wichita Health Alliance Leadership; Medical Society
of Sedgwick County; Sedgwick County Immunization Task Force; Governor’s
Task Force on Adult Literacy and Learning; Kansas Department of
Health and Environment Diabetes Advisory Board; Kansas Department
of Health and Environment Kansas Perinatal Advisory Committee;
Kansas Abstinence Education Consultants, Inc., Board; and the
Kansas Foundation for Medical Care Board of Trustees. Through
his work and in his personal life, Dr. Fredrickson constantly
reached out to include and help people, and he was never a stranger
to anyone. His concern for those who were less fortunate was well
known. Dr. Fredrickson will always be remembered for his strong
passion to eliminate health disparities and correct social inequities.
Special
Service Award- Brandon Skidmore
Brandon Skidmore has served the state of Kansas in a variety
of roles. He began his service at the Kansas Department of Health
and Environment as the Program Manager for the Kansas Child Health
Assessment and Monitoring Project (KCHAMP). He was instrumental
in developing the strategies, methodology, logistics, and protocols
that attained the first data Kansas compiled on Body Mass Index
for K-12 students. The protocols and methodology that were developed
for this project are still used by Kansas schools today. After
completing KCHAMP, Brandon took the role of Chronic Disease and
Health Planning Program Manager. He provides administration and
leadership to a variety of chronic disease and injury programs
within the Bureau of Health Promotion. He takes an active role
in each program and serves on a multitude of advisory committees
for each. His attention to detail has led to partnerships and
connections that programs had not previously been explored.
Brandon has recently been named the Interim Program Manager for
Kansas Coordinated School Health. Even before he accepted this
challenge he was a true advocate for coordinated school health.
As part of a KPHLI capstone project, Brandon developed a new framework
for communication entitled, “Schools and Communities Working
Together for Healthier Children.” This framework has been
used in Kansas and has shown tremendous success in increasing
the number of community partners working with schools. This framework
is soon to be presented at national conferences.
Brandon strives to build partnerships and gives of his time to
organizations outside of the Office of Health Promotion. He has
served on a variety of committees and projects for organizations
including CDC, KDHE, Kansas Survey Collaboration Workgroup, Kansas
Diabetes Primary Prevention Project, State Physical Activity Curriculum
Guidelines, Comprehensive Cancer Control Public Education Workgroup,
Kansas Partnership for Management and Improvement of Drug and
Violence Prevention Program Collaborative, Healthy Kansas 2010
Workgroup on Social Determinants of Health, and Bi-State Coalition
on Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention. He also completed
the Kansas Public Health Certificate Program and is a fellow and
mentor in the Kansas Public Health Leadership Institute.
Jane
Addams Award- Lougene Marsh
Lougene Marsh has championed the needs of disadvantaged populations
for over 30 years. Under Lougene’s leadership, the Flint
Hills Community Health Center and Lyon County Health Department
have expanded programs and services to create a wide range of
health services for clients in Lyon County who are underserved
due to their income, lack of medical insurance, or language barriers.
Lougene has created an innovative model for public health and
primary care service in which the Lyon County Health Department
and Flint Hills Community Health Center are administered jointly.
This maximizes coordination of services and expands the agency’s
ability to obtain funding for programs tailored to specific needs
in Lyon County. In addition, Lougene has provided leadership in
organizing an effective model for local health department regionalization,
the East Central Public Health Region.
Lougene is a dedicated leader in advocating for individuals and
families who are unable to access basic health services. Her testimony
has effectively obtained support for statewide safety net clinics.
She expanded services of the primary care clinic to make it more
accessible to the uninsured for acute medical problems, decreasing
emergency room visits. She also expanded dental services, adding
two full time dentists to meet overwhelming community needs for
oral health services. Recognizing that clients with chronic medical
conditions experience health crises if unable to pay for medications,
Lougene worked with local pharmacists to establish a 340 B drug
program in Emporia, which made medications affordable and increased
compliance.
Over the past seven years, Lougene has made remarkable strides
in improving health services available in Lyon County. She organized
staff training in cultural competence and medical interpreting.
