Staffing Structure and Composition Overview

The Wyoming MCH Epi comprises three staff, which consists in total of 2.25 FTEs dedicated to the management and analysis of MCH data. The three positions are composed of one full-time MCH Epidemiology Program Manager (1 FTE), one full-time PRAMS Coordinator/MCH Epidemiologist (1 FTE) and the Chronic Disease and MCH Epidemiology Unit Manager, with 25% of his time dedicated to MCH Epi (0.25 FTE).

The MCH Epidemiology Unit is funded through multiple federal programs, which include the SSDI and PRAMS, in addition to Title V funds, as well as Wyoming State General Funds.

Staff Experience, Roles and Funding Source

MCH Epidemiology Program Manager, 1.0 FTE

• Education and training: The current MCH Epi manager, Moira Lewis, has a Masters in Public Health, Epidemiology. Ms. Lewis has held the MCH Epidemiology Program Manager role for three years, and also holds three years of additional experience in clinic data management, as well as pharmaceutical research and management. Additionally, Ms. Lewis has over two years of training on community development, specifically focusing on public health, from her time serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia.
• Funding: This position is funded with SSDI, PRAMS, and State General Funds.
• Roles/Responsibilities:
  • Manages the MCH Epidemiology Program, including direct supervision of the MCH Epi staff, management of grants and budgets for the program, and providing direction for surveillance and epidemiological duties of MCH Epi epidemiologists.
  • Oversees the collection and analysis of data for various surveillance systems that monitor and assess health status and its determinants for women of childbearing age, infants, children, adolescents, and families.
  • Manages data collection and analysis for WY MCH priorities and the Title V Block Grant, including national and state performance and outcome measures, and provides epidemiology assistance for MCH programs for grant applications, performance reports to funding agencies, Healthstat (the Wyoming Department of Health’s performance management system) and other reports.
  • Provides epidemiologic leadership for the five-year MCH Needs Assessment process, including data collection, reporting, and monitoring to help identify priorities and performance measures, as well as collaborates with MCH programs to monitor and evaluate programmatic success.
  • Serves as the SSDI Principle Investigator (PI) and manages the SSDI grant and its budget, writes and submits the SSDI grant application, and implements the application plan.
  • Serves as the PRAMS Project Manager, supervising and providing overall management of PRAMS operations, including oversight of budget and fiscal operations, contracts, data downloads, protocol changes and Internal Review Board approvals, data collection, and the dissemination of PRAMS data and results to MCH programs, stakeholders, and other WDH programs.

PRAMS Coordinator/MCH Epidemiologist, 1.0 FTE

• Education and training:  The current PRAMS Coordinator/MCH Epidemiologist, Neva Ruso, has a Masters in Public Health, majoring in Epidemiology and minoring in Infectious Disease, and has held this role for a year and a half. Mrs. Ruso holds two years of additional experience with injury prevention research and one year of risk management.
• Funding: This position is funded with PRAMS and State General Funds.
• Roles/Responsibilities:
  • Serves as the PRAMS Project Coordinator, including managing and maintaining PRAMS mail and phone procedures, and entry of survey data into the PRAMS data system.
  • Serves as primary data analyst for PRAMS data, developing fact sheets, data briefs, and reports based on data analyses.
  • Assists with the collection and analysis of data for various surveillance systems, monitoring and assessing the health status and its determinant for MCH populations in Wyoming.
  • Provides data translation and analysis of MCH data, and presents data for stakeholder use and epidemiological support to MCH program staff for the Title V Needs Assessment and Block Grant reporting. Evaluates program strategies implemented by WY MCH related to the selected priorities, under supervision of the MCH Epidemiology Program Manager.

Chronic Disease/MCH Epidemiology Unit Manager, 0.25 FTE

• Education and training:  The current Unit Manager, Joe Grandpre, PhD, MPH, has over twenty years’ experience in public health and epidemiology. Dr. Grandpre also manages the Wyoming BRFSS program and the Wyoming Violent Death Reporting System.
• Funding: This position is funded with State General Funds.
• Roles/Responsibilities:
  • Supervises the MCH Epidemiology Program Manager, overseeing the activities of the MCH Epidemiology Unit and hiring and supervising MCH Epi staff.
  • Serves as the PRAMS PI, overseeing administrative aspects of PRAMS and monitoring PRAMS surveillance activities.

Current Workforce Capacity

The MCH Epi program was matched with a CSTE Fellow assigned to Wyoming, who started in July 2022 and is currently about half way through a two year fellowship. The program also lost a CDC assignee in August 2022, who took another position elsewhere. The CDC assignee had many responsibilities with the MMRC, conducted jointly with Utah, as this position was the Wyoming Analysis for the MMRC. The MCH Epi Program Manager took over the role of Wyoming MMRC analyst, and with the assistance of the CSTE Fellow, Wyoming has continued to be able to successfully participate in the joint MMRC.

The MCH Epidemiology Program Manager continues to work with the YAYAHP Manager support the program with its immediate data and epidemiological needs. The MCH Epi Program Manager sat in on interviews for appointment of a joint data manager position between the WIC and YAYAHP, and assists with advising this position when data questions arise as they pertain to the YAYAHP. The YAYAHP Program Manager has also contracted out the evaluation of the RPE, and again the MCH Epi Program Manager is kept informed of RPE activities, specifically related to evaluation and sits in on meetings and answers questions and offers advice when needed. Besides assisting with the MMRC, the CSTE Fellow has been working on additional analysis for the Wyoming MCH population, which should also assist when it comes time to conduct the Title V Needs Assessment for 2026-2030. MCH Epi continues to evaluate capacity when new projects are introduced, so current surveillance and Title V supporting needs are not affected.