2006 - 2007 Scholars and Projects

Members: Elizabeth Conrey, PhD, Kimberly Kopfman, Jean Myer, MHA, RD, Angela Norton, MA, NHA, Heidi Scarpetti, RD, LD, Mari-jean Siehl, MA, Gwen Stacy, RD, LD, Ann Weidenbenner, MS, RD, LD
Team Leader: Mari-jean Siehl, MA, Mari-jean.Siehl@odh.ohio.gov, Director, Risk Reduction Programs, Ohio Department of Health
Project: Childhood Obesity.  In the past several years, the issue of childhood overweight has been addressed at both the state and local levels. However, a cohesive state plan has not been developed nor a distinctive role clarified for the Ohio Department of Health (ODH). The goal of this project is to develop a unified state plan that defines ODH’s role in addressing childhood overweight. It will coordinate state and local resources within the ODH. This will be accomplished through collaboration between the division of Family and Prevention.
Location: Columbus, OH

Members: La Fleur Small, PhD, Marlese Durr, PhD, Diana Alexander-Jones
Team Leader: La Fleur Small, PhD, lafleur.small@wright.edu Project: Educating the Elderly About HIV/AIDS (Project EED). Project EED is a public health program designed to address the rising health care concern regarding HIV/AIDS and the elderly. This project will provide risk reduction education, counseling and HIV/AIDS testing to citizens 50 years or older residing in Montgomery County. In addition the program will target and provide risk reduction training and referrals to HIV/AIDS testing sites for resource managers responsible for health care oversight in retirement communities, assisted living communities and elderly homes in Montgomery County.
Location: Montgomery County, OH

Single Scholars

Scholar: Lena Grafton, MPH, CHES, Lena.Grafton@csauh.com 
Project: Peer to Peer Health Education. This project will examine the efficacy of “peer-to-peer” health educators as they play an integral role in improving individual’s access to care and modification of health behaviors in areas such as diabetes, hypertension, nutrition and/or physical activity. The goal of the project is to ultimately partner with other agencies to integrate the use of community health workers in their existing programs.
Location: Cleveland, OH

Scholar: Kathy Luhn, MS, RD, LD, CHES, kluhn@allencountyhealthdepartment.org, Allen County Health Department
Project: Public Health Preparedness Orientation Curriculum.* This project entails the development of a training schedule and materials to orient public health employees to the mission of public health and their role in responding to public health incidents. Kathy hopes to identify benchmarks for essential knowledge of public health and response for local health department employees within the first year of employment and identify or develop a vehicle to deliver the training.
Location: Allen County, OH

Scholar: Barbara Rose, MPH, RN, Barbara.Rose@cchmc.org, Program Director, Child Policy Research Center
Project: Data Driven Change to Reduce Infant and Child Death in Hamilton County. Through her project, Barbara plans to inform key program directors, policymakers and community members about the escalating rate of infant and child death in Hamilton County.  Her plans include meeting individually with six key stakeholders to share current data related to infant mortality, aggregate child fatality data from local, state and national sources, develop handouts with easy to read graphs and talking points, follow- up with stakeholders to determine if action was taken and write a summary report that includes stories involving the six stakeholders.
Location: Hamilton County, OH

Scholar: Heather Vilvens, MEd, CHES, hvilvens@cph.osu.edu, Program Manager, Office of Workforce Development, The Ohio State University
Project: Service Based Delivery Model for Public Health Workforce Training and Education. The purpose of Heather’s project is to explore the feasibility of developing a geographically dispersed service based delivery model for public health workforce training and education in Ohio. This will include all aspects of developing such a model including implementation activities and a business plan.  The model will initially be based on The Ohio State University Extension Model, which supports offices and services in all of Ohio’s 88 Counties. The deliverable for this project will be a concept paper.
Location: Columbus, OH