She also secured funding for a Spanish-speaking lay person, a
Promatora de Salud, to provide patient education and support to
patients with depression, hypertension, and diabetes. As an influx
of refugees led to cultural misunderstandings in the community,
Lougene organized community partners to form the Emporia Resettlement
Alliance, with the mission to foster communication and bridge
the gap between new refugees and the community at large. Lougene
has also established new programs to address needs for behavioral
health services and added a behavioral health consultant to her
staff. This enables on-site assessment for depression, anxiety,
substance abuse and other behavioral health concerns, along with
coordinated referrals to local agencies. Lougene has served as
president for the Kansas Association of the Medically Underserved
(KAMU). She is active in League of Women Voters, is a fellow and
mentor in the Kansas Public Health Leadership Institute, and was
a recipient of the UCLA Johnson and Johnson Health Care Executive
Award, August 2004.
Virginia
Lockhart Health Education Award- Barbara Mitchell
Barbara Mitchell currently serves as the Division Director of
Health Education for the Johnson County Health Department, a position
she has held for the past five years. Prior to that, she was a
Health Educator for the health department for three years. In
her position, Barbara supervises the programs, projects and events
of the Health Education Division for the health department, and
she also serves as its Public Information Officer. Over her years
with the Johnson County Health Department, Barbara has become
closely familiar with the education and outreach needs of the
county. She receives the Virginia Lockhart Award because of her
recent leadership role in a particularly important health education
effort, the development of a public health orientation manual
that will be utilized throughout the state for public health employee
training. The manual will provide a means for ensuring consistency
of terminology and training. It will also be used in the academic
environment to educate students about public health in Kansas,
thus having a long-lasting impact on the state’s public
health workforce.
Barbara has brought a diverse background in health education
to her current position with Johnson County. Her past employment
includes the Brain Injury Association of Kansas and Greater Kansas
City, the Adolescent Resources Corporation of Kansas City, MO,
the American Heart Association, Connecticut Affiliate, and the
Women’s Crisis Center of Norwalk, CT. Barbara was born and
raised in Connecticut and moved to the Kansas City area in 1991.
She holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Fordham
University, a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work from Southern
Connecticut State University and an Associate’s Degree in
Human Services from Norwalk Community College.
Barbara is a fellow of the second Kansas Public Health Leadership
Institute (KPHLI) cycle, and she has served as a mentor for successive
KPHLI classes. She is also the Child/Family and Community Health
Chair for the Kansas Public Health Association, the Treasurer/Secretary
for Partners In Public Health, Inc., and a Board Member of the
M. Katherine Goldsmith Foundation.
Special
Service Award- John Stark
John Stark’s career in environmental health has spanned
over two decades. John currently serves as the Air Quality Program
Supervisor for the Wichita Environmental Services Department and
is awarded the KPHA Special Service Award because of his extraordinary
work on air-toxics in the state of Kansas. Air-toxics are a recent
issue of concern about air quality. Nationwide, much attention
has been paid to the six criteria air pollutants (ozone, particulate
matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and
lead). However, urban air is a soup of hundreds of pollutants,
of which the Clean Air Act (as amended in 1990) identifies 188
chemicals as air-toxics or hazardous air pollutants. These air-toxics
have been associated with various forms of cancers, neurological
effects, other non-cancer health effects, and reproductive and
developmental effects. Over 4.5 million tons of them enter the
air each year. However, not much is known about their levels in
the air or the health risks posed.
John Stark is an active leader in the study of air quality. After
working with the EPA’s Urban Air-Toxics Monitoring Program
for two years in 1989 and 1990, John realized the importance of
air-toxics monitoring in assuring a healthy air quality. Since
the National Air Toxics Monitoring Program has no monitoring site
located within the state of Kansas, he envisioned an air-toxics
monitoring program of its own in the City of Wichita. This was
to be the only one of its type in Kansas. An air-toxics monitoring
station was based at the Wichita Environmental Services Department
and a monitoring program was started. His relentless effort of
almost two decades (1991 through 2008) has translated into a very
informative database on air-toxic levels in the Wichita, Kansas,
ambient air.
John Stark observed best monitoring practices in accordance with
EPA-approved methods TO-14 and TO-15. Samples were collected every
12th day to avoid any weekday bias. Twenty-four hour samples were
collected to avoid catching up a plume that happened to pass through
over the air-toxics monitoring station. Furthermore, replicate
sampling and analysis were done to ensure the validity of data.
John Stark’s dedicated work on air-toxics is of great importance
to protect the environment for all Kansans, including future generations.
Dorothy
Woodin Award- Michele Correll
In 1986, the Meade County Commissioners made the decision that
a local health department would be an asset to the community.
Although she had been a nurse for several years, it was this decision
that launched Michele Correll on her 22 year career journey in
public health. Initially, the public health office was located
in the basement of Meade District Hospital. Michele was the only
full-time employee, sharing an office and secretary with the hospital.
The primary services offered were immunizations and services for
seniors, including blood pressure screening, blood sugar monitoring,
and weekly medication set-up.
Shortly after one year of operation, news about the services
at Meade County Health Department spread rapidly, and Michele
realized she would need additional support. In 1987, a part-time
public health nurse was added to the staff in order to expand
community services. As the community realized the benefits of
public health programs, Michelle began adding additional programs
to the health department, including family planning, WIC, and
Kan-Be-Healthy screenings.
The health department continued to grow and in late 1993 moved
to its current location. Under Michele’s continued guidance,
the health department has grown to employ 3 full-time public health
nurses, 2 full-time administrative support staff, and 2 additional
part-time staff members. Michele has been appropriately described
as “quietly bold.” She demonstrated selfless leadership
in her agency and her community, continuously seeking to improve
public health services for the residents of her rural community
in Southwestern Kansas. Public health was not only Michelle’s
career, it became her passion. She served in many local and state
organizations, boards, and committees, including the Kansas Association
of Local Health Departments, Local Environmental Protection Committee,
Local Emergency Preparedness Committee, Tobacco Free Kansas, Meade
County Coalition, Meade District Hospital Board, and Kansas Public
Health Association.
Michele recently retired from her position as Director of the
Meade Public Health Department after 22 years of dedicated service.
Through these years she provided services to young children, watching
them grow and later providing services to their children. Michelle
established a legacy of service to her rural community that will
inspire new public health leaders and professionals.
President’s
Award- Jon Anderson
Since entering the field of governmental public health in Kansas,
Jon Anderson has made a difference through his efforts to span
boundaries and better connect local health departments with the
state health department, increasing mutual understanding and improving
collaboration. For his contributions to the field, Jon receives
the President’s Award. In his initial role as a Public Health
Nurse Specialist serving Southeast Kansas for the Kansas Department
of Health and Environment, Jon made it a priority to make personal
visits to each local health department under his jurisdiction.
As staff resources in his area were reduced, his responsibilities
expanded and took him to all corners of the state.
Jon currently serves as the Public Health Capacity Development
Manager for the KDHE Office of Local and Rural Health, a position
for which he is well-suited due to his long and personal familiarity
with local health agencies across Kansas. In a time of significant
turnover, Jon provides new local health department directors with
a welcome, with information, support, and a sympathetic ear. He
is an advocate for local public health and has grown to be a huge
asset to local public health agencies. His sense of humor has
provided a welcome bit of levity during sometimes challenging
times. Jon initially chose a career in nursing because of his
interest in public health and health education. He earned a BSN
at Pittsburg State University in 1982 and returned to Iola to
work at Allen County Hospital. Following five years there, during
which time he advanced to the rank of House Supervisor, he worked
in occupational health as the nurse for a large industry.
He made the move to public health in 2001 and completed a Master
of Science at Pittsburg State University in May of 2004. His area
of study was Human Resource Development, and his graduate project
studied the use of a survey tool for discovering workforce development
needs in local health departments. Jon is a fellow of the second
cycle of the Kansas Public Health Leadership Institute and has
served as a KPHLI mentor since his graduation. Corporate Public
Health Service Award- KU Workgroup on Community Health and Development
Since 1975, the KU Work Group on Community Health and Development
has worked with partners to solve the challenges of how people
may best work together in communities to bring about change and
how to transform these changes into improvements in community
health and development.
Working with national and global partners, the KU Work Group
has led the development of the Community Tool Box since 1994.
The Community Tool Box (CTB) is a free, capacity-building website
available to all individuals, groups, and organizations engaged
in community work. Tool Box materials focus on building the capacity
of local, national, and global efforts to bring about change.
It is the largest and most comprehensive resource of its kind
in the world, containing over 7,000 pages of content, which supports
capacity development for community health. In addition to its
availability in English, many CTB tools have been translated in
Spanish and other languages.
The Tool Box is a respected and recognized source of guidance
worldwide for creating community change and improvement, and continues
to grow as a resource for those efforts. During the past decade,
worldwide utilization of the Tool Box has grown exponentially,
increasing from over 17,000 user sessions in 1997 to over 1,500,000
user sessions in the past year. Clearly, the Community Tool Box
is achieving the vision of a common well through which a global
community can share its practical wisdom about how to create conditions
that promote community health and development. |
